Background
John Flint Dille was born on April 27, 1884, in Dixon, Illinois. He was the son of Jesse Brooks Dille, an educator who founded Dixon College, and of Florence Flint.
( • The saga of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, the worl...)
• The saga of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, the world's most famous science-fiction newspaper strip, continues with Volume Four of Hermes Press' complete reprint of this ground-breaking title. • Included in this volume are two more years of the strip, from 1934 to 1936 and features five complete adventures. Volume Four also features a special 16-page introductory essay by noted science-fiction writer and pop culture historian Ron Goulart, and an afterword detailing interesting details about the history of the strip and its impact on science fiction.
https://www.amazon.com/Buck-Rogers-25th-Century-Newspaper/dp/193256344X?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=193256344X
( • The saga of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, the worl...)
• The saga of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, the world's most famous science-fiction newspaper strip, continues with Volume Five of Hermes Press' critically acclaimed complete reprint of this ground-breaking title. • Included in this volume are two more years of the strip, from 1936 to 1938, which features five complete adventures. Volume Three also features a special 16-page introductory essay and an afterword detailing interesting details about the history of the strip and its impact on science and science-fiction.
https://www.amazon.com/Buck-Rogers-25th-Century-Newspaper/dp/1932563482?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=1932563482
John Flint Dille was born on April 27, 1884, in Dixon, Illinois. He was the son of Jesse Brooks Dille, an educator who founded Dixon College, and of Florence Flint.
Dille attended the University of Chicago, from which he received the Ph. B. in 1909.
John Dille entered the advertising business in Chicago and in 1917 founded a feature syndicate, the National Newspaper Syndicate, of which he was president. Through his syndicate Dille helped to popularize the commentaries and creative efforts of Lady Astor, Harry Lauder, Jr. , Josephus Daniels, Walter B. Pitkin, and Albert Edward Wiggam by making their work available to newspaper clients at a relatively low unit cost.
Dille was credited with originating adventure comic strips as an entertainment medium. The "Buck Rogers" strip and its developmenti llustrated Dille's entrepreneurial and managerial skills. The idea for the strip came from Philip Nowlan's short novel Armageddon 2419 A. D. , in the August 1928 issue of Amazing Stories, a science fiction magazine. The work described how a twentieth-century American pilot named Anthony Rogers was overcome by toxic gas that put him in suspended animation for five centuries. It was a great success and Nowlan wrote a sequel, The Warlords of Han, in March 1929. The two works were combined and published as Armageddon 2419 A. D. The book came to the attention of Dille, who was searching for new material and new ideas for his syndicate. Dille contacted Nowlan and urged him to adapt his idea to a comic strip form. Skeptical at first, Nowlan agreed to do continuity writing for the strip, which was drawn by Richard W. Calkins, a World War I army pilot who worked for Dille. Getting Calkins to cooperate also took some persuasion, for he preferred to draw comic strips set in prehistoric times. But Dille, believing that "the future, which was unknown, was more fascinating than the past, which was known, " felt that a futuristic comic strip was more salable to newspapers. The strip first appeared on January 7, 1929. At its peak, it was carried by 287 newspapers although this number dwindled to twenty-eight when the strip was discontinued in 1968.
Dille's role in originating the strip did not end when he introduced Nowlan and Calkins. Active in alumni affairs at the University of Chicago, he frequently consulted leading scientists and tried to include accurate scientific information in the strip. For example, scientists were asked to speculate about such things as the construction of space suits and ways to prevent the moon from being infected by germs carried by astronauts. Among the prophetic information that did not come from scientists was the idea of an atom bomb, which appeared in the strip in 1938. Much of the strip, of course, was fanciful and many of the technical details less than accurate. Although not particularly distinguished for draftsmanship or plot, "Buck Rogers" was a pioneer, the first of the science fiction strips. It also inspired a Buck Rogers craze; Buck Rogers dolls, "moon pistols, " and rockets became popular toys, especially during the 1930's. The strip was also the basis for a radio serial. Like other popular culture phenomena, "Buck Rogers" had several imitators, including the strip "Flash Gordon, " which began in 1934.
In addition to his work on "Buck Rogers" and his feature syndicate responsibilities, Dille served as a director of the alumni foundation of the University of Chicago, president of the Chicago alumni chapter of Phi Gamma Delta, and president of the alumni association.
( • The saga of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, the worl...)
( • The saga of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, the worl...)
On June 14, 1911, Dille married Phoebe M. Crabtree; they had two sons, one of whom, Robert Crabtree Dille, succeeded his father as president of the National Newspaper Syndicate.
