Mattel’s publishing arm is putting the classic boxing robots on the page. Rock ’Em Sock ’Em Robots: We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Bot, a junior graphic novel by writer Dustin Brady and artist Dave Bardin, arrives Aug. 31, 2027, Comics Beat reports from Mattel Press’s Summer 2027 slate.
The 208-page paperback retails for $12.99. It reimagines Blue Bomber and Red Rocker as competing creations of rival inventors fighting over a city called Downs Town. In the official synopsis, villainous Doc Spudloc unleashes Sock the Blue Bomber; aspiring hero Blaze M. Downs — Hot Man — answers with Rock the Red Rocket, kicking off oversized personalities, inventions and robot brawls.
A second installment is already dated for spring 2028. Brady, known for Trapped in a Video Game, called the project “genuinely the most fun I’ve ever had” on Facebook. Bardin’s credits include Secret Hero Society. Marvin Glass and Associates created the toy for Louis Marx in 1964; Mattel later inherited the rights and even shipped a video game around 2000, while a Vin Diesel film take has been in Universal development since 2021.
Kids’ IP-to-comics adaptations keep filling bookstore tables next to prose remakes such as Viking’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory graphic novel for April 2027. Mattel Press is betting the robot boxers still have punch for middle-grade shelves without needing the movie first.
A Barnes & Noble preview is already up for early browsers. Shops that do well with humorous junior GNs get a clear FOC-season target next summer, with a sequel already on the whiteboard if the first fight sells.
For now the announcement is the bout card: Brady, Bardin, Aug. 31, 2027, and a spring 2028 rematch already inked. If Hot Man and Doc Spudloc can turn a living-room toy into a bookshelf habit, Mattel Press will have another licensed junior line that does not need a theatrical release date to justify the print run — just two robots, a city called Downs Town, and kids who still like a clean knockout.
