One of the most recognisable of the 1960s line-up of IPC heroes – in part because of his memorable later appearances in Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell’s Zenith series – Robot Archie has been conspicuous by his absence so far as part of the Treasury of British Comics’s reprint line-up. A character with a long and sometimes intermittent publishing history, Archie is the volatile and erratic mechanical companion to adventurers Ted Ritchie and Ken Dale, and was first introduced in the British weekly Lion, way back in the early ‘50s.
Robot Archie and the Time Machine compiles some of the most memorable strips from a time-travel saga that began in the late 1960s, some way into the feature’s publishing history. It probably isn’t far off the mark to guess that Rebellion have opted to feature the start of one of the most fondly remembered serials in the first Robot Archie collection not simply because of its popularity but because of the strip’s problematic colonialist elements in earlier years. Whatever the reason, this is a whirlwind ride of manic misadventure that underlines exactly why the character has such a cult following.
Written by E. Gorge Cowan, Archie’s creator, and illustrated by frequent collaborator on the feature Ted Kearon, Robot Archie and the Time Machine collects three serials plus a couple of short stories from Summer Special issues. It’s a simple premise. Ted, Ken and Archie become lost in time after the robot takes them for a spin in Ted’s eccentric inventor uncle’s time machine (said uncle also being Archie’s originator). Shaped like a giant chess piece the Castle, as the time machine becomes known, takes the trio on a series of adventures to the past and to the future where they encounter characters from history, as well as threats from beyond the planet.
The titular story sees the three in a time of knights and gallantry where they face a tyrant called Hugo the Black. In the second serial ‘Robot Archie and the Superons’ the friends travel to a near future tropical London where humanity has become the thralls of robotic aliens known as the Superons. And in the final storyline ‘Robot Archie – Time Traveller’ highwaymen are the thematic order of the day. Originally presented in weekly three-page bursts the work herein holds up well, with Cowan giving us a protagonist who is wildly unpredictable, often landing himself and his pals in the midst of trouble but providing a comedic appeal for all that. Nothing here could be accused of being sophisticated in delivery but it retains an escapist appeal throughout.
Kearon’s art is impressive across every storyline, beautifully rendered in black and white and always keeping up with the rapid pacing of Cowan’s scripts. Robot Archie and the Time Machine is simply sheer comfort reading fun. A follow-up volume in 2025 would be greatly appreciated.
E. George Cowan (W), Ted Kearon (A) • Rebellion/Treasury of British Comics, £16.99
Review by Andy Oliver
