Atomic Robo Vol. 1

i love atomic robo, i read my 1st atomic robo comic on free comic book day since then i was hooked!

Atomic Robo is a Tesla-designed Earth-saving badass robot. “Atomic Robo” is a Red 5 Comics-designed badass comic book title. Learn it, live it, love it.

Brian Clevinger spins heart-warming, humorous, and mission-impossible tales for Atomic Robo, the sarcastic and lovable, albeit physically heartless, main character who saves the world on behalf of a grateful nation. What? Not for dough? Well of course not, what would a robot spend his hero dough on anyway? Clevinger proffers “Helsingard” whom I assume will be a recurring arch-villain / nemesis. Helsingard is a brain-with-no-body “B.P.R.D”-ish antagonist, but definitely distinct, thanks to Clevinger-born, salty, intimate, non-stop, hero-vs-villain banter that tastes of history we are not yet privy to. The lines throughout are not memorable, but only because there are SO MANY that crack you up. They are carelessly quipped by the characters, and at such a rate that, while you may be immediately endeared and giggling to Robo and his supporting cast, you’re doomed to replace each dialogue moment with the next FRAME’s drop-dead funny line. Clevinger jumps back and forth in Robo’s history of adventures, taking breaks from the intimated hunt-for-Helsingard grind to bring us period tales of WWII dogfights or Mars landings. Clevinger has brilliantly succeeded in writing fresh and extreme adventure comic book tales with a wonderful hero who has impenetrable verbal wit to go along with his indestructible metal hide. I just cannot wait to read the the Atomic Robo stories scattered across “history” that Brian Clevinger will eventually bless us with.

Scott Wegener draws your socks off. The art, at first glance, is cartoon simple with obvious Mignola flavor. Pay a bit more attention, and you realize that Wegener did too. His “cartoony” ends up being not too far from “realistic”. Weapons are weapons. Physics are respected. Robo looks and feels like a robot. The expression picked up from Robo’s eyes, however, is spot on with emotes. Action sequences can be naturally followed. The framing and angle of scenes is very well matched to, if not singularly defining in some cases, mood. Wegener, on more than one occasion, totally nails “irony of the situation”. Or, “you gotta be shitting me”. Completely absent of dialogue even. Wegener’s detail is just enough throughout—this guy is a master at line conservation. While I would normally prefer significantly more blacks for lighting contrast / effect, Wegener appears to intentionally hold his blacks in reserve, so that when he whips them out, it REALLY means something. His not-so-heavy style goes well with the light nature of Clevinger’s dialogue anyway. Hrm. I’m now a fan.

Ronda Pattison, with her thoughtful and themed coloring, does a wonderful job at adding just enough depth to Wegener’s art. “Atomic Robo” owes much of its visual liveliness to her. Jeff Powell’s lettering is clean and solid, and does a splendid job of distinguishing Robo’s speech, radio chatter, and HUGE sounds. Nice touch, and a great rounding out of the team.

So yeah, this was GREAT! The “Atomic Robo Vol 1” TPB collects issues 1-6 of the wildly popular, and for good reason, “Atomic Robo”. You’ll be challenged to find individual first printing issues of this killer title. Save yourself dough and eBay frustration and just get this collected volume NOW.

The mission-to-Mars was my favorite tale of the bunch in this book, BTW.

Atomic Robo: “I know it seems like a small thing, but I’m gonna need more than FIVE MAGAZINES to entertain myself for a TWO YEAR ROUND TRIP.”

Robots. Nazis. Writing so good it makes you want to slap your mama.

What more do you need?

Stop wasting your time reading this review, buy the damn thing!! Great comic!