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On the First day of Christmas, your GoCollect gave to you: A Shortboxed Giveaway! And a blog about the Earliest Golden Age Robot Covers via Shortboxed!As part of our 12 Days of Giveaways, Shortboxed has decided to sponsor 6 days! They also decided to provide some unique blog content for you to enjoy.

Shortboxed is the mobile app marketplace to buy and sell graded comic books. It's the easiest way to list your graded comics for sale and get them in front of thousands of collectors daily. You can download Shortboxed now on iOS and Android

What is the Giveaway?

Shortboxed has chosen their first day of giveaways to be a 3.0 graded Avengers #11. This was released in 1964 making it a silver age comic and 56 years old! This grade has an estimated FMV of $85 right now. 3.0 has steadily been increasing in value. 

How to enter the Shortboxed Giveaway

Head over to Instagram and be sure to follow both GoCollect and Shortboxed and like the most recent post from both. Then head over to the giveaway page and fill it out! It's that simple! We will announce today's winner Monday at 5pm EST.  You have until midnight tonight to enter!  Stay tuned every day until Christmas for more giveaways. If you want the chance to win every day, you have to follow the instructions every day - so don't miss out!

Now that you've entered the giveaway, read on to learn about the earliest Golden Age Robot covers! Do you have any of these?

The Earliest Golden Age Robot Covers

(This article originally published on Shortboxed)

The term “robot” was first used in 1920 by a Czech writer, Karel Capek, in a play (Rossum’s Universal Robots) about a factory that produced artificial human beings from organic matter – he called them “roboti.” The term caught on universally, and robots have been a staple of science fiction ever since. As comic books came into their own in the late 1930’s, artists and publishers wasted no time gracing the covers of their publications with a variety of robots.

First Robot

The first comic book to feature a robot on the cover was Smash Comics #1 from August, 1939. The cover art is uncredited – George Brenner wrote and drew the interior story featuring the Iron Man. The cover features Bozo the Iron Man, a mainstay of early Smash Comics issues. Bozo could fly at hundreds of miles per hour, run at least 70 miles per hour, and walk along the ocean floor. He was operated by good guy Hugh Hazard, who controlled him either remotely or by standing inside him. Bozo appeared on 12 covers for Smash Comics, his final being issue 26 in 1941.

 

Second Robot

Next was Mystery Men Comics #2 from September, 1939. This Lou Fine gem features hero Rex Dexter battling a multi-colored group of robots. Rex Dexter’s father had built a spaceship for the 1939 world’s fair, and flew it to Mars as a demonstration with his wife and young son, Rex. The ship crashes, marooning the family on Mars for 61 years, until grown-up Rex is able to pilot the repaired ship back to Earth in the year 2000.

Third Robot

 Around the same time, Movie Comics #6 was published in Sept-Oct of 1939. This noir cover with its giant, menacing robot is also uncredited. The cover relates to the interior story “The Phantom Creeps,” which was a 1939 horror film starring Bela Lugosi, wherein Lugosi played a mad scientist who created, among various other machines of terror and war, an eight-foot tall slave robot.

 

Fourth & Fifth Robot

In October, 1939, we have our fourth robot cover, Smash Comics #3 (uncredited). This one features a charming old-timey scene of Bozo headlocking two jail breakers. Smash Comics comes in again at fifth with issue 5 in December, 1939: Bozo happily tangling with 3 vicious crocodiles.

 

Sixth Robot

We finally hit a major superhero key with the sixth ever robot cover in January, 1940: Pep Comics #1, first appearance of the Shield and the Comet! Cover by Irv Novick. The Shield is credited as being the first American patriotic superhero.

 

 

 

Seventh Robot

Let’s conclude our list of earliest robot covers at number seven with arguably the best comic book cover of all time – Fantastic Comics #3 (February 1940), Lou Fine’s magnum opus! “Samson slays the Iron Monster.” Fine’s attention to detail on this work is perhaps eclipsed only by epicness of Samson beating a giant robot into submission with a medieval spiked mace on a chain!

 

 

Let’s see more robot covers!

Robots continued to display prominently on comic book covers throughout the early 1940’s, including such classics as Startling Comics #49 and The Human Torch #23 (Alex Schomburg), Zip Comics #3 (Charles Biro), Prize Comics #4 [4] (uncredited), Planet Comics #8 (Charles Sultan).

Then we have Exciting Comics #1 April 1940, Exciting Comics #3 (L. North?), Wonderworld Comics #8 (Lou Fine), Super-Mystery Comics #v3#3 (Harvey Kurtzman), Wow Comics #23 (uncredited), and Action Comics #36 (Fred Ray).

As a huge fan of both golden age comics and science fiction, nothing gets me more excited than a good early robot comic book cover! Thanks for reading, and happy hunting!

About the Author

I came back to the hobby 6 years ago after a very long break. Primarily, I collect Golden Age comics. I focus mainly on Golden Age horror and sci-fi. Hit me up anytime on Instagram, @dscomicspch.