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I write the Robos. Got a question? I probably have the answer!
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Apr 20, 2012 06:55
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StealthArcher posted:If so, did you really hold that chekov's gun for nine years or It's no more difficult than holding one for a year or a month. Just longer. 8-bit was full of gags with gaps between set up and delivery on the order of months or years, that one was just the longest. Robo has something similar going on. We mapped out a hundred years of history before we started, and we go out of our way to avoid linearity between volumes. So, we're able to hint at or set up events past, present, and future and to do it without most people noticing. The most recent example is that the events of Vol 6 set up Vol 8, which dovetails right into Vol 9 and 10. But there are seeds planted as far back as Issue 1 of Vol 1 that we haven't seen sprout yet. While Vol 7 is the story of why Robo seems a little short on cash in one issue of Vol 3. Saoshyant posted:Hey, Brian, since you are here, are there plans for more Warbot in Accounting? I need my life to be more depressing. Len posted:Is there anything you feel the thread needs? quote:Also are the Dr. Dinosaur figures ever getting a reprint?
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Apr 20, 2012 16:06
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Nilbop posted:Which one is this we're talking about? Manwithastick posted:When do we see Robo punching Hitler? And so on. BooDoug187 posted:Who would win in a super science battle? Atomic Robo or Buckaroo Banzai?
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Apr 22, 2012 18:46
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StealthArcher posted:Given Robo's level of sapient intelligence, do we ever at least get a dream sequence of him punching Hitler? Manwithastick posted:Surely super science will allow a Robo Vs Hitler's brain story? My Lovely Horse posted:I regret to say that I have been lapsing in my regular Robo purchasing habits lately but will attempt to pick them back up post haste. Moving to cities without any dedicated comics stores will do that bairfanx posted:So, they ship out the FCBD stuff to shops a bit early, and I couldn't help but flip through the Robo issue while tidying up our back room the other day. Pure gold, as always. Miyamoto Musashi posted:Just thought I'd mention that I bought vol. 1 solely because of this thread, and I am really enjoying it. The art and the humor are exactly my kind of thing. I'll be looking to pick up the other vols. very soon.
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Apr 23, 2012 18:43
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bairfanx posted:He's really never tried to sleep when he was really wanting to be human? Robo has no interest in being human. He's ageless, super strong, super tough, never gets tired, and he has the equivalent of an iPad 5 with an unlimited dataplan lodged in his head. He's having a ball being not human.
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Apr 23, 2012 23:52
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Benito Cereno posted:If you guys want to hear Clev talk about some bullshit for like an hour, this is the link for you:
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Apr 24, 2012 15:35
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The Werle posted:When we gonna see more Nuka Break? Unlucky7 posted:If I may throw this out here: If Atomic Robo were made into an animated series (hypothetically, of course), do you have anyone in mind for certain characters?
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Apr 25, 2012 17:16
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The Werle posted:WELL FINE
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Apr 26, 2012 04:30
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I gave them 
, happy?!?!? (I am)
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Rhyno posted:Hyper, you need friggin' PMs! I can be contacted on The Twitter or my dumb site.
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Apr 30, 2012 15:59
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Fagtastic posted:I was really worried from the first two volumes that I was getting a watery version of hellboy. Near-invulnerable wizecracking weirdness-weary protagonist fistfights nazis, then a nazi brain in a jar, then the ghost of rasputin (which had to be a direct homage, right?) then coming next: cthulhu horrors? I know I'm not just cherry picking similarities, hellboy must have been a big influence on the whole style and feel of the early volumes. I'd been working on Robo since 1996. My exposure to Hellboy prior to the films was seeing graphic novel covers at Barnes & Noble. I never picked one up, but my assumption was that Hellboy was the head monster the people fought. Then the movie came out and I finally cracked down to read some of the books. Whoooooops. It's easy to draw similarities, but you can do it with Batman and Spider-Man too. But no one does. Because they've been around forever, so each one has had time to mark out its specific territory. We did the WW2 and Cthulhu stories first to dive right into Hellboy's domain. The similarities are obvious, so it behooved us to get straight to the counter examples to show what's different: the humor, the tone, the pacing, the use of time, the role of history, Robo's relationship to the people he knows and humanity at large, etc. Volume 3 was specifically engineered to be the Little Mac uppercut to the Hellboy comparison and by and large it worked. quote:How often are these released digitally?
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May 1, 2012 15:14
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Len posted:I like to think Hellboy and Robo are on each others speeddial and every now and then they just kick bad and talk about what weird poo poo they've been up to. So, in a way, this is totally doable.
