Robot Archie is the name of a

fictional Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places Place may refer to: Geography * Place (United States Census Bureau), defined as any concentration of population ** Census-designated place, ...

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

character from ''

Lion The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large Felidae, cat of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; short, rounded head; round ears; and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphi ...

'', a weekly British boys' adventure title.

Publishing history

''Robot Archie'' appeared in ''

'' Issue #1 in February 1952; it was published by

Amalgamated Press The Amalgamated Press (AP) was a British newspaper and magazine publishing company founded by journalist and entrepreneur Alfred Harmsworth (1865–1922) in 1901, gathering his many publishing ventures together under one banner. At one point the ...

— at the time, the biggest publisher of weekly adventure comics in the UK, along with

DC Thomson DC Thomson is a media company based in Dundee, Scotland. Founded by David Couper Thomson in 1905, it is best known for publishing ''The Dundee Courier'', ''The Evening Telegraph'' and ''The Sunday Post'' newspapers, and the comics ''Oor Wull ...

. ''Lion'' was a

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

action-adventure title in the mould of ''

Eagle Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, just ...

'', and was a direct competitor to it. Archie began his career in ''Lion'' with the moniker ''The Jungle Robot''. The character was created by writer E. George Cowan and artist Ted Kearon (also known as Jim Kearon). The strip lasted 25 weeks before it took a five-year hiatus and returned in 1957 as ''Archie, The Robot Explorer'', eventually becoming better known as ''Robot Archie''. The strip was one of ''Lions most popular during the '60s, but the character's adventures ended when ''Lion'' was finally cancelled in May '74. The series was published in France and the Netherlands, and was popular there. In the Netherlands, beginning in 1971, ''Robot Archie'' appeared in the comics magazine ''Sjors'', for which Bert Bus drew new Archie material (which was translated into French, as well), and two or three series of albums, which — like the Archie publication in France — were halted in the early '80s. ''Robot Archie'' strips appeared in colour (with re-drawn art from the Dutch series) in ''

Vulcan Vulcan may refer to: Mythology * Vulcan (mythology), the god of fire, volcanoes, metalworking, and the forge in Roman mythology Arts, entertainment and media Film and television * Vulcan (''Star Trek''), name of a fictional race and their home p ...

'', a short-lived weekly title which lasted until 1976. After that, Robot Archie entered publishing limbo but remained well-loved by fans. He made a brief cameo showing under the name "Android Andy" in

Alan Moore Alan Moore (born 18 November 1953) is an English author known primarily for his work in comic books including ''Watchmen'', ''V for Vendetta'', ''The Ballad of Halo Jones'', ''Swamp Thing'', ''Batman:'' ''The Killing Joke'', and ''From Hell' ...

and

Alan Davis Alan Davis (born 18 June 1956) is an English artist and writer of comic books, known for his work on titles such as ''Captain Britain'', ''The Uncanny X-Men'', ''ClanDestine'', ''Detective Comics'', ''Excalibur'', '' JLA: The Nail'' and '' JLA: ...

's run on ''

Captain Britain Captain Britain is a title used by various superheroes in comic books published by Marvel Comics, commonly in association with Excalibur. The moniker was first used in publication by Brian Braddock in ''Captain Britain Weekly'' #1 by writer Ch ...

'' for

Marvel UK Marvel UK was an imprint of Marvel Comics formed in 1972 to reprint US-produced stories for the British weekly comic market. Marvel UK later produced original material by British creators such as Alan Moore, John Wagner, Dave Gibbons, Steve Dill ...

. Subsequently, Archie emerged in the pages of

Grant Morrison Grant Morrison, MBE (born 31 January 1960) is a Scottish comic book writer, screenwriter, and producer. Their work is known for its nonlinear narrative A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, w ...

's ''

Zenith The zenith (, ) is an imaginary point directly "above" a particular location, on the celestial sphere. "Above" means in the vertical direction (plumb line) opposite to the gravity direction at that location (nadir). The zenith is the "highest" ...

