As I've noted over the last few weeks here on the blog, I've been in a pulp space opera mood. I've filled in my collections of the Avon
Flash Gordon and Ace
Buck Rogers paperback novels, finished reading Dynamite Comics'
Buck comics series from a couple years back, and, over the last few days, watching episodes of the 1939 Universal
Buck Rogers serial starring
Buster Crabbe, each morning before going to bed.
I'm a big fan of this serial, and in some ways I prefer it over the
Flash Gordon serials that Crabbe did for the same studio. Don't misunderstand me - those three chapterplays are classics, and there's no way that
Constance Moore's Wilma Deering or
Anthony Warde's Killer Kane can hold a candle to
Jean Rogers as Dale Arden or
Charles Middleton's Ming - but there's a polish to
Buck that's lacking in the first two
Flash serials, and a consistent aesthetic to the look and design of
Buck's 25th Century Earth that the Mongo of the
Flash serials just didn't have.
The storyline is just a tiny bit more adult and better-structured, too. There isn't
quite as much repetitive action and narrative water-treading in it as in the
Flash Gordon adventures. Also, frankly, I prefer Crabbe without the over-bleached, over-styled coiffure. He just looks tougher with his natural brown hair.
Well, gotta go. I've got a couple chapters to spin before I hit the sack!
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