Buck Rogers in the 25th Century

Most of you probably haven't heard of Buck Rogers, and its understandable. But if you ask your parents or grandparents, they can probably tell you who is he. He is one of the most famous science fiction characters of the early 20th century, alongside Flash Gordon. Created by Philip Francis Nowlan, the character of Anthony "Buck" Rogers first appeared in the August 1928 issue of the science fiction magazine, Amazing Stories. The story tells of Buck Rogers, a veteran of the Great War (WWI) who is put into suspended animation by a bombardment of radioactive gases. He awakens after being asleep for 492 years. Rogers quickly adapts to his surroundings, and joins up with one of the many gangs, and meets Wilma Deering, who enlists Rogers help in a revolt against the Han's, who have ruled America for the past 15 years from several large cities spread out across the continent. Rogers appeared in a sequel story Airlords of Han, in which he and the gangs all unite against the Airlords. The popularity of the character lead to a long running comic strip, movies, radio show, action figures etc. For all who follow this blog and would like to read the original stories that gave this character life, go to http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0809510952/buckrogerscom/ and order your copy of the book today! And be sure to look for the collected volumes of the original comic strip, and if you crave more, comic book company Dynamite Entertainment has been publishing a Buck Rogers comic book for the past two years. I can personally say that the Dynamite comic book is top notch stuff, something no science fiction fan would want to miss out on. So get out there and read more about the man of the past who is now a hero of tomorrow!

Alex Raymond

Alex Gillespie Raymond was born in October of 1909. He was encouraged from an early age by his father in drawing, but after losing his father at the age of 12, Alex felt that drawing was not such a viable career choice and enrolled at Iona Prep on a sports scholarship. After quitting his job as a Wall Street clerk in the wake of the 1929 crash, he enrolled Grand Central School of Art in New York City while working as solicitor. After quitting his job in 1930, he approached former neighbor Russ Westover, Raymond assisted him on his Tillie the Toiler comic, which lead to his being introduced to King Features Syndicate, where he worked as a staff artist and produced his greatest work. In 1933, King Features assigned him to do artwork for espionage, action-adventure strip Secret Agent X-9, scripted by novelist Dashiell Hammet. Towards the end of 1933, Raymond was approached by King Features to come up with a Sunday page that could compete with Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. Alongside ghost writer Don Moore, the two created the visually amazing Flash Gordon comic, which quickly surpassed the audience of Buck Rogers. Raymond's artwork was eye catching and fantastic, leading him to be among the most highly regarded and imitated of artists, even to this day. Another contribution he made was evolving the layout of comic strips from a four tier strip to a two tier strip, reducing the panel number but doubling the size, and replacing speech balloons with caption boxes at the bottom of the page. During his tour for the Allies during WWII, Raymond also did a series of covers for various war magazines. In addition to creating Flash Gordon, Alex also created and drew the police daily strip of the adventures of Rip Kirby. Alex Raymond died in a car crash in September of 1956. To all who read my blog, I implore you to read the collected volumes of Raymond's original Flash Gordon series. You'll be glad you did.

Flash Gordon

Today's post is about one of the most classic science-fiction comic strips in American history. Flash Gordon, created by Alex Raymond in 1934, was a newspaper comic that detailed the adventures of Earthling Flash Gordon, his girlfriend Dale Arden and Dr. Hans Zarkov, who find themselves on the planet Mongo after traveling there in Zarkov's experimental rocket. There they are caught up in war between the people's of Mongo and the dictator Ming the Merciless. Over the years these three had many adventures on Mongo, and the success of the strip lead to multiple movies, TV series, a radio series, multiple comic book series and other commercial enterprises. For those who follow this blog and wish to read any of the original Alex Raymond strips, they have been reprinted into 7 volumes which can be found at reasonable prices on http://www.amazon.com/ref=gno_logo. Just search for Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon under the books section. So don't hesitate, get out there and expand your imagination today!

