Adam Link in the Comics

Adam Link was an important Science Fiction creation. It should be no surprise that he ended up in comic books. It didn’t hurt that Otto Binder, half of the Eando Binder by-line (his brother Earl was the other half) became a prolific comics writer after his career in Pulps. Let’s have a look at the strange history of how these comics unfolded, for it was not as simple as Marvel or DC creating a series from the ten Pulp adventures that appeared in Amazing Stories between 1939 and 1942. Much of what follows comes from Otto Binder’s desire to see these tales in comic form and the companies he worked with to see it accomplished.

Adam got his origin story in the very first tale, “I, Robot” (yes, Asimov borrowed that title later.) It appeared in the January 1939 issue of Amazing Stories, edited by Ray A. Palmer. Palmer and his Chicago-based publisher took over the reins of the crumbling Amazing Stories from T. O’Conor Sloane. Sloane’s last issue for Teck Publications was February 1938. By June, Ziff-Davis had fired Sloane and hired Palmer who created his new brand of slicker, more adventure-oriented SF.

RAP (as Palmer liked to be called) struggled at first to fill magazines. To do this he called on his old pals from his Milwaukee Days. But the 1939 issue was something new! The cover bore the explosive first appearance of Adam Link, the robot who tells his own story. This was innovative for 1939. Robots were more often monsters than helpers and they certainly didn’t explain what was going on in their heads. The plot follows Dr. Link creating his Adam. The scientist (is he mad?) is killed by accident. Adam takes the blame.

The sequel followed quickly in Amazing Stories, July 1939. “The Trial of Adam Link” gives us the events after Dr. Link’s death. Adam is tried like a man though he is a machine. The court case doesn’t go Adam’s way but he redeems himself and future robots with an act of true humanity. The two stories were combined for two television adaptations “I, Robot” (The Outer Limits, November 14, 1964) starring Leonard Nimoy and a reboot in The Outer Limits (July 23, 1995) directed by Leonard Nimoy’s son, Adam. The idea of a robotic man facing trial is immediately dramatic, though the directors may have felt differently about creating a robot prop to carry an episode.

Earl and Otto Binder kept the story machine rolling with more sequels. Not all of these would receive comic book adaptations. Like the novels of Tarzan, Adam Link might be better remembered if he hadn’t quite had so many adventures. But the reality for a Pulp writer is to write as much as you can, to milk a series. By the time Link had saved the world, there really wasn’t much left to do. “Eando” moved on to other characters, like Anton York the immortal and their “Via” series under the pseudonym Gordon A. Giles.

“Adam Link in Business” (Amazing Stories, January 1940) begins with Adam figuring out a chemical formula through logic. This gets him started in the business of helping scientists. The majority of this story follows Link’s love for Kay Temple and hers for him. What are a robot and a gal to do? (Lester Del Rey wrote “Helen O’Loy” for Astounding Science-Fiction, December 1938, so the idea of human and robot wasn’t entirely new.)

“Adam Link’s Vengeance” (Amazing Stories, February 1940) has Dr. Hilory help Adam to create Eve, a female companion. Too bad Hilory is a mad scientist! He has created a link by which he can become the Eve robot. It is up to Adam to stop the madman without destroying his new love.

“Adam Link, Robot Detective” (Amazing Stories, May 1940) has a new development. Using Hilory’s discoveries, Adam can now turn himself into a living man. Adam goes undercover to prove Eve did not rob a bank. Adam busts up a ruthless gang.

“Adam Link, Champion Athlete” (Amazing Stories, July 1940) has Link competing in sports to prove his worthiness to the title of “human being”. In the end he relents, for he realizes that robots are not ready for the vote.

“Adam Link Fights a War” (Amazing Stories, December 1940) has Adam and a squad of robots facing off against a division of Panzer tanks crossing the Mexican border. The foe are Japanese! The timing on this is intriguing. An issue dated December would have sold in November of 1940, a year before Pearl Harbour.

“Adam Link in the Past” (Amazing Stories, February 1941) has Adam convinced that the Norse god Thor was a robot. He builds a time-ship and goes back with Eve to see. This tale is interesting when compared with Edmond Hamilton’s “A Yank at Valhalla” (Startling Stories, January 1941) which also offered characterizations of the different gods and goddesses.

