Transformers: Beast Wars - Second Chances - Page 17
Originally posted on February 2nd, 2011
Story - Mike Priest
Pencils - Ryan Miller
Inks - Jake Isenberg
Colours - Ray Fromme
Letters - HdE
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wada sez: See below for Mike Priest’s original script, titled “Lost and Found”.
Beast Wars: Second Chances- Page 17
“Lost and Found”
By Mike Priest
(FIRST PANEL- Starscream’s ghost/spark has phased through the Ark’s hull and is now hovering in a dim hallway. “Emergency” red lights that line the walls appear to be blinking, indicating something is happening somewhere in the Ark.)
STARSCREAM:
(Text box)
Hmmm, now if I recall correctly…
(SECOND PANEL- Starscream ghost/spark “zooms” down the hallway and around a corner, leaving a streaking trail behind it.)
(THIRD PANEL- Starscream’s ghost emerges from a wall, half-phased through it. His facial expression gives the self-satisfied impression of “success!” when he sees the contents of the room.)
STARSCREAM:
(Text box)
Ah-HA! I knew I left that old thing lying around here somewhere…
(FOURTH PANEL- The Ark’s computer room, where Tarantulas’s image is on virtually every monitor.)
TARANTULAS:
Security overridden. Preparing to initialize self-destruct sequence. Even beyond death, I will see my ultimate goal realized! I will --
(FIFTH PANEL- Tarantulas’s computerized expression suddenly turns to shock as he notices someone enter the room.)
TARANTULAS:
No. You’re not supposed to be online! That’s impossible!
(SIXTH PANEL- Large pay-off panel of STARSCREAM, in his original body, standing in the room with his hands on his hips, eyes narrowed and smirking his classic smirk.)
Some of my favorite @almightyrayzilla illustrations from Zach Cole’s book The Titans’ Children, which you can read my review of here. The bottom one, Typhon, is literally the kaiju version of Dracula. TBH, the entire selling point of this book could be “it has Kaiju Dracula” but I’m not the one marketing it. Zach’s series is more gonzo bananas than it appears.
Transformers: Beast Wars - Second Chances - Page 2
Originally posted on February 2nd, 2011
Story - Curt Lunsford
Pencils - Ryan Miller
Inks - Jake Isenberg
Colours - Ray Fromme
Letters - HdE
deviantART
wada sez: Starscream’s ghost returned in the Beast Wars episode “Possession”; here, he’s back again, and he finds the dead body of Terrorsaur, who was last seen turning into a Transmetal as he fell into lava inside the Darksyde in “Aftermath”. Terrosaur’s actual toyline-only Transmetal toy is used for the character’s design. In case you didn’t know, Ryan Miller is prominent fanartist TGPing, who achieved popularity in recent years with his stunning watercolors of Beast Wars characters and toy-accurate G1 characters, and managed to sneak in a couple of covers for IDW before they closed up shop. His work here reflects his toy-accurate approach, as Starscream has been drawn specifically as his Masterpiece body for some reason. This was originally going to be Page 7 of the comic, but was bumped up earlier; according to a later comment by Shaun Flaherty: “Starscream's Page 2 originally occurred much later, but as we assembled the pages, it seemed to interrupt the natural flow of the "Beast Wars" characters' stories, so we sort of squeezed it in near the beginning. I feel comfortable with the idea that he's watching the events unfold along with the audience until an opportunity presents itself for him to intervene on his own behalf, but it is a long time between when the seed is planted and its payoff.” See the original script below, as well as Curt’s “Writer Spotlight”.
Second Chances Page 7
Panel One
(Shot of a twinkle in space. This doesn‘t have to be very large)
TEXT BOX: Maximals…
TEXT BOX: Predacons…
Panel Two
(Shot of a grey and red blur flying toward the Predacons ruined base/ship. This also doesn‘t need to be that large)
TEXT BOX: Tremble in fear…
Panel Three
(Reveal of Ghost Starscream, screaming out loud above the ruined Predacon base/ship in a triumphant pose. Starscream‘s spark is pulsating and clearly visible inside of his chest)
Starscream: Starscream has returned!!!!
TEXT BOX(Lower right hand corner): …
TEXT BOX(Lower right hand corner): Where is everyone?!
Panel Fopr
(Shot of Transmetal Terrorsaur‘s arm, “encased“ in cooled lava. It’s grasping toward the air, very similar to what we saw when Terrosaur was going into the lava during the episode “Aftermath”. Starscream can be seen hovering in the air above)
TEXT BOX: Hmm, what’s that?
Panel Five
(Shot of Ghost Starscream entering into the ground around the arm.)
TEXT BOX: Looks like someone forgot one of their toys.
Panel Six
(Shot of Transmetal Terrorsaur “clawing” out of the ground. It should be done in a way that the reader doesn’t quite know exactly what it is yet)
SOUND EFFECT: Crrrack…
TEXT BOX: Huh, seems a little broken…
Panel Seven
(Reveal of Trasnmetal Terrorsaur, He’s in a “cool” pose, but is very heavily damaged, maybe even blackened somewhat. Somewhere near his feet we can see the remains of McDonald’s Transmetal Scorponok if the artist wishes)
Starscream: …but that doesn’t mean it won’t be fun to play with!
