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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You know, I like aliens as the protagonists of stories. And I like robots as the protagonists. And I even like pirates most of the time (I mean, really, what’s not to like about Johnny Depp and Errol Flynn? But I digress.). I also like all three categories as the antagonists of stories. I’m also a fan of time travel stories and we all know how much I love random pop culture references. What bothers me is when two or more of these things are thrown together just to be able to say “hey, kids, look! Robots! Pirates! Aliens! Time Travel! Random Family Guy-like pop culture references! All in one place!”

I hate to try to figure out the intentions of a creator – unless they tell you themselves in an interview why they did something a certain way, you can never really know (and don’t get me started on the whole sub-genre of literary analysis that says you can’t actually understand a work of fiction until you’ve ferreted out every possible worldly thing that influenced the author during the writing of the work. Bleh.). However, to me “Robots” feels like a mish-mosh of anything that could possibly lure a reader in, including more than one reference to the classic TV Show What’s Happening!!! (The answer, by the way, is Dwayne Nelson, not Rerun. Perhaps Oscar is reading a mis-printed Trivial Pursuit card.) The comic really does include everything but the kitchen sink. And given time, I’m sure that will turn up as a robot alongside the chest of drawers and pop machine.

There are some very nice pages, art-wise, like this doomsday scenario. And the art does seem to get smoother, less rushed, as the story progresses. The more recent pages seem to feature heavier, more defining, inkwork.

Overall, while the creators may be having fun tossing everything they can think of into each page, I wasn’t having fun reading along. To paraphrase The Doctor, your mileage may vary. For my own part, I’m going to have to give this two stars. It just didn’t pull me along. Rating:

Jonah and Jeremy Gregory’s “Here There Be Robots”
http://randompiratecomics.net/webpages/robots.htm
reviewed by Anthony R. Cardno

(3 votes, average: 4.33 out of 5)

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Yarr…

Ok, let’s cut to the chase, shall we? It’s talk like a pirate day and for some reason I’m fresh out of pirate talk, so I’ll give you the Reader’s Digest ™ version of my review.

I liked this comic. I really did. The concept was quite good and original, as was the art. The art actually reminded me of a lot of the old MAD magazines I used to read, to some exent, actually. The humor was good, too, and reminded me much of things like the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in some aspects. Overall, I say a comic worth the read, to be sure.

What do you mean it’s too short? I’m not trying to impress people with my education or mastery of the English language, so belay that and let me get back to fixing my TARDIS, willya? Go read someone else’s post afore I keelhaul ye!

The Doctor … the definite article, you might say.

Here There By Pirates
by Gregory & Gregory
http://randompiratecomics.net/webpages/robots.htm

Rating:

(1 votes, average: 4 out of 5)

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Fifteen men on a dead man’s chest, yo ho ho and a bottle of rum…

Ahoy, matey! In celebration of Talk Like A Pirate Day, I’ve come back to buckle me swash for one more time. Be there anything more noble than affecting a faux-Welsh accent for one day of the year? None, says I. Today, we be takin’ a look at Here There Be Robots, a webcomic hosted by Random Pirate Comics and created by two boys with the last name of Gregory. I suspect they be brothers, but ’tis a common name, so coincidence is not out of the question, savvy?

Right away, I smelled something fishy afoot, and for once it weren’t me stinky socks. Robots and pirates in the same comic? If me head weren’t spinning enough, it be twirling like a dervish when I learned that the main characters be two aliens named Oscar and Rob. Arrr, them Gregorys weren’t kiddin’ about being random, were they? But when ye stop to think about it, it isn’t so strange. No, matey, not strange at all. The last Pirates of the Caribbean featured an indecipherable fortune teller who turned out to be a Greek sea goddess made out of crabs. No, I not be lying to ye. And before that, thar be a man with a squid for a face whose heart be locked inside a treasure chest. Yarr. P’rhaps pirate stories just lend themselves natural-like to such oddities. Speaking for meself, matey, I’ve got a soft spot for quirky, off-beat tales… be it a comic about a doctor who is also a ninja or a 1940’s P.I. operating in a post-apocalyptic world filled with mutants.

