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.