Buck Rogers On The Big (And Little) Screen!

Buck Rogers the classic movie serial from Universal starring Larry "Buster"Crabbe was made during his classic run of Flash Gordon movies for the same studio and it fits right in among them. The pacing, the sense of derring-do all match perfectly the tone of the Flash Gordon movies. A few times you even expect to hear "Flash" come from someone's mouth. 

But in a number of ways this movie is maybe superior to the Flash Gordon serials. While it doesn't have the sheer sense of awe of the first Gordon serial, it matches up very well against the later two. The pacing in this story is very well handled, with very few slow patches. The chapter lengths are about right for the stories told and you don't have long sections of endless corridor running which beef up weaker serials. The villains are less exotic but seem more competent making them more of a basic threat. 

The real strength of this story though is the wide array of technical details it offers up. This movie features the sci-fi concepts of suspended animation and time travel, instant molecular transport, anti-gravity belts, interplanetary spacecraft, mind-control machinery, bullet mini-trains, alongside the obligatory rayguns and ray cannons. There's even some invisibility. Things never get dull and the different things make for a varied and somewhat unpredictable adventure (at least by serial standards). Heck, Wilma Dearing even saves herself a time or two, not needing Buck to ride to the rescue. A woman saving herself was downright unique in the format, not to mention the boy sidekick Buddy who isn't really just an excuse but helps out Buck quite a bit himself. Rare indeed. All in a dandy serial. 

Buck Rogers is a curiosity in that the concept at once inspired Star Wars and was inspired by it when in 1979 Glen Larson's outfit, the fame folks who gave us Battlestar: Galactica revived the vintage comic strip hero and dressed all in white and let him dash around for the amusement of those of us hungry for every mote of science fiction we could vector in on. 

The update as seen in the "theatrical release" is reasonably true to the classic, a time-lost hero is awakened five hundred years in his future to an Earth struggling after devastating conflicts. The open racism of the classic Nowlan-Calkins strip is disappeared largely but in its place are heaping gobs of anti-feminist dross. The old comic was sexist as heck too, but by 1979 most of that was still okay. The "movie" starts with a title sequence that would've made James Bond proud, a gaggle of slinking beauties bathing in the reflected light of the logo. Among that assembly was the lovely Erin Gray who has become arguably the sci-fi sex icon of the era. 

Most of the show is pretty decent rot for the time, save for Gil Gerard's take on what passes for perseverance and mostly resembles contrarianism. There's a whole dance sequence I just ignore, so painful is it to watch that I find it a grand opportunity to get something to drink or eat. Pamela Hensley is seriously hot, but her role is cliched beyond her control. Henry Silva connects the dots on his villainy, and not do much more ain't his fault as far as I can see. 

The two things I most remember about the show are Twiki along with his medallion buddy Doctor Theopolous, and the trailer. I did see Buck Rogers in the theater, as it was a time when I saw most every show even sort of science fiction like. But I don't remember seeing it so much as seeing the trailer which was incredibly long and told the story fairly completely, less an incentive to see the movie and more a summary. I've always applied the rule that the longer the trailer the worse the movie and that usually holds up.

Buck Rogers became a television show and it was fine, something passably decent to watch with competent acting and production. But it rarely if ever rose above its upbringing, and that's a pity too. 

NOTE: This is a Dojo Revised Classic Post. 

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The Sunday Funnies - Buck Rogers In The 25th Century!

In almost every way measurable by the aesthetics of the art of comics, Buck Rogers, though the first of the hugely successful comic strips, was inferior to the later Flash Gordon. But don't try and tell that to Buck's many fans. 

In a nifty book I own called Blast Off! dedicated to the myriad collectibles from decades of sci-fi and outer space comics and TV shows and elsewhere there are thirteen whole pages dedicated the sundry collectibles of Flash Gordon such as ray guns, Big Little Books, and such. But for Buck Rogers the book spends no less than thirty-seven pages documenting just some of the badges, toys, games and such inspired by the characters. 

After reading the first few years of the daily strip in the collection The Collected Works of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, a book I've had in my collection for decades, I am a little tired to be honest. The concepts by the creators come at the reader fast and furiously, something that likely quickened the imaginations of folks coming to these notions for the first time. In two panels of the first daily Buck Rogers is transported to the world of the future and quickly made a soldier of the "Orgs". These are organizations which have replaced states in what was once the continental United States and these "Orgs" are in different states of technological development with some being rather primitive indeed. Buck has wakened to a world dominated by the Mongols. 

