Robby The Robot by Ramon Perez.

At this year's Thought Bubble comic convention in Leeds, I came across Ramon Perez sat at a table busy working on a commission. I didn't recognize him and he didn't have his name visible anywhere. So I asked him who he was and what he'd worked on.
'Ramon Perez', he politely responded, 'I'm currently working on the X-Men and Wolverine but I also illustrated A Tale Of Sand'.
I actually have a copy of A Tale of Sand, it's based on a film script by Jim Henson that never saw a camera's lens. I remembered being struck by how fluid the artwork on that book was and so promptly asked him for a robot commission.
He asked what robot I wanted, and I said that I'd happily leave that up to him.
He suggested I come back tomorrow.
Which I did, and was pleased to collect the image of Robby the Robot, from the classic 1956 movie Forbidden Planet.

Very nice indeed.
When I collected this I took the opportunity to get Ramon to sign my copy of A Tale Of Sand, of course.

Kryten by Robert Llewellyn.

I met Robert Llewellyn last weekend at the Thought Bubble comic convention in Leeds. His main reason for being there was to promote his books, yep, he's a science fiction writer when he's not on TV. He came across as a genuinely nice bloke, and I picked up a copy of the first in his trilogy of books,

It sounded an interesting concept where his trilogy explored the idea of what would happen if something significant in the world we know was the complete opposite.
Free with every copy of his book, but not the reason I bought it honest, was a signed photo of him as Kryten.

Still one of my favourite Sci-Fi characters.
(Note - you should check out Robert's blog... very interesting stuff).

RobotMan by Duncan Fegredo.

Robot Man is Clifford "Cliff" Steele a human mind in a robot body, and DC hero who is part of the strange superhero team that is Doom Patrol.He has appeared in all versions of the Doom Patrol comics, although his powers have varied a little along the way, and I'm not sure if his human brain wasn't replaced by a CPU at one point.
A great design though and a great character who had to constantly fight the depression that was caused by him living in a metal body.
Duncan Fegredo is one of the nicest comicbook artists on the Con circuit. He always seems to be enjoying himself, regardless of the daunting queue at his table, and his talent has recently landed him the job of bringing Hellboy to the comic page, which is the highest praise.
I got this quick convention sketch back in 2000.

CLANK !!

The Coffin by Mike Huddleston.

Phil Hester and Mike Huddleston produced a really interesting mini-series a while back called The Coffin.
Dr. Ashar Ahmad a brilliant but heartless scientist was intent on proving the physical existence of the soul, going as far as to create an impenetrable cybernetic skin that would trap the human soul after the body within has died - a walking coffin. As you might expect, a dying Ahmad ends up encased in one of his prototypes and then realizes how he'd wasted his life. Things go from bad to worse as The Coffin begins a desperate race to reclaim his technology from an evil corporate overlord and and the same time save the life of his estranged daughter.
I enjoyed the book and loved the design of The Coffin (who I guess you could argue isn't really a robot).
I was lucky enough to get out to the San Diego Comic Convention back in 2001 and got this convention commission sketch from Mike himself.

The Terminator... from StarBlazer No. 174.

StarBlazer was a Science Fiction version of Commando.
The same format, the same quality of story telling and artwork.

What StarBlazer had above Commando though was that it wasn't constrained by fact and historical events.
in Issue 174 (from 1986) then we had The Terminator, which was kind of a mix between Judge Dredd and Robocop.

There are some neat little ideas in here, and whilst the story is told in the typical way (these books did tend to spoon feed the reader a bit too much at times) it's a great little read.
It doesn't shy away from death, and the robot follows its programming to the letter. It announces the reason for the judgement and then carries it out. No messing.

Of course, as usual, humans are behind all the bad things that the robot does, he is after all 'only following his programming'. Marshal Skarr soon finds himself being hunted by the Terminator, his only crime really being that of 'getting in the way'.

It turns out that there's an alien invasion threat and human greed behind it all and Skarr saves the day, despite escaping almost certain death a few times on the way.

An interesting robot design. Almost as if he doesn't have a head, and 'Yes', The Terminator movie came out a couple of years before this saw print so they probably used the title to try to attract a few more readers, and made the robot look completely different to avoid a lawsuit or two.

Robot Archie uses, then loses, his head.

Robot Archie has two stories in the 1970 LION annual.

In the first we find the mechanical marvel in India and whilst wandering around a local bazaar, with Ted Ritchie and Kan Dale, the robot begins to experience problems with his balance.

