In 1957, semi-retired from commercial illustration, Radebaugh brought samples of an an ambitious cartoon about the future to a major news syndicate. Shortly afterwards, Sputnik was launched, confirming the sense of what Radebaugh was proposing in several of his panels. The syndicate was suitably impressed, and in early 1958, Radebaugh’s ambitious syndicated column, Closer Than We Think, was launched to an audience of over 19,000,000 metropolitan newspaper readers. “Halfway between science fiction and designs for modern living” said Radebaugh of his strip. From streamlined flying cars to glamorous skyscrapers, his renderings were both pragmatic and fantastical, showing possibilities unimagined, derived from the technology of the day. “believe-it-or-not”-style cartoon strips represent an alternative technological, architectural and social history of the 20th century.