{"id":30394,"date":"2024-08-22T08:00:57","date_gmt":"2024-08-22T08:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=30394"},"modified":"2024-08-20T16:59:19","modified_gmt":"2024-08-20T16:59:19","slug":"robot-archie-and-the-time-machine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2024\/08\/22\/robot-archie-and-the-time-machine\/","title":{"rendered":"Robot Archie and the Time Machine"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" \"\"
\nBy E. George Cowan<\/strong>, Ted Kearon<\/strong>, Mike Western<\/strong> & various (Rebellion Studios)
\nISBN: 978-1-83786-169-9 (HB\/Digital edition)<\/p>\n

This book includes Discriminatory Content<\/strong> produced during less enlightened times.<\/em><\/p>\n

British comics have always enjoyed an extended love affair with what can only be described as \u201cunconventional\u201d (for which feel free to substitute \u201cweird\u201d or \u201ccreepy\u201d) heroes. So many stars and notional role models of our serials and strips have been outrageous or just plain \u201coff\u201d: self-righteous voyeur\/vigilantes like Jason Hyde<\/strong>, sinister masterminds in the manner of The Dwarf or Black Max<\/strong>, arrogant former criminals like The Spider<\/strong> or outright racist overmen such as fearsome white ideologue Captain Hurricane<\/strong>\u2026<\/p>\n

Joking aside, British comics are unlike any other kind: having to be seen to be believed and always enjoying – especially when \u201chomaging\u201d such uniquely American fare as costumed crimefighters – a touch of insouciant rebelliousness\u2026<\/p>\n

Until the 1980s, UK periodicals employed an anthological model, offering variety of genre, theme and character on a weekly – sometimes fortnightly – basis. Humour comics like The Beano<\/strong> were leavened by action-heroes like The Q-Bikes <\/em>or General Jumbo<\/em> whilst adventure papers like Smash<\/strong>, The Eagle<\/strong>, Hotspur <\/strong>or Valiant<\/strong> always offered palate-cleansing gagsters like The Cloak<\/em>, Grimly Feendish<\/em>, Mowser<\/em> and sundry other titter-treats.<\/p>\n

At first glance, prior to the advent of game changers Action<\/strong> and 2000AD<\/strong>, British comics seemingly fell into fairly ironclad categories. Back then, you had genial and\/or fantastic preschool fantasy; a large selection of licensed entertainment properties; action; adventure; war; school dramas, sports and straight comedy strands. Closer examination would confirm there was always a subversive merging, mixing undertone, especially in such antihero series as Dennis the Menace<\/strong> or our rather strained interpretation of superheroes. Just check out The Phantom Viking<\/strong>, Kelly\u2019s Eye<\/strong> or early Steel Claw stories<\/strong>\u2026<\/p>\n

After post-war austerity, the 1950s ushered in a revolution for British comics. With printing and paper restrictions gone, a steady stream of titles emerged from companies new and old, aimed at the many different levels of childish attainment from pre-school to young adult. When Hulton Press launched The Eagle<\/strong> in April 1950, the very concept of what weeklies could be changed forever. That oversized prestige package with photogravure colour was exorbitantly expensive, however, and when venerable London-based publishing powerhouse Amalgamated Press retaliated, it was a far more economical affair.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m assuming AP only waited so long before the first issue of Lion<\/strong> launched (cover-dated February 23rd<\/sup> 1952) to see if their flashy rival periodical was going to last. Lion<\/strong> – just like The Eagle<\/strong> – was a mix of prose stories, features and comic strips and even offered its own cover-featured space-farer in Captain Condor – Space Ship Pilot<\/strong>. Initially edited by Reg Eves, the title ran 1156 weekly issues until 18th<\/sup> May 1974 when it merged with sister-title Valiant<\/strong>. Along the way – in the tradition of British publishing which subsumed weaker-selling titles to keep popular strips going – Lion<\/strong> absorbed Sun<\/strong> (1959) and Champion<\/strong> (1966) before going on to swallow The Eagle<\/strong> in April 1969: soon after merging with Thunder<\/strong> (1971). In its capacity as one of the country\u2019s most popular and enduring adventure comics, the last vestiges of Lion<\/strong> only vanished in 1976 during Valiant<\/strong>\u2019s amalgamation with Battle Picture Weekly<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Despite that demise, there were 30 Lion Annuals<\/strong> between 1953 and 1982, all benefitting from the UK\u2019s lucrative Christmas market, combining a variety of original strips with topical and historical prose adventures; sports, science\/general interest features; short humour strips and – increasingly from the 1970s – reformatted reprints from IPC\/Fleetway\u2019s back catalogue.<\/p>\n

The Jungle Robot<\/em> debuted in Lion<\/strong>\u2019s first issue, created by incredible prolific E. George Cowan (Ginger Nutt<\/strong>, The Spider<\/strong>, Saber, King of the Jungle<\/strong>, Smokeman\/UFO Agent<\/strong>, Nick Jolly the Flying Highwayman<\/strong>, Paddy Payne<\/strong>, Girls\u2019 Crystal Libraries<\/strong>) and drawn by Alan Philpott (The Deathless Men\/V for Vengeance<\/strong>, A Classic in Pictures<\/strong>, Rebels of Ancient Rome<\/strong>, War\/<\/strong>Super Detective\/Cowboy Comics<\/strong> & Picture Libraries<\/strong>, Look-In<\/strong>, Klanky<\/strong>). It enthralled readers for a couple of months before abruptly vanishing with the August 9th<\/sup> issue.<\/p>\n

