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Thursday, 13 January 2011

RoboCop goes viral

The original.
Maybe it's pure ego, but I get a kick when I see some of my work spreading out on the Internet on its own.  One of my favourites is the Radio Police Automaton from 1924, which is featured on Tales of Future Past.  The illustration is quite real, being from the May 1924 issue of Science and Invention, but the copy I scanned it from was heavily damaged with a dirty great hole in it courtesy of some bookworms, so it was hardly in a condition for posting.  Fortunately, the layout of the artwork was fairly obvious and I'd made a close study of a German version of it some years before, so I was able to fill in the gaps quite seamlessly, if I do say so myself.

Since I posted it, the restoration has spread all over the place (usually without a credit, but there you go) and it's amusing to think that it's currently the definitive version.  It's a sort of trivial immortality, I suppose, but it's nice to see all that effort appreciated.
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7 comments:

  1. Mark WynerThursday, 13 January 2011 at 13:01:00 GMT-8

    David, had I known the image was cleaned up by you I would have credited you for your work. However, as you can see from the post I reference in mine, there was no mention of you. I have now added a credit for your scan/restoration. Enjoy.

    ReplyDelete
  2. DavidThursday, 13 January 2011 at 16:10:00 GMT-8

    Mark,

    Thanks for the credit. I appreciate it. I know that most people aren't aware of my restoration on the image and I take my satisfaction that people are enjoying my work.

    If I was losing royalties or ad revenues it would be different, but since I'm not, I'm not put out.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousThursday, 13 January 2011 at 16:44:00 GMT-8

    The link to the cleaned-up version appears to have been disabled. Got an alternate? Thnx...

    ReplyDelete
  4. DavidThursday, 13 January 2011 at 21:38:00 GMT-8

    No problem. Alternate is on its way.

    ReplyDelete
  5. eonFriday, 14 January 2011 at 04:31:00 GMT-8

    David & Mark;

    Thank you for rescuing this bit of robotic Americana from oblivion. Now I know where the original idea for the robots in a couple of Republic serials came from.

    When I become an Evil Overlord, I will definitely have them mass produced. Just to be able to speak into a microphone, say "Go forth, my minions!"- and not get any backtalk.

    ;-)


    cheers

    eon

    ReplyDelete
  6. DylanFriday, 14 January 2011 at 06:38:00 GMT-8

    In a strange chance of coincidence, Gizmodo posted this...

    http://gizmodo.com/5733103/what-to-do-when-you-find-something-cool-on-the-internet-a-flowchart

    ReplyDelete
  7. jayessellSaturday, 15 January 2011 at 04:32:00 GMT-8

    Who are the rioters supposed to be?

    Immigrants?

    Communists?

    Unionists?

    War Veterens?

    ReplyDelete

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