If you missed the last one…
This post is brought to you by Debt’s Honor by Jack Mackenzie. This novel continues the bestselling adventures of Jefferson Odett and his military career. Korax is a colony world beset by problems. Pirates have targeted the world for plunder, a race of wandering alien nomads have made themselves at home and the colony’s new governor seems intent on making enemies of just about everyone. Science Fiction filled with ideas and action.
It is no secret that I love giant robots. I mean if you’re going to have a tin robot at all, why not make it thirty feet tall? Here are some more of the lumbering, murderous and gigantic machines from the Golden Age. There are so many of these gigantic creations left that we can actually separate them up into the first three ages of comics. This batch runs from 1940 to 1954.
When we get to the Bronze Age stuff, you’ll see just about every superhero has a punch-up with a giant robot. (The one that made me laugh was Ghost Rider, who, of course, has to face off against robot bikers!) That tradition started here in the Golden Age most famously with Superman taking on a legion of robots in the newspapers then in a cartoon. Ever since then caped crusaders have been punching robots. (I would think it would hurt.) When I look at my lengthy list of robot comics I see it was actually The Fantom of the Fair who did it first (if you ignore Buck Rogers. He’s a spaceman, not a superhero).
1940s
“Fu Chang, International Detective” (Pep Comics #4, May 1940) was written by Manly Wade Wellman.
“The Orphans” (The Spirit comic strip, August 25, 1940) reprinted in Police Comics #60, March 1943, was written and drawn by Wil Eisner.
“The Green Claw” (Silver Streak Comics #6, September 1940) was written and drawn by Jack Cole.
“Menace of the Metal Men” (More Fun Comics #62, December 1940) was written by Gardner F. Fox.
“The Robot of Dr. Yakor” (Crack Comics #15, August 1941) was written and drawn by Vern Henkel.
“Ajax the Sun Man” (Doc Savage Comics #10, November 1942) was written by Otto Binder.
“Metal Monsters” (Marvel Mystery Comics #41, March 1943)
“The Mighty Mite” (Doll Man Quarterly #5, Spring 1943) was written and drawn by Gill Fox.
“Karrots” (Everybody’s Comics #1, 1944) was written by Cy King (house name).
“Madman of Terror Mountain” (Marvel Mystery Comics #59, October 1944)
“The Robot World” (Three Aces Comics V4 #2, March 1945)
“The Black Terror” (Exciting Comics #39, June 1945)
“The Remorseful Robot” (Captain Marvel Jr. #33, November-December 1945)
“Star Pirate” (Planet Comics #44, September 1946) was written by Len Dodson (house name).
“The Renegade Robot!” (All Surprise Comics #11, Fall 1946)
“The Runaway Robot” (Detective Comics #119, January 1947)
“Captain Marvel Fights the Sivana Family” (Whiz Comics #86, June 1947) was written by Otto Binder.
“Butterfly Booty” (Action Comics #122, July 1948)
“Football in the Future” (World’s Finest #38, January-February 1949)
1950s
“Robin the Robot!” (Star Spangled Comics #109, October 1950) was written by David Vern.
“The Days Before Christmas” (Bugs Bunny Christmas Funnies #1, November 1950) was written by Don R. Christensen.
“The Revolt of the Minerals” (Whiz Comics #130, February 1950) was written by Otto Binder.
“The Day the World Ended” (All-Star Comics #56, December 1950-January 1951) was written by John Broome.
“Foodini’s Robot Prospector” (Pinhead and Foodini #4, January 1952) was written by Bill Woolfolk.
“The Amazing Robot Archer!” (World’s Finest #58, May-June 1952)
“The Death Ships From the Past” (Action Comics #173, October 1952)
“From Outer Space” (Weird Horrors #6, February 1953)
“The Robot and the Earthman!” (Mystery in Space #16, October-November 1953) was written by Sid Gerson.
“The Robot That Hated” (Adventures into Weird Worlds #26, February 1954)
“Captain Valiant and The Robot Men of Ramu” (Space Comics #7, April 10, 1954)
“The Vulture’s Crime Robots” (Captain America #76, May 1954) was written by Joe Gill.
“The Fiendish Electric Brain” (Blackhawk #77, June 1954) was written by Dick Wood.
Conclusion
There is a trope you see here aplenty. That the giant-sized robot is a dumb brute controlled by another, smaller person. Sometimes this is another robot but often it is a mad scientist. This actually makes no sense. If a machine contains an intelligent brain, its size is mostly irrelevant. You can put the super brain in any size robot. In fact, if the super brain requires room, the larger robot is then a given. The big robots should be the smarter ones.
This trope began with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, of course. The mad scientist is the smart one and the monster is lumbering and childlike. Once he becomes educated, he also becomes evil, striking at his creator in revenge for his creation and rejection. The monster was not a robot but a creation made from dead bodies. Despite this fleshy origin giant robots often get compared to Frankenstein’s monster, probably because of the electricity involved in charging the lifeless creature. One robot character was actually called Frankenstein Jr. from a cartoon series and has a slight resemblance to Boris Karloff’s classic role.
Next time we will go to the true Golden Age of robot comics, the Silver Age. The new Comics’ Code restrictions will force Horror comes to fill their pages with superheroes…and giant robots.
Discover the classic Military SF series
Leave a Reply