Image Description: book-cover of Atomic Robo & The Fightin’ Scientists of Tesladyn. In the foreground, there are two Tesla tower-coils with lightning arching between them. In front of the Tesla tower-coils is Atomic Robo (humanoid-shaped android with large robin’s egg blue eyes), holding a BFG, and wearing military camo-pants with lots of pockets. At Atomic Robo’s feet is a large metal mecha-robot with amber-coloured eyes and three hollow tubes on its head in the shape of a mohawk.
Title: Atomic Robo & The Fightin’ Scientists of Tesladyne (Volume #1 of The Atomic Robo Series)
Creators: Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener
Social Media: Goodreads, The Atomic Robo Website, Twitter – Brian Clevinger, Twitter – Scott Wegener, Tumblr – Scott Wegner
Publisher: Tesladyne LLC
Format and Price: Kindle Edition at $13.74
Stars: 5 out of 5 stars
About The Creators:
The relevant links are available above.
About The Book:
In 1923, Nikola Tesla’s career is in its twilight until he unveils a robot with automatic intelligence — ATOMIC ROBO!
Granted full American citizenship in return for his participation in a top-secret military operation in 1938, ATOMIC ROBO goes on to found TESLADYNE — a think tank dedicated to exploring the fringes of scientific inquiry. After decades of dealing with all manner of weirdness, ATOMIC ROBO and the so-called ACTION SCIENTISTS OF TESLADYNE become the go-to defence force against the unexplained.
General Observations:
~Jumpy Timeline: Atomic Robo was involved in various World War Two campaigns. A side effect of this is that the timeline tends to jump around a fair bit. While I enjoy seeing snippets of Atomic Robo’s various adventures over the years; I can also see some readers getting frustrated with the fragmented narrative.
~Humour: The comedic elements of Atomic Robo are among my favourite elements of the book. I would be happy to recommend Atomic Robo on the comedy elements alone. As Atomic Robo was created in 1923 and lived in New York, his dialogue instantly becomes funnier if you image his accent is 1920’s New Yorker, especially since he still uses words like “Dame”.
~The Sliding Scale of Character versus Plot: The jumpy timeline mostly serves as a way of showing the reader the type of person Atomic Robo is and, by extension, the various personalities of his human colleges and associates Atomic Robo has known over the decades. So the volume has good character development, however, it also has intriguing plot elements as well, if anything, this graphic novel has an excellent balance of plot and character elements blended together.
All in all, an excellent action-adventure involving the pyramids of Giza and cyborgs trying to take over the world, while flashing back and forward between the relevant past and the urgent present. All in the name of Science! Happy to recommend.
Available for Purchase: Amazon | Book Depository
Ambiguous Pieces 