“Adam Link Faces a Revolt” (Amazing Stories, May 1941) has Adam build a utopian city for humans to live in. Unfortunately their imperfections make the whole thing a bust.

“Adam Link Saves the World” (Amazing Stories, April 1942) is very much a wartime story. America is threatened by a new flying fort that sounds a lot like a U. F. O. It’s not Nazis but aliens. Adam and Eve sneak aboard a ship and as the title says…save the world. The denizens of Earth never know about the invaders and Adam Link’s heroics.

EC Comics

Thirteen years went by. World War II ended (thanks to heroes like Adam Link!) and the Pulps rose their dying heads like raging dinosaurs and expired around 1955. In that year, comic books had replaced Weird Tales and Planet Stories. One of the companies that did this well was E. C. Comics. In Weird Science -Fantasy #27 (January-February 1955) the first adaptation of “I, Robot” appeared. It was written by Otto Binder and drawn by Joe Orlando (who would go on to become an influential artist and editor of comics). The title frame says “Adapted from the original “Adam Link” story by Eando Binder. This wasn’t entirely true. Earl Binder had left writing back in 1939. Otto, who worked for Fawcett and then DC for many years, creating characters such as Mary Marvel and Supergirl, was the half of Eando that did the adapting. The artwork for all three issues was by Joe Orlando.

Weird Science -Fantasy #28, March-April 1955 adapted “The Trail of Adam Link”

Weird Science -Fantasy #29, May-June 1955 adapted “Adam Link in Business”.

Bill Spicer

Bill Spicer was an independent publisher. In 1963 he started with Fantasy Illustrated that adapted such pieces as Otto Binder’s Jon Jarl stories, Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Jungle Tales of Tarzan, and Fredric Brown’s “Blood” . In 1967 he added Graphic Story Magazine to his roster. In issue #1 and #2 of Fantasy Illustrated he adapted “Adam Link’s Vengeance”.

“Adam Link’s Vengeance” (Fantasy Illustrated #1-2 (Winter 1962-Spring 1963) reprinted in Graphic Story Magazine #13, Spring 1971) The story was adapted by Bill Spicer. Binder may have hoped to rekindle the adapting process started by EC but only the one story appeared.

Warren Publications

Two years later, Otto and Joe try it again for James Warren. The original stories were collected into a paperback in 1965, so this may have helped sell Warren on the idea of a new comic version. These adaptations aren’t reprints but new versions of the first stories. Otto brought Joe Orlando back to draw them. Otto added five more to go with the first three, adapting eight of the original ten stories. Only “Adam Link in the Past” and “Adam Link Saves the World” remained without a comic book version. This is too bad because both are cracking Pulp stories that would have lent themselves to comics.

“I, Robot” Creepy #2, 1965

“The Trail of Adam Link” (Creepy#4, 1965)

“Adam Link in Business” (Creepy #6, December 1965)

“Adam Link’s Mate” (Creepy #8, April 1966)

“Adam Link’s Vengeance” (Creepy #9, June 1966)

“Adam Link, Robot Detective” (Creepy #12, December 1966)

“Adam Link Gangbuster” (Creepy #13, February 1967)

“Adam Link, Champion Athlete” (Creepy #15, June 1967) This was Adam Link’s final appearance. The strip was dropped most likely, not because of lack of fans, but because of money. Warren Publications encountered its first of several crisis financially in 1967. Binder and Orlando may have been too expensive to hang onto. Having done most of the series, Otto couldn’t really offer it to anyone else. Binder also experienced the worst event of his life when his daughter, Mary, was killed in a car accident. After this, he drifted into UFOlogy and away from comics.

Conclusion

Adam Link’s importance to Science Fiction, whether in prose or comics, can’t be under-estimated. Isaac Asimov may have created The Three Laws of Robots, but it was Eando Binder who sold us on the idea of robot hero. The first two stories were especially key, as they established the theme of what are the rights of artificial beings? What is alive and what is not? Themes Philip K. Dick would explore in much greater detail. The Adam Link stories that followed the first two were obvious potboilers but they did pursue a thread that could only end with Link becoming a superhero and saving the world.