Atlas and the Blue Knight

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

I was thinking about the differences between the three Anime series and the manga. The '63 series was around the longest and it probably went though all of the stories that were in the manga up until '66 when the series ended. Both the Blue Knight and Greatest Robot story arcs were covered, but they never made it into the ELV. Both were in the '80 series, except that the Blue Knight and Atlas had merged (so it wasn't exactly the same). The Blue Knight appeared in the '03 series with some changes in the story line.

But where did Atlas come from? I don't think he was in the manga at all, nor in the '63 series, at least not in the form that he had in the later animes. He WAS the robot in "Don Tay's Infernal" and also appeared in at least one later story from the '63 series, but his character was totally different than in the later two animes. Did Atlas appear in any of the manga stories?

[Sporkia]

Atlas was actually sort of two different characters in the manga. His first version was a lot like in Don Tay's Inferno (in fact the plot is pretty much the same if memory serves me correctly). But then Tezuka had a story about the boy Atlas that we see in the 80s series, though things were a bit more light-hearted there than in the anime.

[Little Brown Fox]

Yeah, that was more of a promotional short story more than anything. Also, Tezuka drew him slightly different here than in the anime. He has gloves, and some type of ornamentation on his gloves, boots, and head. I'm not sure what color he was, either. He's also shorter here than in the anime (Tezuka always seemed to draw Atom short in the manga, but he was also very short in the 80's anime. If you pay attention, young Atlas appears to be a tiny bit taller than Atom).

[SuwaHana]

Yes, Atlas was in the manga. Everyone made a big fuss about him as the robot who could commit crimes and harm humans without remorse. The '63 series episode was pretty much the same. We probably shouldn't think too hard about him in the 80's series, since so much was changed from the original for seemingly no reason. His personality in the '03 anime was definitely taken from the original manga (with additional elements added, of course). I don't remember exactly, but he generally regarded society with contempt, attacking everything in sight just because he could.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

You wouldn't happen to know which DH volume that story was in? (assuming it was collected in that set)

[Little Brown Fox]

Atlas? If I've read it, then it came form Dark Horse, dear. I cannot recall which volume off the top of my head, though, and I do not feel much like looking for it. I do seem to recall it as being one of the later volumes, though.

[SuwaHana]

In chronological order, Atlas is the 16th story, from 1956, and it's in volume 18.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Thanks!

[ASTROBUDDY]

You wouldn't happen to know which DH volume that story was in? (assuming it was collected in that set)

The "Atlas" story appears in volume 18 of the DH series, while the "Blue Knight" appears in volume 19 of the DH series. The "Atom vs. Atlas" story appears in volume 23.

I

[SuwaHana]

Welcome!

...

Darn it, now I want to read it, too.