The Future Making a Comeback

The comic strip “Buck Rogers,” canceled in 1967 when the present caught up with the future, is looking ahead again. What had seemed to be unbelievable when the comic strip was begun in 1929--such as men walking on the moon, lie detectors and instant cameras--was becoming science fact, not fiction. Now Flint Dille and his sister, Lorraine Williams, grandchildren of one of the cartoon’s creators, plan to bring back the strip as well as release books and possibly a movie. In 1929, John Flint Dille, president of the National News Syndicate, created the strip with artist Dick Calkins and writer Philip Nowlan. The younger Dille and Williams talked about their ideas for the future, developed with the help of scientists and artists, at a press conference at the Henry Crown Space Center of the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. Their concept includes a space elevator, which is a tube that rises from Earth into the outer atmosphere; a sky hook to scoop cargo into space, and an environmental suit that would adapt to any atmosphere. “Everything in the story has to be something that with present theories of science could be done,” Dille said.

--Former Vice President Spiro T. Agnew was reported in good condition as he recovered from injuries suffered in a fall from his bicycle. Agnew, 70, was taken Sunday to the emergency room at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif., shortly after the 2:40 p.m. accident near his home across the street from the hospital, spokesman Mike McFadden said. Agnew suffered broken ribs and fractured his iliac crest, at the top of the pelvic girdle, McFadden said. No release date was available, he said. Agnew, a former Maryland governor, served as vice president in the Richard M. Nixon Administration beginning in 1968. He resigned in 1973 and pleaded no contest to a tax evasion charge.

--The orphaned waif Cosette, a character in the hit musical “Les Miserables” has undergone a drastic haircut in order to make a point. On new posters for the New York Broadway play, the child sports a Mohawk haircut--a single strip of hair on an otherwise bald head. “Don’t Get Scalped. We may have seats for today’s performance,” reads the poster. “ . . . At this time of year we do have some tickets available a few days before,” producer Cameron Mackintosh said. “And even on the day of performance we have $16 student tickets or sometimes $25 tickets in the rear mezzanine.” Mackintosh said he has heard of people paying scalpers $150 a ticket.