Robo-Capers
From Transformers Wiki
Robo-Capers was a comic strip written and drawn by Lew Stringer and published in the Marvel UK Transformers comic, beginning with issue 15.
Initially, the strip was a three-panel affair, focussing on the despotic ruler of planet Zip, King Nonose[1] (also spelled No-Nose,[2] and once referred to as King Kruel[3]) and his robot inventor, the Robot Inventor, in their attempts to conquer Earth using a series of frequently ridiculous robots.
As time went on, the strip also began to feature standalone gags about the world of consumer robotics, usually with machines designed to do simple tasks failing in inevitable ways. Originally set on Zip, joke strips like these eventually came to be set on Earth instead, commonly without any Zipponian involvement whatsoever.
It's relevant to us because, after a printer error rendered the Robo-Capers strip in issue 51 completely unintelligible, the strip in issue 59 featured Soundwave in his role as face of the editorial team seeking revenge against the responsible parties. This broke the glass ceiling on Transformers characters appearing in Robo-Capers, with some appearances being in continuity with the main comic – or at least in continuity with the real life events the comic dramatises.
Sundry other strips would parody the characters of the comic, promote its issue's free gift, or present a handful of comical Transformers characters that "didn't make the grade", such as a fridge or a toilet. It also became something of a tradition for the transition of the post of letters page host to be depicted in a special full-page Robo-Capers strip.
With Grimlock's takeover, and the subsequent facelift the entire comic received in issue 75, Robo-Capers became a half-page strip. The misadventures of the King and the Robot Inventor came to a head in issue 100, when the Inventor inadvertently destroyed the entire planet Zip. After a series of silly old gag strips, the duo returned in issue 127, beginning a serialised story in which they finally made it to Earth, were exiled into deep space by Mrs Thatcher, and wound up on Robotworld, a planet of entirely pacifist robots.
The strip came to an abrupt end in issue 152, when the Action Force comic folded into Transformers – taking the place of its regular back-up strip – bringing with it the much more regarded Combat Colin, also by Stringer. The Robo-Capers name would resurface twice more: first in a special full-pager in issue 183 which saw Dreadwind taking over as letters host from Grimlock, and the second in the blow-out issue 200, which crossed over the two Stringer cartoons and depicted the King being defeated by Col (by accident!) and deciding to give up attempting to conquer Earth forever. This was the last Robo-Capers story to grace the pages of The Transformers, with the rights to the name and characters remaining Marvel's property rather than Lew Stringer's (who still owns Combat Colin).[4] One final Robo-Capers strip appeared, unofficially and unsanctioned, in the Transformers fan convention novella Alignment, but that instalment is pseudocanonical at best.
Contents |
Strips in publication order
| Robo-Capers strips about the Transformers appeared in the following Marvel UK issues: | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Strips by category
Coo, free gift!
As was fairly common with British kids comics at the time, free gifts would often be touted as the best thing since bread came sliced by the editorial sections within the comic, even extending to any in house strips. This was the case three times over in Robo-Capers, beginning with issue 53, which showed us that even the newsagents on planet Zip carried Transformers. This was the first explicit acknowledgement of Transformers in Robo-Capers, in an instalment couched in the strip's usual trappings of despotic leaders and domestic androids.
This was not the case for the second strip advertising a free gift, which was set on Earth and lacked robots entirely, to the extent that it was titled "Not Robo Capers" on the contents page! A strip in the subsequent issue was also set in the "real world" where Transformers is published fiction (give or take a guest appearance by a particular droid), giving us a look behind the curtain at how the stubbies at Marvel UK put the free gifts in each individual issue.
Letter host strips
The letters page in Transformers UK was definitely its own phenomenon, establishing a vocabulary, in-jokes, and rapport with the readers, with it being a general part of the kayfabe that the letters page host – a Transformer themself – was a real being working in the Marvel offices alongside the credited staff. This would spread beyond the letters page, with the host being referred to or quoted by other sections of the comic. In Robo-Capers, this was first exhibited in issue 59, which saw letter answerer Soundwave get in-person revenge against a Marvel staffer for a misprint in an earlier issue.
The letters page was largely (if not wholly) written by Simon Furman, who would collaborate with Lew Stringer on two special Robo-Capers full-pagers that depicted the passing of the torch between letters page hosts. The first of these was in issue 74, which saw Grimlock attempt to seize the page from Soundwave. In an issue that was heavily promotional of the upcoming The Transformers: The Movie, Grimlock not only penned his own review of the film but also appeared in Robo-Capers, in a strip that showed the fame of being a movie star going to his head.
At the end of Grimlock's tenure, Furman and Stringer would produce "The Wind of Change!", showing Dreadwind taking the reins, in the first and only Robo-Capers strip since its replacement by Combat Colin about thirty issues prior. The Robo-Capers brand was not revived for Blaster's tenure as host, as he did not get a strip on his takeover – though he did appear in the Combat Colin strip of his column's debut issue.
Transformers parodies
Stringer understood before any of us that Transformers is fundamentally silly, and he demonstrated this in issue 63's Robo-Capers, which featured Optimus Prime addressing the viewer directly in a bit of British seaside postcard humour.
The next couple of strips in this style did not feature any fourth wall breaking device or reference to the letters page, meaning one could imagine them taking place in the actual comics continuity proper, if one so desired... though whether or not we need to treat as entirely canonical the existence of an embarrassed pram Transformer or Dinobot droppings is another discussion entirely.
The last strip in this entirely arbitrary category is an effort from issue 93, which depicts living toys of Ultra Magnus and Galvatron bemoaning their lot in life. Canon or not? Weirder things have happened!
Transformers that didn't make the grade
Issue 66's Robo-Capers was something of a precursor to this trifecta of strips that, while spread out over a period of about 30 issues, all shared a common theme of rubbish Transformers rejected from the Autobots and Decepticons. The first strip of its kind had more of a dry sense of humour, taking potshots at public transport and celebrities, but the second and third instalments were more in the vein of paragraphs of rapid fire, groan-worthy puns. They were also a pretty good excuse, if it were needed, for Stringer to draw some silly-looking robots.
Each strip had a Transformer introduce four rejects, with Optimus Prime, Megatron, and Grimlock each playing host.