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Robo-Hunter #Droid Files 1
Robo-Hunter: The Droid Files, Vol. 1
- GenresComicsGraphic Novels
384 pages, Paperback
First published December 15, 2009
3 people are currently reading
29 people want to read
About the author
John Wagner
1,293 books191 followersJohn Wagner is a comics writer who was born in Pennsylvania in 1949 and moved to Scotland as a boy. Alongside Pat Mills, Wagner was responsible for revitalising British boys' comics in the 1970s, and has continued to be a leading light in British comics ever since. He is best known for his work on 2000 AD, for which he created Judge Dredd. He is noted for his taut, violent thrillers and his black humour. Among his pseudonyms are The best known are John Howard, T.B. Grover, Mike Stott, Keef Ripley, Rick Clark and Brian Skuter. (Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 22, 2020
Sam Slade is a Robo-hunter in a future Earth. He hunts down robots that go wrong or escape and shoots them. At the start of the first story ‘Verdus’ he has been doing this for forty years and is getting a bit long in the tooth. The International Space Commission sends him on a mission to Verdus, a colony world that has been mysteriously silent. They sabotage the shields of his ship so that the faster than light travel makes him younger as this suits their purpose. The already young pilot, Commander Jim Kidd ends up as a one-year-old but retains the sentience (and foul language) of his grown-up self.
Robots were sent to Verdus to prepare it and humans were sent afterwards to colonise it but have never been heard from. The reason for this - well, its based on the premise of the Isaac Asimov robot story ‘Reason’. When the humans land the robots, expecting creators superior to themselves, reason that these creatures can’t be humans and deal with them as invaders. This isn’t really a spoiler as that fact is revealed early in the story. The plot consists of Sam being chased all over the place by robots for far too many pages until he sorts the mess out. John Wagner’s story it isn’t great but there are a lot of good visual gags in the art. The first few pages are credited to Ferrer and Gibson but shortly, and for the rest of the book, Ian Gibson takes over the art chores completely.
The next story is another long one by John Wagner. ‘Day of the Droids’ has a robot gangster substituting real politicians and other high officials with his robots as part of a plot to take over the city. Sam Slade discovers the plot and also acquires a stupid assistant robot named Hoagy and a talking robot cigar. This story also goes on for far too long and has too many chase scenes but again there is some pleasure to be had in the little visual gags and the daft robots.
The last quarter of the book features three stories by Alan Grant and I have to say I preferred them. ‘The Beast of Blackheart Manor’ is a sort of Hound of the Baskervilles spoof set near Brit-Cit where Sam, Hoagy and the cigar have now moved. Here the robots do all the work and the British, lazy blighters, spend 365 days a year on holiday. The ones who spend it at Blackheart manor tend to disappear mysteriously at night so his Lordship recruits Sam Slade to find out what’s going on. This is an agreeable piece of nonsense.
‘The Filby Case’ spoofs another Asimov idea which I won‘t give away. Gangsters, MI5 and a robot manufacturing corporation are all trying to track down an old fashioned manservant robot called Ronald that belonged to a quiet little man called Filby. Ronald has gone off to find himself and everyone else wants to find him too. There are the usual chases but it’s quite clever, especially the robot religion.
In ‘The Killing of Kidd’ Sam’s old, unloved companion Commander Kidd hires him as a bodyguard. Kidd is now the star of a soap opera about a space-faring family and very rich and famous but still nasty. The public love him but most of the people he works with hate him so there are plenty of suspects. This was quite good fun too.
Although John Wagner created the character I think he tried to drag short story plot ideas out to novel length with endless chases and pointless action. His stories would have been better shorter. A not very funny gag should not go on too long. Alan Grant gets it about right.
Ian Gibson’s art is excellent throughout, very detailed but with suitably exaggerated, cartoon animation style poses and gestures for the robots, which are clearly meant to be daft. Robot armchairs, kettles and irons are not part of any likely future history, especially talking ones! I think Sam Slade is meant to look like Bogart but sometimes he resembles the Fonz and sometimes Tommy Cooper. This is understandable as weekly comic schedules do not allow enough time for accurate portraiture.
If we did stars I’d give five for the last quarter of the book and two for the first three quarters. If the next volume features more of the shorter stories it will be better. Reading this was a chore at times but it could be a good buy for intelligent kids as the art is amusing and while there is plenty of cartoon violence it doesn’t have any of the nasty violence that is sometimes a feature of 2000AD strips. Its also excellent value for money if you count the pages to the pound.
