Buck Rogers
Buck Rogers is a science fiction adventure hero and feature comic strip created by Philip Francis Nowlan first appearing in daily American newspapers on January 7, 1929, and subsequently appearing in Sunday newspapers, international newspapers, books and multiple media with adaptations including radio in 1932, a serial film, a television series, and other formats.
The Buck Rogers strip, published 1929–1967 and syndicated by John F. Dille Co., was popular enough to inspire other newspaper syndicates to launch their own science fiction strips. The most famous of these imitators was Flash Gordon ; others included Brick Bradford, Don Dixon and the Hidden Empire, and Speed Spaulding. The Buck Rogers strip also probably inspired developing a strip based on John Carter of Mars which was introduced in 1941 though based on an Edgar Rice Burroughs character first seen in 1912.
The adventures of Buck Rogers in comic strips, movies, radio, and television became an important part of American popular culture. Buck Rogers has been credited with bringing into popular media the concept of space exploration, following in the footsteps of literary pioneers such as Jules Verne and H. G. Wells. It was on January 22, 1930, that Buck Rogers first ventured into space aboard a rocket ship in his fifth newspaper comic story Tiger Men from Mars. This popular phenomenon paralleled the development of space technology in the 20th century and introduced Americans to outer space as a familiar environment for swashbuckling adventure.
In 1933, Nowlan and Calkins co-wrote Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, a novella which retold the origin of Buck Rogers and also summarized some of his adventures. A reprint of this work was included with the first edition of the novel Buck Rogers: A Life in the Future by Martin Caidin.
Buck Rogers comic strip
Publication history
Nowlan published several novellas including Armageddon 2419 A.D., published in the August 1928 issue of Amazing Stories. The newspaper syndicator John F. Dille saw the opportunity for a science fiction-based comic strip. After Nowlan and Dille enlisted editorial cartoonist Dick Calkins as the illustrator, Nowlan created the comic strip about life some 500 years hence titled Buck Rogers. Some have suggested that Dille coined that name based on the 1920s cowboy actor Buck Jones.On January 7, 1929, the Buck Rogers in the 25th Century A.D. comic strip debuted. Buck Rogers was initially syndicated to 47 newspapers. On March 30, 1930, a Sunday strip joined the Buck Rogers daily strip. During initial syndication in 1929, some newspapers referred to Rogers as "Rip Van Rogers" due to the 500 year time skip.
Writer Nowlan told the inventor R. Buckminster Fuller in 1930 that "he frequently used concepts for his cartoons". Dick Calkins, an advertising artist, drew the earliest daily strips, and Russell Keaton drew the earliest Sunday strips.
Like many popular comic strips of the day, Buck Rogers was reprinted in Big Little Books; illustrated text adaptations of the daily strip stories; and in a Buck Rogers pop-up book. At its peak in 1934, Buck Rogers appeared in 287 U.S. newspapers, was translated into 18 languages, and appeared in an additional 160 international papers.
Keaton wanted to switch to drawing another strip written by Calkins, Skyroads, so the syndicate advertised for an assistant and hired Rick Yager in 1932. Yager had formal art training at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and was a talented watercolor artist; all the strips were done in ink and watercolor. Yager also had connections with the Chicago newspaper industry, since his father, Charles Montross Yager, was the publisher of The Modern Miller; Rick Yager was at one time employed to write the "Auntie's Advice" column for his father's newspaper. Yager quickly moved from inker and writer of the Buck Rogers "sub-strip" to writer and artist of the Sunday strip and eventually the daily strips.
Authorship of early strips is extremely difficult to ascertain. The signatures at the bottoms of the strips are not accurate indicators of authorship; Calkins' signature appears long after his involvement ended, and few of the other artists signed the artwork, while many pages are unsigned. Yager probably had complete control of Buck Rogers Sunday strips from about 1940 on, with Len Dworkins joining later as assistant. Dick Locher was also an assistant in the 1950s. The strip's artists also worked on a variety of tie-in promotions such as comic books, toys, and model rockets.
All strips began as India ink drawings on Strathmore paper, and a smaller duplicate was hand-colored with watercolors. Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, has an extensive collection of original artwork.
The relations between the artists of the strip and the Syndicate became acrimonious and, in mid-1958, the artists quit. Murphy Anderson was a temporary replacement, but he did not stay long. George Tuska began drawing the strip in 1959 and remained until the final installment of the original comic strip, which was published on July 8, 1967. At that point, Buck Rogers appeared in only 28 newspapers.
