Shmobots

by Adam Rifkin, Les Toil (Artist), Johnny Lowe (Letterer)

SMALL SOLDIERS and MOUSEHUNT screenwriter and DETROIT ROCK CITY director, Adam Rifkin, pairs with pin-up artist supreme Les Toil to create Shmobots! In an world where man needs robots to do menial labor, a city decides to contract with the lowest bidder in order to create its army workforce. But the whole thing backfires and the robots end up being lazy and stupid -- with attitude. So what do you call these slacker robots? They're a bunch of Shmobots! A darkly funny tale of passion, romance, and sexy-time! Once you go chrome, you never go home!

Genres: Graphic Novels

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Peacegal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three young robots with nothin' better to do
Than sit around the house, get high, and watch the tube
And here is what happened when they decided to cut loose...

This is not the type of comic you hand to your 10-year-old niece or Great Aunt Ethel to introduce them to the world of graphic novels. However, if you're not easily offended Shmobots is a laugh riot. These robots make Bender from "Futurama" look like a cultured gentleman.

There are all sorts of jokes tossed into the mix, but I especially enjoyed the Shmobots' obsession with watching a 24-hour all-kitten channel.

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

Would have worked better as satire ala Mark Russell. Didn't really see the point when the robots were just filling in for stupid, lazy humans. We have enough of those around already. They even ate which makes no sense. The whole thing just seems like a pointless waste of time. Not to mention the homophobia that wouldn't pass muster today.

[Matthew J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mildly amusing bit of silliness. I remember enjoying it much more when I first read it, when it was new. This time around, it struck me more as a lower-tier episode of Futurama.
You could do worse, but I can't recommend running out to find a copy. I do like Les Toil's art.

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very funny, and surprisingly accurate depiction of a type. I know the guy and am acquainted with all three robots. Glad I don't have to live with any of them.

[Marc Hilton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This graphic novel has a great story and terrific art.

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

this graphic novel was very hilarious indeed. it is about a town that was to invest a lot of money into a large workforce of robots that would do all the very labor intensive jobs. instead, all the robots turned out to be very lazy and unhelpful. (this is blamed on the government for picking the lowest bidder, which turned out to be quite sleazy and cut many corners in making the robots.) now this town is full of lazy robots, nicknamed "shmobots" which are the city's new minority group. it is in full color and quite a page turner.

[Will · Rating 3 out of 5]

The idea behind the book was quite clever: government sanctioned robot servants built to the lowest bidder produces robots with pathetic attributes (a prostitute robot, a homeless robot, a Don Juan robot, slacker rock band robots etc). The execution, however...

[slightlyfoxed]

Meh.

[Richard · Rating 1 out of 5]

barf.

[Sonic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hilarious! I Laughed out loud, and LOUDLY as I read this book! It is an excellent premise and it was very well executed!

[Lost · Rating 2 out of 5]

It wasn't great but I did really like the art of the female robots.....even if they were hookers.

[Rick · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, the unemployed robots were hilarious. I would definitely have read more of this had the author written anything else in this setting.