THE MOST ASTOUNDING SUPER HERO OF ALL - NEUTRO !!!

Dell Comic's Neutro was, unfortunately a one shot with, the most astounding artist of all - Jack (Pirana, Secret Six) Sparling. I've always enjoyed his cover to the comic book.

The story of Neutro opened with a pair of scientists named Dodge and Banyan, who were exploring the Southwest desert of North America, investigating native legends of aliens who visited the area about a thousand years ago. What they found was a bunch of boxes containing easy-to-assemble components of a giant robot. Without explaining how they found out, they let on to the reader that the aliens were from Pluto, the robot had immense power but no brain, and its name was Neutro.

A lengthy caption outlined what Neutro could do — outrace leopards, incinerate dinosaurs, rip tanks in two, stuff like that … and if anybody were to shoot at it, it could swallow the bullets like a baby swallows candy. Unfortunately, readers never got to see it doing any of that.

Neither did Dodge and Banyan, who were nonetheless convinced anybody who controlled Neutro could easily rule the world — a point not lost on Group 777, a bunch of renegade scientists, Russians, or whatever — would-be world conquerors, in any case, who somehow found out about Neutro and somehow overrode the Americans' control over it. There was more about what Neutro was capable of, but nothing about it actually doing anything. Meanwhile, the Plutonians were said (but not shown) to be biding their time, ready to take control of Neutro and Earth away from whoever wound up with it.

Neutro #1   Neutro Does Not Know the Difference Between Right and Wrong!
"Mysterious Flying Saucers"
"The Birth of Neutro"
"Captured by 777"

While Neutro was not a great comic book, it did pique my writer's interest, my youthful imagination. It was a great introduction. I liked it. I sure would have welcomed a second issue!

Alas, that was not to be. So sad!

Live Large My Friends!

Thank You!

Comission cover by Gene "The Dean" Colan for Neutro!