Number 1451: Battlin’ ‘bots

I used to watch my younger brother playing Rock’em Sock’em Robots with his buddies. I was a little too old when they became a fad in 1964...I was way too mature. I’d sniff with derision at the youngsters’ juvenile antics in trying to knock each others’ robot heads off, then go in my room and read comic books.

The idea for fighting robots wasn’t new, and had been used in science fiction before. It was used as recently as Real Steel, a movie from 2011.

So, we have two roughhousing robot stories today: “Stuart Taylor in Tales of the Supernatural” is from Jumbo Comics #101 (1947), and the Robotman story, “The Battling Robots” is from Star Spangled Comics #81 (1948). Robotman is drawn by Jimmy Thompson, and Stuart Taylor is credited by the Grand Comics Database as being drawn by Jack Kamen.

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Number 1310: Cleopatra turns on her headlights...and in turn, turns on Julius Caesar!

It's been only a short time since I showed you the most infamous headlights cover of Phantom Lady #17, and here I am again, to blind you with headlights set on high beam.

This Stuart Taylor tale from Jumbo Comics #41 (1942) is sexually suggestive, especially in its depiction of Cleopatra. Yet beyond its fictional framing, it’s essentially the story told in history books: Cleopatra's seduction of Julius Caesar, and after Caesar's death, Marc Antony. But told Fiction House-style makes history so much more entertaining.

Lee J. Ames is credited with penciling and inking. It’s been a while since I showed anything by Ames. He was a journeyman comic book artist who went into book illustration, and then into instruction books with titles like Draw 50 Animals, Draw 50 Famous Faces, etc., which taught many kids they could draw by taking the steps Ames showed them. The last thing I showed by Ames in this blog is the 1951 Avon adaptation of King Solomon’s Mines in Pappy's #919.

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