EYES ON ROBERT: THE BOUNTY
After a supply run turned south, Robert, Charles, and Eastwood find themselves on a cross-country road trip to escape the Western bots and the bounty on their heads. Join these misfits on their journey in ROBERT: THE BOUNTY.
Y3K was a catastrophic event that nearly wiped out the population and fried all of Earth’s technology. But, what if the robots, rebooted? Without purpose, without guidance, without laws. These automatons emerge and create a new world of their own design, humans are just living in it. Now it’s almost 100 years since the devastating events of Y3K.
Meet the scavengers Robert, Charles, and Eastwood. Robert is a 19th-century robot in a post-apocalyptic world, the bot out of time. Charles is the charlatan and Eastwood is the bot with no face.
Gutting and dismantling are a part of the job, but after scraping the wrong bots, the crew finds themselves on the wrong end of a gun. Ramón, leader of the Western Bot Gang, has set out a bounty with a high price and has the gears to pay, to bring back Eastwood and his crew for crossing him. Alive or in Parts.
THE CREATOR
Jose Rosendo Ramirez also known as “The Boogie-Bot” has written the story and is also the penciler, inker, colorist, and letterer of the book. Jose also was in charge of fulfilling the crowdfunding campaign for his project. ROBERT is a project he has been working on for a while.
He is a young comic artist and writer who worked for Unearthly Comics for the past 5 years creating and selling comic books at conventions. By 2020 he became independent working on the story of the robot named ROBERT.
THE BOOK
ROBERT: THE BOUNTY is a 60-page full-color Sci-Fi Western graphic novel with a soft cover printed on high-quality paper. There are 3 options of the book to chose from: the main cover, the black and white version of the main cover, and the original Issue #1.
The book contains a credits page, an introduction, the main story told in 3 chapters each with a chapter divider, and bonus content including behind-the-scenes sketches, an art gallery, extras, and a “Special Tank You” segment to the close contributors/advisors on the project.
ROBERT: THE BOUNTY
ROBERT: THE BOUNTY is a sci-fi western tale loaded with action, robots, culminating in this epic story generations in the making. The story is told in 3 chapters:
CHAPTER 1: WESTERN TOWN
1000 years after Y3k somewhere in the Nevada desert, the sun still beats down, brighter than ever. There is so much open space. The desert is nothing but a barren wasteland. The days are long, the nights are even longer. Lost trinkets or relics of the past, occasionally some things are uncovered, buried items and pieces of history which were purposely lost or misplaced, forgotten memories scattered to the ends of the earth. An old town in a new world. It’s not how it was before. The future has arrived.
We first meet Eastwood, a faceless robot scavenging for anything valuable in the wasteland. He encounters a group of robots looking for trouble. In comes Charles, a male human mechanic owner of a car, that collects the trinkets Eastwood finds and puts them to good use.
They went to an abandoned western town outside of Las Vegas, some say people built it to remember the past. There they find a complete robot even older than Eastwood. It doesn’t have any wires or circuits but only a bunch of gears inside. It’s completely cast iron and seems to be more than a couple of 100 years old.
CHAPTER 2: THREE COFFINS
Charles works day and night on the robot and successfully manages to activate it. The robot doesn’t know what it is but he does have a name, Robert. Along with Robert, they found a photo of him next to a man and parts of what seemed to be a letter. Robert doesn’t remember anything other than his name and the man in the photo. Charles welcomes him to their crew. Suddenly they get attacked by a group of robots wanting their heads.
CHAPTER 3: THE BOUNTY
In the last chapter Eastwood, Charles, and Robot get into a lot of trouble. Ramón, leader of the Western Bot Gang, has set out a bounty on their heads. Charles and Eastwood’s partnership gets tested and Robert gets the opportunity to show that he is an important addition to the team. Will they manage to get out of trouble?
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
The story is very entertaining and the art is very distinctive and interesting looking especially the colors and the texture and details on the robots. There is something about the colors used that enhances the Western feeling of the story.
VALUE OF PARTNERSHIP
The value of partnership from Eastwood’s point of view is illustrated in the book as he goes out of his way to save Charles. For Robert, it is a great opportunity to learn from Eastwood and find his place with these two individuals in a new world.
VALUE OF HISTORY
The story questions the need to build things to remember the past. Should something forget to stay forgotten? It also makes you question what you know of history. In order to get it right you need to know the complete story to understand why things happen. History is usually written from the winner’s perspective but what happened to the losers? It’s usually the wealthy that sponsored writers to write their stories.
