Written by John Wagner & Alan Grant
Art and cover by Ian Gibson
DC Solicitation: Sam Slade returns for more hilarious adventures in this second collection of classic stories! Sam's hired for a strange case by a robotic city councilor who soon turns up dead, and a "robot union" wants Sam out of business!
On sale Apr 27 [2005] o 7.375" x 10.1875" o 160 pg, B&W, $14.99 US
This volume reprints:
Day of the Droids, 23 episodes, progs 152-174 (Feb. to Aug. 1980). Story by "TB Grover" (Wagner), art by Gibson.
The Beast of Blackheart Manor, 6 episodes plus prologue, progs 259-265 (Apr. to May 1982). Story by John Wagner & Alan Grant, art by Gibson.
Commentary: The first Robo-Hunter story, told in 22 parts between progs 76 and 112 and reprinted in the wonderful Verdus collection (see) established that our hero, Sam Slade, was a detective working in the violent field of robo-hunting, but it transplanted him to an insane colony world where robots have been in charge since day one and made a mess out of civilization. “Day of the Droids” suggests that our old pal Sam would have been better off remaining there, because, thanks to a sentient citizenry of cybernetic simpletons, planet Earth has become every bit as nuts as that colony world.
In the early 1980s, it was common for the longer-running strips to begin running before the scripts were finalized. This could sometimes allow the writer and editors to make adjustments to the storyline as they saw what was working and what wasn’t. In the case of Robo-Hunter, a serendipitous moment of censorship resulted in the creation of one of 2000 AD’s greatest characters, Carlos Sanchez Robo-Stogie. Artist Ian Gibson, hitting his stride with some fabulous layouts and designs, had drawn several pages with Sam Slade smoking a cigar, but IPC had recently started an anti-smoking crusade, forcing the art editor to white out the cigar from Slade’s mouth before the pages were printed. John Wagner responded by giving Slade a robot cigar designed to wean its user off tobacco by decreasing the amount of nicotine daily. But Stogie is much more than that: he sprouts arms and legs and unfailingly believes his owner is the greatest man in all creation.
Teamed with Hoagy, an incredibly stupid droid built from a kit who manages, through a maniacal act of subterfuge, to get himself a job as Slade’s assistant, Hoagy and Stogie make up an unbelievable comedy double-act. And poor Slade, saddled with these numbskulls, has to tackle his biggest case to date, when a robot muscles control over the organized crime in the city, and his first order of business is rubbing out the robo-hunters.
“Day of the Droids” is magnificent. It’s a teetering spectacle, a grand mess that simply cannot get any worse for your old pal Sam, and yet it does. The structure is like an upside-down pyramid, and each episode just adds more lunacy to the plot as new, even less hinged characters get in the way of Sam busting the God-droid’s operation, including a dangerously affectionate Clark Gable robot and a squad of android cheerleaders who can’t keep secrets.
This is a fabulous story, recommended without reservation, and one of the best books you’re likely to find this year. Get it today!