Ro-Busters

Ro-Busters
Publication information
Publisher	Fleetway
First appearance	(Starlord) Starlord No. 1 (May, 1978) (2000 AD) 2000 AD No. 86 (October, 1978)
Created by	Pat Mills Kevin O'Neill
In-story information
Leader(s)	Howard Quartz
Member(s)	Hammerstein Ro-Jaws Mek-Quake Chatterbox

Ro-Busters is a British comic story that formed part of the original line-up of Starlord. Similar in premise to that of the Thunderbirds television series, it was created by writer Pat Mills and was drawn by Carlos Pino and Ian Kennedy initially, before Starlord's merger with 2000 AD. After the merger, Dave Gibbons, Kevin O'Neill and Mike McMahon were regular artists on the series, along with occasional contributions from Mike Dorey.

Along with Strontium Dog, Ro-Busters survived Starlord's merger with 2000 AD, its sister comic at IPC Magazines Ltd. The series introduced the de-commissioned war robot Hammerstein and the sewer robot Ro-Jaws, and gave rise to the popular ABC Warriors series.

Robots are going to take over Man's dirtiest jobs . . . clearing his garbage, tending his sick, even fighting his wars! By the year 2078 people will change their robots as today they change their cars. So step now through the slick plasto-glass doors of "Flash" Harry Lowder's robo-mart in the year 2078 . . .

The story was one of those aimed at being the core of the new title Starlord, a sister-comic to 2000 AD. The concept was based on a suggestion from managing editor John Sanders and, according to writer Pat Mills "I did this really as a favour and as a way of pissing off the managing editor who pitched an idea to me about ex-servicemen with super powers who deal with disasters. It was a dreadful idea and I bypassed it by doing Ro-Busters, which he hated – so I knew my story would be a hit" Although he had stayed with 2000 AD, and would go on to be the art editor there, Kevin O'Neill provided the initial designs for Ro-Buster but would only draw the series later after its move to 2000 AD.

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