'' strip in '' 2000 AD''. There, he was portrayed as a burned-out

acid In computer science, ACID ( atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability) is a set of properties of database transactions intended to guarantee data validity despite errors, power failures, and other mishaps. In the context of databases, a sequ ...

casualty calling himself "Acid Archie". In 2004, a new "Classic Archie" adventure by Bert Bus was published in Dutch. In 2005–2006, Robot Archie, as well as many of IPC's adventure heroes, appeared in the six-issue limited series ''

Albion Albion is an alternative name for Great Britain. The oldest attestation of the toponym comes from the Greek language. It is sometimes used poetically and generally to refer to the island, but is less common than 'Britain' today. The name for Scot ...

'', published by the

Wildstorm Wildstorm Productions, (stylized as WildStorm), is an American comic book imprint. Originally founded as an independent company established by Jim Lee under the name "Aegis Entertainment" and expanded in subsequent years by other creators, Wilds ...

imprint of

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...

. ''Albion'' was plotted by

, and written by

Leah Moore Leah Moore (born 4 February 1978) is a British comic book writer and columnist. The daughter of comics writer Alan Moore, she frequently collaborates with her husband, writer John Reppion, as Moore & Reppion. Biography Moore was born to comics ...

and

John Reppion John Mark Reppion (born 1978) is an English comics writer. He is married to Leah Moore, the daughter of Alan Moore, and he has worked with both on the comic ''Albion''. John Reppion and Leah Moore have co-writing credits on '' Wild Girl'', a 6- ...

, with art by

Shane Oakley Shane Oakley is a British illustrator and comic book artist from Stoke-on-Trent, England. Biography Oakley began his career contributing to the alternative comics review ''Deadline Magazine'' in the 1980s, where he created '' Fatal Charm'' with ...

and George Freeman. Robot Archie was featured on the cover of the first issue, which was drawn by

Dave Gibbons David Chester Gibbons (born 14 April 1949) is an English comics artist, writer and sometimes letterer. He is best known for his collaborations with writer Alan Moore, which include the miniseries ''Watchmen'' and the Superman story "For the Man ...

.''Albion'' #1-6 (WildStorm C Comics Aug. 2005–Nov. 2006).

Fictional character biography

Robot Archie was built by Professor C.R. Ritchie to be the world's most powerful mechanical man. Originally, he was dubbed "The Jungle Robot" (due to his early adventures taking place in the jungles of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

and

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

), and was controlled remotely by Professor Ritchie, along with nephew Ted Ritchie and Ken Dale, his best friend. Robot Archie's adventures started off as conventional action-thrillers, with Archie and his friends battling criminals and jungle creatures, but over time, he began to fight more fantastic and dangerous villains and aliens, including ''The Sludge'', a monster that had previously had its own strip in ''Lion''. Initially, Archie could not speak, but around 1966, he gained a voice box, revealing a boastful, yet charming, personality. When Robot Archie re-appeared in the pages of Grant Morrison's ''

'' as "Acid Archie", part of a team of heroes called Black Flag; there, he helped Zenith fight the evil, supernatural race known as the Lloigor. Archie was apparently destroyed by Ruby Fox, a.k.a. "Voltage", in Phase IV, when she short-circuited him whilst he was trying to rip off her head. But later, that was revealed to have been a copy of Archie within the Chimera pocket universe, as he is seen partying with Zenith and Peter St. John, a.k.a. "Mandala" during the epilogue. Archie also surfaced in ''zzzenith.com'', in the special Prog 2001 edition of ''2000AD'', where Zenith explained that rust in the brain-pan had caused Archie's personality to switch from anarchist Acid-House aficionado to vigilante, hunting down sex offenders with a lethal vigour. He was last seen in the story wearing a false beard, as he escaped on a bus after sexually assaulting pop star

Britney Spears Britney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is an American singer. Often referred to as the " Princess of Pop", she is credited with influencing the revival of teen pop during the late 1990s and early 2000s. After appearing in stage productio ...

. Robot Archie's swan song was in ''Albion'', where he was found in the basement of a

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

pub by Penny Dolmann (the daughter of Eric Dolmann), who repaired and modified him in order to rescue her father. He was being held in an isolated Scottish asylum/prison where IPC's heroes had been sent simply for the "crime" of being different. Archie killed many guards and was destroyed whilst acting as a decoy for Penny.

References

External links

Robot Archie at International Superhero
{{Buster British comic strips Drama comics Science fiction comics 1952 comics debuts Comics characters introduced in 1952 2006 comics endings British comics characters WildStorm superheroes Fleetway and IPC Comics Fictional humanoid robots Male characters in comics