What importance does an old object have? It is very difficult to find old stories and artifacts about indigenous cultures and working people from the past. In some countries such as Costa Rica, most of the documents with ancient languages of native groups have disappeared. In Brazil, an important part of South America’s history was lost with the National Museum of Brazil fire in 2018. The oldest fossil found in the Americas and a large portion of indigenous literature was lost.
It makes you question why the pieces and documents couldn’t be held in their country of origin. At this point it has become a never-ending issue that still doesn’t have a solution: why are artifacts and documents that are part of the cultural heritage of a country placed in the museum of another country?
TECH FROM THE PAST
Robert represents the sturdiness and resistance of electronics from the past. With innovation, it seems that the product active life declined severely. Old electronics were made to last long, current electronics are made with a short shelf life. From freezers to water kettles to irons, everything gets broken very quickly and unlike old electronics, these are difficult to fix.
We can’t forget the IoT devices that used to be generic electronics that are connected to the internet. What happens when digital certificates get updated by the company? The software of within these devices gets obsolete and therefore does not process the update. The device stopped working. Would Robert have been made in the 2000s it may not have been reactivated so quickly.
ART AND STRUCTURE
The book is well-structured which shows the amount of attention that was put into it. I especially appreciated the well-thought introduction which is something I wish other creators would also include an introduction or foreword for the reader to know the creators and learn more about the project and the challenges to complete the project.
It reminds me of the intro from Black Tide Rising Volume 1. And of course, I appreciated the chapter dividers. The overall structure of the book is almost perfect it just misses the numbering which is not a requirement but a personal preference.
The art is very good and color scheme make the art even more distinctive. It amplifies the Western vibe and has a vintage retro look that perfectly goes along with the story. The style reminds a little bit of Charlie’s London: From the Eastlane to the Limelight. The details on the robots are interesting and I liked the Western Face Off panels.
WATCHING ROBOTS TO READING ROBOTS
There are many movies about robots that proved that they can entertain while also dealing with important themes to think about. For me, the stories of Short Circuit, Terminator, Robocop, Chappie, WALL-E, and Real Steel were done in such a way that they will remain relevant stories of things we are going through or will be going through in the near future. These stories are memorable.
ROBERT gives me a similar feeling and it is the first Sci-Fi Western robot story I read in graphic novel format and has the potential of becoming a relevant story for generations to come.
THE CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN
By the time I decided to back the crowdfunding campaign for ROBERT: THE BOUNTY, I have chosen the Robert-Graphic Novel Signed perk that includes just the main book. The campaign also had stretch goals that were met which were free stuff that will be added to the book.
I received the signed book, two 11×17 posters, a Robert patch, a Robert bookmark, a Boogie-Bot sticker, a “Thank you” card, and a photograph of Robert and his creator, the same one that we’ve seen in the story.
The tracking number was provided via Indiegogo and the package was received and everything arrived in good condition. However, it did take a long time for the project to get completed which wouldn’t have been an issue if regular Indiegogo email updates were provided consistently. They started as monthly updates but later on, they became irregular.
It is important for creators to understand that the backers need to know the status and the best methods I think are sending newsletters or simple text emails on a quarterly, monthly, or weekly basis. It doesn’t matter if nothing happens make sure to send a message telling the status. It keeps the attention and interest of the backer on the project fresh.
Otherwise, they will forget the book and when they receive it there is no hype to even read the story. And the creator’s reputation is also compromised for not giving timely updates and late delivery of the products.
FINAL THOUGHTS
ROBERT: THE BOUNTY is an entertaining story illustrated distinctively with a unique Western vibe. All the work that is usually done by a team was done by one person which is a strange thing to see. So far, the creative teams of crowdfunded projects have consisted of three or more individuals. It is very commendable to see the perseverance and love for the craft. And the attention to detail in the layout of the book was very well done.
I understand the need to have control over all that you do but sometimes a little help makes the job a lot easier. I admire the positive attitude and resilience to finish the project and look forward to the next issue “ROBERT: INTO THE MOB”. As of date, the crowdfunding campaign of ROBERT: THE BOUNTY is still INDEMAND on Indiegogo which means that the books will be probably shipped soon if they still have them in stock. Check them out!
Interested in more titles? Check more COMIC BOOKS and GRAPHIC NOVELS under the “EYES ON” series wherein I documented my experience with crowdfunding entertainment and shared my notes on the products I received.
My notes are all set. Let me know what you think.
See you on the next page!
