The Alien Comics were the first issues I owned, but I have been reading comics for quite a while now. I will be posting my own journey through comics. This blog will be going over the Transformers Franchise Comics and Manga, but I have other blogs linked in the Main Blog!
In the past I have read comics and manga here and there, but after creating a spreadsheet holding the information to the fandoms I'm currently in [such as Sonic, Alien, Transformers, Type-Moon, and Megaman] I have been getting really into these franchises comic and manga publications.
I have decided to push this new-founded passion into a blog! In this I...
Start of a series with an in-depth look at the character or franchise. Such as the conception of the characters, world, and tales plus a little into the company and men behind it.
The occasional panel or page from EVERY issue in the closest to a proper narrative order as possible.
The panels or pages will include things such as the first appearance of a character, with information on them just like the #1 post, continuity errors or continuity accuracy, giving you an idea of the story in the issue, and just things I personally find fun or interesting.
I'll do my best to include information on the creative team and what universe the comic is in (G1, Prime, etc.) But no promises, I might miss issues to edit later and some info might not be available*.
Comics List and Navigation Page - Bonus Bingo Card
Main Blog
*I start with TFArchive and compare it with TFwiki which I'm not fond of. If available, compare with TFW2005, LoCG, MAW, and GCD.
I compare with so many to verify to the best of my ability; however, I don't always know where anyone got their sources.
My first exposure to Blades was Transformers Rescue Bots.
-
Thats rough buddy.
-
This is a tad painful.
-
That head stomp is brutal. Although the following is a bit...
-
It twas all just a dream~
-
Oh.
This was definitely one of the more toy-pushed issues, one right after another plus the fact it conflicts with Optimus vehemently not wanting to "pervert the Matrix". We will see more of the Special Teams more naturally later and get to know them, and as a whole this won't 100% fit to the "future".
I thought it was strange that it took so long to bring back the Constructions, mentioned previously, but its especially strange that they did this just before introducing their new combiner teams, ie the Protectobots/Defensor and the Stunticons/Menasor. Though Furman defends this by saying that "Devastator is the slightly more lumbering, brainless version of the Special Teams, and he's also the catalyst for Buster having this feverish dream of the next generation" and also continues elevating Soundwaves presence as a "key player'.
Similar to the Annual '85, artist John Stokes continues to use and adapt poses and panel-staging from previous issues. Such as the battle between the Aerialbot's and Stunticon's, and when Optimus kneels before the humans.
-
-
Still a dream btw
-
-
I wasn't going to say it, cause it seemed like it might step a line, but Buster looks very… feminine throughout the issue.
-
I didn't realize that was Meg's for a moment and he still has mostly the same body frame. Also that dumb ass scraping by somehow.
Coming from #61 where I talk about my thoughts - this is an example of 'heroes and villains on adventures'. There's not even much to say about most of these.
I was going through my sources again as I was prepping the post for #62 and I came across this interesting tidbit from the TF UK Classics interview section about the covers, but before going into that, I wanted to discuss my thoughts on the US and UK runs through focusing on the points of the overall interview section within this collection:
UK versus the US came up often, the idea that the UK was this big massive upgrade. This makes no sense to me because Budiansky is a good writer; even when dealing with having to force new toys into stories, it feels like an alien civilization with their own lifestyle still. I would say most of the time Furman writes the characters more like heroes and villains going on adventures with the occasional war-esc story. The UK also got more space to tell its story compared to the US and so even when Furman occasionally had to do the Obvious Product Placement, it wasn't the majority of what he was doing (in another post I mention how Hasbro was mostly off-hands with the UK team), so it feels a little unfair. I think really, the only thing the UK had solidly of the US run was the art, Nel is a good artist but the limitation of how the US branch did color separation vs the UK's full paintings at times was noticeable.
Brought up Target 2006 a lot, which I found a little much for what I read, not bad but not pages of pages of singing its praises.