Lester Dent

Born in La Plata Missouri in 1904, Lester Dent was an only child, and had a lonely childhood growing up, this is what may have lead to developing his talents as a story-teller. He graduated from Chillicothe Business College in Chillicothe Missouri in 1923. Originally wanting to be a banker, he became a telegraph operator for Western Union after hearing how much better their salaries were. It was in Ponca City, Missouri in 1925 that he met his future wife Norma Gerling. They were married in August of that year. A year after they moved to Chickasha, Oklahoma where Dent worked as a telegraph operator for Western Union. After reading a fellow operator's pulp story that had gotten published, Dent wrote his first story "Pirate Cay" which appeared in the 1929 issue of Top Notch magazine. Shortly after publication, he was contacted by Dell Publishing, who offered him $500 a month for him to write exclusively for their magazines. The Dent's moved to New York City in 1931, where Lester quickly learned the the trade of pulp author's, teaching himself how to write and with very few rewrites. After Dell's pulp line imploded in May 1931, Dent retreated back to Missouri, but was soon after writing for other pulp chains. In 1931, Street and Smith Publishing contacted him about creating another magazine centered around a central character, to build off the fame of the Shadow. Despite his unhappiness that the stories would be published under a house name, with the $500 a novel contract, he happily accepted. In 1933, Doc Savage magazine number 1 hit the stands, in 6 months it was one of the top selling magazines on the market. Lester was able to use his new-found financial security to learn and explore. An avid reader, he also earned his amateur radio and pilot's licenses, passed the electrician's and plumbers exams and was a avid mountain climber. His method was learn a subject thoroughly, then move on to the next. In the late 30's, Dent purchased a 40 foot two-masted schooner, which he and his wife lived on for several years, sailing up and down the East Coast of the US. Their extensive travels allowed him to be admitted membership in the Explorers Club. In 1940, the Dents returned to La Plata for good, with Lester continuing to write for Doc Savage and still finding time to work on other projects. When the magazine folded in 1949, Dent had written 179 of the 181 novels published by Street and Smith under the house name Kenneth Robeson, and all but twenty had been written by Dent. He continued to write for magazine's, his last published story was a Western entitled "Savage Challenge" for the February 1958 issue of Saturday Evening Post. Lester Dent died on March 11, 1959 after being hospitalized earlier that year for a heart attack. Dent's fame continues on in the various reprints of Doc Savage books, the ones I read can again be found at http://members.cox.net/comingattractions3/SanctumBooks.html. So don't hesitate, get out there and read more about the Man of Bronze today!

Doc Savage

A decade before Kal-El became the Man of Steel, there was another Superman, that appeared in the pulps, and his name is Clark Savage Jr! Appearing in Doc Savage Magazine in 1933, he was created by pulp writer Lester Dent for Street and Smith Publishing under the house name Kenneth Robeson, Clark Savage was raised by his father and a team of scientists in an environment to deliberately train his body and mind to near-superhuman perfection. Known as Doc to his close friends and cousin, Doc Savage, in addition to being a skilled surgeon, is a master musician, physician, scientist, inventor, explorer etc. He was nicknamed the Man of Bronze by the press, due to his skin being constantly tanned a golden bronze color. Gathering five men, each of whom is skilled in a certain area, they have formed a team that go's where they are needed, helping those who need help and bringing evil-doers to justice! They abide by a code, which states "Let me strive every moment of my life to make myself better and better, to the best of my ability, that all may profit by it. Let me think of the right and lend all my assistance to those who need it, with no regard for anything but justice. Let me take what comes with a smile, without loss of courage. Let me be considerate of my country, of my fellow citizens and my associates in everything I say and do. Let me do right to all, and wrong no man." His comrades, also known as the Fabulous Five are: Andrew "Monk" Mayfair, skilled chemist; Theodore "Ham" Brooks, attorney; John "Renny" Renwick, construction engineer; Thomas "Long Tom" Roberts, electrical engineer and William "Johnny" Littlejohn, archaeologist and geologist. Along with Doc's cousin Patricia, or Pat to the group, who is constantly getting into trouble, leading to the boys getting her out of it, they hold their headquarters on the 86th floor of the Empire State Building, which houses Doc's offices, laboratory etc. a kind of Hall of Justice (the headquarters of the cartoon team the Superfriends). His popularity over the years lead to several radio shows, comic books, and in 1975 the movie Doc Savage: Man of Bronze was produced, but suffered due to being a critical failure and box office flop. For those who wish to read the reprints of Doc's classic adventures, go to http://members.cox.net/comingattractions3/SanctumBooks.html, where you can also find as in my previous character post, the reprint volumes of Walter Gibson's classic character the Shadow. And for anyone who is interested in the Doc Savage radio series's, go http://www.radioarchives.com/default.asp for the cd's. Don't hesitate, get out there and "do right to all, and wrong no man" today!

