Monday, February 24, 2014

Comic Book Robot of the Month: Mr. Goon-Child

Here's a terrific little robot that made a single appearance in Weird Fantasy #15 [3] in 1950. The Goon-Child is the creation of Henry, who constructs this rather simply robot to do menial chores around this house. It turns out that the Goon-Child isn't all that keen on being a slave and upgrades his design to the point where he can revolt against his slob of a master. There's a terrific 'They call me Mr. Tibbs' moment and I find it quite comical that Henry is overpowered by a robot who looks like an ancestor of Johnny Five. All of this is handled beautifully by Harvey Kurtzman who balances humour with a sense of threat. A true classic.

1 comment:

cmr said...

I always loved this story. As you said, a great job by Kurtzman, who actually had me laughing out loud by the sense of humor of how nasty Henry is to The Goon-Child when we all suspect his insults will come back to haunt him. I love Weird Fantasy, Tales of the Unexpected, Strange Adventures, etc. This story was one of the best.

I also love, "Calling Space Doctor Duncan" (with The Roarers), "The Man Who Could Breathe Air" (with Paul Browning), etc.