Robo-Capers

The Robo-Capers logo through the ages:
Top left: issues 15 to 21; top right: issues 22 to 73;
middle: issues 74 to 126; bottom: issues 127 to 152.
Not pictured: a million colour variations.

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 (also spelled No-Nose, and once referred to as King Kruel) 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 very last Robo-Capers story.

	Robo-Capers strips about the Transformers appeared in the following Marvel UK issues:
#53 #59 #63 #66 #74 #87 #88 #91 #93 #97 #99 #99 #114 #183

Notes

• Presumably because it didn't feature any robots (except for Galvatron on a badge that came free with the comic), issue #98's strip was listed on the Transformation contents page as Not Robo Capers.

External links

• Robo-Capers at the Obscure Transformers Website