| Buck Rogers | |
|---|---|
 From Famous Funnies #211 | |
|
Real Name |
Anthony "Buck" Rogers |
|
First Appearance |
Amazing Stories (August 1928) |
|
Original Publisher |
Experimenter Publishing |
|
Created by |
Philip Francis Nowlan |
Origin[]
From Amazing Stories (March 1929)
Anthony "Buck" Rogers was a 29 year old engineer for the American Radioactive Gas Corporation and WWI veteran who served in the Army Air Corps.
While on the job, Rogers fell into a coma from a gas leak and awoke in the 25th century. He meets Wilma Deering and the intrepid Dr. Huer. Together with his new friends, he aids them in their struggles to rid the world of the Han.
Buck Rogers met his rival Killer Kane when he was stationed with the Columbus Orgzone. Buck Rogers carried the hurt Wilma Deering, who was Kane's old sweetheart, into the outpost. Visiting Wilma in the hospital, Kane asked her how she had injured herself and who Rogers was. When both men were outside, Kane threatened Rogers to either leave her alone or to fight him. Rogers accepted.
Both men were allowed to pick their own weapons; when Rogers arrived at the dueling ring with a rifle and bayonet, Kane dismissed it as a toy. While Kane had arrived on-scene with a weapon of his own design, he was quickly defeated by Rogers' superior combat speed. Wilma arrived after Kane's defeat, and dismissed Rogers as a brute. A spy within the Orgzone tipped off the Mongols that Deering was in the Org, and she was subsequently kidnapped by men dispatched by the Mongol Viceroy of Chicago.
After Rogers made a nearly deadly trip through the Arizona desert, Rogers made a deal with Nunah of the Navajo Orgzone to infiltrate Los Angeles. After Rogers managed to free Deering, she escaped from the city alongside Kane in his plane, leaving Rogers behind. Kane had trailed Rogers all the way to the Orgzone, and had come to pick up Deering after Nuna and Lone Wolf had radiophoned news of her rescue.
At Kane's urging, Rogers was convicted by the Navajos as a traitor and a deserter and sentenced to become an outlaw. Deering opted to become an outlaw herself to seek out Rogers. When she travelled to the Navajo Orgzone in search of Rogers, Kane followed her. She rejected his romantic overtones. Kane angrily mused to himself that he wouldn't let anyone else have Deering, giving her enough time to take off in a plane and fly away. Kane could not immediately follow, as Nunah had sabotaged his plane. Kane, however, caught up with Deering, and rammed her plane with his own to knock her out of the cockpit and let her fall to her death. Rogers managed to drope her a rope while she fell through the sky, and Kane flew in close pursuit of their plane. After Rogers managed to evade Kane's attacks, Kane put out an alarm requesting aid. Planes from the Vancouver, Seattle, Columbus, and Oakland Orgzones were dispatched to intercept. Rogers landed his plane to escape from the air cordon.
Having been spurned by Deering, Kane travelled to Los Angeles, where he met with the Mongol Emperor. After pledging his allegiance to the Emperor, Kane explained his motivations and declared that he would capture Deering for the oppressive tyrant. News of this reached MacGregor of the Toronto Orgzone.
Immediately after MacGregor's arrival, Mongol troops under Kane's command were already preparing for an attack. MacGregor and Rogers attempted to follow the Mongol airship in the former's rocket ship, but were immediately spotted; manned fighters were deployed. After a brief skirmish and escape, the Mongols returned to their carrier. Mongol infantrymen parachuted out of the carrier, carrying death ray projectors to engage Buck Rogers' Outlaws on foot. The Outlaws had concealed themselves in the rocky terrain, leaving the Mongol forces vulnerable. Kane, who had been leading them, was forced to duck and retreat alongside his men under a wave of weapons fire. The Mongol cruiser was forced to land to retrieve Kane and his men, leaving it vulnerable to an attack by MacGregor's air forces. The cruiser was destroyed and the battle lost. However, Kane had not yet been captured. Rogers' Outlaws deployed their Flying Cavalry in search of Kane, spotting him and quickly capturing him. Kane asked for the dignity of a soldier's death, preferring to be shot rather than hanged, but MacGregor spared his life and ordered him to deliver a message to the Emperor. Kane delivered the message to the Emperor, explaining the nature of the newly expanded Federation. With the knowledge that every Canadian Orgzone as well as every American Orgzone east of St. Louis had united into a single polity, the Emperor chose to temporarily accept the truce before promising the destruction of the Federation.
