Buck Rogers Comics

The mere mention of comic strips/books brings out the child in most of us. It brings back memories of the childhood days when comics were so popular. Anyone who has ever lived in the world of comics would be familiar with Buck Rogers series. It has been going on since 1930s... a time when my grandfather was a kid himself!

A brainchild of Philips Francis Nowlan, Buck Rogers series was one of the most read comic strips in the early 1930s and it just continued to top the charts amongst kids. The quality content ensured that not only kids, even their parents found themselves digging deep into one series or the other. It hit the market in August, 1928 with publishing efforts of Amazon Publishers. This was the series that introduced the U.S. to the `pop culture` and the outer space. This series may claim credit for introducing the Americans to the outer space, as it used the space as its background for the adventures.

Philip Nowlan introduced the character Anthony `Buck` Rogers through his novels Airlords of Han and Armageddon, 2419 A.D. The character was later renamed as Buck Rogers, which made a prominent appearance for a long time in newspaper comic strips. Buoyed by the success of the comic strip and the newspaper series, the Buck Rogers radio program was introduced in 1932 and it went on till 1947! There was a ten minute film made on the the character which was screened in the World Fair in Chicago in 1933-34. Since then, the character has continued to expand its reach to motion pictures, television serials and even video games.


There are critics who doubt the existence and survival of comic strips from the old times in this new era of science. The argument presented is that today`s children are too busy with their computers and hence, will not be impressed by such characters. The truth is that even though Buck Rogers was introduced in the 1930s, it sparked new ideas such as licensed merchandising, which finds application in today`s world more than ever. The Buck Rogers toys are a treat to the eye and the scientific concept that the character brought with it will never fade out of the memories. In fact, it is a vision for the future which had been developed about 80 years ago!