BS: Old Comic: 'Magnus, Robot Fighter'

Subject: BS: Old Comic: 'Magnus, Robot Fighter'
From: Little Hawk
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 08:13 PM

As you may know, I loved the comic books of the 50's and 60's. Here's another fairly obscure one that I remember.

"Magnus, Robot Fighter"

It was set in some future megalopolis called North Am, if I recall correctly, maybe in the year 2210 or something like that. I gather that North Am stretched from Manhattan to the Rocky Mountains and as far south as Georgia or something like that. What a horrifying notion!

Anyway, this society was absolutely permeated with robots for every conceivable purpose: work, recreation, maintenance, security, military, sports, you name it. There were big one, little ones, robots of every size and shape. All this was long before Star Wars, and may have had a slight influence on it for all I know.

The main problem was evil people who built robots to commit crimes or take over the government...and out-of-control robots who went berserk for some other reason.

Hence, Magnus...a typically muscular and clean-cut hunk in a skin tight suit with the amazing karate abilities to instantly do in robots, usually by snapping their flexible little necks or nailing them in some other vulnerable spot.

When a robot got nailed in this fashion it invariably made the sound "SQUEEEEEE..." and expired. Kind of like "Runk!" (see: Turok, Son of Stone), but more high tech-sounding.

Yup. Dying dinosaurs say "RUNK!!!" and dying robots say "SQEEEE!!!".

Gotta love it.

The cool thing about Magnus was, he used his bare hands. No gadgets for this guy. Anyone with Magnus memories, please post them here. Any trivia, no matter how inane, is worth mentioning.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Old Comic: 'Magnus, Robot Fighter'
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 08:42 PM

Valiant Revisited: Magnus Robot Fighter

MAGNUS, ROBOT FIGHTER, 4000 AD

...and much more.

Subject: RE: BS: Old Comic: 'Magnus, Robot Fighter'
From: Little Hawk
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 09:55 PM

Great links! They also took me to another old favourite of a totally different kind, "Mary Perkins, Onstage", the best of the soap opera style comic strips. Man, there was great art and story writing in that one.

I prefer the old Magnus. The new one is full of all that angst and darkness that has become so popular in adventure comics.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Old Comic: 'Magnus, Robot Fighter'
From: DonMeixner
Date: 02 Feb 03 - 01:29 AM

Little Hawk,

Any time you want to talk old comics let me know. I have collected SilverAge stuff since, well, the Silver Age began in '56. The Russ Manning Robot Fighter books were classics. The recent Valiant run was not.

Don

Subject: RE: BS: Old Comic: 'Magnus, Robot Fighter'
From: Little Hawk
Date: 02 Feb 03 - 09:33 PM

Cool! Thanks, Don. There was one Tarzan episode (a Dell comic) that had a very spooky looking creature in it, some sort of river monster (like Nessie, I suppose). Ever seen it? There was also a great Tarzan adventure with the "Nandi Bear", another fictional monster. I think it came out under Gold Key.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Old Comic: 'Magnus, Robot Fighter'
From: Charcloth
Date: 02 Feb 03 - 11:17 PM

Geeze! I thought I was the only one who was a magnus fan! I used to have a bunch of those comics, wish I still did I bet they'd be worth more than my 401(k) right now. Thanks

Subject: RE: BS: Old Comic: 'Magnus, Robot Fighter'
From: DonMeixner
Date: 02 Feb 03 - 11:22 PM

Charcloth,

If you know comic book gradeing (Overstreet) Magnus Robot Fighter #1 is a couple hundred dollars in NM (Near Mint)condition. My comics are definately doing better than my 401K

Don

Subject: RE: BS: Old Comic: 'Magnus, Robot Fighter'
From: Little Hawk
Date: 03 Feb 03 - 01:00 AM

Amazing, isn't it? I just loved reading them. I'm afraid my parents gave away most of mine one time when I wasn't there to do anything about it. They were mostly in sort of average condition, but some were really beat up. I wish I could go back in time and buy those 10 cent comics again.

- LH