Exciting Comics No. 3 — Hero and Heroine Battle Giant Robot with Ray Guns, 1940
What's striking is the sheer mechanical audacity of the robot design — a riveted, barrel-chested behemoth with flexible corrugated tentacle-arms and spindly tripod legs, more industrial boiler than humanoid. A square-jawed hero fires a ray gun while a blonde woman in orange crouches behind him, both blasting the machine simultaneously. The starburst impact on the robot's torso crackles with lurid orange energy. A second identical robot lurks in the background, suggesting a full-scale mechanical invasion underway.
Two humans with handheld ray guns squaring off against a boiler-tank robot with tentacle arms and stilts — the engineering department clearly had no oversight. The second robot lurking in the background suggests someone ordered in bulk.
“10 THRILLING ACTION ADVENTURES IN THIS ISSUE EXCITING COMICS No. 3 10¢”
