If you missed the last one…
The Return of the Giant Robot! These super beings were spawned in the Pulps. Edmond Hamilton, for his second story, wrote “The Metal Giants” for Weird Tales, December 1926. Robot stories existed long before this, but Hamilton increased the size to gigantic proportions. Hamilton gave us the typical metal killer robot in his “The Comet Doom” from Amazing Stories, January 1928. Hamilton’s Frankensteinian image of the metal robot was largely cemented by 1939, the year of the World’s Fair. After this, robots were everywhere.
The comic books were no exception, creating super-sized metal monsters for their heroes to fight. The first appeared in Science Fiction comics like Planet Comics but soon branched out into superhero comics as well as funny animals. Superman fought his first robots in the newspaper comic strip, “The Robot Bandits of Metropolis” in 1940. Donald Duck, Scrooge McDuck, Bugs Bunny, Andy Panda, Super Duck and many other children’s characters had encounters with the tin robot.
Here is a selection of giant robots from the Golden to Bronze Ages of Comics.
Golden Age
“Captured by Lord Marvel” (Mystery Men Comics #4, November 1939) was written and drawn by Dick Briefer.
“The Robot Solar System” (Mystery Men Comics #5, December 1939) was written and drawn by Dick Briefer.
“The Shadow Battles the Robot Master” (Shadow Comics #48, March 1945) was written by Walter B. Gibson.
“The Secret of the Golden Universe!” (All-Star Comics #43, October-November 1948) was written by John Broome.
“Doc Savage: The Robot Master” (Shadow Comics #93, December 1948) was written and drawn by Bob Powell.
“The Hollow Men” (Mystic #1, March 1951)
“The Iron Emperor” (Blackhawk #42, July 1951) was written by an unknown author.
“Not Flesh and Blood!” (Mystic #11, August 1952) was written by Carl Wessler.
“The King of the Iron Men” (Blackhawk #69, October 1953) was written by an unknown author.
“Machine Age! (Journey Into Mystery #17, August 1954) was written by Stan Lee.
Silver Age
After 1939, the most important year for robot comics was 1956. The Comics’ Code was introduced after Fredric Wertham’s book Seduction of the Innocent (1954) suggested that comic books caused juvenile delinquency. After the Code, all Horror titles started using robots, which were allowed. Comics like Adventures Into the Unknown and The House of Secrets went from vampires and werewolves to super robots.
“The Robot Robber” (The Avenger #3, June-July 1955) was written by Gardner F. Fox.
“I Hunted Goliath the Robot” (My Greatest Adventure #13, January-February 1957) was written by an unknown author.
“Ultra-Vac is Loose!” (DC Showcase #7, March-April 1957) was written by Dave Wood and Jack Kirby.
“Robot on a Rampage!” (Journey Into Mystery #51, March 1959) was written by an unknown author.
“Menace of the Robot Raiders!” (Mystery in Space #53, August 1953) was written by Gardner F. Fox.
“I Was a Captive of the Super-Robot” (My Greatest Adventure #35, September 1959) was written by an unknown author.
“I Fought the Colossus” (Strange Tales #72, December 1959) was written by Stan Lee and Larry Lieber.
“I Made the Hulk Live!” (Strange Tales #75, June 1960) was written by Stan Lee and Larry Lieber.
“Let Sleeping Robots Lie” (Unusual Tales #22, June 1960) was written by Joe Gill.
“The Antarctic Monster” (Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds #19, July 1960) was written by Joe Gill.
“I Created Mechano!” (Strange Tales #86, July 1961) was written by Stan Lee and Larry Lieber.
“Revolt of the Robot!” (Midnight Mystery #7, October 1961) was written by Richard Hughes.
“Prisoner of the Giant Robot” (Tales of the Unexpected #68, December 1961-January 1962) was written by Arnold Drake.
“Battle of the Titans” (House of Secrets # 55, July-August 1962) was written by Jack Miller.
“Captives of the Robot Brain” (House of Mystery #128, November 1962)
Magnus, Robot Fighter #1-43 (February 1963-January 1977) was largely written and drawn by Russ Manning.
Metal Men #1-56 (April-May 1963-February-March 1978) was written by Robert Kanigher, Otto Binder, Denny O’Neil, Mike Sekowsky, Steve Gerber, Marty Pasko and Gerry Conway. Art by Ross Andru and Mike Esposito, Gil Kane, Mike Sekowsky, George Roussos, Walt Simonson and Joe Staton.
“The Underwater Robot” (TV Comic, 1964?)
“The Robot Robbers” (Walt Disney’s Uncle Scrooge #58, Jul 1965) was written and drawn by Carl Barks.
Bronze Age
By the Bronze Age (beginning in 1970 or so) the old tin robot had become pretty cliche. There were plenty of robots, but they usually didn’t look like a giant version of the Tin Woodsman anymore. This was the decade when American comics became aware of what the Japanese were up to in their anime and manga but it would be another ten years before fans really got the “Japanimation” bug.
“Manhunters From the Stars” (Marvel Two-in-One #2, March 1974) was written by Steve Gerber.
“They Call It Mech-X” (Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery #66, February 1976) was written by Arnold Drake. (Thanks, Martin!)
“The Return of Mech-X” (Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery #68, June 1976) was written by Arnold Drake.
Shogun Warriors #1-20 (February 1979-Sepember 1980) was written by Doug Moench. Art by Herb Trimpe, Dan Green, Mike Esposito, Jack Abel, Steve Mitchell and Bruce Patterson. This post completely ignores the huge Japanese robot trend (mostly because my knowledge of it is old Astro Boy cartoons.) Shogun Warriors was another Marvel Comics toy adaptation but it also represented an attempt to tap into the anime market. (Rom the Space Knight was another tin robot but he was smaller in size. His comic ran to seventy-five issues.) Shogun Warriors failed but the future of giant robots held great potential.
Conclusion
The Return of the Giant Robot became a pretty standard menace in superhero comics in the 1960s and beyond. The Uncanny X-Men had their Sentinels, giant robot mutant hunters. A robot was created to take on the Hulk, called the Hulk-Killer. The Transformers would eventually become a franchise of their own, first as cartoons and toys but later as comics and movies. After The Transformers movies, nobody could claim to not know what giant robots were.
NB. I see Mike Mignola and I are on the same wave length again. His latest comic is Giant Robot Hellboy!
Next time…More Giant Robots!
The two Mech-X stories in BORIS KARLOFF were written by Arnold Drake. Note the sound effect “Crrzzz,” also used in the Space Ranger story. The “Kwoooom” in the first Mech-X is another Arnold Drake indicator.
One of my favorite giant robot stories was Goliath of the Western Front by Bob Haney and Ross Andru, originally from DC’s Star Spangled War Stories in 1960 – though I read it when it was reprinted in Weird War Tales #6 in 1972. It featured a giant Nazi robot wreaking havoc during World War II.
Other noteworthy examples of the micro-genre of giant Nazi robots would be the Sleepers from Captain America in the late 60s/early 70s. I believe there were a total of five giant Sleeper robots that arose at various times to take revenge on Germany’s enemies, though it’s possible later writers might have revived the concept. If so, I’m not aware of it.
This is cool. I know in the 80s there was a lot of anime with giant robots. Was there any inspiration from Japan or vis versa?
There was tons of inspiration from Japan. They got into the Kaiju and giant robot thing in the 1950s and 1960s. But it took a long time for it to get to North America in the mainstream. The 1980s independent comics movement probably helped. (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, etc.)