If you miss the last one….
Well, our look at Silver Age robots is almost over. By the 1960s, robots were all over the place: movies, television like Lost in Space featured a robot every week. Other shows only occasionally. Cartoons regularly featured robots because you could destroy them without killing a living being. And, of course, the comic books.
We get another robot series from DC with Metal Men. Robots of different elements (and therefore colors) face off against other robots issue after issue. Last time we looked at the giant variety. This time it is the smaller man-sized ones. Robot series have become so familiar that Marvel parodies Magnus, Robot Fighter with “Magnut, Robot Biter” in Not Brand Echh #2, September 1967. Iron Man also gets a ribbing in that one.
This is the last hurrah before the Bronze Age takes robots to a whole new level. In the 1960s you could still do a story where a tin robot messes up your day, whether you are a Beverly Hillbilly or Mickey Mouse. After Star Wars, it’s all going to change…
“Space Ace on the Moon” (Spaceman #3-4, July/September 1962-March/May 1963) was written by Ken Fitch.
“I Am Not Human!” (Tales to Astonish #42, April 1963) was written by Stan Lee.
“The Too-Willing Worker” (The Three Stooges #12, April 1963) was written by Carl Fallberg.
Metal Men #1-56, April/May 1963-February/March 1978) was written by Robert Kanigher, Mike Sekowsky. Gerry Conway. Art by Ross Andru, Mike Esposito, Mike Sekowsky, George Roussos, Joe Staton.
“Human Privilege” (Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds #36, June 1963) was written by Joe Gill.
“The Robot Rulers of Mid-Ville” (House of Mystery #139, December 1963)
“The Robot Wraith of Rann” (Mystery in Space #88, December 1963) was written by Gardner F. Fox.
“Iron Man 1” (The Twilight Zone #8, August 1964) was written by Paul Newman.
“Robert the Robot” (The Adventures of Bob Hope #90, December 1964-January 1965) was written by Arnold Drake.
“The Menace of the Robots” (Battler Brittan #140, June 1965)
“My Son, the Monster” (The Beverly Hillbillies #10, July-September 1965) was written by D. J. Arneson.
“Mentor the Magnificent” (Blue Beetle #51, August 1965) was written by Joe Gill.
“Robot For Hire” (Tales of the Unexpected #91, October-November 1965) was written by Bob Haney.
“Santa Claus Conquers the Martians” (Dell Movie Classic #12-725-603, March 1966)
“Roll Out the Robot” (Showcase #62, May-June 1966) was written by E. Nelson Bridwell.
“The Villain With the Doomsday Stare” ( (House of Mystery #164, January 1967) was written by Dave Wood.
“The Renegade Robot” (The Mighty Samson #9, March 1967) was written by Otto Binder.
“The Case of the Sinister Robot” (Mickey Mouse #113, June 1967)
“Magnut, Robot Biter!” (Not Brand Echh #2, September 1967) was written by Roy Thomas.
Solar, Man of the Atom #22-23, January-April 1968) was written by Dick Wood.
“The Golden Robot” (Kalar #53, March 1968)
“L’Ile aux Robots” (Les Aventures du Popeye, 1969) was written and drawn by Bud Sagendorf.
Conclusion
1969 is thirty years since the 1939 World’s Fair and “Elektro” the Westinghouse robot. Three decades later the tin robot is still going strong. Man will walk on the Moon in 1969, changing the focus of Science Fiction forever. These two milestones sit thirty years apart and will usher in the decades ahead when robots will do the exploring on Mars and other planets. In our imaginations these mechanical devices should look like the Tin Woodsman from The Wizard of Oz but, of course, they don’t. They are closer to remote control cars and spiders.
In the 1970s, “robots” will become “droids” (short for “android”, though C3P0 and R2D2 don’t really look like synthetic humanoids. They are classic tin robots.) Our affection for them will become even greater than ever. How many of us had Star Wars posters on their bedroom walls?
Next…The Bronze Age of the 1970s!
Great stuff!