Yes, Gentle Readers of the DMR Blog, it would appear that I’ve been on a bit of a “Frazetta Space Opera” kick lately. All I can say is that I just go where the muse leads me.* Worry not, tomorrow’s post will have nothing to do with Space Opera or Frank Frazetta.

So, I was thinking about Frank Frazetta’s series of Buck Rogers covers for Famous Funnies comics. One thing that struck me is the evolution of Buck’s headgear. From issues #209 through #212, Frank was drawing Buck wearing some version of a twentieth-century aviator helmet. The helmets on the covers of #213 and #214 seem to be some sort of intermediate version—Buck is also wearing a kilt on the cover of #213, for some reason. Starting with #215, we see Frazetta putting a much more stylish winged helmet on Buck’s cranium.

The lineage of the latter helmet is easy to ascertain. Famous Funnies #1 from 1940 had Buck wearing a version of it—which version was a likely inspiration for Dave Stewart’s Rocketeer helmet. Near as I can tell, this winged helm was default headgear for Buck throughout his run at Famous Funnies.

So, whence the Buck Rogers aviator helmet? There are two possibilities. The first possibility would be that Frank just thought it might be cool to go that route. The second—and the one I slightly lean toward—is that Frazetta was going back to Buck’s roots. The original, post apocalyptic Buck Rogers that debuted in the pulpwood pages of Amazing Stories sported an aviator(-ish) helmet on the cover of his first appearance.

We have no evidence either way, but I lean toward option #2. Frazetta’s artistic mentor was Roy G. Krenkel. Roy was older than Frank and he was a student of the pulps. He could have told Frank about Buck’s original cranial attire and maybe even showed him the pulp in question. It seems to me that Roy showing that cover to Frazetta is the most likely scenario.

However, as I noted, starting with issue #214, Frank began going with a modified version of the “classic” Buck Rogers helmet. As usual, Frank took something and made it cooler. His Buck helmet no longer sports the dorsal “fin” that looked so much better on the Rocketeer. Instead, it has a stylin’ finial on top and the wings look much more bad-ass than previous versions from artists of lesser talents.

The “winged helmet” is also handy when it comes to dating the “lost” Frazetta Buck Rogers cover that eventually ended up—with the distinctive Buck Rogers helmet erased—on the cover of Weird Science-Fantasy #29. Stylistically, it’s obvious that the drawing couldn’t have been crafted earlier than issue #212. The helmet dates it to the period around #215 or later.

Was there any legacy down the line of the Buck Rogers helmet? I think it’s possible that the finials on the helmets of the protagonists on the covers of Maza of the Moon and The Amsirs and the Iron Thorn might be Frazetta harkening back to those early days cranking out Buck Rogers covers.

Below are all the covers I’ve discussed, laid out in chronological order. I hope you find the evolution of it all as interesting as I did.

*That said, I’m always open to doing posts-for-hire, with payments in Slim Jims and non-debased Aquilonian lunas. Valusian tals are also considered legal tender. Offers of payment in authentic Venusian segur-whiskey will be considered as well.