Buck Rogers

Culture serie

A sci-fi adventurer created by Philip Francis Nowlan. 1st published in Amazing Stories magazine, 1928. comics, serials, radio, and TV series followed.

Alternate name: Anthony Rogers

Characters

Prince Tallen of Saturn, King Grallo of the Martian Tiger Men and Mechanical Robots, Killer Kane, Black Barney, Buddy Deering, Wilma Deering, Twiki, Dr. Theopolis, Ardala, Hawk, Alura, Buck Rogers, Dr. Goodfellow, Dr. Huer, Buddy Wade
(view all the 15 "Buck Rogers " characters)
Implied:
* Retro-future
* 25th century

Related:
* Flash Gordon - a competing franchise
Anthony Rogers began as a United States Army Air Corps officer living in the 1920s before being cryogenicly put to sleep (by a naturally occurring gas) and found himself waking up in 2419 A.D. He soon earned the respect of earth's military and became an important leader in defending the earth from evil warlords, "Mongol" hordes (Han), and aliens in general. Buck Rogers is very loyal and patriotic, originally to the USA and eventually the entire earth.
Buck Rogers has been adapted to comic strips, comic books, graphic novels, novels, novellas, film, TV, serials, radio, stage, animation, pen & paper RPGs, board games, toys, and of course videogames and computer games.

The Buck Rogers comic strips defined the concept of serialized comic strips, which had not previously existed. It was also the first have multiple series via separated strips (The Sunday strips followed a different story from the weekdays, and each had a mini side-story strip). (this may be the 1st occurrence in Sci-Fi, or even story telling). Though not the first character to suggest or engage in the practice, Buck rogers popularized the idea of space exploration. Before Start Trek, Buck Rogers traded ideas for new technologies between fiction and reality. Buck Rogers introduced swashbuckling adventure to the Sci-Fi genre and developed the concept of 'space opera'. Long before 'Marvel verses D.C.'; for most of the 20th century, the Buck Rogers series was in direct competition with the [[gametag:tarzanseries Tarzan series]] in every nearly every medium ether was produced in. One explored the human condition from a highly advanced vantage point which the other from a very primitive one. The two series even competed for artists, actors, directors and writers. Unlike Marvel and D.C. Comics, there has never been a crossover. At one time, Disney simultaneously had licensed rights for both series. Most scholars agree that the simultaneous 1929 publishing of Tarzan and Buck Rogers in their first comic strips marks the beginning of "The Golden Age of Comics". Neither Tarzan nor Buck Rogers have any superpowers, but both have been granted very a very long time to live through chemistry. They are both very intelligent and often underestimated regarding it. Other than that, there are pretty much polar opposites. Buck Rogers and Tarzan are the first series to 'reboot'; again, at the same time. Both series have rebooted multiple times.
The creators of Farscape have acknowledged the inspiration of Buck Rogers and stated more than once, "Its Buck Rogers on acid."

Popular tags

comic retrofuture

Games by year

7980818283848586878889909192 82460 ABC
A1979 - NBC TV series pilot movie
B1981 - NBC TV series 2nd season
C1988 - Buck Rogers XXVC

The first Buck Rogers video game was released on March 1979.

Sega, SSI and Coleco published most of these games.

Platforms

MS-DOS 3
Apple II E 2
C64 2
TI99 1
Coleco Adam 1
MSX 1
VIC-20 1
Arcade 1
custom 1
Mega Drive 1
ColecoVision 1
ZX Spectrum 1
Amiga 1
Atari 5200 1
Atari 2600 1
BK11M 1
Atari 400/800 1