Welcome back to Frank’s Favorites, my own little corner of the internet where I get to share some of the comics that have meant the most to me over my three-and-a-half (or so) decades of reading. I hope that by sharing these, I help you find a new favorite book—or at least have a good time with one…
Okay, Issue #3. This is normally where readership starts dropping off. Issue #1 did huge numbers because it's the debut, then issue #2 shows a substantial drop in orders while the store figures out if readers are coming back or not. By issue #3, the numbers have stabilized at a much lower level, and readers are pretty sure if they're sticking around.
So with that in mind, this issue we're going to talk about a robotic pulp adventurer created by Nikola Tesla and a hyper-intelligent, megalomaniacal velociraptor with a medical degree.
That's right. It's Atomic Robo (and Dr. Dinosaur!).
For Science!
Atomic Robo follows the adventures of an intelligent and self-aware robot built by Nikola Tesla in the 1920s. Robo leads a group of "action scientists" who work for the company Tesladyne through a series of increasingly wild adventures. His nemesis, Dr. Dinosaur, is a super-genius dromaeosaur who believes himself to be a time-traveler attempting to prevent events on September 19, 2008 that destroyed his world. Robo also faces bands of female pilots known as the She-Devils of the Pacific, Zombies, and so much more.
Dr. Dinosaur shows up the most, though.
Are You Not Entertained?
I read a ton of comic books. I always have. Books from DC, from Marvel, from Image. Books that are the stuff of water-cooler conversation. Books that no one else has ever heard of. Some of them are the most ponderous, overwhelmingly serious stuff you've ever tried to read. Some of them are old-fashioned superhero romps.
So when I tell you that Atomic Robo is one of the silliest, most ridiculous, most fun comics I've ever read, know that I mean it.
An early Free Comic Book Day issue of the series is called "Why Atomic Robo Hates Dr. Dinosaur." It's a short story, but each page had me laughing out loud. Dr. Dinosaur insists that he is a time traveler, and Robo gives a lengthy explanation, based in what I assume is real science, about why that makes no sense. The two go back and forth, with the arguments growing increasingly more ridiculous, until the doctor tries to blow Robo up. Which, since he's a robot, doesn't do much, but is really annoying.
A year or two later, they followed up that issue with one titled "Why Dr. Dinosaur Hates Atomic Robo." Here, Dr. Dinosaur has captured Robo and is revealing his "brilliant" plans, Bond-villain style. Robo spends the whole issue mocking everything that the villain says, up until the moment that the Action Scientists arrive to rescue him. And Dr. Dinosaur utters the line "I am a genius. By definition all of my plans are brilliant!" with what I assume to be a straight face (he's a dinosaur, expressions are hard to read).
All for Free
Before we go any further, I need to say something that I'd normally save until the end—but this time, I think it's too important to wait. In the first two issues of Frank's Favorites, I talked about books that had pretty decent monetary cost attached. Planetary can be found in trade paperbacks, compendium, omnibus, and Absolute edition, each one more expensive than the last. J.M. DeMatteis and Sal Buscema's Spectacular Spider-Man is available either through back-issue diving, or a rather pricey omnibus edition. Atomic Robo doesn't have the same barriers to entry. Yes, there are very nice hardcover collections of each miniseries that you can purchase, and every year or so they run a Kickstarter for the newest collection. But, you can also go to www.atomic-robo.com and read the whole series in webcomic form.
That's right. The whole thing. For free.
So you really don't have any excuse to not check this series out.
That's it. That's the column. Go start reading.
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You're still here?
Okay, let's talk some more, then.
The Kitchen Sink
It's not just about the absurdity of the situations and the humor, though. Atomic Robo is a textbook pulp adventure, and Robo himself fits perfectly into the mold made famous by characters like Doc Savage and Indiana Jones. In fact, the big advantage he has over them is that, as a robot, he's literally timeless. His adventures aren't forced to be contained to the 1920s and 1930s, or else he's too old for it to be believable. They can take place at any time. In fact, later series do feature a time jump, so this has actually come into play.
As a pulp hero, the adventures Robo can go on and the foes he can face are virtually limitless. Mad scientists? Plenty of those (and they're not all dinosaurs!). Lovecraftian monsters (and H.P. Lovecraft himself)? Giant Robots? Zombies? We've got all of those. And Nazis, of course. Can't be a pulp without some Nazis—punching them in the face can be very cathartic. And through it all, despite encountering such truly wild stuff, Robo never loses his sense of humor—or his smart mouth.
Throughout the course of Atomic Robo's run, there have been invasions from the Vampire Dimension, adventures in space, and the vengeful dead, to name a few things. There’s even a tale in the Old West where he meets Doc Holliday (but wait, didn’t I say he was created in the 1920s? How does that work?!?) Oh, and something I forgot to mention. Even though each miniseries jumps around in time, showing adventures at different points in Robo's life, each one is designed to stand alone enough that it can be your first taste of Atomic Robo. Think of it as how Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian was originally published: the publication order and the chronological order of events are not the same.
Smorgasbord
I think that's part of what draws me to Robo and his escapades. When you get right down to it, this series checks so many boxes for me: nonsequential adventures, in the style of my beloved Conan? Check. Pulpy weird science adventures? Check. A smartass hero who's as quick with a quip as he is with his fists? Check. Memorable villains? Check. And it's free?!? What are Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener smoking—and will they share? (For the answer to that, and other burning questions, see my companion interview with the creators behind this awesome book here)
From the very first time I picked up Atomic Robo, it's brought a smile to my face. In fact, here’s how much I love this book: I have the first, I want to say, nine volumes in trade paperback (most of which my local shop had to special order because the book was independently published and very much under the radar), and when the creators announced a Kickstarter for hardcover versions of every volume to that point, plus a new one, I jumped on it. Hardcovers are always nicer, right? I then took that stack of trades and gifted them to my best friend, so that someone else could experience the joy of Atomic Robo. If the creators ever announced an omnibus collection, I’d probably jump on that too and pass the hardcovers on to someone else again. It’s the circle of life, Simba.
Robo is a great protagonist, with so much more character than I would have assumed a robot action scientist would have. Speaking of action scientists, the other supporting characters are all rounded individuals in their own right, and when one of them leaves the book, the loss is felt. The adventures are fast-paced, creative, and fun, with no one story arc ever exceeding six issues. The art is colorful and expressive, with so much more heart than I would have thought you could get from a very cartoony style. And did I mention Dr. Dinosaur?
Atomic Robo is just the perfect "comfort food" book. I can pick up (or click on) any issue that I want to, and I'm going to get a story that is part of a larger tapestry but doesn't punish me for reading out of order. I'm going to get a great adventure story with colorful characters and artwork, and I'm guaranteed to laugh at least a couple of times. Sometimes, that's just what the doctor (not the dinosaur one) ordered.
