Lot 740: Dick Calkins Typed Letter Signed Featuring Five Color Drawings -- ''...Don't let this Buck Rogers business fool you. About all I get is a lot of publicity, while the syndicate gets the gravy...''

Dick Calkins hand-illustrated typed letter signed. Letter on the famed ''Buck Rogers'' cartoonist's personal stationery is dated 27 March 1947. Colorfully illustrated with five detailed drawings, lengthy letter is addressed to Elmer Staggs in Tuscon, Arizona, and is written to suggest an exaggerated cowboy dialect: ''Dere mr. Staggs, yure letter was brought in to the post this morning by a half-breed five arrers sticking into him. He must of had a tough time gettin thru the dude ranch country, as I here them dudes are on the warpath again. But he made it, and I was sure glad to get the letter. The mail up here is some irregular of late on account of the whizzer that blew up a few days ago, and that white stuff is all over the ground again...This country ain't fit for an injun to live in, let alone a white man. I ben here for fifty-two years and have reached that conclusion...Don't let this Buck Rogers business fool you. About all I get is a lot of publicity, while the syndicate gets the gravy. I am going to pack up the covered wagon and head for wide-open spaces where I don't have to wear a white shirt except maybe on Sundays for a while. I'm just a poor boy from the country...One of our neighbors had a brother who got scalped in Willcox, Arizona. the barber didn't know when to quit with the clippers...we spent 1940-41 in California, but I don't like California. Too artificial. My main point is to be where I can get on a plane and come East...Best regards, [signed] Dick Calkins''. Calkins then handwrites, ''PS - You can blame Claffin for this letter!'' 3pp. letter on 2 sheets measures 8.5'' x 11''. Faint toning, creasing and some staple punctures and paper loss to upper left corners, else near fine.

Starting bid 250