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.

Robot Maria by Garen Ewing.

Garen Ewing has been a good friend for a long time now. He's one of those talented guys who has been around the independent UK comic scene for quite a while (even longer than I have) and has gone on to great things with his excellent Rainbow Orchid.
I asked him for this commission a little while before Rainbow Orchid was picked up by Egmont, back in the days when I think he probably had more spare time than he has today.
As the saying goes, it's the early bird that gets the worm, and in this case the Maria commission.

Maria Rediscovered - by Garen Ewing.

A very thoughtful piece that demands a story to accompany it. Feel free to make up your own, and here's the inked version for those who like things in black and white.

Lovely work as always from Mr. Ewing.

Original Robot - John Kenn Mortensen.

I've just returned from the Copenhagen Comic Convention. Had a great, and very busy, time selling comics but also spotted a John Kenn Mortensen sat at a table diagonally opposite mine.
I discovered John's books only recently and was stunned by the thought of someone drawing such exquisite images on post-it notes. Yep. The things we all use everyday in the office.
I got John to sign a copy of Post-It Monsters for me and also asked for a sketch. Not a monster but a robot please. He obliged with...

...nice and creepy.
If you've not come across John's books then I recommend you pick them up.