Magnus, Robot Fighter returns to the world of active comic book characters with the May 1, 2010 release of Dark Horse Comics’ Free Comic Book Day: Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom/Magnus Robot Fighter.

From its first issue in February 1963 through Magnus, Robot Fighter #22, the series and character carried the distinctive stamp of Russ Manning, an exceptional artist who envisioned a stunning world of the future inside the Gold Key title. His beautiful line work, designs and storytelling matched up favorably with the best comics being published in the period. An energizing and action oriented artist, Manning was equally skilled at working with the subtlety of human movement and emotion.

The series ended with #46 in 1977. In 1991, a new company, VALIANT (later Valiant), brought the character back, initially under Editor-in-Chief and writer Jim Shooter. It ran through #64 in 1996.

“Long before VALIANT, I had the privilege of meeting Russ Manning and talking a bit about Magnus. I also read somewhere—can’t remember where—Manning’s recollections about creating Magnus. I started my run on Magnus picking up exactly where Manning and company left him, and understanding, I think, who Manning meant him to be. Magnus was the dutiful slayer of rogue robots. Leeja was the impetuous girlfriend who always disobeyed Magnus’s admonitions to stay out of danger, and then lay fetchingly on the floor while Magnus saved her,” Shooter said.

“I used all Manning’s brilliant conceits—broadcast power, Central Rob, psychoprobes, the Goph Lands, more—and I tried to develop it all inward and onward. Advance the frontier. Fulfill the potential. Fulfill the destiny. I think it is all too common these days for creators, even talented ones, to take the easy way out, to go for cheap, bottled drama. I developed Leeja, Magnus and the rest, as naturally as I could. Most creators, I think (I fear) would have instantly ‘modernized’ Leeja and given her robot-fighting powers, or at least a big gun. Most, I think, would have instantly taken Magnus’s relatively positive future and wreaked apocalyptic havoc upon it. Cheap, easy drama, short term. Then, once you’ve destroyed the essence, whatcha gonna do? You have to build, not destroy,” he said.

The Valiant run was followed by 18 issues from Acclaim Comics (Acclaim Entertainment had purchased Valiant) and then a one-shot from iBooks. At Comic-Con International: San Diego in 2009, Mike Richardson, President of Dark Horse Comics, announced that his company was brining back the character again, with Jim Shooter once again writing and supervising the project.