Badass Broadcast: Buck Rogers At The World’s Fair

I don't think Buck Rogers ever had any movies worthy of his comics. The 1939 serial starring Buster Crabbe paled in comparison to the three great Flash Gordon serials which also starred Crabbe. It stole sets and costumes from those films and recycled footage from the fascinating sci-fi musical Just Imagine which recently screened at Butt-Numb-A-Thon. The Buck Rogers TV series from the late 70s has a warm nostalgic charm, but never comes close to fulfilling the promise of the source material. The Sunday Buck Rogers comics are among the greatest large format classic comics of all time. The art was never as polished as Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon strip, but they proceeded with a bizarre surrealist logic that makes them totally unique and inspiring.

Here is Buck's first screen appearance. Made for the 1933-34 World's Fair in Chicago, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century: An Interplanetary Battle with the Tiger Men of Mars stars the son of the guy who owned the comic strip and makes even the serial look good in comparison. But this is a lost gem of nerd history that ought to be watched.