Beast Wars. I think for me, it’s the series that sort of kept the Transformer spark in me alive. However, it’s also kind of a weird series, as I keep it segregated in my mind from the rest of my Transformers. Allow me to explain:
Being born in ‘85, by the time I was old enough to remember, Transformers was off the air. But there was the semi-local video store, hand-me-down and a few new Transformer toys, some G1 episodes of my own, various “Action Cards”, and a very cool big brother to help fill in my imagination. So even though I didn’t get to see G1 firsthand, I can honestly say that Transformers was definitely a part of my early childhood.
But, in hindsight, I’d say Beast Wars played a very integral part in keeping me with Transformers. Ya see, I didn’t have cable/satellite until I was 12. Therefore, my knowledge of G2 was sketchy at best, and I only got a whole nine figures from the line when I was a kid, all Decepticons oddly enough. However, my awesome big brother was in college at this time, and he came home on the weekends, and he usually brought me home a tape of cartoons I couldn’t see otherwise. It was through this method that I saw that unforgettable commercial...
“In the beginning, there was the beast. But it’s more than meets the eye, it’s a robot in disguise!” I saw it, and said to myself “Hey, Transformers, cool!” So I watched the commercial a few times, and immediately wanted Dinobot. However, he wasn’t first Beastformer, that honor goes to McDonald’s Manta Ray. It took a little while for my brother to find out when Beast Wars was airing and start taping me episodes, but in the meantime I again took up renting G1 episodes from the library and getting a few Beast Wars figures in the process. Because of this, I was mystified the first time I laid eyes on Gorilla Optimus Primal and T-Rex Megatron. “That doesn’t make sense, they’re supposed to be a bat and a crocodile!”
When I finally did get to see some select, mostly first season episodes of Beast Wars, I immediately recognized it as a good show. As I learned the characters, I collected a few more figures, though not too many. Years later I realized that, barring Snapper and the McBeasts, all the characters I got when I was “a kid” were from the show! Of course, oddly enough, I always kept my Beast Wars in a box by themselves. Once in awhile they’d have adventures with my other Transformers, Super Heroes, G.I. Joes, etc., but for the most part they stayed separate.
Anyway, even though I got satellite in ‘97, it wasn’t until around ‘99 that I finally got to see Beast Wars in it’s entirety when FOX re-aired the series. If I recall correctly, I watched it every day it was on, and loved every episode.
Time went by. I watched the first season of Beast Machines, but wasn’t really impressed at the time. The DreamWave comics came out, Rhino released certain episodes of G1. This, and a very cool bootleg lot containing all G1 and CG Beast Wars/Machines episodes my brother bought, firmly cemented me into the realm of the Transformers. I was here to stay.
But what does that have to do with Beast Wars? Well, in that lot there was a “commercial” tape that had various commercials and U.S./Japanese intros to nearly every Transformers series at the time (up to Car Robots). It was through this that I learned about Beast Wars II and Neo. I was intrigued. Suddenly I wanted to know more about those characters and that Universe. Well, for a long time that was my only knowledge. When I finally got the Internet, I looked into Beast Wars II and Neo, though I’ve yet to see either of those series with the exception of a couple fan-dubbed episodes and the BWII Movie on YouTube. But I did learn about all these cool non-show Beast Wars characters, and I wanted more.
So for the longest time, I kinda ignored the Beast Wars CG series. In my mind, it was done, and everything about those characters had been told. I eagerly awaited the DreamWave Beast Wars series once I saw it would star non-show characters (though we all know what happened there), and I loved IDW’s “The Gathering”. But I still had little interest in the original Mainframe Beast Wars cast. I’d seen the show through a few times by this time, and the show had lost some of it’s original luster. The Beast Era was over, it was all about G1 homages. Therefore, when new Beast Wars material surfaced, I was more interested in new Beast Wars exploits, with new non-show characters.
Then I received the invite to join what would become BEAST WARS: Second Chances. I, of course, wanted in on writing the story because, heck, Mosaic is a really fun project and I’d been itching to co-write something. So I took another look at the series. When we got into the nuts and bolts of things, I started to realize again why I liked those characters to begin with and I looked at the Beast Wars show in a new light. It was still good, but I started to see things I hadn’t seen before. There were aspects of characters that could still be explored and stories yet to be told. The magic is back and now I look forward to hunting down figures from the show I never got. Surprisingly, Dinobot II is among them (you’ll all find out why soon enough).
So all in all, I’d say Beast Wars is kind of a weird area for me. I don’t know if I’ll ever be as enamored with it as much as G1 or Animated, but Second Chances has certainly rekindled my love for the series as a whole.
-- Curt Lunsford
It really is therapeutic to paint, both for the mind and hand. After making my Kaijumas sketches, a couple of my fingertips ended up with a little numbness. That kind of strain never occurs when I’m working with this medium.
aka "Godzinezer Scrooge visited by the Guardians of Kaijumas Past, Present, and Future: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack".
Getting over a cold (maybe a bit of the ol’ con crud), I've felt fired up to work on some more art since getting back from Planet Comicon, and this was the piece I went to when I mustered up enough energy (I actually did this before the recent Orga piece). Originally, when I drew this last October, I wanted to do it traditionally, using pens and markers to ink and color it, but this was essentially how I envisioned it, with only Godzilla himself having “solid” lines.