And that brings up the nastiest aspect of the Buck Rogers story, the rampant racism in the inherent concept. While Flash Gordon dabbles in "Yellow Peril" tropes with the faraway Ming the Merciless, Buck Rogers jumps into the outlandish racist attitude with both anti-gravity levitated feet. It's a race war across the continent and the "white" forces are definitely on the defensive and feeling their long and in their minds deserved hegemony over other races slipping away. (Not at all like the real modern world. Yikes!) A line like that's "white of you" is actually used at one point in the series. Now I don't want to beat this to death, and truth told I felt that after the initial story the story went in some less offensive directions, but there's no getting away from that fundamental fix at first. 

Artistically the best I can say for the earliest Buck Rogers strips is that they are cramped, hampered by too much text squeezed into too small panels. There is a static quality to the story telling which gets a little dull after a time, a lack of imagination as to angles and there are no close-ups that I recollect. Knowing what anyone looks like really is a guess at best. 

Like much of the early science fiction these strips are less about the people than the technology they use and that explains I guess the fascination with machines and the toys too. 

There is, to the strip's credit a strong move to interact with the readership and based on what I've seen of later years of the series the art gets much better and even in color compelling. 

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The Saturday Serials - Buck Rogers 1939!

There's little doubt that Buck Rogers came to the screen in 1939 as a serial because of the success of Flash Gordon. I like a lot of people I suspect just sort of consider this a variation on the Flash saga, though when you take a peek into the details there are some significant differences.

Now not unlike the comic strip itself the notion of suspended animation thrusting a man into the distant future five hundred years from his own is dispensed with almost as soon as it's mentioned. Buck just jumps into this new era with aplomb, bravery and an uncanny knack on the technology of this new era.

The anti-gravity belts are the neatest gimmick in this serial as they are distinctive and a neat twist on the classic rocket pack. The characters move in ways not exactly like any other movie I've seen of this kind. The spaceships on the other hand are just more flat and angular versions of the classic Mongo type. They all look like little darts, but they function pretty identically.  The "Hidden City" is a pretty nifty thing and seeing those ginormous rock doors open and close is good stuff.

One of the weakest parts of the story is its insistence on flying back and forth to Saturn to get allies. Maybe there's some point being made about the events of the day, 1939 being a crucial year for people of good will to lock horns with a deadly enemy. The Saturnians are a fickle lot and without the constant badgering of Buck would have gone the way of appeasement for sure.

The cliffhangers are a bit weak, with more than a few being of the just shake it off variety. Deadly crashes are just ignored and at least one instance the story was changed to solve the dilemma. But I don't really watch them for that, but for the characterizations and Buster Crabbe is in fine form. He's a more mature go-getter in this one, less awkward on screen in the action sequences and his pal Buddy is fine and appears just the right number of minutes. Wilma Deering seems to have a good role early, but diminishes as the story tumbles along. 

A really good serial and at twelve chapters not too long. Only a few partial repeat elements. Buck Rogers is a good addition to the Larry "Buster" Crabbe filmography, neatly tucked in with his Flash Gordon work. 

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Buck Rogers 1979!

Buck Rogers is a curiosity in that the concept at once inspired Star Wars and was inspired by it when in 1979 Glen Larson's outfit, the fame folks who gave us Battlestar: Galactica revived the vintage comic strip  hero and dressed all in white and let him dash around for the amusement of those of us hungry for every mote of science fiction we could vector in on. 

The update as seen in the "theatrical release" is reasonably true to the classic, a time-lost hero is awakened five hundred years in his future to an Earth struggling after devastating conflicts. The open racism of the classic Nowlan-Calkins strip is disappeared largely but in its place are heaping gobs of anti-feminest dross. The old comic was sexist as heck too, but by 1979 most of that was still okay. The "movie" starts with a title sequence that would've made James Bond proud, a gaggle of slinking beauties bathing in the reflected light of the logo. Among that assembly was the lovely Erin Gray who has become arguably the sci-fi sex icon of the era. 

Most of the show is pretty decent rot for the time, save for Gil Gerard's take on what passes for perseverance and mostly resembles contrarianism. There's a whole dance sequence I just ignore, so painful is it to watch that I find it a grand opportunity to get something to drink or eat. Pamela Hensley is seriously hot, but her role is cliched beyond her control. Henry Silva connects the dots on his villainy, and not do much more ain't his fault as far as I can see. 