Eamonn Murphy
This review first appeared at https://www.sfcrowsnest.info/
Robots were sent to Verdus to prepare it and humans were sent afterwards to colonise it but have never been heard from. The reason for this - well, its based on the premise of the Isaac Asimov robot story ‘Reason’. When the humans land the robots, expecting creators superior to themselves, reason that these creatures can’t be humans and deal with them as invaders. This isn’t really a spoiler as that fact is revealed early in the story. The plot consists of Sam being chased all over the place by robots for far too many pages until he sorts the mess out. John Wagner’s story it isn’t great but there are a lot of good visual gags in the art. The first few pages are credited to Ferrer and Gibson but shortly, and for the rest of the book, Ian Gibson takes over the art chores completely.
The next story is another long one by John Wagner. ‘Day of the Droids’ has a robot gangster substituting real politicians and other high officials with his robots as part of a plot to take over the city. Sam Slade discovers the plot and also acquires a stupid assistant robot named Hoagy and a talking robot cigar. This story also goes on for far too long and has too many chase scenes but again there is some pleasure to be had in the little visual gags and the daft robots.
The last quarter of the book features three stories by Alan Grant and I have to say I preferred them. ‘The Beast of Blackheart Manor’ is a sort of Hound of the Baskervilles spoof set near Brit-Cit where Sam, Hoagy and the cigar have now moved. Here the robots do all the work and the British, lazy blighters, spend 365 days a year on holiday. The ones who spend it at Blackheart manor tend to disappear mysteriously at night so his Lordship recruits Sam Slade to find out what’s going on. This is an agreeable piece of nonsense.
‘The Filby Case’ spoofs another Asimov idea which I won‘t give away. Gangsters, MI5 and a robot manufacturing corporation are all trying to track down an old fashioned manservant robot called Ronald that belonged to a quiet little man called Filby. Ronald has gone off to find himself and everyone else wants to find him too. There are the usual chases but it’s quite clever, especially the robot religion.
In ‘The Killing of Kidd’ Sam’s old, unloved companion Commander Kidd hires him as a bodyguard. Kidd is now the star of a soap opera about a space-faring family and very rich and famous but still nasty. The public love him but most of the people he works with hate him so there are plenty of suspects. This was quite good fun too.
Although John Wagner created the character I think he tried to drag short story plot ideas out to novel length with endless chases and pointless action. His stories would have been better shorter. A not very funny gag should not go on too long. Alan Grant gets it about right.
Ian Gibson’s art is excellent throughout, very detailed but with suitably exaggerated, cartoon animation style poses and gestures for the robots, which are clearly meant to be daft. Robot armchairs, kettles and irons are not part of any likely future history, especially talking ones! I think Sam Slade is meant to look like Bogart but sometimes he resembles the Fonz and sometimes Tommy Cooper. This is understandable as weekly comic schedules do not allow enough time for accurate portraiture.
If we did stars I’d give five for the last quarter of the book and two for the first three quarters. If the next volume features more of the shorter stories it will be better. Reading this was a chore at times but it could be a good buy for intelligent kids as the art is amusing and while there is plenty of cartoon violence it doesn’t have any of the nasty violence that is sometimes a feature of 2000AD strips. Its also excellent value for money if you count the pages to the pound.
Eamonn Murphy
This review first appeared at https://www.sfcrowsnest.info/
May 25, 2014
God... This was so tiresome by the end... Enjoyed the opening story about a robot planet built for humans that all craft sent to are never heard from again. Imaginative and witty mix of private detective and sci-fi.
There are approximately 4 more stories but they lack much sparkle. The settings feel uninspired and the events random, wacky (not funny or charming) and disconnected. But these issues are outweighed by the introduction of TWO awful sidekicks. Soooo bad. I have rarely hated any character in any medium as much as I hate Hoagy...
There are some things that are OK. Quite enjoyed the Beast story and the return of Kidd but too little too late. Avoid.
There are approximately 4 more stories but they lack much sparkle. The settings feel uninspired and the events random, wacky (not funny or charming) and disconnected. But these issues are outweighed by the introduction of TWO awful sidekicks. Soooo bad. I have rarely hated any character in any medium as much as I hate Hoagy...
There are some things that are OK. Quite enjoyed the Beast story and the return of Kidd but too little too late. Avoid.
January 3, 2018
Wonderfull collection from the early days of "2000AD" comic. Sam Slade's first story on the planet Verdus is a delight to read again after all these years, and all the stories have aged well.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews