MEGA ROBO Q&A!

You have questions! About Mega Robo Bros! I have (some) answers!

Last week saw the release of NEXT LEVEL, the brand-new fifth volume in the Mega Robo Bros series, and I said that to mark the occasion here I’d try and answer a bunch of MRB questions if you, the good people of the internet, had any. And you did! Let’s dive right in…

Victoria Cleave ASKS: My son Alex would like to know how Alex and Freddie grow up. If they were adopted as babies, how do robots get bigger?

Great question! They were indeed adopted as babies (well, Freddy was a baby, Alex was a bit bigger) - and in NEXT LEVEL we get to see a little glimpse of them when they were little…

DAWWWWWWWW!

As to how robots get bigger: well, as Freddy would be the first to tell you, they are HIGHLY ADVANCED robots! Their bodies are actually built up of CELLULAR ROBOTIC NANOTECH systems. Basically, just as our human bodies are made up of millions and millions of tiny cells, Alex and Freddy’s robot bodies contain similar numbers of what are essentially microscopic machines. These work together to produce a system of incredible complexity, that takes the food that Alex and Freddy consume and then processes it - on the one hand supplying a source of energy for their internal fusion reactors, and on the other providing raw materials which are recombined at a molecular level and ultimately used to construct more and more of the tiny cellular nano-machines. Over time this process makes Alex and Freddy’s robot bodies grow and develop, roughly at the same rate as biologically human children.

So basically the answer is: it’s SCIENCE.

This question reminds me that I have in fact done a couple of strips where Nita (Alex and Freddy’s mum and all-round super smart science genius) explains this kind of stuff, but those stories haven’t for one reason or another made it into any of the books so far. (I think mainly just for space reasons, but maybe other people are not as interested in my weird made-up science as I am? No, that can’t be it.) But anyway, this has given me an idea for something to try with this very newsletter, so… keep your eyes peeled for something fun in next week’s instalment!

Victoria Cleave also ASKS: Bit greedy asking two but Alex has another question..... Can you eat the things in the playroom? (Obviously not the evil simulations, but if you generated a cake, could you eat it?). He came down out of bed last night to ask me this so I feel it's SUPER IMPORTANT!

That IS super important, but I’m afraid the answer is a no. The objects in the playroom are generated from (checks notes) a programmable matrix of three-dimensional force field shapes. They offer physical resistance but there’s no matter there - so while you can touch them (and hit them), and I guess in theory you could bite them, sadly they wouldn’t taste of anything. That’s the *next* upgrade. Why is no-one in the real world working on this technology?

KATHERINE asks: I'd love to know if they age. And what would Freddy be like as a teenager?

As I mentioned above, they do indeed age - and as Alex in particular gets older and approaches puberty, this is going to be a BIG thing in the final volumes of this story. As to what Freddy would be like as a teenager? I would not want to give anything away about potential future stories, but I think it is safe to say: UNBEARABLE.

Theo (8) ASKS: ‘How did you get the idea for the bad guy robots like Wolfram?’

Another great question! And I’m going to try and answer it without TOO many spoilers for anyone who hasn’t read all the books so far. Basically, I always knew that a big part of the story of Mega Robo Bros was going to be Alex and Freddy learning about where they came from, who built them and why, and therefore that the main bad guys - Wolfram and indeed Robot 23 before him - would be other robots who had ties to their origins, to that secret program. And so I had the idea early on for Wolfram, that he would be kind of a failed early prototype version of what became Alex and Freddy, incredibly powerful but kind of huge and scary and broken.

In terms of Wolfram’s look, I think I was inspired by this cool toy robot that someone gave me as a present ages ago:

He spent years sitting on a shelf in my studio, and then several more years being played with and slowly destroyed by my son. I think he’s from an anime series, but I am a bit embarrassed to admit I’m not quite sure which one. (I have the words ‘Mazinger Z’ in my head. Is that right?) I just thought he looked really cool, and has that lovely kind of chunky retro Giant Robot aesthetic that definitely informed how I wanted Wolfram to look.

Donagh (aged 5, from Ireland) ASKS: Do you know how many more books there will be in MRB? And can we see the pictures of the covers for them? Thanks

Thank YOU, Donagh! The plan is for 8 books in total. The first 5 are out now, as follows:

And after that…

BOOK 6 is going to be called CARNIVAL CRISIS, and will be out this summer! And here’s the cover!

I figure I am allowed to share that since, hey look: it’s on Amazon already!

BOOK 7 will be out next year, and I’m not sure I am allowed to share this but, hey, we’re all amongst friends here right? It’s going to be called…

NEMESIS.

I’m afraid I can’t show you the cover yet though! Too exciting / too filled with possible spoilers / I haven’t actually finished it yet. Soon!

And finally, BOOK 8 will be the final volume, the grand finale, and I am still drawing it so I am afraid both the title and the cover and indeed basically everything about it must remain TOP SECRET for the moment. But if there is one thing I can categorically promise you, it’s that it is going to be worth the wait.

CP ASKS: Do you intend to create any other spin-offs like Freddy vs. School?

ANOTHER good question! At the moment I’m just completely focussed on getting to the end of Mega Robo Bros itself, this giant series that by the time we get to the end, I’ll have been working on for about 10 years of my life. But I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t thought about it. I think my brain just has a natural tendency to think up Fun Ideas For Potential Spin-Offs?

A little while ago I had to write some remarks about MRB and the Freddy books for some promotional thing, and I ended up having to cut a bit for time, but I will share it with you here because it’s about this very question:

I love getting to tell these different kinds of stories with these characters. Honestly, I feel like we’re only scratching the surface; I could very happily write a whole book just about Alex and Freddy’s mum and dad, a heartfelt adult novel about marriage and about the difficulties and rewards of parenting non-typical children. Or a YA book about Alex and Eustace, and where that relationship goes. Or a cool mystery series about Alex’s friends Taia and Mira investigating weird futuristic cases that straddle the line between technology, metaphysics and the paranormal. Or a picture book about Stupid Philosophy Penguin, a fun introduction to existentialism for young readers.

…also, since writing that I have come up with about 12 further Fun Ideas For Potential Spin-Offs. So… we’ll see?

And finally for now Simon K Jones, author of the very excellent substack newsletter Write More With Simon K Jones ASKS: When is the Netflix TV show happening?

OKAY SO THAT’S ALL THE TIME WE HAVE FOR QUESTIONS! Thanks everyone, that was fun. Apologies to those who asked questions I haven’t answered - that’s all I had room for here, but I will try and do another one of these soon! If anyone has anything else they’d like to ask, just leave a comment here and I’ll try and get to them all next time!

DON’T FORGET

Mega Robo Bros: NEXT LEVEL is available now from all good bookshops! As for that matter is the entire series so far!

KILL IT DADDY!, my collection of autobiographical parenting comics about Zelda (look, it’s hard to explain) is available now from my web shop!

Okay, see you back here next week for the previously-alluded-to FUN THINGS!