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May 1, 2012 16:22
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Len posted:Wait what? A Robo RPG?
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May 1, 2012 16:47
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Fagtastic posted:That is loving incredible. So even the ghost of rasputin thing was total coincidence? Welp! quote:I'm pretty stoked that that was intentional, because it was a very powerfully successful move. I might have stopped reading except that there was this tremendous sense of turning into something unique and great. quote:So anyway, who is it that is literally a research scientist or knows one extremely well? Where do you get the ridiculously realistic and hilarious flavour of genuine science?
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May 1, 2012 17:12
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Xenomrph posted:Didn't some of the prior FCBD stories get reprinted in some of the trade paperbacks? Of course this doesn't help people who buy single issues and not trades.
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May 6, 2012 05:10
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Rhyno posted:I wanted to PM you last week to commend you on yet another amazing Dr Dinosaur story. Speaking of which, it's now available via ComiXology FOR FREE. The newest trade came out today too. Grab it! Never read Robo before? Start with this one! Thank me later!
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May 9, 2012 17:18
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Orkut Users posted:This year's FCBD issue was pretty great. I'm looking for the trade of vol. 6 on comixology though and I can't seem to find it. Any ideas?
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May 10, 2012 17:00
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Cricken_Nigfops posted:Volume 6 is out? Fantastic! Podges posted:Really enjoyed the FCBD issue, and for once we had a decent amount of copies! I think I got a little over eager however, making people who didn't have it in their stack to go back and get it. They're free, and we always let people have one of every title. Why the heck wouldn't you try something new?! Something new which has a robot AND a dinosaur on the cover?!
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May 10, 2012 19:24
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MrFlibble posted:But honestly Atomic Robo is one of the best comics out there. I have never read an issue that disappoints and the series is so fun, which other comics often forget in their quest for seriousness and continuity (even though Robo has both of those things). quote:Any chance of a Dr. Dinosaur mini-series? I suppose having him carry multiple issues in a serial story could be tricky, but I think he's awesome. I don't think we'll ever do a straight up Dr. Dinosaur mini-series though. He's best used in small doses. It keeps you guys wanting more, so it's always great when he shows up. We don't want to take that away from you. Hell, we'll probably skip him in FCBD 2013 just because it'll come out shortly after Vol 8 wraps up. quote:EDIT: Also have you looked into licensing the characters for Heroclix? Because that would be pretty sweet.
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May 11, 2012 02:05
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spirited posted:Hyperactive, how well does Red 5 treat Atomic Robo? Particularly, were you given good marketing, and creator rights? Dr Pepper posted:I got the Free Comic Book day comic and can I just say how hilarious it was.
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May 12, 2012 03:56
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Rhyno posted:Okay, now you're just pandering to exactly what I want to read. The truth is they're both wrong and he's in it exactly as much as he needs to be for the story to work. But y'know how people are. With their drat opinions. Bah! 
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May 12, 2012 04:28
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bairfanx posted:Amazon and booksellers have different dates than comic shops do, though July is pretty drat far away. If you're already ordering via mail, might I suggest Midtown Comics? Their discount isn't as deep as Amazon's, but Midtown has it in stock and it'll still be May by the time it's delivered.
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May 13, 2012 22:30
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Xenomrph posted:Also I almost forgot to ask, are the "Real Science Adventures" issues I see listed on the Robo website going to be collected/sold in a TPB at some point?
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May 14, 2012 22:41
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Ohtsam posted:When they are collected will they have all the different stories grouped together or will they be in the published order? It's either that or in chronological order. Riso posted:This is one of my favourite comics, because it does not take itself very seriously, and is great fun to read.
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May 15, 2012 15:48
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Xenomrph posted:Hyperactive, have you read High Roads? I ask because tonally it's very in-line with Atomic Robo. I blew through it in one sitting last night, and while it had some mis-steps I thought it was a lot of fun.
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May 15, 2012 21:37
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Xenomrph posted:
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May 16, 2012 17:46
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Endless Mike posted:Well, the TF2 dudes in Real Science Adventures #2 was unexpected. quote:Also, you didn't mention you worked on a Spider-Man book.
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May 16, 2012 23:29
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Space_Butler posted:I saw someone ask about it earlier, Comixology now has the collected edition of volume 6 up for purchase. I remembered seeing it up briefly, a few days ago, but it had been pulled when I checked back. Not sure why. Seems to be up for good this time.
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May 20, 2012 00:42
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Len posted:Only slightly Robo related but will there ever be another Marvel series in the style of Infinity Gauntlet or do fun books not sell well enough for them to bother?