After gaining the trust of Om-Ka-Zoril of the Golden Dragons, Rogers and Deering returned to Niagara, only to discover that a general had been killed, a colonel was missing, the Federation's treaty with the Navajo Orgzone had disappeared, and newly-designed weapons plans had been stolen. After they left MacGregor's office, an assassin attempted to kill the pair. Rogers chased the Mongol assassin to a residential district of Buffalo, where he was captured and delivered before the spy chief - Kane himself. Needing a method of escaping the city now that their cover had been blown, Kane opted to torture Rogers by placing his feet in hot coals. Wong, secretly a member of the Golden Dragons, was charged with placing the coals underneath Rogers' feet. Wong used the fearful screams of another spy to delay placing the coals beneath Rogers' feet, before dropping the brazier on Kane's foot, feigning an accident. Kane's continued attempt to torture Rogers forced Wong's hand, and he was exposed as a spy. Kane defeated Wong before being throttled by Rogers, and managed to re-capture Rogers with the help of his agents. While Kane reassured police officers that nothing was the matter, Wong and Rogers quietly made their escape. Rogers tried to alert the police, but Kane and his spies had already swiftly fled from their apartment. Rogers and the police found Lanlu and two of Kane's men in the street, but were forced to scatter in search of the rest. Rogers quickly caught up with Kane, but was distracted by a smoke bomb, allowing Kane to make good his escape. Rogers returned to Deering's apartment and attempted to contact Om-Ka-Zoril in the hopes that he would have information about Kane, but the two of them were put under arrest by military police. While both sides explained themselves to each other, Kane and Lanlu approached Deering's apartment. Believing it to be a trap, Kane threw another smoke bomb and escaped, abandoning Lanlu.
After getting permission from the Radio Censorship Bureau to contact Om-Ka-Zoril for information, Rogers began searching for Kane by searching for evidence of a false identity, starting by attempting to discover the whereabouts of "Jones", a synthetic food distributor. While Rogers was coming up empty in his search for "Jones", Kane stole plans for a new super-robot. By seducing the secretary of the manager of the Steel-Fingers Plant, Kane had learned of the of the completion of the plans. Unable to crack the safe, Kane instead stole a remote control box for an Iron Man robot. The next morning, Kane used the robot to break through the safe and steal the plans, easily fighting off and outrunning the police. While Kane studied the plans, Rogers used a duplicate control box built by the company to assert control over the robot, forcing it to attack Kane. Kane could prevent the robot from attacking by using his own control box, but if he were to waver the robot would capture him. Kane resisted the efforts of Rogers and the plant manager for over four hours, but was eventually overcome by fatigue and captured. No longer able to resist, Kane was delivered to G.H.Q..
After the Celestial Mogul recognised "Free America" and promised perpetual peace, putting an end to four centuries of colonial rule over North America, both the Mongol Emperor and Kane were freed, the latter by mistake. Kane planned to pledge allegiance to the Viceroy of Chicago.
Public Domain Appearances[]
All published appearances of Buck Rogers from before January 1, 1930 are public domain in the US.
Some notable appearances are listed below:
Public Domain Literary Appearances[]
- Armageddon 2419 A.D. - Amazing Stories (August 1928)
- The Airlords of Han - Amazing Stories (March 1929)
Public Domain Comic Appearances[]
- Buck Rogers Comic Strip (1929)
- Famous Funnies #4-5, 7-18, 20-26, 28-29, 31-33, 35, 40, 42-43, 47 (Eastern Color)
- Famous Funnies #49-51, 54-60, 64, 68-69, 73-74,76-77, 85, 91, 100, 103-104, 109, 113 (Eastern Color)
- Famous Funnies #135, 144, 147, 173, 181-182, 209, 211-212, 214-215, 217-218 (Eastern Color)
- Vicks Comics #1-2 (Eastern Color)
- Buck Rogers #1-6 (Eastern Color)
- Buck Rogers #9, 100-101 (Toby)
Gallery[]
Notes[]
- Also, only the original materials found in the Golden Age Comics starring Anthony "Buck" Rogers are public domain. Re-prints of the original comic strips or other material that originated from other media would still be under copyright.
- On Janurary 1, 2025, the original Buck Rogers comic strips originally published in 1929 entered the public domain.