born in Shang hi, tso emigrated to the united states shortly after ww2, alegidly as a stowaway aboard a Scandinavian freighter! bill tso was a man of many talents not only a good writer and accomplished competitive eater, bill was a master robot builder. yet some say sadly, shunned by the world of science. his first robotic creation dubbed by Tso, Anihila-tron 5000 was destroyed by a public out cry and riot in july 1950. the world simply was not ready for bill Tso.
well if america and the world of robotic engineering was not yet ready for Tso, there was always the comics! yet there again tso met with a bitter crushing defeat. 1n 1952 Skidmore began with their 'new decision' line of books. titles like scintillating science stories and strange physics were made for bill Tso! his knowledge of the subject matter was was boundless and his design skills were impecible. if a kid could read in between the lines of these stores he could almost build his own thermo nucular device! and they practically did! comics were selling as hot as newly minted transistors to the teenagers across america. with a shop bench in the garage and a copy of strange physics, kids began soldering away with reckless abandon. constructing hoover cars, ray guns, chemical bombs and self replicating artificial intelligence with dangerous regularity. in 1953 a boy in san diego california built and deployed a dangerous robot called Killbot, that he lost control of after annihilating his local high school.the national guard had to be called in, early 1954 saw a 16 year old youth in new orleans built a death ray gun that took out a quarter of the krewe of mokus parade during mardi gras. later that year five boys were killed by a rocket explosion in a garage in dayton ohio. numerous other lab accidents and near misses were reported, all had been influenced by the science comics!
the comics themselves were very good sellers and enjoyed by all walks of life. praised by the country's top scientists and astro physicists, who themselves were pounding away at the same problems during the early days of the space race. but there were grumblings too, do gooder and safety groups were getting irate and with the assistance of crackpot psychologist dr. phil worsening, managed to stir up enough to public out cry to eventually ban science comics in late 1955. tso was heartbroken. he muddled thru the late fifties writing Abraxis in adventure into weirdness. the tone of the stories began somewhat subdued due to strict comics code enforcement, but bill tso slowly turned a now earthbound abraxis into a comedy gem that is still remembered fondly by some fans today. others, eh,....not so much.
however tso could not leave robotics alone, he secretly began construction of a new version of his anilhlitron design. new developments in transistors along with tso's advanced research in micro processing proved successful once again. Tso along with his robotic assistants created an outstandingly superior version of the anihilitron. the result was challenges from the illegal robot death match contenders. outlawed virtually world wide, robot death matches were clandestinely held in havana cuba once a year. 1959 was the year that saw bill tso win the competition with his anihilitron 10.000 but it also was the year he decided to give up making robots forever and concentrate on his comicbook writing. after the escape of the anihilitron unit during shipment back to the united states. bill decided it was best to let such things go and return to comics wholeheartedly. after all the mystery men were getting popular again!
'Meet the strangers' was one of bill tso's better creations, a dark and creepy metaphysical tale about the psychic explorers of atlantis and the worlds they tamed! yet it is nowhere near as well known as his run on, Mister Wolverbone- werewolf by rights! featured in SHOWBOAT comics, starting in the fall of of 1959. it won him several fan favorite awards and the series is remembered for the introduction of his icy cold villain, Ripsaw!
As the sixties began Bill Tso began to hit a stride.
bill's tenure on mystic knights of the mystery school is among some of the best storytelling in that titles long history. the science-heroes were taking off and Bill Tso took off right with them. he seemed to really get into the whole spirit of things with, the incredible mister richter! geology was always an interest of tso and with all those huge underground caverns that Richter plowed thru Tso came up with some mighty big props to showcase in science-hero trophy rooms forever! to this day science heroes and fans alike cherish those giant penny's and little bottled city's that clutter up diagrams of secret hideouts! yes Bill Tso was on a roll!
by the mid 1970's Bill Tso's interest turned to competitive eating, he was a familiar face at the fourth of july national hot dog eating championship each year and even won in 77' and 79' other milestones for tso include a couple of chili cook offs in texas and monstrous five pound hamburger that he encountered outside of Richmond va. few had been able to finish the burger but bill packed it away with a few Irish beers and had some pie for desert! Skip Skidmore even worked up a sponsorship deal with Hostall, the makers of Twinkels and the all the fruit pies, where bill would not only write all the fruit pie advertisements in the skidmore comics but he would also set the record in eating them! no small feet. having the world record holding fruit pie eater writing the ad's would give a competitive edge to the lack luster fruit pie industry and really give it a shot in the arm that it desperately needed!
all that eating was all fine and well but there were comicbooks to be written and the science-hero was never done better than in this period by tso, when tso went into his wild and humorous explanations on say, partial psychics or rocket technology. it was fascinating! Tso had an inate understanding of the stuff and it showed. no one really knows what happened to Bill Tso, he disappeared as mysteriously as when he arrived. last seen bill tso had ballooned up to 400 pounds, and was winning a pinball tournament in times square, just before Skidmore went to the all classic re-print format. then he seemed to disappear.
there are many great strips written by Bill Tso. over half of which are uncredited, but they are easy to pick out if you are looking for them, he had his own unique voice that put Skidmore in the major leagues of comics and left it there until it's demise due to poor licensing deals.
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