Classic BUCK ROGERS Comic Strip Gets VIP Treatment

All shiny with bells and whistles, the original series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century is being reprinted from beginning to end, courtesy of Hermes Press.
This fall, Hermes Press will introduce a whole new generation to the grandfather of American science-fiction newspaper strips with an ambitious reprint of the entire Buck Rogers in the 25th Century series.

Ol' Buck has seen it all: space ships, anti-gravity belts, space pirates, damsels in distress, invaders from other worlds, nefarious villains and sterling heroes. Comic strip historian Maurice Horn noted that Buck Rogers in the 25th Century "introduced most of the staples of science-fiction plotting." Indeed, legendary genre scribe Ray Bradbury (The Martian Chronicles) has credited Buck Rogers with sparking his imagination and interest in the future.

A dustjacketed, hardcover volume of dailies will be issued every five months along with one volume of Sundays per year, leading to a complete documentation of the saga within five years. Each book will feature an essay on the strip by a leading science-fiction author in order to place the series in historical perspective.

Using a 9" x 12" landscape format, Volume One collects the first two years of daily strips, commencing with January 7, 1929. Also included is a special 16-page color section with documentary materials, production artwork and an introduction by cultural historian and award winning sci-fi novelist Ron Goulart (the guy who ACTUALLY wrote William Shatner's TekWar series).

"In the annals of sci-fi there is no more important series than Buck Rogers," Goulart writes in his essay. "It set the standards for action, humor and suspense that have rarely been equaled since the strip premiered in 1929."

Hermes Press has used the original engraver’s proofs as the source and has printed the strips on 100 pound matte finish coated stock paper, so the reprints will look better than the newsprint originals. Plus, according to Publisher Daniel Herman, they "will digitally recolor all of the Sundays so our complete version of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century will be the definitive version of the most important sci-fi strip ever."

The 336-page Volume One will be available for $39.99 on September 15, 2008.
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PAnthony
5/6/2008
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