Dick Calkins who often signed his work Lt. Dick Calkins, is a comic strip

Comic strip

A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....

 artist who is best known for being the first artist to draw the Buck Rogers

Buck Rogers

Anthony Rogers is a fictional character that first appeared in Armageddon 2419 A.D. by Philip Francis Nowlan in the August 1928 issue of the pulp magazine Amazing Stories. A sequel, The Airlords of Han, was published in the March 1929 issue....

comic strip.

Calkins served as the artist for this series from January, 1929 to November, 1947. Buck Rogers is sometimes credited as being the first science fiction comic strip.

Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Calkins graduated from the Chicago Art Institute. His first job was cartoonist for the Detroit Free Press

Detroit Free Press

The Detroit Free Press is the largest daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, USA. The Sunday edition is entitled the Sunday Free Press. It is sometimes informally referred to as the "Freep"...

. During World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, Calkins served in the Army Air Service as a pilot and flight instructor. He worked as an editorial cartoonist for The Chicago American until 1929, the year he began drawing Buck Rogers.

Calkins died at the age of 67 in Tucson, Arizona

Tucson, Arizona

Tucson is a city in and the county seat of Pima County, Arizona, United States. The city is located 118 miles southeast of Phoenix and 60 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. The 2010 United States Census puts the city's population at 520,116 with a metropolitan area population at 1,020,200...

on May 13, 1962.

Selected publications

• Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. Volume Three 1932-1934: The Complete Newspaper Dailies. Neshannock, Pa.: Hermes Press, 2010.
• Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. Volume Two 1930-1932: The Complete Newspaper Dailies. Neshannock, Pa.: Hermes Press, 2009.
• Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. Volume One 1929-1930: The Complete Newspaper Dailies. Neshannock, Pa.: Hermes Press, 2009.
• Buck Rogers 25th century: Featuring Buddy and Allura in "Strange Adventures in the Spider Ship". Bedford, Mass.: Applewood Books, 1994.
• The Collected Works of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. New York: Chelsea House, 1980.
• Buck Rogers, 25th century A.D. Ann Arbor, Mich.: E.M. Aprill, 1971.
• Buck Rogers and the Super-Dwarf of Space. Racine, Wisc.: Whitman, 1943.
• Buck Rogers 25th century A.D. vs. the Fiend of Space. Racine, Wisc.: Whitman, 1940.
• Skyroads with Clipper Williams of the Flying Legion. Racine, Wisc.: Whitman, 1938.
• Skyroads with Hurricane Hawk. Racine, Wisc.: Whitman, 1936.
• The Story of Buck Rogers on the Planetoid Eros. Racine, Wisc.: Whitman, 1936.
• Buck Rogers in the City of Floating Globes. Racine, Wisc.: Whitman, 1935.
• Buck Rogers 25th century A.D. and the Depth Men of Jupiter. Racine, Wisc.: Whitman, 1935.
• Buck Rogers on the Moons of Saturn. Racine, Wisc.: Whitman, 1934.
• Buck Rogers in the Dangerous Mission, With "Pop-Up" Picture. New York: Blue Ribbon Press, 1934.
• Buck Rogers in the City Below the Sea. Racine, Wisc.: Whitman, 1934.
• Uncle Bob's Story Book. Chicago: Jordan, 1926.