And Then I Read: THE LAST MECHANICAL MONSTER by Brian Fies

Images © Brian Fies

This graphic novel first appeared as a web comic in 2013-15, which I haven’t seen. The idea behind the story, and it’s a clever one, comes from the second Fleischer Superman cartoon of 1941, “The Mechanical Monsters.” In this book, the criminal scientist who created the bank-robbing robots in the cartoon, here named as “The Inventor,” has finished serving a very long prison sentence for his crimes. He is frail and old, but still burns to get his revenge on the world. He returns to his mountain lair, and after some difficulty, gets back inside, where his former robots are a pile of smashed junk left there by Superman we suppose. Undaunted, he begins salvage and construction of a new robot. Occasional trips to town bring him in contact with several young people who know nothing of his past, a friendly bus driver, a librarian, and a former engineer now running a TV repair shop. Each of them help The Inventor, but despite that, each of them are added to the irascible old man’s hit list. Despite many set backs, The Inventor finishes his robot and sends it out to commit robbery, but things don’t go quite as planned.

A delightful story, even without the barely touched on cartoon connection, with appealing art and great characters. Recommended.

Brian Fries The Last Mechanical Monster

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