First of all, it worries me when any new series doesn’t put its “best foot forward” out of the gate, by which I mean the terrific, no-holds-barred story which makes people feel that they must read this comic. This is especially true of a book which has a rich backdrop which needs time to unfold and be revealed. I’ve been reading comics long enough to know that despite the best intentions of the most capable and professional creators, many series just don’t sell well enough to keep going. So it’s worrisome that Robo’s first series is apparently going to be a sampler, since that doesn’t seem to be putting his best foot forward. Contrast with Hellboy, in which his first series, Seed of Destruction, was that knock-it-out-of-the-park yarn, and his backstory mostly got filled in later.

(On the other hand, for all I know you already know for sure that you’ll be doing another series or two no matter how this one sells, in which case this concern doesn’t apply.)

I’m of two minds about the “it’s all interconnected” aspect of the book. On the one hand, I do prefer books with a cohesive world and a storyline that’s building towards something (a.k.a. “going somewhere”), rather than a bunch of standalone stories which are basically independent of each other. On the other hand, it’s frustrating when a limited series comes out and moves the story along a little bit, but doesn’t really resolve things (or worse, seems to keep stringing us along forever). To go back to Hellboy, the latter characterizes both the current Hellboy and B.P.R.D. series – there’s motion, but little apparent progress, in that I have no idea if we’re getting closer to the end of the larger story.

All of which means that my hope for Robo is that this first series will tell a complete story, rather than be the beginning of some larger story or be six unrelated stories. (It might also be the beginning of a larger story, of course.) Admittedly this is something of a balancing act. I think the best example of a successful use of this approach is Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, although it wasn’t released as a series of mini-series.

To turn my criticism on myself, it’s not entirely fair to review a mini-series based on the first issue, since there are still five yet to come, and certainly everything could change in that time. In my defense, I’m expressing my first impressions of the series based on all I’ve got to go on at the moment, which is one of the pitfalls of serial publication in the first place. As both creators and readers, we’re both somewhat at the mercy of the industry format, I’m afraid.

Anyway, one other positive thing: I was much amused by Robo’s handling of the guards he encounters in the story. I think that sort of humor, as much as anything, made me feel that I want to see how this first series, at least plays out.

Perfectly understandable. The first 6-issue mini doesn’t do much to dissuade the notion that it is a series of “frivolous adventure yarns”. We intended it is a grab bag for readers to get a feel for Robo and his place in the world. That said, there is nothing that happens for no reason either. We have a timeline that dates back to the 19th century. It’s all interconnected. Our hope is that people will enjoy Robo enough to allow us to keep publishing issues so that the bigger picture will be revealed — both to the reader and to Robo.