If you missed the last one…
1939s World Fair gave the world what Science Fiction fans had been enjoying for decades…the robot. Elecktro was so popular an exhibit, everyone knew what a tin robot looked like from that point on. (Hey, Westinghouse, I’m still waiting for mine.) Last time we confined ourselves to the giant variety of robot. This time, our mechanical humanoids are mostly human-sized. There is quite a range from funny animals to superheroes to Horror comics. No matter the genre we always get that Frankenstein rampage! We have robots both real and fake! I don’t usually include fake robots but when Disney does a four-parter called “The Robot Army” you’ve got to see how they pulled that off. And why!
As with all Golden Age comics, the writers are often unknown. Where we know we have credited them.
“Le Gran Adventura” (Ray de Astur #1, 1943)
“The Vain Robot!” (Shield-Wizard Comics #13, Spring 1944)
“Short Circuit the Robot Plumber” (Giggle Comics #8, May 1944)
“Robot Service Inc.” (Giggle Comics #11, August 1944)
“Robot Service Inc.” (Giggle Comics #29, May 1946)
“Mechanical Man” (Feature Comics #83, November 1944)
“Captain Midnight and the Robot Infantryman!” (Captain Midnight #28, January 1945)
“Metal Monster!” (Captain Midnight #38, March 1946)
“The Desert Devils” (Jet Powers #1, January 1951)
“The Metal Monsters” (Jet Powers #2, April-June 1951)
“The 100 Year Duel” (Sensation Comics #103, May-June 1951) was written by Robert Kanigher as Charles Moulton.
“The Indestructible Antagonist” (Captain Video #3, June 1951)
“The Mystery of the Robot Army” (Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories #133-136, October 1951-January 1952)
“End of His Service” (Strange Worlds #5, November 1951)
“Goofy’s Mechanical Wizard!” (Four Color #401, June-July 1952) was written by Dick Moores.
“Robert the Robot” (Walt Disney’s Donald Duck #28, March-April 1953) was written and drawn by Dick Moores
“The Metal Murderer” (Strange Worlds #8, August 1952)
“World of the Monster Brain!” (Strange Worlds #9, November 1952)
“The First Man to Reach the Moon” (Lost Worlds #6, December 1952) was written by Otto Binder.
“Hombres contra ‘Robots'” (Platillos Volantes, Seroes 2 #2, 1953)
“The Giant Ant Circus!” (Strange Adventures #30, March 1953) was written by Gardner F. Fox. Giant ants, of course. But that’s a tin robot riding on it!
“Robot Model L2–Failure!” (Eerie #11, April 1953)
“I the Robot” (Menace #11, May 1954)
“The Monster Men” (Mystic #30, May 1954) was written by Paul S. Newman.
“Robert the Robot!” (Crazy #7, July 1954)
“The Robot Invasion” (Meteor #16, September 1954)
Conclusion
During the Golden Age, robots so often resemble L. Frank Baum’s The Tin Woodsman. This shouldn’t be surprising since the character appeared for the first time in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1901) then went on to a successful stage career, played by David C. Montgomery. The classic 1939 film (there’s that year again!) with Jack Haley in silver get-up is a given. The image of the silvery tin body with the mechanical walk was around, even outside of Pulp magazines. Comic book readers young and old could easily make the leap to the robot character without ever hearing of Isaac Asimov or his Three Laws.
Next time…More Silver Age Robots!