Walter Gibson aka. Maxwell Grant

Today, for all the folks out there who read this blog, you are going to meet a man who I have come to admire and respect through reading his books. Walter Gibson ladies and gentlemen, or as he was better known back in the 1930's, Maxwell Grant. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1897. He graduated from Colgate University in 1920, and afterwards began working at newspapers for his native city as a reporter and cross-word puzzle writer. In 1931, due to the popularity of the Shadow's character on the Detective Story Hour radio show, the sponsors, Street and Smith Publishing, asked Gibson to translate the character into print, and so Gibson, under the house name of Maxwell Grant, published the first 75,000 word Shadow story, which appeared in the first quarterly Shadow pulp magazine. The magazine's popularity grew, causing it to go to a twice-a-month printing, and leading Gibson to produce 24 novels a year. A compulsive writer, Gibson wrote 282 of the 325 Shadow novels, which was an estimated 1,680,000 words. In addition, Gibson was a accomplished magician and wrote over a hundred books on magic, rope tricks etc. He also ghosted several books for magicians Harry Houdini, Howard Thurston, Harry Blackstone and Joseph Dunninger. Gibson was also responsible for introducing many foreign magic tricks to the American public and published several books on them. Walter died on December 6, 1985. Mr. Gibson, many may not know who you are until now or what your legacy is, but the Shadow knows.

The Shadow

For all those who live in the Chicago-land area, the Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention is coming up in a month folks! This convention offers it all, from classic pulp novels, to science fiction, OTR (Old Time Radio) and so much more. So I've decided to do a series of posts about famous pulp novel characters, their creators, and some of the other things that are showcased at the convention. Today's is about one of the more legendary characters of the pulp novels, the master of the night and stalker of crime, The Shadow! Created by Walter Gibson, under the pseudonym Maxwell Grant, the character actually first appeared as host of The Detective Story Hour radio show in the early 1930's. Pulp publishing house Street and Smith, assigned Gibson to do a pulp story on the character and in 1931, The Shadow magazine hit the stands, and hit hard. The character became instantly popular, gaining his own radio show in the late 30's (with Orson Wells playing the lead character for awhile) and being the subject over the years of films, comic books, comic strips etc. The Shadow is the alter ego of Lamont Cranston, wealthy young man about town, who uses the hypnosis he mastered in the Orient to fight crime as the Shadow. But in fact, the Shadow is famed fictional WWI aviator Kent Allard, who uses Cranston's identity as a cover for his own, due to Cranston being abroad so much. With a network of agents, the men and women he has saved and put into his service as his eyes and ears, the Shadow has let the underworld know fear for the past century and continues to do so in the hearts and minds of all who love adventure and mystery. If anyone who reads this blog wishes to know more about this character and his adventures, Sanctum Books is publishing a series of reprints of the classic Shadow pulp stories, two to a volume, with the original artwork and articles related to the character or aspects of him and his world. Visit http://members.cox.net/comingattractions3/SanctumBooks.html to order the books, and if you wish to listen to episodes of the classic radio show, check either Itunes, http://www.radiospirits.com/ or any other website that sells collections of classic radio shows on cd, cassette tape etc. Don't hesitate, become a fan of the Shadow today!