The name “Robbie” for a robot belongs to Isaac Asimov first. His story “Robbie” that was renamed “Strange Playfellow” by Fred Pohl when it appeared in Super Science Stories, September 1940. This was the first story in the I, Robot series. Asimov’s Robbie is a friendly character, not a mechanical murderer like many of the robots in the Pulps. The story isn’t funny so much as heart-warming. Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics don’t show up until later. Ike coined the term “robotics” first as well.
But by 1951, the comics had other ideas. The tin robot had been around since at least the year before, 1939 and the World’s Fair. DC Comics needed a half-page filler to go above ads so Irwin Hasen wrote and drew these seven short comics about a robot named Robbie. They appeared first in Strange Adventures, a Science Fiction anthology comic written by old SF writers like Gardner F. Fox, Edmond Hamilton, Manly Wade Wellman and Otto Binder. The Robbie strips were reprinted in other DC titles but the coloring of the strips varied comic to comic.
Irwin Hasen (1918-2015)
(Strange Adventures #7, April 1951)
(Strange Adventures #8, May 1951)
(Strange Adventures #9, June 1951)
(Strange Adventures #10, July 1951)
(Strange Adventures #11, August 1951)
(Strange Adventures #12, September 1951)
(Strange Adventures #16, January 1952)
Mel Hunter (1927-2004)
The idea of a comical robot is nothing new. Not in 1951. (Bugs Bunny’s encounter with a tin robot in 1953’s “Robot Rabbit” in pretty typical of the kinds of fun tin robots got into in the cartoons.) Hasen wasn’t the only one creating funny mechanical men. Mel Hunter did a series of covers for Science Fiction magazines that portrayed his “Lonely Robot”. The first was for Fantastic Universe before he did a lengthy series for Fantasy & Science Fiction. The earliest of these is 1955 and the last 1983.
Conclusion
My favorite is the second last one, where the robot is reading copies of Fantasy & Science Fiction. What better way to spend your android eternity than reading all those issues of F&SF? (Reminds me of Henry Bemis.) Comical robots have certainly caught on since 1951. Fans of Mystery Science Theater 3000 know what I mean. Bender from Futurama is another obvious one. Even the Droids in Star Wars can be funny at times. C3P0 is the ultimate straight man. Some others include Kryten from Red Dwarf, and Marvin the Paranoid Android from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. These last three are technically “androids” but their design speaks more of Grag than it does of Otho. Making fun with robots is an easy thing to do, since they can mimic human faults and foibles but once removed. They remind us of puppets and other amusing toys. (In the case of the movie I, Robot, they look like Robaxacet dummies.) All of this is the heritage of the tin robot.
I really enjoyed this post. I get nostalgic for these old robots.