And obviously: Simon Furman. I can recognize that Furman did a lot (I personally love the Primus addition), many of his stories are beloved, and teammates talk about the trust they have and vice versa (ex; there's a point where Ian Rimmer talks about how in terms of editing and direction, Ian didn't worry much and his role diminished over time) but its all brought up so frequently (often alongside the 'UK run was so fantastic' bits) that it edges on glory hounding in the case of other people heaping praises on the person at the expense of others rather than the person seeking it out. Personally, I think Furman is an okay writer -- at the point of this post I've read up to #133 and a decent chunk of Phase 1 of IDW but you can seem my comments above about my preference for Budiansky. It also feels like when this came out it was with the impression of Furman being this big legend for Transformers, and in some way's he is, I dont want to diminish his contributions -- but going in years later with many other writers coming to the table across mediums, and especially after that massive Arcee fumble, plus the UK is superior plot thread (basically) conflicts with that I like the US stuff just fine, this comes off as a bit of a miss so it makes reading the collection a bit of a slog despite how interesting the behind the scenes stuff is.
But back to the covers tidbit:
It in part continues on from the coloring discussion previously, this page within this part of the interview is all about color, US material vs UK material, and a bit of the team behind it.
When deciding what to have for the cover they would rotate each week for immediate recognition on newsstands that there was a new issue (close up, combat, or a particular element of a story).
Hours would be spent on agonizing over cover lines: 'The Final Battle' apparently became such a running gag that Tomlinson used it as Simon's leaving card when Simon went freelance.
-
Its wild that it took so long for the Constructicon/Devastator to reappear, having not been around since UK #35, since they are a rather big legacy character--they are one of the few characters that don't have their name shared across wildly different characters.
-
-
Oh we're just moving on? Okay then.
Idk but looking at this suddenly reminded me of Zathura and that random incest plot.
-
-
Im laughing but I'm also confused. What did Smokescreen do??
Not much to add, but it is worth mentioning Marvel UK's first attempt at using the mechanical color separation's that American comics did. The team wasn't happy with it, which is why this issue has T.M.Cooks (Too Many Cooks) accredited for color, and didn't use mechanical separation until #93 onwards when they had a better handle on it.
And yes, the 1980s also had the "let them cook"/"what homeboy cooking". Sure its more like a hotpot reference but the same slang is the same slang.
Home Alone tricks do not work on Soundwave for he is not Harry and Marv.
-
-
-
Despite the story being here mostly to keep Kitson interested, it does take time to fill in holes left in the US series due to the constraints Budiansky faced.
-
-
Yaknow they don't show how the bots know how to find Buster - I can only assume the suit had a tracker but also why would there be one?
This tale is assisted plot-wise by artist Barry Kitson, who appeared first in UK #8 for covers and #31 for interiors. And while he didn't do much for the series, it seems he was very much wanted in the offices as this two-parter was made solely to keep Kitson interested by involving him in story planning, which didn't seem to work.
Grabbing from classics, since original scans are rather dim and slightly fuzzy.
-
-
-
Is the decepticon fortress trying to be Castlevania?
-
Dude lived through a 5 million years war, I think you should revaluate here bud.
-
Oh shit how has Frenzy lived this long. Not like Buster has a swath of combat experience.
To be honest, I think the art really sells the story; the plot itself is pretty meh.
Marvel Transformers UK - Special Teams Have Arrived
Writer: Simon Furman
Art: John Stokes
Inks:
Colors:
Letters:
Cover:
Editor:
We take a moment to look at the Special Teams Have Arrived, an issue that came at the insistence of Hasbro to promote the Special Teams toys. The instance would cause a bit of continuity problems and the #63 issue, Second Generation, would help to patch that over with Special Teams being a sort of "Trailer". Apparently expanding from The Special Teams Have Arrived. It's placement seems to come from the fact it was packaged with #54 and should be read anywhere from there to #63. Since I was following Wadapan's list order, at the point I read this (i've moved to RabidYak's later), imma read it now.
