Famous Funnies #36

History

Eastern Color Printing launched Famous Funnies #1 with a July 1934 cover date after an earlier Dell-partnered test edition sold out; by issue #3 the Buck Rogers newspaper strip reprint feature had been added and would anchor the title for decades. Eastern Color's model — folding full-size newspaper Sunday pages down to comic book dimensions and reworking the lettering for legibility — was the editorial and production template that made Famous Funnies work, and issue #36 (1937) was produced under that same workflow. The art appearing under Dick Calkins's credit in the Famous Funnies Buck Rogers pages was by this period largely executed by Rick Yager, who had begun ghosting the Sunday strips in 1933, though Calkins's name remained on the work.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Published by Eastern Color Printing, the series of which this is issue #36 is considered by historians the first true ongoing American newsstand comic book, launched July 1934.
• Buck Rogers had been a continuous feature in Famous Funnies since issue #3 and would run through issues #3–190 and #209–215 — one of the longest uninterrupted character runs in early comic book history.
• The Buck Rogers strip was created by writer Philip Francis Nowlan (adapting his 1928 Amazing Stories novella 'Armageddon 2419 A.D.') and artist Dick Calkins; it debuted in newspapers on January 7, 1929.
• Wilma Deering, Buck's co-star and the first person he encounters upon waking in the 25th century, appeared from the strip's very first installment and was notably portrayed as a capable, combat-ready fighter rather than a passive companion.
• The Buck Rogers material reprinted in Famous Funnies consisted of Sunday pages, which ran a separate continuity from the daily strips — at this period centered on characters including Buddy Deering (Wilma's younger brother) and spanning planetary adventure storylines.
• By late 1937, Famous Funnies was approaching peak circulation (documented at over 530,000 copies for issue #38, one issue after this one), reflecting the extraordinary commercial success the title had achieved by this stage of its run.
• Other features confirmed in mid-to-late 1930s issues of Famous Funnies alongside Buck Rogers include Alley Oop, Apple Mary, Jane Arden, Dan Dunn, and Napoleon.
• Eastern Color began adapting newspaper reprints specifically for the comic book page — reworking lettering and trimming recap panels — an editorial practice that influenced how all subsequent reprint-based comics were produced.

Cast · 2 characters

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