NOWLAN, Philip Francis

(1888-1940)

   US writer whose first sf story, "Armageddon 2419" - published in the same 1928 issue of AMAZING STORIES that featured the inception of E.E. "Doc" SMITH's Skylark saga - introduced Anthony "Buck" Rogers to theworld, helping to inaugurate the reign of full-grown interstellar SPACE OPERA in US sf. This and a subsequent story, "The Airlords of Han" (1929),were put together long after PFN's death as Armageddon 2419 AD (1928-9 AMZ; fixup 1962). The Buck Rogers saga takes its hero, via SUSPENDEDANIMATION, to a corrupt 25th-century USA under the thumb of the tyrannous Hans, where Rogers soon becomes a central figure in the successful revolt. His exploits were retold and then extended through space in BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25TH CENTURY, the first sf COMIC strip, scripted by PFN and drawn by Dick CALKINS; it ran 1929-67. PFN worked on it until his death, which also cut short a new series he had begun in ASF. An adaptation of a tale from the comic - each page of text faced with a Calkins illustration - appeared as Buck Rogers 25th Century AD and the Planetoid Plot (1936), and the first 426 daily strips were published in book form as Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Great Classic Newspaper Comic Strips, No. 1 (graph coll1964), \#2 (graph coll 1965), \#7 (graph coll 1967) and \#8 (graph coll 1968).

   JC

   See also: ILLUSTRATION; INVASION; RADIO; TRANSPORTATION.