Philip Francis Nowlan
ARMAGEDDON – 2419 A.D.
CONTENTS
Introduction
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER 1. FLOATING MEN
CHAPTER 2. THE FOREST GANGS
CHAPTER 3. LIFE IN THE 25TH CENTURY
CHAPTER 4. A HAN AIR RAID
CHAPTER 5. SETTING THE TRAP
CHAPTER 6. A WYOMING MASSACRE
CHAPTER 7. INCREDIBLE TREASON
CHAPTER 8. THE HAN CITY
CHAPTER 9. THE FIGHT IN THE TOWER
CHAPTER 10. THE WALLS OF HELL
CHAPTER 11. THE NEW BOSS
CHAPTER 12. THE FINGER OF DOOM
EPILOGUE
INTRODUCTION
Anthony "Buck" Rogers is one of the most celebrated characters in the long history of science fiction. In his own field, he is almost as well-known as Sherlock Holmes is to mystery fans. Buck Rogers first saw the light of day in Armageddon – 2419 A.D., in the August 1928 issue of the first science fiction magazine, Amazing Stories. Buck's creator, an unknown young author named Philip Francis Nowlan, would write one other Buck Rogers novel, The Airlords of Han, a few months later ( Amazing Stories, March 1929), and then transfer his hero's adventures to the far more lucrative medium of the daily comic strip, where it became an instant hit – and he apparently never looked back.
Buck Rogers' success in the comics led to a proliferation of serials, movies, radio, and television shows. The first was a twelve-chapter 1939 movie serial, starring strongman Buster Crabbe; and its massive merchandising campaign made the science fiction hero a household name. Later came a radio series, two early 1950s television series, one imported from Germany, and a 1979 television movie starring Gil Gerard, which spawned its own television series. And, the show goes on... with plans for new Buck Rogers' adventures with 21st century special effects currently underway.
In this first story, Armageddon – 2419 A.D., Buck, a victim of accidental suspended animation, awakens five hundred years later to discover America groaning under the tyranny of the villainous Han, ruling from the safety of their armored machine-cities. Falling in love with one of America's new warrior-women, Wilma Deering, Rogers soon become a central figure in using newly-developed scientific weapons in a revolt against the Han. Although the Han at first appear to be a stereotype of the Yellow Peril, Nowlan apparently became worried that they might be seen as racist, and in the second Buck Rogers story identifies them as descendents of a race of space aliens, interbred with some Mongol women they captured.
In The World Beyond the Hill: Science Fiction and the Myth of Transcendence, Alexei and Cory Panshin argue that Anthony "Buck" Rogers, like Richard Seaton in The Skylark of Space, which appeared in the same issue, embodies the values of the "new Twentieth Century man of science... eager to look forward, not back. He might even be thought of as something of a barbarian – a barbarian with a slide rule dwelling in the ruins of a former high civilization, but completely indifferent to its fall because he had urgent new business to attend to. This new man was practical and filled with determination. He had utter confidence in his mastery of scientific power, and no fear at all of encounter with the unknown scientific universe."
When the editors of Amazing Storiesdecided to publish a "Giant 35th Anniversary Issue" in April 1961, they devoted it to reprints of some of the most famous stories from the magazine's history. Foremost among the reprints was this first Buck Rogers tale, Armageddon – 2419 A.D. Here is what they had to say about the story in an foreword to the reprint:
"The August, 1928, issue of Amazing Storieswas beyond question one of the most important not only in its history but in the history of science fiction. That would have been the case if it had only presented to the science fiction public a new author named Edward Elmer Smith with the first installment of The Skylark of Space. But its immortality was assured by introducing Anthony "Buck" Rogers to the world in a complete novel titled Armageddon – 2419 A.D., by Philip Francis Nowlan.
"Few people, either in or out of science fiction, know that "Buck" Rogers was born in Amazing Stories. Fewer still are aware that the first artist to cartoon the famous future Americans and soldiers of Han was Frank R. Paul. Breaking its policy Amazing Storiesran, in addition to two full-size illustrations, three cartoon panels which may even have given Nowlan the idea of submitting the entire package to a comic strip syndicate.
"When 'Buck Rogers in the Twenty Fifth Century' appeared as a comic strip in the daily newspapers in 1929 it created a sensation and added a new phrase to the language. Phil Nowlan wrote the continuity about the famous characters of Buck Rogers, Wilma Deering, Dr. Huer, and Killer Kane, along with their disintegrators, jumping belts, inertron, and paralysis rays, and made them familiar to millions of people in this country and abroad. The daily adventures on radio thrilled many more. The popularity of the strip began to decline in the late thirties under the competition of Flash Gordon, Brick Bradford and other imitators. When Phil Nowlan severed his connection with the strip there was a steady loss of leadership. Today, though the strip still appears in some papers, few people are aware it still exists. When Nowlan left the strip in 1939 he resumed his writing of magazine science fiction; but he died in early 1940.
"Buck Rogers" is a synonym for the world of tomorrow, future invention and the spirit of science fiction. In past years the phrase 'that Buck Rogers stuff' had a derisive ring to it, but more recently atom bombs and earth satellites have changed all that.
"The strangest part about this entire story is that the original Buck Rogers' stories in Amazing Storieswere in no sense juveniles. They were serious, adult works based on the most plausible science of the time. They have an aura of accurate prophecy about them that cannot be erased. Armageddon – 2419 A.D. precisely described the bazooka, the jet plane, walkie-talkie for warfare, the infra-red ray gun for fighting at night, as well as dozens of other advances that are not here yet but are on their way.
"The perceptive Hugo Gernsback, then editor and publisher of Amazing Storiescalled his shots as accurately on the quality of his stories as he did on future invention. Of Armageddon – 2419 A.D. he said: 'We have rarely printed a story in this magazine that for scientific interest as well as suspense could hold its own with this particular story. We prophesy that this story will become more valuable as the years go by. It certainly holds a number of interesting prophecies, many of which, no doubt, will come true. For wealth of science it will be hard to beat for some time to come. It is one of those rare stories that will bear reading and re-reading many times.'"
We at Futures-Past Classics think you will feel the same.
Jean Marie Stine
06/12/2003