Dick Calkins
Richard William Calkins (August 12, 1894 – May 12, 1962), who often signed his work Lt. Dick Calkins, was an American comic strip artist who is best known for being the first artist to draw the Buck Rogers comic strip. He also wrote for the Buck Rogers radio program.
Also recorded as Richard William Calkins · Richard Calkins
Dick Calkins
Dick Calkins · The Art of the Funnies An Aesthetic History · Public domain
- Born
- 12 August 1894
- Birthplace
- Grand Rapids, Michigan, U.S.
- Died
- 12 May 1962
- Place of death
- Tucson, Arizona, U.S.
- Spouse
- Margaret
- Nationality
- United States
- Occupation
- comics artist
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Richard William Calkins (August 12, 1894 – May 12, 1962), who often signed his work Lt. Dick Calkins, was an American comic strip artist who is best known for being the first artist to draw the Buck Rogers comic strip. He also wrote for the Buck Rogers radio program.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Note VALÉORINE
Dick Calkins (1894–1962) was an American comics artist. Born in Grand Rapids, the comics artist died in Tucson.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 01 October 2026
VALÉORINE
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Dick Calkins. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q1606864 · wikipedia · Dick Calkins
In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Born — 12 August 1894 • Birthplace — Grand Rapids, Michigan, U.S. • Died — 12 May 1962 • Place of death — Tucson, Arizona, U.S. • Write — y • Art — y • Notable Works — Buck Rogers Skyroads • Spouse — Margaret
Biography
Biography
Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Calkins graduated from the Chicago Art Institute. His first job was cartoonist for the Detroit Free Press. During World War I, Calkins served in the Army Air Service as a pilot and flight instructor. Following the war, he worked as an editorial cartoonist for the Chicago American until 1929, the year he began drawing Buck Rogers. (Calkins is credited as the artist for Buck Rogers from January 1929 to November 1947, and writer from September 1939 to November 1947, but other sources indicate he stopped drawing the strip around 1932.) Calkins also co-created and illustrated the aviation-themed comic strip Skyroads, with aviation pioneer and fellow World War I pilot Lester J. Maitland, from 1929 to 1933 (when it was taken over by Russell Keaton). (Keaton has also been credited with ghosting the Sunday Buck Rogers, which debuted on March 30, 1930. Calkins died at the age of 67 in Tucson, Arizona, on May 12, 1962, as the result of a heart attack. • Illustration — Buck Rogers by Dick Calkins (1929)
Identity
Identity
Dick Calkins is recorded as comics artist.
Buck Rogers, first three comic strips, 1929
Philip Francis Nowlan / Dick Calkins · The Daily Cartoonist
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1894
Dick Calkins born.
1962
Dick Calkins died.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Grand Rapids.
Birth place
Tucson.
Death place
Selected publications
• Uncle Bob's Story Book. Chicago: Jordan, 1926. • Buck Rogers in the City Below the Sea. Racine, Wisc.: Whitman, 1934. • Buck Rogers in the Dangerous Mission, With "Pop-Up" Picture. New York: Blue Ribbon Press, 1934. • Buck Rogers on the Moons of Saturn. Racine, Wisc.: Whitman, 1934. • Buck Rogers 25th century A.D. and the Depth Men of Jupiter. Racine, Wisc.: Whitman, 1935. • Buck Rogers in the City of Floating Globes. Racine, Wisc.: Whitman, 1935. • Buck Rogers 25th Century: Strange Adventures in the Spider-Ship with Three Pop-ups, Pleasure Books, Inc., Chicago, 1935. • The Story of Buck Rogers on the Planetoid Eros. Racine, Wisc.: Whitman, 1936. • Skyroads with Hurricane Hawk. Racine, Wisc.: Whitman, 1936. • Skyroads with Clipper Williams of the Flying Legion. Racine, Wisc.: Whitman, 1938. • Buck Rogers 25th century A.D. vs. the Fiend of Space. Racine, Wisc.: Whitman, 1940. • Buck Rogers and the Super-Dwarf of Space. Racine, Wisc.: Whitman, 1943. • Buck Rogers, 25th century A.D. Ann Arbor, Mich.: E.M. Aprill, 1971. • The Collected Works of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. New York: Chelsea House, 1980. • Buck Rogers 25th century: Featuring Buddy and Allura in "Strange Adventures in the Spider Ship". Bedford, Mass.: Applewood Books, 1994. • Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. Volume One 1929-1930: The Complete Newspaper Dailies. Neshannock, Pa.: Hermes Press, 2009. • 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 Three 1932-1934: The Complete Newspaper Dailies. Neshannock, Pa.: Hermes Press, 2010.
Sources consulted
Sources consulted
* • Daniels, Les. Comix: A History of Comic Books in America. New York: Outerbridge & Dienstfrey, 1971. Pp 6–7. • Inge, M. Thomas. Comics As Culture. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1990. Page 9.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1."Dick Calkins, Cartoonist, Dead; Helped to Create Buck Rogers." New York Times (May 14, 1962), p. 29.
- 2.GCD :: Creator :: Dick Calkins (B. 1894).
- 3.Dunning, John. On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio. Oxford University Press. 122–123. 1998. 978-0-19-507678-3.
- 4.Stiles, Steve. That Crazy Buck Rogers Stuff. www.stevestiles.com. Derp.
- 5.Skyroads at Don Markstein's Toonopedia from the original on June 4, 2017.
- 6.Wisconsin Aviation Hall of Fame. Lester J Maitland.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Comics and comic art
9,920 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Diary of Our Days at the BreakwaterSeries
- DiceboxSeries
- Dick AyersArtist
- Dick BrielArtist
- Dick CavalliArtist
- Dick Fight IslandSeries
- Dick GiordanoArtist
- Dick GuindonArtist
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Dick Calkins?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.