Today, September 19th, is Talk Like A Pirate Day. Everyone loves pirates. And robots. And aliens. And breakdancing. You get all this and more with Here There Be Robots.

It begins with two aliens; Oscar is in command and Rob is his security officer. They are on a diplomatic mission (of sorts) to earth. As they settle into a stationary orbit, they play a human trivia boardgame. Suddenly, their ship is attacked by earth creatures. Sort of.

They crash into the building where the robots are planning their world takeover. There’s a little, tiny mishap with the landing gear and the earth is destroyed. Conveniently, they turn up hundreds of years earlier onboard a pirate ship - in the brig. Rob and Oscar explain it nicely in this comic. Thanks to Rob, they manage to escape the brig and the ship in full piratical disguise. And so their adventures begin.

Perhaps it’s the cartoon style, but the figures are not always drawn consistently in proportion and silhouette. However, after a second glance, you can usually tell who is who due to their costumes and other details. I mention that because it’s clear that someone on the Gregory & Gregory team can draw.

Also, aside from cover pieces, Here There Be Robots is done purely in black and white until you get to this comic. And then it goes back to black and white. The color helps the clarity of the comic significantly.

The black and white linework does fit the concept of Here There Be Robots nicely, though. There is also a tremendous amount of period detail to look at, which contributes to the historical/literary elements we expect from pirate stories. The spot blacks and gritty looking ink effects also add a filthy, filthy vibe to the comic. It’s a nice effect.

It complements the lightness of the comic. The dialog is funny and there is a theme of chaos with sudden plunges into doom. Fortunately, the aliens and robots are pretty hardy and they seem to find a way to keep going and entertain us.

I’m using a new way to assign rating stars. Here There Be Robots is a good example of a four star comic; it’s good and fine for what it does but not quite over the top. I’ve read it a number of times and I was entertained each time. Rating:

Here There Be Robots
http://randompiratecomics.net/webpages/herethereberobots/issue01_01.htm
by Jonah & Jeremy Gregory

Review by Delos Woodruff

(3 votes, average: 4.67 out of 5)

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