Send As SMS



Credits

Ten thousand years of Roboshrub.

Fangs for the memories.




In today’s state, Roboshrub Incorporated is an entity entirely devoted
to the execution of what normal people would refer to as “bad ideas.”

It was the creator’s original idea that all concepts, whether
useful or not, contribute to the global subconscious level of progress
for the human race. Therefore, we contend that no idea is an unfit
idea, and vow to act on each and every one of them.

Roboshrub Inc.
Public Communications Department






Changes may not fully take effect until you reload the page.




For your insolence, I condemn you to...

Suffer the Fate of a Thousand Bees!
(Before they go extinct)

Print Logo

9.03.2008

CSSIH: “The House of Mystery”

Lo! Another comic!

Last time we showed you an embarrassingly low-budget Charlton comic. The pages were as thin as the plots, and their adverts focused on the coveted 7-55 demographic. This time around, the Comic Scans Sans Inky Hands (CSSIH) project is doing a complete 180, bringing you a phenomenally awesome 1973 DC comic.

Wikipedia teaches us that House of Mystery was originally a horror anthology in the fifties which mutated into a scifi anthology in the sixties but reclaimed its terrifying roots just five years before this comic was printed. And it looks like they had walking around money, to boot. This comic has stories by John Albano and Steve Skeates, both of whom won the prestigious and short-lived Shazam Award for — get this — scripts they wrote for House of Mystery. You can almost taste the quality writing; “Back From the Realm of the Damned” is like Dig The Grave Deep done right, and “The Other Side!” has a mindbending intro before the title page. That just screams “class.”

One thing I love about this comic is Cain. A lot of anthologies from this era have some campy character pull the Rod Serling shtick, trying to build a cult of personality as they narrate. Mostly they end up coming off as some Great Gazoo knockoff. But Cain is like John Newland on steroids, smirking with mirthful foreknowledge of whatever horrors the main characters will encounter. He’s a sadist through and through, mocking the main characters’ self-destructive nature with false compliments as they slowly go insane. He’s also the star of a MAD-inspired 1-page comic!

House of Mystery CoverClick picture for full cover

# “Back From the Realm of the Damned”

# “The Other Side!”

# In His Own Image!

# Errata

Labels:

--==\
/==--
Gyrobo

8.15.2008

CSSIH: “The Many Ghosts of Doctor Graves”

Let’s talk about demographics.

The Comic Scans Sans Inky Hands (CSSIH) project scans comic books from the distant past for present consumption. We’re messengers, couriers, doormen to the gates of culture. If you’ve been reading this series for a while, you know that after the main story, there’s also a section called “Errata” containing all the adverts/non-stories of the comic. For some, this is better than the actual story — it’s fun to look at the kind of products that were pushed on teenagers forty years ago.

You start to notice consistencies after a while: a lot of the comics I’ve got here have the classic “The Insult That Made A Man Out Of Mac” Charles Atlas bodybuilding ads, bulking up and the like. It makes sense, they’re selling to insecure 1970s boys. But Charlton Comics is different. There’s adverts for weight loss, hair loss, acne and prostate exam reminders.

So if you know any acne-scarred, balding teenagers with enlarged prostates, steer them to this comic.

The Many Ghosts of Doctor Graves CoverClick picture for full cover

# Dig The Grave Deep

# Pity Aunt Margaret!

# From The Gallows To The Grave

# Errata

Labels:

--==\
/==--
Gyrobo

8.11.2008

CSSIH: “Ghostly Haunts”

What do you get when you take a mediocre premise, execute it poorly, and print it at odd angles on inferior paper?

Comic Scans Sans Inky Hands (CSSIH) prefers to let you discover the answer to that question firsthand — or rather, no-hands — by scanning printed artifacts from what by the early 1990s was already dubbed the Golden Age of Kitsch. Read these scanned pages and ponder them. What do they tell us of our ancestors? Of ourselves?

Unlike the earlier comics I’ve scanned, this chestnut is from the lovely people at Charlton Comics. Of course, it could easily have been printed by a drunken lemur. Each page required a minimum of three rescans since the panels were most emphatically not parallel to the spine. The pages were not all the same size, and I’m pretty sure the whole thing was printed on paper towels. And a color pallet that just cries out, “for want of a GIF”... but why should I rant when you can just snap your mouse?

Ghostly Haunts CoverClick picture for full cover

The Pact of Satan

Pamela’s Dolls

Partners!

Errata

Labels:

--==\
/==--
Gyrobo

8.04.2008

CSSIH: “Monsters on the Prowl”

It was rumored that forty years ago the design for a billion dollar bill was inadvertently printed into the pages of a comic book, and that to this day it remains legal tender.

Who started this rumor? Irrelevant. Is it true? Maybe. The Comic Scans Sans Inky Hands (CSSIH) project aims to find out for sure by scanning the pages of as many 1970s comic books as we can.

We have a host of stories for you today, ranging from the unlikely to the improbable, to the downright impossible. Be forewarned: this will be an unparalleled display of horror. Those of you with weak hearts may wish to leave the page.

Monsters on the Prowl CoverClick picture for full cover

The Creature from the Black Bog!

The Ghost Rode A Roller Coaster!

Ed’s Young Wife!

The Changeling

Errata

Labels:

--==\
/==--
Gyrobo

7.31.2008

CSSIH: “The Tomb of Dracula”

The Comic Scans Sans Inky Hands (CSSIH) project is a one-man intergalactic effort to explore the pages of 1970s comic books without getting comic book ink on one’s hands. Once thought impossible, this inkless phenomenon is now an everyday occurrence thanks to fantastic new material marvels like Aluminum.

In today’s installment, Frank Drake, Rachael Van Helsing and their stereotypically silent strongman Taj try to solve a murder most foul. Is Dracula back to his old tricks, or is the real culprit lurking behind the moorland trees? Tune in to find out!

The Tomb of Dracula CoverClick picture for full cover

The Moorlands Monster!

Errata

Labels:

--==\
/==--
Gyrobo

4.12.2008

CSSIH: “Beware!”

We’d like to present without further ado the first part of Roboshrub Inc.’s ongoing series, Comic Scans Sans Inky Hands, a journey into the groovy underbelly of 1970s comic bookery!

Click picture for full cover

The Werewolf Was Afraid!

Too Human to Live!

On The Trail of the Witch!

Behind the Door

Errata

Labels:

--==\
/==--
Gyrobo