The robot empire
| Comic | |
|---|---|
| title | The robot empire |
| author | Michael Goetze |
| publishing company | Carlsen Comics |
| First publication | 1988-1992 |
| expenditure | 3 |
The Robot Imperium is a German comic from 1988 to 1992. It was the first comic from Germany that was created exclusively on the computer.
action
After the Cold War was overcome and peace returned to the world, the former arms companies could no longer sell weapons and developed robots that helped people in everyday life. Soon humanity, especially in Europe, was far more dependent than before on robots and other modern technology. One day, however, the power supply went down in all major cities and the combat-capable robots turned against the people who had built them. A civilization of robots emerged under the leadership of the Robot Emperor and the few surviving humans had to retreat to inhospitable areas or underground.
Centuries later, 14-year-old Scharlock went hunting with his old mentor Higgen-Dau-Du. They are tracked down and attacked by robots, including a particularly dangerous Kingoo. They survive only through the intervention of the famous Kingoo fighter Kam-A-Sarat - who, however, dies in battle. Kam-A-Sarat was Scharlock's role model, who wants to become an equally successful Kingoo fighter and hopes to have been chosen by Kam-A-Sarat as his successor. While they are waiting for the news from the fighter's estate, Higgen-Dau-Du tells the boy about a rumor about the Robot Emperor. The human massacre and its emergence came just a few days after the announcement of a breakthrough in the development of artificial intelligence. The researcher in charge of the project was taken to an institution shortly after the announcement was made as mentally weak.
At the same time, the robot-emperor has to deal with problems among his robots: one in his headquarters and combat robots outside have started attacking other robots instead of the humans. The cause is a circuit that changes the programming and has been secretly installed for some time. The Emperor realizes that this is the greatest threat to him in a long time. Meanwhile, Scharlock and Higgen-Dau-Du discover the news from Kam-A-Sarat. She points to another fighter - Hollberg - who lives in an underground city. Once there, Hollberg has just been killed by robots and his daughter Merryl leads the two of them into Hollberg's room, where they find Kam-A-Sarat's estate.
Creation and publication
In 1985, Shatter , the first digitally generated comic , was created in the USA . Several imitators followed. In 1986 work began on Das Robot Imperium in Germany. The comic was written and implemented by Michael Goetze . For this he used an Atari 520 ST and the DEGAS drawing program. The elements of the pictures were constructed in three dimensions, first as a framework and then covered with surfaces and finally grids. The 3D construction also allowed subsequent rotation, any combination and post-processing of the image elements. In addition, backgrounds that had once been created could be used again and again, also from different perspectives. The first album was still black and white, the second was colored on the computer with four levels of color and the third was digitally colored using conventional techniques.
The supervising editor was Andreas C. Knigge . In his book about comics, published in 1996, Knigge called Das Robot Imperium the first digital comic that goes beyond an experiment and for the first time also convincingly depicts natural objects such as animals and trees. The total of three albums were released by Carlsen Comics under the ComicArt label . They each comprise 56 pages:
- Hunters Without a Conscience , 1988
- Volt-Head , 1990
- A first win? , 1992
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Andreas C. Knigge: Comics - From mass paper to multimedia adventure. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1996, ISBN 3-499-16519-8 , p. 313f.
- ↑ ST Computer Archive: Painting and drawing programs in comparison . 5/1986.
- ↑ Epilogue How a comic is created on the computer . In: The Robot Imperium , No. 1.
- ↑ Entry in Comic Book DB.
- ^ Entry in the central directory of antiquarian books.