History
Built by Professor C.R Ritchie in the early 1950's, Robot Archie was originally incapable of independent action and was operated by remote control, sometimes by the Professor but more usually by his son Ted Ritchie and his friend Ken Dale. Ted and Ken were adventurers who used Archie to fight injustice across the world, though their early adventures were confined to the jungles of Africa and South America. Later, around 1966 Archie gained a degree of independence and a voice box was fitted which revealed him to have a likeable but somewhat pompous personality. At some point, when the British Government began hunting down individuals with unusual abilities, Archie was decommissioned and, badly damaged, ended up on display in a pub in Manchester where he was found by Penny Dolmann, who rebuilt him and used him to spearhead an attack on the prison where her father Eric Dolmannand various other 'unusual' individuals were being held (in the event, Eric Dolmann turned out to have died in the prison some years earlier). Archie was apparently destroyed acting as a decoy for Penny, though he could presumably be rebuilt since his head remained intact.
Notes
Robot Archie's first historical appearance was in the first issue of The Lion (23rd February 1952), a weekly anthology title published in Britain by IPC Magazines. He appeared in various British titles (and a few European ones) well into the 1980's, and was briefly revived by Grant Morrison in his 'Zenith' series for thescience fiction anthology 2000AD a few years later (Morrison depicted him as a burned out acid casualty called 'Acid Archie'). A version of Archie also turned up in Alan Moore's Captain Britain series for Marvel Comics, under the name 'Android Andy in the early 1980's.
Related
- 5 Appearances of Robot Archie (Albion)
- 1 Images featuring Robot Archie (Albion)
- Quotations by or about Robot Archie (Albion)
- Character Gallery: Robot Archie (Albion)
Footnotes