Other than an appearance in the 1955 Lion Annual<\/strong> that was it until January 19th<\/sup> 1957 when the mechanical marvel was revived and revised by Cowan & A. Forbes before veteran artist Ernest \u201cTed\u201d Kearon (Spot the Clue with Zip Nolan<\/strong>, The Day the World Drowned<\/strong>, Steel Commando<\/strong> and DC Thomson\u2019s Morgyn the Mighty<\/strong>) signed on in 1958 and soldiered on for most of the next 17-ish years. On his return the mighty mouthed mechanoid became one of the most popular and well-remembered heroes of the British scene and was successfully syndicated all across Europe and around the world. Hopefully this compilation of later material will be soon supplemented by earlier annals in the fullness of time…<\/p>\n

Reprinting stories from Lion<\/strong> between 20th<\/sup> April 1968 to 11th<\/sup> January 1969 plus yarns from Lion & Valiant Special 1969<\/strong> and Lion Summer Special 1970<\/strong> the saga returns and -following a fulsome reminiscence and Introduction<\/em> by John Reppion – the latterday ongoing adventures of explorers and troubleshooters Ted Ritchie<\/em>, Ken Dale<\/em> and arrogant, smug, self-absorbed yet innately paternally benevolent super-robot Robot Archie <\/strong>resume and take an outrageous turn…<\/p>\n

The former Jungle Robot was once the greatest achievement of Ted\u2019s inventor uncle Professor C. R. Ritchie<\/em>: battling monsters & aliens, foiling crooks and battling disasters, but in \u2018Robot Archie\u2019s Time Machine\u2019<\/em> – by Cowan & Kearon and running from 20th<\/sup> April to 29th<\/sup> June 1968 – the boastful \u2018bot discovers the wonders and perils of spacetime after the boys inherit The Castle<\/em>, a colossal inhabitable two-storey faux chess piece which can take them anywhere in history and even into the future…<\/p>\n

The first tempestuous test drive dumps them in the 14th<\/sup> century and into a minor peasants\u2019 revolt as cruel, ambitious tyrant Hugo the Black Wolf <\/em>terrorises his bit of Britain, and sees the armoured interloper and his pitiful retinue as a mighty rival knight and squires. Soon the visitors are battling injustice and beloved of the peasantry, but also risking accusations of sorcery with Archie\u2019s many electromechanical add-ons (magnets, extendible claws, jet pack etc.) and incredible strength and durability adding to his lustrous legend… as a warlock!
\n\"\"
\nHugo despatched, the voyagers seek their own time and home but a technical hitch sees them overshoot by nearly a 100 years in second saga \u2018Robot Archie and the Superons\u2019 <\/em>(6th<\/sup> July to 2nd<\/sup> November 1968). Obviously influenced by TV series\/movie adaptation Doctor Who: Dalek Invasion Earth 2150 AD<\/strong>, the extended epic finds the trio in a London resembling a rain forest and overrun with wild animals, where the surviving dregs of humanity are hunted by invading aliens inside an infinite army of mechas ranging from tiny to gigantic …until Archie and Co organise a resistance and repel the rapacious robotic rogues…<\/p>\n

Final weekly serial \u2018Robot Archie – Time Traveller\u2019 <\/em>sees the garrulous gadget admitting he cannot control The Castle as another attempt to return to 1968 deposits them all in 18th<\/sup> century England where the big guy is mistaken for a heroic and popular highwayman battling corrupt and unjust magistrate Sir Jeremiah Creefe<\/em>, who uses The Law and the King\u2019s Soldiery to scourge London Town and line his own coffers in the days before Christmas. But not for long; once Archie sets his mechanical mind to it…<\/p>\n

A section of \u2018Extras\u2019<\/em> kicks off with a brace of short complete tales from the Lion & Valiant Special 1969<\/strong> and Lion Summer Special 1970<\/strong> respectively. The first sees the time-tossed trio fetch up on a desert island just as bunch of pirates is bury their ill-gotten gains. Sadly, Blackbeard<\/em>\u2019s pistol balls briefly blow one of Archie\u2019s fuses and only sheer luck and attacking Spaniards save the heroes from the plank…
\n\"\"
\nThis romp is illustrated by magnificent Mike Western who also closes this book with a half-dozen full-colour covers, but before that one last jaunt takes the team all the way back to who knows when and a lost isle of dinosaurs, cavemen and exploding volcanoes: a breathless rollercoaster ride by an artist unknown to me…<\/p>\n

Now part of Rebellion Publishing\u2019s line of British Comics Classics, Robot Archie is an icon of UK fantasy long overdue for revival. I hope not much time passes before we see all the old stories back again…
\n\u00a9 1968, 1969 & 2024 Rebellion Publishing IP Ltd. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By E. George Cowan, Ted Kearon, Mike Western & various (Rebellion Studios) ISBN: 978-1-83786-169-9 (HB\/Digital edition) This book includes Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times. British comics have always enjoyed an extended love affair with what can only be described as \u201cunconventional\u201d (for which feel free to substitute \u201cweird\u201d or \u201ccreepy\u201d) heroes. So many … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Robot Archie and the Time Machine”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[191,351,42,290,122,125,108,127,107],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-apes-monkeys","category-best-of-british","category-dinosaurs","category-historical","category-humour","category-miscellaneous-superhero","category-nostalgia","category-science-fiction"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-7Ue","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30394"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30400,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30394\/revisions\/30400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}