{"id":5734,"date":"2021-02-12T10:05:22","date_gmt":"2021-02-12T15:05:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/yellowedperils\/?p=5734"},"modified":"2023-01-19T11:35:49","modified_gmt":"2023-01-19T16:35:49","slug":"lets-be-clear-thats-not-buck-rogers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/yellowedperils\/2021\/02\/12\/lets-be-clear-thats-not-buck-rogers\/","title":{"rendered":"Let’s be clear: That’s not Buck Rogers"},"content":{"rendered":"

We need to clear things up, especially after the news<\/a> that actor\/director George Clooney<\/strong> has been linked to a potential Buck Rogers<\/strong> TV series. That guy wearing what appears to be a jetpack on the cover of Amazing Stories<\/em> (August 1928)? That isn’t Buck Rogers.<\/p>\n

\""Amazing<\/a>
Amazing Stories<\/em> (August 1928), which illustrates Dick Seaton demonstrating a flying suit from “The Skylark of Space”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fortunately, many of the articles about the Clooney\/Rogers series have been using photos from the 1979-81 TV series, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century<\/em>, starring Gil Gerard<\/strong>. Still, the Amazing Stories<\/em> cover pops up often when there’s an article about Rogers.<\/p>\n

Any pulp fan worth their salt knows that there was another, equally significant story in that issue of the pioneering SF pulp.<\/p>\n

Philip Francis Nowlan<\/strong>‘s novella, “Armageddon \u2014 2419 A.D.<\/a>,” introduced Anthony Rogers<\/strong> (he wasn’t called “Buck” in the pulps), who is overcome by gases while investigating a mine for the American Radioactive Gas Corp. and wakes up nearly 500 years later to a whole, new world. It’s a Rip Van Winkle<\/strong> story told in a science-fiction setting.<\/p>\n

(Actually, I never cared much for the Buck Rogers comic strips. I think it was the artwork that turned me off more than the stories. But I loved the two novellas \u2014 “Armageddon” and “The Airlords of Han<\/a>” {AS<\/em>, March 1929} \u2014 when I read them back in the 1970s after they were paired in paperback.)<\/p>\n

The first installment of “The Skylark of Space<\/a>,” by E.E. “Doc” Smith<\/strong> and Lee Hawkins Garby<\/strong>, was the other significant story in that issue. What’s shown on the cover is a scene from Chapter IV, when the story’s main protagonist, Richard “Dick” Seaton<\/strong>, first demonstrates that he has harnessed the catalyst called “X” for an anti-gravity device.<\/p>\n

Here’s the paragraph that is depicted by artist Frank R. Paul<\/strong> on the cover:<\/p>\n

(Seaton, his fianc\u00e9e Dorothy Vaneman<\/strong>, his millionaire friend Martin Crane<\/strong>, and Dorothy’s father) made their way to the testing shed, in front of which Seaton donned a heavy leather harness, buckled about his shoulders, body and legs; to which were attached numerous handles, switches, boxes and other pieces of apparatus. He snapped the switch which started the Tesla coil in the shed and pressed a button on an instrument in his hand, attached to his harness by a small steel cable. Instantly there was a creak of straining leather and he shot vertically into the air for perhaps a hundred feet, where he stopped and remained motionless for a few moments. Then the watchers saw him point his arm and dart in the direction in which he pointed. By merely pointing, apparently, he changed his direction at will; going up and down, forward and backward, describing circles and loops and figures of eight. After a few minutes of this display he descended, slowing up abruptly as he neared the ground and making an easy landing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, folks, feel free to use images from the old TV series, the comic strip, or even the interior illustrations from Amazing Stories<\/em>. But, remember: No, that isn’t Buck Rogers on that Amazing Stories<\/em> cover.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We need to clear things up, especially after the news that actor\/director George Clooney has been linked to a potential Buck Rogers TV series. That guy wearing what appears to be a jetpack on the cover of Amazing Stories (August 1928)? That isn’t Buck Rogers. Fortunately, many of the articles about the Clooney\/Rogers series have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5736,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_has_post_settings":[],"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"At Yellowed Perils: Let's be clear, that's not Buck Rogers on the cover. #pulpmags #buckrogers #georgeclooney #scifi","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[6,7,29,11],"tags":[],"hashtags":[],"class_list":["post-5734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movies-tv-radio","category-news","category-pulp-art","category-pulps"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thepulp.net\/yellowedperils\/files\/2021\/02\/amazing-stories-1928-08-featured.jpg?fit=1500%2C1000&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2qgXO-1uu","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/yellowedperils\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/yellowedperils\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/yellowedperils\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/yellowedperils\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/yellowedperils\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5734"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/yellowedperils\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5734\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6330,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/yellowedperils\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5734\/revisions\/6330"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/yellowedperils\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/yellowedperils\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/yellowedperils\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/yellowedperils\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5734"},{"taxonomy":"hashtags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/yellowedperils\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtags?post=5734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}