I don't know why, because I've always been an avid reader, but for some reason, while reading comic books of the early 1960s or before, I tend to ignore the text features that appeared in many of them. But today I happened to be reading Magnus, Robot Fighter #2, and I saw that the text story was entitled "The World of Robots... Today!"
It describes the many robots at work around at the time (1963) including thermostats, parking meters, etc., and points out that they may not be recognized as such because they don't resemble the hulking iron giants of science fiction movies and TV. So far, so good. But check out this closing passage:
Whaaaaat?
Update: Do I have the best readers and commenters ever? Richard Bensam points out this
article in Slate on the way the story evolved (a misfired gun which wounded nobody becomes "his robot shot him"), and David Kilmer contributes this page from an
Ogden, Utah newspaper which shows how sensationalized the story became. I particularly love the photo of Alpha with the dancing girls. Of course, the iron club and the "fact" that the inventor was killed are more recent additions to the myth.
Diane points to a
story by the Binder brothers (Otto and Earl) which also has a similar plot:
Soon afterwards, a heavy object falls on Dr. Link by accident and kills him. His housekeeper instantly assumes that the robot has murdered Dr. Link, and calls in armed men to hunt it down and destroy it.
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