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May 20, 2012 22:49
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Len posted:drat. I really liked Infinity Gauntlet and Thor the Mighty Avenger and there really needs to be more things like them.
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May 20, 2012 23:02
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Len posted:Sweet! Was that the series that was supposed to be an ongoing but then got cut down to almost nothing?
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May 20, 2012 23:27
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Xenomrph posted:I got my Atomic Robo figurine statue-thing in the mail today. He is perfect in every way that a 4.75" unposeable reproduction of Atomic Robo can be. Meanwhile, they finally invented something worth spending your GameStop Power Reward Points on. FREE ATOMIC ROBO VOLUME ONE
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May 24, 2012 19:59
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Xenomrph posted:What do you mean?
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May 24, 2012 20:27
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Cricken_Nigfops posted:She said that "Ok, if they said that they didn't write volume seven's story until now, and that the Ghost of Station X was just in preparation of it, volume seven is going to be AWESOME." Advanced merch options will be explored, but probably not in the short term. Deathlove posted:I didn't know about this until today and now they're all sold out. There is no kind or loving God.
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May 27, 2012 04:27
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Len posted:I don't even think it was two hours. But I'm totally pumped. If I have to start selling plasma to confirm I can make it I will. Is this just a play test or will I be able to slap some money down for a preorder? Because I will give you guys moneys for it.
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May 27, 2012 19:19
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wiegieman posted:I have a volume 6 question: Why did ALAN turn out the way he did? Was it just the times he developed in as opposed to Robo's, i.e. the paranoia of the Cold War versus the optimism of the 20s, or was it seeing what happened to his mentor, or what? 1) ALAN was online for less than a year before Turing disappeared. We can infer he didn't have enough time to develop proper emotional intelligence. It's unclear whether this was a flaw in Turing's approach to automatic intelligence vs. Tesla's, or if it was only due to a lack of guidance during ALAN's formative years. 2) Robo possessed autonomy, ALAN possessed secrecy. This is the big one to me. When Robo interacted with people, it was as a fellow being. Some of them treated him like a second class citizen, but he had a supportive father figure to fall back on. And probably a laundry list of scientific and cultural luminaries. And anyway, after a generation or so Robo was just part of reality to most people, so even that stigma faded. When ALAN interacted with people it was to use them. Manipulate them. That's a very different relationship. ALAN's not evil, just indifferent to human concerns. There was an exchange I hated to cut but, good god, that was a wordy issue and cuts had to be made. In it, Robo made a case that the loss of all culture would be too costly: yeah, ALAN would learn about the universe, but what would he or anyone say about it? What about all existing and future art? Etc. ALAN didn't even understand how that's an argument: anything humans create is about humans, big deal.
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May 29, 2012 04:24
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Xenomrph posted:I blew through volume 6 last night in one sitting. I dunno about it, though. I definitely like volumes 3-5 more than 6, but I'm going to give it another one-over tonight. quote:It almost felt like it would have been served better if the conspiracy plot had been built up longer - it felt like there was a lot of buildup for the individual "traps" (the space mission, the Majestic12 ambush) and then all of a sudden Robo says "holy poo poo conspiracy!" and the next thing you know they've sorted the conspiracy out and discovered ALAN. When you're called by NASA to rescue astronauts on an unrealistically hectic timetable, get up there only to be killed in two different ways, and then barely rescued and rebuilt by your friends, and then NASA calls to confirm they never made the first call, where does your mind go? "Angering powerful people in charge of shadowy organizations is pretty much my hobby." And yet it still takes them 4 issues to put it together. In a 5 issue series, I can't draw it out much more than that! quote:But it didn't feel like there was enough of a payoff - Robo meets ALAN, ALAN explains himself, Robo shuts ALAN down and the story ends. I guess it just felt like it could have been built up and drawn out more, Why? ALAN is at the end of a 50+ year master plan that hinged upon, above all else, secrecy. What does drawing it out at the eleventh hour do to benefit him? Explaining himself was a last ditch effort to neutralize Robo as a threat. The fact that ALAN expects this could work is just another notch on how he doesn't "get" people. And after hearing ALAN's pitch, why on Earth would Robo do anything other than immediately do everything possible to stop ALAN? quote:which would have made Robo's victory feel less like he'd just punched out another monster-of-the-week and it was back to business as usual. Though you can't be blamed for not knowing it: Vol 8 - 10 deal with the fallout of Vol 6. It almost seems like your frustrations are based on the assumption that this is over when it's barely begun. In a sense, Vol 6 itself is the very build up you're looking for. quote:I get that (based on the introductions at the front of the TPB) that ALAN was an afterthought and you were sort of shoehorning him into Robo's backstory after the fact, but I think it would have been a whole lot more satisfying if there'd been callbacks to prior Robo adventures, showing that ALAN had his hands in those somehow. I always erred on the side of not hinting at ALAN in previous volumes because no one knows he's there. The scope of what ALAN reveals to have influenced over the years now lets you look back on previous volumes and wonder where else his hand may have been felt. And now that the cat is out of the bag, we can pinpoint a few specifics in new stories. Omnomnomnivore posted:I read through my Volume 6 last night too. When Robo was falling from space I got really worried about him! The tension made it so I couldn't put the book down! So good job on that, guys!
