Monday Mecha Madness SPIRIT OF FRANKENSTEIN "A Monster is Born"

There have been several ongoing series that combined horror and sci-fi...

...such as the strip which premiered with this tale from ACG's Adventures into the Unknown! #5 (1949)!

The "monster" here is not Frankenstein's Monster, nor are any of the scientists members of the Frankenstein clan.
Though it's defined as a "robot" it appears to be more of an android!
But, if the strip's creators say it's a robot, that's good enough for me!

Writer Richard Hughes and artist Charles Sultan invoked the "spirit" of the Frankenstein Monster Monster concept with a creation run amok and ran amuck with it for several issues from #5 to #16.

Rest assured it'll be back...

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Monday Mecha Madness FANTASTIC "Thinking Machine"

During the Golden Age of Comics, Writers and Artists Sometimes Came Up with Rather...Unique Portrayals of Mechanical Beings...

...as you'll see in this never-reprinted tale from Youthful's Fantastic #8 (1952)!

Illustrated by Vince Napoli and scripted by a writer whose identity is lost to the mists of time, this reads more like a Frankenstein-type horror tale than a sci-fi story about a robot!

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Monday Mecha Madness: Before ULTRON...there was MAKINO!

Who created Ultron, the Ultimate Evil AI?

If you go with the movie Avengers: Age of Ultron...Tony Stark aka Iron Man. and Bruce Banner aka The Hulk!

If you go with Marvel Comics history...Henry Pym aka Ant-Man/Giant-Man/Goliath/Yellowjacket/Wasp/etc (Don't ask. It's too long a story...).

In reality, it was writer Roy Thomas and artist John Buscema in Marvel's Avengers V1 #54 (1967).

But where did Roy come up with the idea?

Well, he "borrowed" it from Captain Video!

Yep!

In #3 of Captain Video's short-lived 1950s Fawcett Comics title, he faced a robot named Makino who killed his scientist creator and then threatened all mankind!

The story left such an impression on the young Roy Thomas that, almost two decades later, he adapted elements of that story into the long-running saga of Ultron!

Roy explained how it came about in TwoMorrows' Alter Ego #114.

You can read the actual comic story on our "brother" RetroBlog Secret Sanctum of Captain Video HERE and HERE!

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Monday Mecha Madness SHOGUN WARRIORS "Five Heads of Doom!" Conclusion

When Last We Left Genji Odashu and the Mecha She Pilots...

...they were engaged in combat with a giant automaton hand whose fingers, like Combatra itself, can separate and battle independently, turning the whole area into a mecha demolition derby...

Mecha vs Mecha and the Military vs Everyone!

Plus: Who are the Men in Black?

(And no, they're not the ones in the later graphic novel and movie series!)

Find out in late June!

Monday Mecha Madness SHOGUN WARRIORS "Five Heads of Doom!" Part 1

We Have Already Seen...

...Radeen and Dangard Ace engaged in battle with simultaneous (but apparently-unrelated) menaces from outer space!

Now a new (and quite different menace) threatens the life of Genji Odashu, pilot of Combatra...

You'll See That Epic Attack Next Monday!

Today's entry in the never-reprinted Marvel adventures of the Shogun Warriors from #10 (1979) was scripted by Doug Moench, penciled by Herb Trimpe and inked by guest artist Steve Mitchell.
Note: because Moench & Trimpe onlya had the Mattel versions of the robots and didn't have access to the manga or anime detailing the Japanese versions' characters, back stories, and capabilities of the mecha, they basically made things up as they went!
In Combatra's case, the Japanese version featured five human pilots, each controlling one of the segments, which functioned best when combined, as shown in the video below!

The Marvel Comics version has only one human pilot, located in in the head, with the other four sections controlled by semi-independent Artificial Intelligences!

Monday Mecha Madness MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU!

Though in the Star Wars Multiverse, They're known as "Droids"...

...they're actually robots, not androids!

So why aren't they called "bots"?
BTW, who knew R2D2 was such a wise-ass?
Next: If droids can't go into the Cantina, where do they go?

Note: Technically, the female could be an android!

The following tale features two droids...one good and one decidedly evil!

The final entry features R2D2, also hanging out with Ewoks...

These stories were from a trio of limited-edition anthology fanzines dubbed "Star Wars Fanbooks" sometimes called Star Wars Harvest Fanbooks, since the first one was titled...

Two others followed...

...all conceived, edited, and produced by Shelli Paroline in the late 2000s!

I wanted to present something both mecha and Star Wars-themed, and since almost every related comic/graphic novel had been reprinted multiple times (except for the Star Wars 3-D comics, which didn't play up the droids), finding something unique was proving near-impossible, until I remembered these, which featured very talented fans and neo-pros demonstrating their love for the "Galaxy Far, Far, Away"!

And, I was hoping to provide a link to the publisher's website listed in the Grand Comics Database HERE so others could purchase copies, but the site is now defunct.

And a search for copies anywhere else came up with zero/zilch/nada/nuthin' honey!