Monday Mecha Madness GRAPHIC STORY MAGAZINE "Adam Link's Vengeance" Part One: the Rebirth of Adam Link

Last Time...

...we presented background information on sci-fi's first robot with his own ongoing series!

...and now, we re-present this graphic tale about him, unseen since since 1971.

This was the chapter break during the story's initial publication in Fantasy Illustrated #1 (1963), so we'll pause here until next Monday.

(The tale's original readers had to wait three months to see the conclusion!)

This is from the complete story reprint in Bill Spicer's Graphic Story Magazine #13 (1971).

Publisher/editor Spicer scripted this adaptation of Otto "Eando" Binder's novella, which was illustrated by long time pulp and comic illustrator D Bruce Berry, best known to most current fans for initially-working as Mike Royer's associate inking Jack Kirby's art during the King's 1970s DC period, eventually taking over entirely when Royer's commitments on other projects forced him to give up working on Kirby's material for a while.
There's a fascinating article about Berry at The Comic Journal HERE!

Monday Mecha Madness ADAM LINK!

This Requires a Little Explanation/Background...

Introduced in Ziff-Davis' sci-fi anthology Amazing Stories (1939), Adam Link was the first ongoing series about a sentient robot!

Though credited to "Eando Binder" (a pen-name used by author brothers Earl and Otto Binder when they worked together), the Adam Link stories were entirely Otto's work!
Adam was no soulless automaton!
From his introduction onward (and Binder used the title "I, Robor" before Isaac Asimov) he was on a quest to become as human as possible!
Though created to be totally-logical, he developed emotions!
In fact, after his second story "Trial of Adam Link" where he was accused of killing his creator (scientist Dr Charles Link, not Otto Binder), though found innocent (he was framed)  he decided he couldn't go on living without his "father", and decided to commit suicide.
That's the basis of the third tale, "Adam Link's Vengeance", where another scientist (of the "mad" variety), prevents his untimely death, and plans to use him as a weapon!

That particular story was adapted by writer/editor Bill Spicer and artist D Bruce Berry into a two-part story in Spicer's prozine Fantasy Illustrated in 1965 and reprinted in Spicer's Graphic Story Magazine (under a new Berry cover) in 1971.

You'll be seeing that over the next two Mondays.

The comic story was done shortly after the Adam Link tales were adapted into a fix-up novel combining all the short stories...

Note the Isaac Asimov quote!

BTW, if the name "Otto Binder"sounds familiar to comics fans, that's because he wrote a lot of DC, Quality, Timely, and Fawcett comics in the Golden and Silver Ages, as well co-creating among others, the Legion of Super Heroes, Black Adam, Braniac, Kid Eternity, Krypto, Young Allies, Mary Marvel, Bizarro, and Supergirl!

But, for some, he's best-known as the writer of the first Marvel Comics prose novel...

Bantam's The Avengers vs the Earth-Wrecker!

(Dig the Doc Savage-style logo!)

BTW, We'll be running this long OOP & HTF novel this summer during the annual RetroBlogs Summer Blogathon!

Reading Room WEIRD FANTASIES "Life Battery"

Though this may look like an EC Comic from the 1950s...

Art by Landon Chesney

...it's actually a one-shot underground comic from the 1970s.

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"Eando Binder" was the pen-name for the writing team of Earl and Otto ("EandO", get it?) Binder, whose tale from Startling Stories' July 1939 edition served as the basis for this adaptation by writer Bill Spicer and artist Landon Chesney.
Chesney was one of the major contributors to the just-developing comics fandom of the 1960s, contributing art to numerous short-run pamphlets and magazines, including the covers to Fantasy Illustrated 1 & 3, but not 2, where this story appeared.

He never turned pro, and passed away in 2001.
While this version (with some superb color work) appeared in Los Angeles Comic Book Company's underground one-shot Weird Fantasies #1 (1972),  it originally appeared in b/w form in the fan/prozine Fantasy Illustrated #2 (1964), published by Bill Spicer.