Regarding the name Special Teams, I'll refer to this post by Nevermore on the TF2005 form - it goes into detail, but to summarize here: Special Teams was going to be the branding name for all these Gestalt teams like Aerialbots in the same way Seekers was, but eventually Hasbro dropped it, likely late in development, as the name still appears in marketing, toy catalogues and obvs a few issues like this one.
There's more to be said about this issue than presenting what's in it, but here's my real time response as I read:
O-okay
Just right in then (This is the first 3 panels)
First time in the comics that Optimus has said that
-
-
Super hearing, like a locomotive from Sodor
-
-
-
Yellow mouth
-
-
Bumblebee you dumb ass. I really don't like quick assumptions/misunderstandings - a stupid (since it's hardly done well) and exhausting trope. It doesn't even make sense either.
This issue focus' on the concert these guys are hearing; looking at Tfarchive, they say that "Brick Springhorn and the Tenth Avenue Band are clearly based on Bruce Springstein, with the song 'Born in America' based on Springstein's hit 'Born in the USA'." Of which I can only take their word for as I've not really seen Springstein.
-
Idk if this will go anywhere but it is here. The facial expression for Walt (guy on the right) is rather evokative.
-
-
-
"This can't stop me, I can't read."
Hmmm.
-
Lets go kids, lets go
-
I love this, it's fun
Like "don't mind me, keep goin" "Ya man(?)"
-
Oh, they're just a thing... are soundwaves enough energy to make this amount of energon cubes from, what it seems, a single concert?
-
Team eh Decepticons blasting off?
-
A cute little end, I appreciate that even though Optimus chastises Bumblebee - he does trust Bee and figured a good reason made him disobey.
Next up, my least favorite part of the series. Robot Master.
And halfway to where I stopped.
It's kinda funny how he still has the evil look going on
Look at this angel
With the creatin matrix, Jetfire lives
-
Are they a cult or something?
-
The Ark fixed everyone just dandy before
Also, Mind bank
-
CARCASS: Issue 14, it was shown that several characters like Hoist, Grapple, Tracks, they had their brainwave patterns copied onto crystals on Cybertron and later those brainwave patterns were put into bodies that were made on earth. Does that mean that there are duplicates of them running around somewhere?
BOB: Gee, if I thought of it back then, about what it meant, I don’t remember! (laughs) I don’t think I thought it through that deeply...
Apparently getting into the crime boss business gives you shit teeth
-
-
So much hair
He should get a wax with that massage
-
The moment of how low Joey has ended up, not in wealth but in everything else, is a little brought down be the funny pose of Megatron here
Maybe if Megatron was facing camera it wouldn't be so funny
-
At least he's starting to understand how shit his life is
Not that he's taking any responsibility
-
Maybe don't throw the bot that was only under your control cause he hit his head bad
-
I really like this back/up view of Megatron walking away, especially with the color and shading.
-
This ending as a whole is nice. I mean I woulda liked it if Joey took a bit more self-responsibility, but overall a nice little character arc for him.
A little bit about coloring in the 1980s and 1990s; UK strips were hand painted with more variety of color than the US, which used mechanical color separation as the cheap newsprint the US branch used could not capture a lot of color and a greater variety was expensive, thus many US artists' were limited to a palette of 64 colors with only Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow. Ian Rimmer, though passionate about use painted artwork, would despair more at the visual discontinuity between UK originals and US reprints.
To summarize Ian Rimmer's words when asked about the subject; the art for the US strips would be done in the US via the US method and the materials (4 sheets of film in black, cyan, magenta, and yellow) would arrive at the UK office. From there they would resize the bigger American A5 into the UK A4 (which Rimmer speculates might have made the 'dottiness' as he called it more pronounced) and adjust the spelling for UK audiences.
-
-
Don't dis the big Con or you'll get the big guns
-
He looks like an angwel
-
Huh
-
-
He's got nice people who care about him. Sucks what he's gonna do next.
