I recently re-read an article about LP spacemen in the excellent One Inch Warrior magazine Isuue 9. The article is by Geoff Cooldrey and is called 'Over Here'.
In the article Geoff discusses the history of the oft-copied LP robots, one of whom is our very own WOTAN's namesake [above, foreground, in pink]. In passing Geoff happened to mention that similar robots appear on Robo Hunter issues of the UK Sci-Fi comic of the 1970's, 2000AD.
Tonight I spent a happy 15 minutes tracking down Robo Hunter aka Sam Slade and found two covers with what appear to be gigantic versions of our conical friend! I wonder if the artist [s] had the toy in front of them at the time? The name of the robot in the comic remains unknown to me although ot may be Big Brain. Anyone know?
6 comments:
hiya - Ive got all the original 2000ads from back in the day up until about 2 years ago when i finally stopped buying it. The original artist on Sam Slade was Ian Gibson and from what I can recall, the robot on the cover wasnt a major player in the story, just another droid out to kill Slade. Funny thing is, I never regarded the 'wotan avatar' alien as a droid when i was a kid, hes been around since I picked him up in Woolies about '69. I always assumed he was an alien in some kind of armour.
That's a BIG collection of 2000AD's Wote! Can't help thinking that without his arms and legs the 'Wotan Avatar' is a little like R2D2! Is there another conical bot R2 could be based on or was it pure inspirartion on the part of LucasFilm? Wiki says that Huewy and Duwey from Silent Running may have influenced its design but they're cubes. You know I've never thought of the Wotan bot as an alien inside armour, War of the Worlds style. Wonder what shape it is?
I WAS GC! I was thinking about the storyline when all the robots rebel, and at one point Sam is being sort of 'bundeled' by a whole bunch of little robots (including his own cigar?!), several of whome had similarities to the LP robots...Zarjaz!
'Xaliest'...Comic robot most resembling a toy robot!
Mav, your'e Geoff Cooldrey? Excellent! Loved the article!
GC, David Anderson, 'Dinger' Bell and others...I wasn't Cornellious Zatapatique!!! But I know who was...
I was most pleased with the moonscape shots, useing my old trustee; sieved doormat shakings and differant sized round things to make the craters!
'Madifs'...The brilliant ideas of a retarded genius, when examined by a real genius!
Yeah, this is al very well, but you have to admit the armoured toad at bottom-right of the Sam Slade cover is much more awesome, no?
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