Free Comic Book Day 2012

I may have to re-read the FCBD issue for this year but….I didn’t really enjoy it, Dr. Dinosaur coming out of no where, like he can get to Tesladyne in less time then it takes Robo to call his A-Team in, the return of the word “Zorth” as a techno-babble catch-phrase. it all felt very gimmicky. And criticizing Team Robo is the absolute last thing I want to do!

Yah! Wasn’t able to get to either of the nearby comic shops soon enough. Both were out of Atomic Robo before I got there. Glad to see I’ll get to read it here soon.

I should also add, if YOU had fun writing it then by all means continue. It’s not like I’m suddenly reconsidering the books status as “Best series on the shelves” because of a book I got for free! far from it! I look forward to Vol. 7 with a great deal of anticipation!

Yup.

Best in the line of Robo’s not insignificant FCBD outings. Thanks for always producing a book that I would happily pay for, guys.

 A picnic would be Zorth?

You’re not far off actually. Brian and I were discussing how all reality and laws of probability seem to go all funky in Dr. Dinosaur’s presence. Kind of like how the old X-Man, Longshot’s powers were simply that he was lucky. And could rock a killer mullet.

If things ever made sense around Dr. D I think he’s be a lot less funny.

“We can get back to hating each other AFTER we save the world from total time implosion, okay?”
There outta be a law against comics being so much FUN.

just read it.  as always i love robo and all things robofied.  nice work, guys

Grabbed Volume 6 today, already planning to relax tonight as I reread it yet again. I’d just like to note that Greg Ruckas introduction was fantastic. 

Just got off of vol.6 Ghost of Station X and the 2012 FCBD. Both great reads. Even if vol.6 has quite a sad (but fitting) end. It hit all the right spots with fun, action, robo-asscracs and such. Love the details like Robo wearing the hospital clothes or the blanket in the end. You would see that on humans beings that try to cover up their special parts or to warm and comfort them after ugly situations and Robo after all is a robot. But then it’s just so spot on, so fittig. Thank you guys for putting out this great comics. May Dr Dinosaur never raise an army of near-extinct giant birds and then reign over us humans. 

Totally unrelated: did you guys see The Avengers?  What did you think? 

This is the single best comic I’ve read in ages and it was FREE! I’ve been a Robo fan since day one and I got to say, you guys brought your A game to FCBD 2012 … there’s no way you didn’t get more fans. I can’t remember the last time I laughed out loud so many times when reading a comic.

You guys are beasts! BEASTS!

Just finished Ghost of Station X. 

(My store had the trade somehow?  I thought it didn’t come out until June?  It was a nice surprise, at any rate.)

Pretty goddamn great.  I mean, every volume of Robo is great, but there are certainly standouts — Shadow From Beyond Time, in particular.  And Ghosts of Station X is now right there with it.  The end of the first issue / beginning of the second?  Jeeze.  Can’t remember the last time I read an action sequence in a comic I could describe as “white knuckle”.  Scott deserves ten kinds of props for that whole sequence.  And then just a fantastically engaging mystery moving things along throughout.  And Brian’s strangely adorable trucker-fetish rearing its head again.

One thing I found particularly interesting, without spoiling too much for anybody else, was Robo’s choice of words in one panel towards the end of the book.  He said, “You could have helped them.”

THEM.

I found that really somber and poignant, coming from Robo.  It sort of speaks to how he views himself, relative to “them”.  It’s all that whiny existential angst you’d normally get in a book about a robot, but more subtle, and condensed down enough to be delivered in a single word.

The approach to Robo’s characterization has been like that in general, and I really like it.  We don’t really see Robo relaxing at home or doing other mundane activities; we just sort of glom bits and pieces of information about who he is and how he thinks from the nooks and crannies, in the midst of nazi-punching adventures.  It’s fascinating.  Police procedurals sort of approach characterization like that.  The effect is that you get the essence of a character from the first time you see them, but the nuanced little details get more finely-articulated as you go.

And it’s been way more interesting to see how other characters regard Robo, as a result.  I thought of that scene in the truck-stop (“I wanted to BE a robot!”) and how, in the hands of any other writer, that probably would have been some ham-fisted scene with Robo in his house, looking over a bunch of old comic books and action figures of himself.

Rambling.

Anyway, fucking stellar work.  Robo deserves every single ounce of praise it gets.

Probably waiting for Apple to approve it.

Exactly!

That subplot with Brisco and his daughter built for, what, at least one season if not two or three. And you could have hopped into it at any point without being lost (partly why I don’t know how long it was going on).

It’s a form of characterization that doesn’t work for every story, but where it works it can be very powerful — both in making new comers wish to see more and in giving old timers satisfying payoffs to previously seeded scenes.

Yup.

Just a reminder that FCBD 2012 hasn’t gone up as planned. Wandered across here today and I know things slip through the cracks.