It seems that a crystal that is his movement co-ordinator has worn out (maybe we all have these and they are effected by alcohol... just a thought). This crystal is a semi precious gem, which whilst not expensive is not going to be easy to find in India. So they all set off for the biggest jewellery firm in town.
And you just know something is going to go wrong.
Yep, just as they arrive robbers who have just hit the firm are making a quick exit.
Archie, being the hero that he is rushes off to catch them.

But his balance is off and he catches the tram instead of the crooks.

The crooks make their escape and the even worse news is that the jeweller doesn't have the gem required to repair Archie (and you were thinking that he'd say the robbers just took the only one he had didn't you). But fear not, The Mad Maharajah has one. He sounds like the kind of person who would be only too happy to help, from behind his 'high walls' (as he never leaves the palace).

A short trip, avoiding a booby trap, being shot at, minor elephant crushing and head butting a heavy wooden door sees Archie behind the walls and chasing down an escaping helicopter (yep, it appears that The Mad Maharajah didn't get rich by lots of hard work (maybe not so mad after all then)).

Except that The Mad Maharajah had in fact died years before and the criminals had just moved in and pretended that he was still around, spending without a care.

In the second story, this time illustrated text rather than full blown comic pages, we see Archie pit his abilities again 'Head Hunters'.

In this tale the three get attacked by a tribe of head hunters, who manage to steal the transmitter that controls Archie before beating a hasty retreat back into the jungle. The heroes then allow themselves to get separated and finally catch up with Archie to find him having his head unscrewed by the Head Hunters.

It all looks pretty bleak for them all until Professor Zing turns up and saves the day. Why the Head Hunters had never removed the Prof's head is a mystery that is neither questioned nor answered, leading me to suspect him of being some evil matermind or somesuch, but I guess I may never know.

 

Maria by Kev Crossley.

Kev Crossley was a regular of the comic convention scene, and may well still be, I tend not to get too much time to wander these days. He does these really angular sketches and I was intrigued with what he'd do with Maria.

Amazing. I'd love to see Kev's interpretation of the whole movie in comic book form...

One-Eye by Dave West.

I thought I'd put something a little different up here for this posting. A while back I started playing around with paper mache and found objects (or rather objects that I salvaged from broken household appliances and the like).

One of the results was One-Eye, who I used as a table display at Comic Conventions.

As you can see, a bit of silver paint certainly helps to bring all the bits together.

But I liked to make it possible to still be able to read some of the words from the electronics books that I used to make him.
Good fun but it took a lot longer to make that I can fit in these days.

Robot Maria by Matt Boyce

Maria just has to one of the best robot designs ever created.
She has stood the test of time and influenced so many that followed her, notably C-3PO being one of the most famous, and I really enjoy seeing artist's interpretation of such a classic.

Matt Boyce appeared on the comic scene a while back now. A very funny, very genuine bloke who produced a couple of mini-comics, contributed to a couple of independent UK anthologies and then just stepped away from the comic creating world. A real shame. I do see Matt about once a year or so, he pops up at what seems to be a random Comic Convention (although I'm sure there will be a pattern), and we chat.
He did this sketch for me at a Convention when he was 'doing his comic book thing' and asked me to scan and email it to him so that he could colour it.
I jumped at the chance and got this great little image back.

Fabulous.

Terminator by Garry Brown.

Well, as Arnold Schwarzenegger is looking to resurrect his acting career (I use the term loosely) with his return to the role that made his a household name, I thought it appropriate to have a Terminator commission up here.
I watched the Terminator films as they came out but lost interest with the third and didn't bother with the fourth until the DVD was cheap. They really need to do something fresh if they are going to capture my interest again.

Garry Brown did some work for the earlier Accent UK anthologies and I knew from the offset that he'd do well in the industry. Since those days he's gone on to work for the major companies and at the moment is illustrating The Massive for Dark Horse.
As you can see, he does great black and white images.

Steel Commando.

Also appearing in the 1976 LION Annual is a story about the Steel Commando.
More Beano than Lion, this character is a World War II secret weapon put under the control of Lance Corporal Ernie 'Excused Boots' Bates. What could possibly go wrong ?

You can tell what sort of story you're going to get when you discover that the man who created the robot is called Professor Brayne.

and it starts to play out in this story as a short circuit causes the Steel Commando to go 'loopy' whenever anyone says 'Blockhead'.
This 8 page story sees Bates and the Steel Commando go behind enemy lines in to try to get hold of an important map. They come across the German's own robot, which for some reason is used as a butler rather than a soldier, and there's a nice toouch when the Steel Commando is disguised as the robot Butler in order to get closer to the German command.

Not my cup of tea but it is a robot, so it's not all bad.

