If you missed the last one…
Strange Adventures was a DC Science Fiction anthology comic that ran from August-September 1950 to October-November 1973 and two hundred and forty-four issues. The stories were often written by authors who had written SF Pulps like Gardner F. Fox, Edmond Hamilton, Otto Binder, Manly Wade Wellman, David V. Reed (as David Vern) and John Broome. The editors were also old Pulpsters: Julius Schwartz and Mort Weisinger. You’ll even find Pulpster master-artist Virgil Finlay here. Also you’ll find John Giunta and Jim Mooney who got their starts in Weird Tales. Bottom line, of all the comics out there doing robots and spaceships, Strange Adventures was the best.
Strange Adventures did run series through their anthology. One of the first was Edmond Hamilton’s Chris KL-99, a Captain Future knock-off. Another was John Broome’s Captain Comet, who appears here a couple of times, dealing with robots. Eventually the editors would come up with Strange Adventure‘s star spaceman, Adam Strange, who deserves a post or two all his own. I have included the last entry here featuring him. Another series I haven’t included because I want to do it in full, is the Space Hawkins stories. Hawkins is a private eye in the future. His beautiful secretary (which all PI have) is a robot named Ilda More on these two in another post. The stories included here are largely single stories.
“I Am a Robot!” (Strange Adventures #4, January 1951) was written by David Vern. The story is very close to Eando Binder’s Adam Link, with a scientist creating a robot named Alpha. The mechanical man burns down the lab, then falls in with a gang of robbers. Alpha unwittingly helps them rob a bank but later saves people in a falling elevator. He is returned to Professor Stebbins. Adam Link got his own comics later.
“Destination Doom!” (Strange Adventures #14, November 1951) was written by John Broome, a writer who did write a few Pulp stories but found his forte in comics. A spaceship from Planet FV 782 comes to Earth to gather a single human for study. The ship’s inhabitants prove to be robots that plan to take over the world. Captain Comet stops them by destroying their power generator. (Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (1999) would use the same idea when Anakin blows up the Droid control ship.)
“The Robot Who Made a Man!” (Strange Adventures #22, July 1952) was written by Mann Rubin. In a world where robots do work, play sports and fight wars, Dr. Ross creates one that can think and talk for itself. It kills the doctor and flees to a far planet that it calls Roboto. There it builds millions of fellow robots. That done, the robot creates a man (a reversal of Ross’s creation). The man is placed in a ship full of nukes and sent to destroy Earth. His humanity won’t let him, so he turns the ship around and destroys Roboto instead.
“The World Wrecker” (Strange Adventures #50, November 1954) was written by Otto Binder. A giant robot appears on earth and humans try to destroy it. The robot is indestructible and could have gone on a rampage but chooses to talk instead. A scientist helps him get back to his planet, Saturn.
“The Millionaire Robot” (Strange Adventures #53, February 1955) was written by Otto Binder. Binder does a reversal of his Adam Link, creating a completely loathsome bot. A millionaire dies and his money goes to Tim Steele. This proves to be a robot. Tim goes on a spending spree to waste the entire fortune. The millionaire’s true heir finds evidence that Steele forged the will and murdered the rich man. Steele is sentenced to death but nothing can kill him. He escapes. End of Part One. (Henry Sharp, who drew these two segments, also did illustrations for Ray Palmer’s SF magazines in the 1940s.)
“The Robot Dragnet” (Strange Adventures #54, March 1955) was written by Otto Binder. Continuing the crimes of Tim Steele, the robot goes on a crime spree, breaking into banks. Soldiers armed with bullets, tanks and acid all fail. In the end, Steele is defeated by forcing him to use up too much energy. He wants to recharge but is denied a recharge. He collapses, a powerless machine. There is an image of Steele tipping over a tank that is right off the cover of Amazing Stories, December 1940.
“The Robot From Atlantis!” (Strange Adventures #76, January 1957) was written by Otto Binder. A robot from Atlantis is discovered. It is called Klong. Klong tells different versions of what happened to Atlantis: in the first, the robots try to save humanity. In the second, he speaks of a robot revolt against the humans. In the end, after the robot is destroyed, a human scientist figures out Klong is complete liar. He claims to be the first robot but he is actually the one thousandth. You just can’t believe a robot. The idea of an Atlantean robot goes back to at less Edmond Hamilton’s “Child of Atlantis” (Weird Tales, December 1937) from Weird Tales.
“World of the Doomed Spaceman” (Strange Adventures #104, May 1959) was written by Gardner F. Fox. Before Fox became a Sword & Sorcery writer, he wrote space opera for Planet Stories. The inhabitants of Strykar create a robot to defeat humanity. They hadn’t counted on Commander Miller, who can grow to enormous size. The robot tries to take him over but his glass contact lenses prevent this. When the robot switches to a glass-proof ray, Miller has taken them out. He shrinks the robot to nothing, saving the Earthmen.