Artist/writer credits:
- Jan 1929 to Sep 1939 – Dick Calkins, Philip Nowlan
- Sep 1939 to Nov 1947 – Dick Calkins ; Dick Calkins
- Dec 1947 to Oct 1949 – Murphy Anderson, Bob Williams
- Oct 1949 to Jan 1951 – Leonard Dworkins ; John F. Dille
- Jan 1951 to Jun 1958 – Rick Yager, Rick Yager
- Jun 1958 to Apr 1959 – Murphy Anderson, ???
- Apr 1959 to Apr 1960 – George Tuska, Jack Lehti
- Apr 1960 to Oct 1960 – George Tuska, Howard Liss
- Oct 1960 to Feb 1961 – George Tuska, Fritz Leiber
- Feb 1961 to May 1961 – George Tuska, Ray Russell
- May 1961 to Nov 1961 – George Tuska, Fritz Leiber
- Dec 1961 to Jul 1967 – George Tuska, Howard Liss
- 1929 to 1933 – Zack Mosley
- 1938 to 1942 – Leonard Dworkins
- 1951 to 1956 – Leonard Dworkins
- 1954 to 1955 – Dick Locher
Revival
Characters and story
The first three frames of the series set the scene for Buck's "leap" 500 years into Earth's future:Buck is rendered unconscious, and a strange gas preserves him in a suspended animation or coma state. He awakens and emerges from the mine in 2429 AD, in the midst of another war.
After rescuing future freedom fighter Wilma Deering from attackers armed with anti-gravity belts and rocket guns, he proves his identity by showing her his American Legion button. She then explains how the Red Mongols emerged from the Gobi desert to conquer Asia and Europe and then attacked America starting with that "big idol holding a torch".
Using their disintegrator beams, the Mongols easily defeated the army and navy and wiped out Washington, D.C., in three hours. As the people fled the cities, the Mongols built new cities on the ruins of the major cities. They left the Americans to fend for themselves as their advanced technology prevented the need for slave labor. The scattered Americans formed loosely bound organizations or "orgs" to begin to fight back in what has been dubbed the Second War of Independence.
Wilma takes Buck back to the Alleghany org in what was once Philadelphia. The leaders don't believe his story at first but after undergoing electro-hypnotic tests, they believe him and admit him into their group.
Other prominent characters in the strip included Buck's scientist friend Dr. Huer, an eccentric old genius who punctuated his speech with the exclamation, "Heh!"; the villainous traitor Killer Kane and his perfidious partner in crime Ardala Valmar; and Black Barney Wade, who began as a space pirate but later became Buck's friend and ally. In addition, Buck and his friends encountered various alien races. Hostile species Buck met included the Tiger Men of Mars, the nasty little Asterites of the asteroid belt, and giant robots called Mekkanos.
When the Sunday strip began, there was no established convention for the same character having different adventures in the Sunday strip and the daily strip, so the Sunday strip at first followed the adventures of Buck's young friend Buddy Deering, Wilma Deering's younger brother, and Buddy's girlfriend Alura, young princess of the Golden People of Mars, who were later joined by Black Barney. It was some time before Buck himself made his first appearance in a Sunday strip.
Comic books
Over the years, there have been many Buck Rogers appearances in comic books as well as his own series. Buck appeared in 69 issues of the comic Famous Funnies from 1934 to 1955, and two 1938 appearances in Vicks Comics, both published by Eastern Color Printing. In 1940, Buck got his own comic entitled Buck Rogers which lasted for six issues, also published by Eastern Printing.In 1951, Toby Press released three issues of Buck Rogers, all reprints of the comic strip. In 1955, an Australian company called Atlas Productions produced five issues of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.
Gold Key Comics published a single issue of a Buck Rogers comic book in 1964.
A second series was based on the 1979 television series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century and was published from 1979 to 1982, first by Gold Key, then by Whitman Publishing, continuing the numbering from the 1964 single issue.
TSR, Inc. published a 10-issue series based on their Buck Rogers XXVC game from 1990 to 1991.
In 2009, Dynamite Entertainment began a monthly comic book version of Buck Rogers by writer Scott Beatty and artist Carlos Rafael. The first issue was released in May 2009; the series ran 13 issues plus an annual, later collected into 2 trade paperbacks.
In 2012, Hermes Press announced a new comic book series with artwork by Howard Chaykin. The series was collected into a graphic novel titled Howard Chaykin's Buck Rogers Volume 1: Grievous Angels in 2014.
In 2025, the comic book series Buck Rogers 2425, reimagining Buck's adventures in the 25th century, was published by Array Comics.