When it came to a real battle of the Robots, Archie was king...

The 1976 LION annual has two Robot Archie Stories.

In the first we find an illustrated tale of Archie meeting a robot adversary in the shape of Robot Reg. Ted Ritchie finds himself in an angry confrontation with a man only ever referred to as Harrison. After an initial clash, in which Archie appears to be sent flying by Robot Reg's repulsor beam, Ted is taken captive leaving Archie and an injured Ken Dale to lick their wounds.

But all is not what it seems, and Robot Archie has been onto Harrison all along, playing the role of a weaker robot in order to draw him out. He soon sets off with Dale and tracks down Harrison, Robot Reg and their captive.

Turns out the repulsor was a dud. Archie threw the fight and always knew he was the superior robot. This he demonstrates in the final conflict where he knocks Reg's block off.

A fitting end to the tale, and Robot Reg. Although to be fair to him he was only doing what he was programmed to do and was merely a tool being used by Harrison.
In the second story, this time a comic book tale, we see Robot Archie and friends in the Caribbean.

This eight page story sees Archie combat The Living Dead. Yep. Zombies. 'Beware  - I am Archie Lord of the Scrapyards' is Archie's challenge to Baron Samedi, Lord of the Graveyards, who turns out to be a bloke on stilts...

and the Zombies ? Well, they turned out to be men who had been hypnotised. Nothing is as it seems in the world of Robot Archie. Except Robot Archie himself.

Kryten by Roger Langridge

Kryten is my favourite character in Red Dwarf (no surprise there) and is the one who changes the most as the series progress. Second to Marvin, the paranoid android of Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy, Kryten provides a great comedy double act to each of the other characters, but in different ways. Always put upon by Rimmer, largely ignored by the Cat and taken under the wing of Lister, Kryten is your robot without a cause. A robot who is happy to fulfil his programming despite Lister's attempts to get him to rebel and take more control of his existence.
There are some great lines delivered by Kryten throughout the series and his look is how Marvin appeared in my head when I first read Douglas Adams's Hitchikers Guide To The Galaxy. Simple design but effective.
Roger Langridge has been a regular of the UK Comic convention scene for many a year and now enjoys success as writer artist of Snarked! and is always popping up in the Muppets comics. Roger is always happy to produce a great little convention sketch.

Cyberman by Adrian Salmon.

It was always the Cybermen that scared me the most.
I grew up with Jon Pertwee's Dr. Who but still remember a few episodes of Patrick Troughton's character. I bought Tomb Of The Cybermen on DVD a few years ago and was stunned that I actually remembered some of the scenes. They stuck in my mind all these years, waiting to claw their way out, much like the Cybermen did in the third episode.
Epic.
Scary.


Adrian Salmon Convention sketch from 2005

I came across an artist called Adrian Salmon who was already drawing a Cyberman for another Dr. Who fan, albeit a younger fan than me but some years. I asked for a sketch of one of the earliest versions of the monster and Adrian was more than happy to produce this whilst discussing all things Who.
OK, purists might want to argue that Cybermen are more Cyborg than Robot, and I would agree that you have a point but for me Cybermen stray into the robot mold as they aren't, typically, left with any human emotion or intelligence. They've been re-programmed.

The Valiant Annual 1977 - The Prisoner of Zenga.

 An interesting one this. The cover caught my eye, and I must learn to check inside the covers of annuals that don't have a robot on the cover.

The story features the Robot Zenga, but it turns out that this robot is actually a mechanical body within which 'intelligence of ex-arch criminal Max Zenga' controls the 'merciless metal monster' towards some great crime.
As you can see from the cover the robot can fire lasers from his eyes, and is quite happy to do so, killing the inhabitants of the helicopter (in this instance). I guess having a human mind implanted in the robot means that Asimov's Laws don't apply.
This 8 page snippet seems to be somewhere in the middle of an ongoing story. Poor lab assistant Julian Caine 'has become the terrified slave' of Zenga and appears to be being dragged along for the ride. I'm not entirely sure that Caine is as innocent as this makes out though, as he appears to care for the robot and certainly does very little to change his path. From searching the web, and there's very little up there about this robot, it seems that Julian Caine was actually looking to control the robot, as it was being created, for a robbery he was planning himself and so is certainly not the innocent victim here. Looks like he got more than he bargained for.

It's a nice twist to have the robot be evil and therefore move away from Archie and Iron Teacher territory.

I also like the way the body is pitted and not the shiny expanse of metal shown on the other robots of the time.

 I'll have to see if I can find out more about the character in other annuals.