ROBOT WEEK Day 1 - Wolverton's ROBOT WOMAN and more!

For almost as long as there have been comic books,

there have been ROBOTS appearing in their pages, teasing our imaginations.

Where did the first robots come from in popular culture?

By all  best research, L. Frank Baum's 1907 children's novel OZMA OF OZ featured the first appearance of a humanoid mechanical creature, TIK-TOK, utilizing internal clockwork movements that needed to be wound by another in order for him to keep functioning.

The actual word "Robot" first was used in a play written by Karel Capek in 1920, "R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots)", which later came to New York (1922) and eventually was published in English in 1923. Capek actually credits his brother Josef with coining the term, derived from "robota", which in Czech means "drudgery", and in Slovak means "work".

Robots and other science fiction themes soon appeared throughout a variety of pulp magazines and novels throughout the late 20's and 30's. Brothers Earl and Otto (Eando) Binder published their tale of Adam Link, titled "I, ROBOT" in the January 1939 issue of AMAZING STORIES.

Isaac Asimov, who is responsible for creating the Three Laws of Robotics 
had a collection of short stories focusing on robots,
 also titled (against the author's wishes) I, ROBOT in 1950.

One of the first recurring robots stars of the comics was Hugh Hazard's Iron Man, later named BOZO the Robot, who was featured prominently in Quality 's SMASH Comics. First appearing in the premiere issue in August 1939, Bozo was essentially a walking tin can.

According to Grand Comics Database, BOZO creator George Brenner

 "probably created Bozo from the golden robot Elektro, 
which was made by the Westinghouse Electric Corporation 
and presented to the 1939 New York World's Fair. It was 7' tall
 and performed a variety of feats, but could not house a human being."

Westinghouse'  7-foot tall Robot ELEKTRO was capable of speech (via an internal 78 RPM phonograph)!

 So many robots have come and gone throughout the last 3/4 of a century.

I'm sure you have some favorites from your own memories.

Here are just a few samples of robots in media...

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Over the next seven days 

(or more - I've got waaaay too many stories to post for just one week)

I'll be showing you a variety of comic stories and art that all share one thing in common - 

First story for today comes from comics maestro Basil Wolverton.

Published originally in WEIRD MYSTERIES #2, 1952,

and lovingly digitally restored by yours truly for your enjoyment here,

ROBOT WOMAN!

- Digitally Restored Comic Art -

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Ah, Robot Women...just like real women.

...ya can't live with 'em, and...

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Next, we have the original appearance of the earlier mentioned

BOZO, the IRON MAN!

From SMASH Comics #1, 1939.

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Mmmmmm, yummy motor oil!

Yeah, Robots have changed a lot since this comics was published...

Comics have changed a lot since then, too!

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For a final encore today we have a selection of Wally Wood illustrations

done for Galaxy and other sci-fi magazines in the 50's.

Enjoy!

-click to enlarge-

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Weird Wednesday - MAGNO AND DAVEY

I've decided to run a new feature here at

APOCOLYTE'S WORLD OF COMICS!

It's called

and it's basically when I find a comic or a story or a cover that just seems so WEIRD I have to post it for you.

Today's story features MAGNO and DAVEY.

They were the stars of ACE COMICS most popular title, SUPER-MYSTERY COMICS. 

MAGNO debuted in SUPER-MYSTERY COMICS #1, July 1940, and DAVEY appeared and became his kid sidekick (everybody had one back then) in issue #4. As his name implies, MAGNO's powers were magnetic in nature, in a typically pseudo-science fiction comic book manner. MAGNO could apparently magnetize any object at will and thereby control it. It was in this manner he attained the power of flight. If he wanted to go to the city library, for example, all he had to do was (somehow) magnetize himself to the library, and he was drawn there in an instant. Davey was an ordinary kid who acquired his magnet powers via MAGNO just deciding to "magnetize" him, though DAVEY's powers did wear off after a certain time period and would need to be re-charged by MAGNO.

ACE employed several artists who would later become more well known, artists like Harvey Kurtzman, Dave Berg, and Jim Mooney, for example.Our story was drawn by Lou Ferstadt. Ferstadt was a muralist and a comic book artist whose claims to fame include co-creating this WEIRD comic book character, THE BOUNCER.

This cover, seen in various places throughout the web,

 was drawn NOT by Ferstadt, but artist E.C. Stoner.

By today's standards, the art here by Ferstadt comes off as, well, weird.

MAGNO's chief villain was THE CLOWN, a creepy character who appears to be a distant cousin to the Batman's JOKER. 

The Clown is aided by some other weird villains, one of whom enjoys roasting his victims to a crisp with a flame-thrower in various decidedly violent pre-code scenes.

The story comes from SUPER-MYSTERY COMICS (Vol.3) #5, 1943.

If someone can figure out what the weird villains are trying to do in this weird cover, you get bonus points.

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Well, was I kidding?

It was weird, right?

Come back soon and there will be more 

WEIRDNESS!

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