Oscar’s a wide-eyed, idealistic diplomat who seems to have learned Earth culture from movies and trivia cards. Rob’s a large feller, built like an ox, and he’s more quiet and reserved … a finer first mate ye’ll never meet (though here there call him a security officer… whatever that be). The aliens be on a peaceful mission to Earth, but things change when they unwittingly crash land in a factory full of robots with murder in their hearts. After a series of startlin’ coincidences, they create something called a “wormhole” — though they be mighty large worms to form a hole of that size, says I. Earth be destroyed, and the aliens and robots be sucked in to the spacial anomaly. When they emerge on the other side, the lads find themselves sent back in time to the era where women were women and men wore frilly shirts and fancy hats.

The alien lads are quite keen on not disturbin’ anything in the past, lest they screw up the future. (Wouldn’t ya know it, it means that ye mustn’t step on butteflies … though displays of raw, property-destroying carnage are still fair game. Arrrr.) The robots, on the other hand, have quickly adapted to their surroundings — even creating their own crablike attack vehicle, wouldn’tcha know — and are running amok. Both sides soon don pirate finery to blend in with the locals. They’re all after the same thing: to find the flying saucer what brought them here.

The art be quite attractive, in that charming old-school way. The principal characters appear suitably harsh and angular, like they be spawned from the inkwells of Invader Zim’s Jhonen Vasquez and Dresden Codak’s Aaron Diaz. The pirate folk look rightfully grotesque. The overall grittiness reminds me of the old woodcuts ye’d see in Harper’s Weekly, with a touch of ye old 60’s-70’s underground comix design ethic thrown in for good measure. The action scenes are rendered with a strong use of perspective, somewhat of a rarity in webcomics these days. From time to time, however, this style be to the detriment. Some of the action scenes felt static, and other times it just be a chore to follow.

Here There Be Robots is not nearly as random as the Random Pirate Comics label seems to imply. Oh, don’t be mistaken, lads, there be plenty of moments that straddle the absurd. Sometimes they shiver me timbers in a good way, like the mighty Pandorca, a killer whale with big, beefy arms. Sometimes they deserve to be sent straight to Davy Jones’ locker, such as the breakdance fight that goes on for far too long. It did nothing to tickle me funnybone, and I spent most of me time thinkin’ the joke be more appropriate on Family Guy. And sometimes they be swimmin’ like bilge rats, like … well, to be honest with ye, I’m not quite sure what that aphorism means. Yarr! Overall, the string of nonsequiturs be not too distanced from the context of the story — certainly not random in the way I understand it, says I — and are not unnecessarily distracting at any point.

Also, truth be told, there hardly be any pirates in this comic! Oh, sure, yer dressing up aliens and robots in pirate garb. But the lads lack the unique personality that makes a buccaneer a buccaneer. If I dress up me couch pillow in an eye-patch and peg leg, does that make it a pirate? No, says I, though, admittedly, it be rather cute. The pirates in Here There Be Robots are background characters, and very few be important enough to factor into the story. Mostly, they be there for throwaway gags. However, I must say I was filled with glee to see that one of the key pirates was a bonny pirate lass. This alone puts Here There Be Robots heads above other pirate themed webcomics I’ve seen. YARR-HAR!

So here be the bottom line. I’m not willing to pay the four doubloons the Gregory boys ask for on the covers of Here There Be Robots. That be a tad pricey, says I. But after all’s said and done, I did enjoy their odd little story. The end of Book Three made me genuinely curious as to what seafaring adventures Oscar and Rob would get themselves into. Sometimes, that’s all this salty old seadog needs.

Now come along, lads and lasses! Join me in a pirate jig, for old time’s sake!

Legend grew about their daring, never did they walk the plank, they all shared one golden earring, and the truth is they all stank…

Rating:

Here There By Pirates
by Gregory & Gregory
http://randompiratecomics.net/webpages/robots.htm
Reviewed by Larry “The Pirate El Santo” Cruz

(3 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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