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May 31, 2012 19:57
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bairfanx posted:I'm pretty sure I keep pushing for Feynman any tiem I think to. Neil deGrasse Tyson wouldn't be a bad addition for a more modern Robo story, either.
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May 31, 2012 21:06
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Xenomrph posted:But the thing is much of those 4 issues was the action itself. Sure Robo figures out there's a conspiracy at work, but my problem was that he solved the conspiracy almost immediately. This also speaks to ALAN's influence: how much control did he have over this super secret military sect? What happens to them now that he's gone? How long was he monitoring Tesladyne? quote:Because I think it would allow for a lot more interesting storytelling potential if Robo didn't (apparently) stop him the first time. And if you really think that the story, as it is, shows that everything is wrapped up nice and neat I can only say you should re-read the final issue. It could be easy to miss because it's a stupidly dense issue, but ALAN drops some science about what is under Hashima. It's still there. quote:I think it would go a lot further to show the depth of the 50-year conspiracy if Robo managed to escape with his life and the knowledge that there's a serious problem out there, but that it's not something he can stop in the span of 1 issue. quote:I mean sure the story ends with that final panel hinting that we haven't seen the last of ALAN, but I guess I was hoping it would be more overt - Robo doesn't seem to be acknowledging that he just stopped a 50-year-old conspiracy that influences everything in the span of 6 pages and 5 gunshots. Like, he's been around for 80 years and he's seen some poo poo, I imagine he'd be wondering if he really stopped it but instead it seems to end with Robo being satisfied that the problem is solved. It's how he stopped Helsingard. It's how he stopped the Laufpanzers, the Monster Men of the Third Reich, and their Weather Cannon. It's how he stopped the giant ants. The clockwork pyramid. Helsingard x ?? It's how he stopped the Shadow From Beyond Time. The Biomega thing in Tokyo. Dr. Dinosaur. Dr. Dinosaur. Dr. Dinosaur x ?? Vampires. Edison. Rasputin's Ghost. Jack Parson and his magic spaceship. North Korea's Supermech. Crazy Ivan and his Czar Bomb. More stuff from 1923 - 2010 you ain't seen yet. ALAN's just the latest on a long list. quote:The knowledge that the story is building towards something bigger is cool, but the story itself doesn't really indicate that.
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May 31, 2012 22:39
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Xenomrph posted:1. Sparrow #1's note about the invisible house... what was up with that? Did Sparrow #1 know about Turing and ALAN in some capacity? If this is a plot thread that gets addressed in a later volume then that's cool. Something we tend to forget is that Bletchley Park, the code breaking, and Turing were all some of the most super top secret poo poo in the world until the '70s. Like, y'know how all kinds of info on how to build a nuke is highly classified? Like that. Except we know nukes exist, so in a way, it was even more top secret than nuclear weapons programs. When she wrote that note, she probably had every expectation no one would know what had been done at Bletchley. If any project from there got loose at some time after her own demise, then from her perspective the best thing to do would be to call Robo. He's into weird math and difficult to kill. quote:2. Powell was wearing a T-shirt with a grenade logo on it. Subtle somethingawful nod? Or was it just because Powell works in Exotic Ballistics and likes things that go boom? quote:3. The coolest panel in the whole story was the little one of Robo's eyes glowing in the shipping crate - the subtle glow and the way you could still pick out details of Robo's face was really cool. Props to Scott and Robo's colorist (whose name escapes me).
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Jun 2, 2012 17:14
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DancinBrud posted:So I'll just say that this was an excellent story. One thing I love about Robo is that the stories are self contained, so for me, the pacing worked really well. This volume is probably my second favorite, after volume 3. Len posted:If someone does this I'll add it to the OP. I'm away from my issues for now. On the bright side I'll have to compile that information for the RPG, and I wouldn't be surprised to see it mirrored on the site in some capacity.
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Jun 15, 2012 17:13
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