This post is brought to you by Ships of Steel, an anthology of space opera novellas that features “The Hidden Heart” by G. W. Thomas. The characters of Sudana and Zaar who appeared in Whispers of Ice and Sand are back in a longer adventure. Sudana once sailed with the space pirate, Wild Bill Clanton. She uses her knowledge of the wicked old pirate to uncover a secret stash of treasure that includes an android named Todd. Using Todd’s data, Sudana and her crew, which includes another android, Zaar, go to an unnamed planet to find Old Bill’s great treasure horde and its deadly secret. To make matters worse, Todd proves to be a villain maybe even worse than his previous owner.
I had previously listed all the tin robots I could find in comics. It was an unorganized collection. I have decided to start over with more organizing and more commentary. The development of the tin robot from 1936 onward has some intriguing stages that I really want to focus on. And some new surprises too.
The focal point is 1939. That was the year of the New York World’s Fair and the introduction of Westinghouse’s Elecktro. (It was also the year of the first World-Con, another important moment in SF history. It was at this con that Mort Weisinger announced 1940’s Captain Future magazine, with its android and robot pals.) January of that year introduced the first famous robot here, Adam Link in Eando Binder’s “I, Robot” (Amazing Stories, January 1939). But there were a number of robotic precursors to Elecktro and the others of 1939, beginning in 1936 and earlier, such as this illustration from The Saturday Evening Post, January 5, 1929. Before this were a number of spot cartoons in Judge that featured robots as early as 1927, the year that Metropolis introduced the robot Maria to movie goers everywhere.
1936
In the comic strips and the new comic books that collected the strips, there was “Federal Men” by the future creators of Superman, Jerome Siegel and Joel Shuster. Kal-El was two years away but the giant robots that would show up in the Superman Sundays of 1941 made a dry-run here first.
“The Invisible Empire” (New Comics #9, October 1936) appeared in DC’s New Comics. DC, which went by National Allied Publications, Inc. at this time, would be the number one purveyor of robots in comics, from Strange Adventures to the Superman comics and many others. Here is the first of them, a giant stalking machine with pincher hands and laser eyes.
1938
Science Fiction comics like Planet Comics would up the robot count greatly but that will happen in 1940. Back in 1938 it was up to the comic strip Sunday pages to provide. Buck Rogers started it all as early as 1929 when Pulp writer Philip Francis Nowlan converted his Amazing Stories Anthony Rogers into a comic strip with a cowboy first name. (It’s why some people called Science Fiction “That Buck Rogers stuff!” Not always a compliment.)
“Secret City of Mechanical Men” (Buck Rogers, June 12-September 18, 1938) appeared between July 31 and August 21, 1938. Famous Funnies #38 reprinted them in December 1939. This may be the first version of Rock’em Sock’em Robots!
“L’il Abner” (Tip Top Comics #28-29, August-September 1938) was written and drawn by Al Capp. The battle between the bumpkins of Dogpatch, USA and a tin robot will become pretty typical in comics. From Superman to Bugs Bunny, comic book characters always seem to end up fighting their tin creations. Of historical note, The Wizard of Oz, with its Tin Woodsman, was released on August 10, 1939. This strip by Capp would have been written and drawn months before its release, maybe the last comic that can claim to be free of the visual influence of the movie character. The illustrated book version had existed since 1901.
1939
“The Mystery Men of Mars” (All-American Comics #1-6, April-September 1939) was written by C. H. Claudy, a writer of boys’ adventures with Science Fiction themes. This adaptation of the first novel (The American Boy, 1932) is pretty close to the original and was done by the author. The Martians are robotic in nature.
“The Conqueror” (Amazing Mystery Funnies #8, August 1939) has the Air Sub crew go to a mysterious island where Dr. Ralon performs strange experiments including building a mechanical monster. This comic was written and drawn by Carl Burgos.
“Hugh Hazzard and His Iron Man/Bozo the Robot” (Smash Comics #1-41, August 1939-March 1943) introduces what will become comics first big franchise using a robot. This early on Hugh Hazzard is as important as his iron man but as the series progresses over forty-one issues, it is Bozo the Robot, who is the star. When WWII came to America, Bozo did his part to fight “Hitlin” and the “Batzis”.
“Front Cover” Le Journal de Spirou, July 6-December 7, 1939) is from a long-running comic that featured a robot story on the front covers in the same format that some UK comics did. This robot looks like an Egyptian statue. Written and drawn by Robert Velter as Rob-Vel.
‘The Iron Skull” (Amazing Man Comics #5-7, September-November 1939) has the Iron Skull thwart a scientist who uses robots to rob people and mechanical spiders to terrorize. The Iron Skull has steel fists but is not a robot. Carl Burgos again.
“The Phantom Creeps” (DC’s Movie Comics #6, September–October 1939) is an adaptation of a robot movie starring Bela Lugosi. The artwork uses photography as well as drawings and airbrushing. The writer who adapted the screenplay is not known. The robot “Phantom” is only one of Dr. Zorka’s inventions for taking over the world. The one thing missing is Pinky.
“Captured by Lord Marvel” (Mystery Men Comics #4-5, November-December 1939) was written and drawn by Dick Briefer, who would gain fame as the artist of the Prize Frankenstein comics. Again, an evil scientist with robot servants.
“Fantom of the Fair” (Amazing Mystery Funnies #11, November 1939) stars a superhero created to celebrate the World’s Fair in 1939. His eleventh adventure featured robots. At the World Fair grounds a giant, electricity-flashing robot named Thunderbolt goes on a rampage. Fantom only defeats it when he discovers who is controlling it. The design of the robot in the story (not the cover so much) is taken from the cover of Amazing Stories, January 1939. In an indirect way, this was Adam Link’s first comic.
Conclusion
The predominate theme in 1936 to 1939 is that rogue scientists will create giant robots to attack the world. The film version of Frankenstein (1931) with Boris Karloff is certainly an influence on plots. Science gone wrong is an old idea, even older than Mary Shelley and her Modern Prometheus (1818). There is also a kind of mistrust of scientists, that they will only use their genius to make themselves masters of the world or rich. Again, not new, though Karl Capek explored androids replacing humanity in his play “R. U. R” in 1920.
In this respect, a character like Bozo the Robot is unusual, being a hero. Eando Binder started it only months earlier with that issue of Amazing Stories above and “I, Robot”. Telling the story from the robot’s P. O. V. automatically made him the hero. Adam Link, that robot, is accused and tried for the murder of his creator (which he is innocent of) before becoming a wrestler, a detective and finally a war hero. The world is ready for robot heroes by this time. And they are coming in 1940 with characters like Grag the Robot in the Captain Future Pulps, in the comics with Marvex, Robotman and Robbie the Robot. Movies featuring robot heroes will take a while longer but we do eventually get The Iron Giant and Bicentennial Man (both 1999) after the sidekicks in Lost in Space, Star Wars and Red Dwarf. We are fascinated and horrified by the tin robot. Like us, but not, it is often a mirror of the best and worst in humanity.
Onto 1940 and the Robot Explosion!
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