“The warning From One Million BC!” (Strange Adventures #109, October 1959) was written by Otto Binder. Archaeologists in the future dig up robots. In fear, they deactivate the bots by putting glue in their air filters. One robot remains, having learned English. It explains that the robots were placed in the ground to save Earth from a cloud of poison gas that is due in one week. The scientists use the robot’s information to stop the death of the planet.
“Mystery of the Space-Robots!” (Strange Adventures #110, November 1959) was written by John Broome. In the future, robots are used as test pilots. The robots revolt, trying to smash our hero with a spaceship. Later, when looking at a defunct robot, scientists realize that aliens in another galaxy were responsible, taking control of the robots.
“A Message From Otto the Robot!” (Strange Adventures #133, October 1961) was written by Jack Schiff. Wow! is this one on the money today. A robotic brain calculates our debt while the humans naively think they can’t be replaced. To quote Bobby: “A machine could never paint a picture or make sick people well— or even invent someone like Otto the Robot!” Dream on, Bobby. Dream on! (Naming the robot Otto is a pun but is also a nice nod to Otto Binder.) 
“The Robot Who Lost Its Head!” (Strange Adventures #136, January 1962) was written by Gardner F. Fox. Robot J-9 knows of an alien invasion coming for humanity. The only problem is the aliens took his head and he can’t tell anyone. He only has enough time to pick one head and it has to the right one. He chooses the square one because it can’t roll. This is a classic SF style puzzle story.
“Parade of the Space-Toys!” (Strange Adventures #137, February 192) was written by Gardner F. Fox. Robot toys are used to fight off an alien invasion.
“I Became a Robot!” (Strange Adventures #164, May 1964) was written by an unknown author. A race of robots invades Earth from space. Our hero is sorely injured fleeing them. The robots turn him into a robot so he can help them. The robots aren’t invaders. They have come to stop the aliens from Taros, a planet near their own, from poisoning all humanity. Once the Tarosians are stopped, the human is transferred into his healed body and returns to normal. This one goes back to Edmond Hamilton’s “The Comet Doom” (Amazing Stories, January 1928). In that story the robots (cyborgs really) aren’t there to help. Hamilton did a sequel of sorts in Strange Adventures.
“Secret of Robot X-1!” (Strange Adventures #169, October 1964) was written by Jack Schiff. In the future there will be robot cops. X-1 seems to be broken, going on a crime spree of his own. The answer proves to be human. One of the robot’s inventors, Simpson, has been using the machine to steal platinum. He is tricked because there is also an X-2. The first robo-cop story may have been “Pacifist of Hell’s Island” by Robert Moore Williams (Amazing Stories, June 1943).
“Menace of the Robot-Raiders!” (Strange Adventures #219, July-August 1969) was written by Gardner F. Fox. Alanna shows up in Rio with a one of the giant robots given by the inhabitants of Ranagar, a city on the planet Rann. Adam meets Vor Kan, the tech in charge of the robots. Vor kan explains that the robots could never harm anyone. The aliens of Ranagar are peace-loving creatures. The giant robots go a rampage (of course!). Adam Strange and Alanna seek out the masters of Ranagar and learn they could never be responsible. It turns out to be Vor Kan. He is a spy for another city-state on Rann, hoping to destroy relations with Ranagar.
Here is another Pulp trope I love: the giant robot whose head you can ride in. This is long before anime would make a cottage industry of giant fighting bots. This story “Giants Out of the Sun” (Amazing Stories, May 1940) is by Peter Horn who is actually David V. Reed.
Conclusion
The Pulp heritage is easily seen in this collection of robots from Strange Adventures. What is also evident is a high level of writing. These are not simple robot rampage comics. Robot attacks do happen but there is usually more to it. The robots are often sympathetic (except for Tim Steele who is a complete tin-plated jerk.) The writers are optimistic for the most point. Perhaps too much so in the light of modern AI. The pessimists like Philip K. Dick may get the last laugh there.
Strange Adventures is a special collection of stories far beyond the usual DC comic. Along with Mystery in Space, it gave a second life to a group of Science Fiction writers who were no longer sought after by editors like John W. Campbell, but still had good solid SF to present. Edmond Hamilton, Gardner F. Fox, Manly Wade Wellman and Otto Binder in particular, had not stepped away from magazine and book writing altogether. Hamilton still produced novellas for Imagination, Fox wrote numerous paperbacks, Wellman had moved on to his classic Silver John series in Fantasy & Science Fiction; and Otto Binder wrote the Jan Jarl series for fiction inserts in comics, probably the longest running and best loved of all comic book fiction. These DC titles allowed them to look back at past ideas and find new variations on classic themes including robots.
