The Good Little Robot

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The Good Little Robot, by Ryan Reid

This is a cool strip about a robot that crash-landed on Earth and is now trying to fit in. Aside from his coworkers (yes, he found a job), his friends consist of a herd of sheep, with his best friend being named Francis. It's beautifully drawn and written by Ryan Reid. Here's a description of the strip, in Ryan's words: "The Good Little Robot is the story of an optimistic good-hearted robot who is trying to make the best of being stranded on Earth. He's got a crumby job, some good friends, and the government is out to get him. Just like you and me! Right, maybe it's just me."

Check out a bit of Ryan's great art below, with some excellent commentary on a couple of his strips.

Signed The Good Little Robot giclée by Ryan Reid, September 4, 2003. This is the first TGLR strip. Some history about the strip, as described by Ryan: "The strip 'I'm Only One Man' was the first thought I had about the character of Robot. I liked the irony in the joke. It's a recurring theme in the comic: Robot refers to himself in some superior way, only to prove that his complexity doesn't make him superior. Short bursts of ego are one of his quirks. Although I consider this the big tag line for the comic, I do not consider this strip to be part of the over all story. It is chronologically the first strip ever, but at the time the current premise wasn't written (that premise being space robot stranded on Earth, blah, blah, etc.) and I needed to release this character from my brain. The story, as far as I'm concerned, starts two strips later with 'Welcome to Earth'.

"The man in the strip is a character I doodled for years, even wrote a few unpublished strips about him in various forms before TGLR. His name is Cole and he has been mostly an unemployed artist since the early nineties when I first started drawing him. This was his first and last appearance in TGLR. Once I introduced Robot into our daily life, I wanted his human counterpart to be a strong willed, self-satisfying (yet caring), somewhat materialistic female character. And Robin was born!"

Signed The Good Little Robot giclée by Ryan Reid, October 9, 2003. This strip features the first appearance of Francis. Some history about the strip, as described by Ryan: "Part of what appeals to me about Robot is that he makes no real distinction between animals and humans. Even from his introduction to the sheep in 'First Contact', he makes no assumptions about the sheep being lesser beings. It appears as though he has an ability to communicate with animals in a way unknown to humans.

"I hadn't really made the decision to have a Francis character at that time. The use of the name was meant in a more goofy derogatory form than as nomenclature, but I enjoyed the sheep so much that I had to flesh out a Francis the Sheep character. In later strips we see Francis with the black patch over his left eye, and other sheep with equally as unique markings on their heads. In 'First Contact' all of the wooly animals look mostly the same.

"I grew up on a farm that had sheep. They were never this cute or personable. I modeled Francis on one of our cats instead, the fat one, that looks more like a beanbag chair than an actual living animal. It might be unhealthy, but it's really cute."

An awesome specialty piece of Robot and Francis signed by Ryan.

The first half of a letter Ryan wrote for me describing the history of the TGLR comic strip.

The second half of the letter describing the history of TGLR, signed by Ryan.

If in case you're wondering what a giclée is, here's a description.

Go and experience the fun of The Good Little Robot by clicking on the link below!