If you missed the last one…
In the last two posts on robots, we covered the “Giant” robot, that being one that is larger than a human. Seems the bigger you are, the more aggressive you are. Starting here, we will look at all the other robots, the human-sized ones. In my mind, these are the Tin Robots. Often servant or slave, occasionally a killer or monster, but often not. (I must state again, I haven’t included robots that look like humans. I will get to those later, partly with the Robots of Batman.) I have also not included one Silver Age robot series because I want to give it the full treatment. “Star Hawkins” ran in DC’s Strange Adventures. Star and his robot secretary, Ilda, deserve their own post. In fact, Strange Adventures will also get its own post on all its robot stories.
This is the first of three posts. Most often the authors are unknown but we have listed them where we know.
“The Robot Without a World” (Mystery in Space #29, December 1955-January 1956) was written by Otto Binder.
“The Robot Named Think” (The House of Mystery #47, February 1956)
“Build It Yourself Robot” (The House of Mystery #49, April 1956)
“The Metal Men” (World of Mystery #1, June 1956)
“The Long Wait” (World of Mystery #1, June 1956)
“Reign of the Robots” (Eagle v8 #8- v9 #4, February 22, 1957-January 24, 1958) was written by Frank Hampson, Allan Stranks and Clifford Makins.
“Solo contra los robots” (Atomo Kid #4, 1957)Â gives us a Spanish version of Adam Strange.
“The Robot” (Atomic Rabbit #7, June 1957)
“Child’s Play” (Strange Tales #60, December 1957)
“I Am Robot” (Strange Worlds #1, December 1958) was written by Stan lee and Larry Lieber.
“Robot Superior” (Strange Suspense Stories #40, February 1959) was written by Joe Gill.
“Robot Hater!” (Tales of Suspense #3, May 1959) was written by Stan Lee and Larry Lieber.
“Renegade Robot” (Bugs Bunny #67, June-July 1959)
“I Became a Human Robot!” (Tales of Suspense #5, September 1959)
“The Experiment” (The Adventures of Bob Hope #60, December 1959-January 1960) was written by Cal Howard.
“Prisoners of the Robot Factory” (The House of Mystery #93, December 1959)
“My Name is …Robot X!” (Tales of Suspense #7, January 1960) was written by Stan Lee and Larry Lieber.
“The Metallic Raiders” (Flash Gordon, January 6-March 5, 1960) was written by Harry Harrison.
“Something’s Fishy” (Four Color #1078, February-April 1960)
“It Walks By Night!” (Tales of Suspense #8, March 1960) was written by Stan Lee and Larry Lieber.
“I Was Tried by a Robot Court” (My Greatest Adventure #41, March 1960)
“The Absent-Minded Robot” (The Friendly Ghost, Casper #22, June 1960)
“The Robot Raiders” (World’s Finest #110, June 1960) was written by Jack Miller.
“Dr. Floogle” (Tales of the Unexpected #50, June 1960) was written and drawn by Henry Boltinoff.
Conclusion
Seems if you want a robot drawn at Marvel you call Jim Mooney. He is, of course, famous for his work on Supergirl and Spider-Man. I always remember his very early work doing illustrations for Weird Tales. I guess it was Henry Kuttner who encouraged him to do this. Jim’s first illo was for Kuttner’s “I, The Vampire” (Weird Tales, February 1937). He never did a robot illustration for old WT even though there were plenty in that magazine.
Next time…the silver drones march on into the 1960s…