The two things I most remember about the show are Twiki along with his medallion buddy Doctor Theopolous, and the trailer. I did see Buck Rogers in the theater, as it was a time when I saw most every show even sort of science fiction like. But I don't remember seeing it so much as seeing the trailer which was incredibly long and told the story fairly completely, less an incentive to see the movie and more a summary. I've always applied the rule that the longer the trailer the worse the movie and that usually holds up.

Buck Rogers became a television show and it was fine, something passably decent to watch with competent acting and production. But it rarely if ever rose above its upbringing, and that's a pity too. 

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Frazetta's Rogers And Out!

Buck Rogers was enormously successful on the comics page and made his way into the comic books via Famous Funnies which reprinted the comic strip yarns. Toward the end of the Famous Funnies run, Buck Roger became the cover feature and it's a grand thing too. Frank Frazetta was tapped to create the covers for many of these comics and they are simply magnificent. Here is the complete run of Frazetta covers.

The image above is the first of these I ever remember seeing. It was reproduced in black and white in A History of Comic Strips, a tome I would check out the library on a regular basis. It's spectacular to see the art in glorious color.

Apparently there was at least one Buck Rogers cover produced by Frazetta which was not run by Famous Funnies as it neared its cancellation.

Instead Frazetta converted the art into a exotic and wildly active cover for an issue of EC's Weird Science-Fantasy.

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Armageddon 2419 AD!

Buck Rogers is a name utterly associated with science and especially the speculative science of the pulp magazines and comic strips of the last century. Just as John Carter and Flash Gordon found themselves on distant planets, similarly Buck Rogers is a man who is stranded in time. There are two kinds of time travel, the short kind and the long variety. H.G. Wells wrote of a man who uses his machine to go the quick way into the distant future, a time in which he and all he knew of the world was utterly dead and forgotten. The long type of time travel is the kind we all participate in as we march moment by moment into the minutes, hours, days and weeks of our lives to come. Buck Rogers is a man who went into the future the long way. 

The story of the time traveler Buck Rogers was first told in Hugo Gernsback's Amazing Stories, the premiere "scientifiction" magazine of its era. Although the cover features a flying man, it's not about Buck Rogers. The story titled "Armageddon 2419 AD" tells us how a man is trapped in the depths of the Earth, finds himself in suspended animation, and recovered centuries later. To read that original Philip Francis Nowlan story check out this link.

The story proved quite popular and was reprinted.

It even was taken and expanded into novel form. The version above is the one I first read and still have kicking around here someplace. More Buck Rogers tomorrow.

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Science Fiction Space Adventures!

This month it's all about outlandish imagination and mind-bending science fiction. Building off last month's extensive look at Flash Gordon, I want to look at what came before and after and after that.

The most famous science fiction star of the comics aside from Flash Gordon is Buck Rogers. While the Buck Rogers comic strip never had the lush elegance that Alex Raymond brought to his strip, it's clear that Flash Gordon began as a copy of the successful strip by Dick Calkins based by the character invented by Philip Francis Nowlan. In more recent times times the strip has been converted to a reasonably well-remembered television show. We'll take some time to revisit Buck Rogers in a few of his icarnations.

"Space...the final frontier." That line resonates in the memory and more importantly in the imagination of many a man and woman of my vintage who caught hold of a little space opera TV show called Star Trek. Nowadays Star Trek is a brand, a franchise with multiple variations and versions in a multitude of formats. But we only had the show, some novels Ballantine, and some cards from Topps. Gold Key did offers up some comics, but in early days a rough-hewn doppleganger of the actual show. I want to read a bunch of those comics this month and will be using my Checker collections to do so. Star Trek took many years to catch fire as the iconic cultural experience it has become, but there was another similar project that burst into  bright raging flames in an instant.

"The Sunday Funnies" feature will continue with some investigations of a that little flick called Star Wars reference above. Before it became this behemoth which was at once consumed by and consumed the "House of Mouse" Star Wars was a transforming brand with toys and books and cartoons and more. Everyone knew at once that the world had changed, but the nature of those changes took a bit to sort out. When that first "new hope" hit the theaters there was just a few novels by Ron Goulart and a comic strip by Russ Manning. That remarkable bit of comics lore in dire need of reading and reporting here at the Dojo and so it shall be.

On Saturdays and otherwise expect more movies, and those flickers will have a Star Wars inspiration as well, though George Lucas will not have been involved in any of them. I'm also looking into movies which anticipated Star Wars and the sci-fi boom that followed it, or at the very least inspired it. I'm looking forward to spoofs and spacemen, as my country tries to wrestle back its soul. Wish us all luck as we venture into the where no man has gone before in a time long long ago.

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