Deep Sequencing: An Atomic Robo Timeline pt. 1

Or a graphical timeline of the first 3 collected volumes of Atomic Robo

Atomic Robo is the fantastic, funny comic about, well, Atomic Robo, the adventuring Action Scientist invented by Nicola Tesla. It's an infectiously fun to read comic that is also constructed in really smart, really unorthodox ways. One of these interesting creative decisions is how Atomic Robo uses time.

A lot of comics, particularly the more superhero-y comics have a weird relationship with time. For the most part time in these comics time is squishy, where publication order does not equate to narrative order and Batman is perpetually in his early thirties (or I guess mid-twenties in the new52). In these comics time is less about an exact measure of time than a... kind of inconvenient medium that events pass through.

Atomic Robo, which is a comic about an ageless robot going on Science Fantasy adventures, has really rigorously annotated time settings. Nearly every story not only has the year it is set in, but even the month and day. As a result, the Atomic Robo comic works like a kind of time capsule of human history during the century (and counting) of Robo's life. It makes for neat settings for stories and a fun look at cultural differences through time. 

But beyond being a nifty setting device, this thorough chronicling of time demands a 100 year long giant graphical timeline. So, I've made one, and will update it whenever I finish another Atomic Robo comic.

There will be mild *SPOILERS* in the timeline. Also, there is an up-to-date text based timeline on the Atomic Robo website. So this might be kind of redundant.

Timeline legend:
Vol. 1: Atomic Robo and The Fightin' Scientists of Tesladyne
Vol. 2: Atomic Robo and The Dogs of War
Vol. 3: Atomic Robo and The Shadow From Beyond Time

Previously:

Deep Sequencing: Neat layouts in Atomic Robo and The Dogs of War

So I Read Atomic Robo and The Fightin’ Scientists of Tesladyne

A 250 word (or less) review of the first Atomic Robo collected edition.

By Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener, Red 5 Comics

Atomic Robo is a fun comic. Specifically, it is a fun adventure comic with a liberal helping of comedy. In Atomic Robo and the Fightin' Scientists of Tesladyne we follow the adventures of Atomic Robo, a charismatic nuclear powered robot built by Nikola Tesla in 1923, and his team of Action Scientists as they confront paranormal threats. The collected edition works as an encapsulation of the entire Atomic Robo concept: to tell funny, action packed stories set throughout the various time periods of Robo’s life (the 20’s to the Modern day). The upside of this is the comic doesn’t waste time on excessive exposition and can focus on the most entertaining moments in Robo’s life. The downside is that at times some helpful setting information is lost on the altar of Action and that this first trade lacks a central narrative which gives it a schitzophrenic feel (for instance a two issue cliff hanger is left a-dangle).^1,2 The balance of this equation, though, is a comic that sees Robo fight Nazi’s, battle cyborg armies, combat giant ants, study a mobile attack pyramid, and take an uneventful trip to Mars… which is pretty great. It also bears mentioning that Atomic Robo is audibly funny. I am not a person prone to laughing aloud at my fiction very often, but Atomic Robo had me snorting up a storm. Celvinger and Wegener have created exactly what they sought to: a funny, action-packed adventure comic. It’s unique, laugh-out-loud funny, and genuinely good comics.

Word count: 249

1: I want to know what happened with the giant mummy robot, damn it!

2: This is mostly an artifact of it being a collection of single issues. Subsequent trades are more cohesive and better. But still, great comics.