(Ed Valigursky’s cover for the the 1962 edition of Next Stop The Stars (1962), Robert Silverberg)

While browsing through my rapidly growing collection of cover images on my computer I couldn’t stop laughing at the hilarious robots that pop up every now and then. From evil looking R2D2s (with legs) to multi-handed flying death robots with unfortunate double smiley faces! Oh, and the crying rescue robot….

If I were in the robot designing business I’d conjure up a robot that could cry — a good use of time — as useful as Data with his emotion chip talking to his tricorder or finally understanding jokes: “Geordi: The Farpoint mission? Data, that was seven years ago. Data: I know! I just got it! Very funny!” (I apologize for my references to the rather egregious Star Trek: Generations movie, sadly, it was the first thing which came to mind).

These are in no way the funniest robots out there but the ones I happened to know of the top of my head….

Feel free to point out sillier ones!

(Vincent Di Fate’s cover for the 1984 edition of Star-Search (1983), Colin Kapp)

(Jack Gaughan’s cover for the 1962 edition of Second Ending (1961), James White)

(Paul Lehr’s cover for the 1969 edition of The Killer Thing (1967), Kate Wilhelm)

(Sydney Jordan’s cover for the August, 1961 issue of New Worlds Science Fiction)

(Uncredited cover for the 1964 edition of Outside the Universe (serialized in 1929), Edmond Hamilton)

For similar posts: Adventures in Science Fiction Cover Art INDEX