#shaun flaherty

[transformers-mosaic]

Transformers: Beast Wars - Second Chances - Page 13

Originally posted on February 2nd, 2011

Story - Shaun Flaherty Art - Daniel Olsén Letters - HdE

deviantART

wada sez: “It’s over... finished!” is a Furmanism, obviously. See below for Flaherty’s original script and a sketch by Olsén.

PAGE THIRTEEN (six panels)

Panel 1.  Inside the wreckage of the Nemesis.  Inferno (robot mode) emerges from a Predacon creation/restoration tank.

Reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meQV1KKTgKQ (2:46) wada sez: dead link Inferno (Seibertron) Inferno (TFWiki) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4s7ACyr4lro (0:28) wada sez: dead link

CAP: The Nemesis.

CAP/DEPTH CHARGE: “What’s wrong with you idiots --”

Panel 2.  Depth Charge (robot mode) explains the situation to Inferno and Quickstrike (robot mode), but he finds them incredibly frustrating.  By this point, all three have been fully restored.

Reference: Depth Charge (Seibertron) Depth Charge (TFWiki) Quickstrike (Seibertron) Quickstrike (TFWiki)

DEPTH CHARGE: -- don’t you get it?

DEPTH CHARGE (continued): Unless you help me stop that army, it’s over.

DEPTH CHARGE (continued): Finished!

DEPTH CHARGE/RAMPAGE (thought): Oh, don’t make me puke.

Panel 3.  Inferno and Quickstrike stare vacantly at us.  They are unmoved.

DEPTH CHARGE/RAMPAGE (thought): You know the magic words.

DEPTH CHARGE/RAMPAGE (thought): Say ‘em.

Panel 4.  A close-up of Depth Charge’s face.  He takes a shot in the dark.

DEPTH CHARGE: …

DEPTH CHARGE (continued): Defend the colony?

Panel 5.  A close-up of Inferno’s face.  He unleashes a battle cry.

INFERNO: Defend the colony!

Panel 6.  In the background, Inferno rockets into the air, carrying a reluctant Quickstrike by the “scruff” of his neck; they exit through a jagged breach in the hull of the Nemesis.  In the foreground, Depth Charge rests his face in his open hand, exasperated.

QUICKSTRIKE: Hey --

QUICKSTRIKE (continued): Hey!  I ain’t defendin’ squat.

QUICKSTRIKE (continued): Set me down, ya big lummox!

DEPTH CHARGE/RAMPAGE (thought): See?  I knew you had it in you --

DEPTH CHARGE/RAMPAGE (thought): -- me.

[transformers-mosaic]

Transformers: Beast Wars - Second Chances - Page 20

Originally posted on February 2nd, 2011

Story - Shaun Flaherty Art - Daniel Olsén Letters - HdE

deviantART

wada sez: See below for Flaherty’s original script.

PAGE TWENTY (six panels)

Panel 1.  A close-up of Depth Charge’s (robot mode) face.

Reference: Depth Charge (Seibertron) Depth Charge (TFWiki)

DEPTH CHARGE: A deal’s a deal.

Panel 2.  Inside the wreckage of the Nemesis.  Starscream/Transmetal Terrorsaur (robot mode) emerges from a Predacon creation/restoration tank.

Reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meQV1KKTgKQ (2:46) wada sez: dead link Terrorsaur http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4s7ACyr4lro (0:28) wada sez: dead link

STARSCREAM: Maybe I’ll just kill you all anyway.

Panel 3.  A bad-ass team shot of our heroes: (from left to right) Waspinator, Dinobot II, Depth Charge, Inferno, and Quickstrike (robot modes).

Reference: Waspinator (Seibertron) Waspinator (TFWiki) Dinobot II (Seibertron) Dinobot II (TFWiki) Inferno (Seibertron) Inferno (TFWiki) Quickstrike (Seibertron) Quickstrike (TFWiki)

DEPTH CHARGE: Maybe.

Panel 4.  A close-up of Starscream/Transmetal Terrorsaur’s face.  He smirks Starscream’s trademark smirk.

STARSCREAM (small): Fair enough.

Panel 5.  Starscream/Transmetal Terrorsaur flies toward us, high into the atmosphere and onward into space, leaving our heroes aboard the Nemesis far below.

CAP/STARSCREAM: I’ve got bigger fish to fry.

Panel 6.  A close-up of Quickstrike, hollering upward.

QUICKSTRIKE: And stay out!

[transformers-mosaic]

Transformers: Beast Wars - Second Chances - Page 14

Originally posted on February 2nd, 2011

Story - Shaun Flaherty Art - Seb Letters - HdE

deviantART

wada sez: See below for the original script to this one, and a clean panel from Seb’s art.

PAGE FOURTEEN (six panels)

Panel 1.  In the foreground, several Fox Kids Transmetal Tarantulas drones (robot mode) face away from us; they focus their attention upward, toward Inferno and Quickstrike.  In the background, Inferno (robot mode) leaps toward us from above; he fires his flamethrower into the crowd of drones below.  Quickstrike (robot mode) flails through the air; Inferno tossed him into the fray against his will.

Reference: Tarantulas Inferno (Seibertron) Inferno (TFWiki) Quickstrike (Seibertron) Quickstrike (TFWiki)

INFERNO: For the royalty!

Panel 2.  Depth Charge (robot mode) blasts his way through a crowd of Fox Kids Transmetal Tarantulas drones (beast and robot modes), searching for his comrades.

Reference: Depth Charge (Seibertron) Depth Charge (TFWiki)

DEPTH CHARGE: Dinobot!

DEPTH CHARGE (continued): Waspinator!

Panel 3.  In the foreground, Depth Charge turns around toward us; he backhands a Fox Kids Transmetal Tarantulas drone (robot mode), knocking off its head.  In the background, drones (beast and robot modes) swarm as the battle continues.

DEPTH CHARGE/RAMPAGE (thought): Behind you.

WASPINATOR (OP): Bzzd --

DEPTH CHARGE: Waspinator?

Panel 4.  In the foreground, Depth Charge kneels, holding Waspinator’s (robot mode) head in his hands; other pieces of Waspinator are visible behind them.  In the background, Fox Kids Transmetal Tarantulas drones (beast and robot modes) swarm as the battle continues.

Reference: Waspinator (Seibertron) Waspinator (TFWiki)

DEPTH CHARGE: What happened?

DEPTH CHARGE (continued): Where’s Dinobot?

Panel 5.  A close-up of Waspinator’s head in Depth Charge’s hands; he looks up toward us.  He is badly damaged.

WASPINATOR: Lizzard-bot go t-to Ark!

WASPINATOR (continued): Waszzpinator d-did beszzt he could.

Panel 6.  In the foreground, Depth Charge has dropped Waspinator’s head to the ground; it rests on its side in the mud, facing us.  His optics dim; he is going off-line or, at least, into stasis lock.  In the background, Depth Charge (vehicle mode) flies away from us; Fox Kids Transmetal Tarantulas drones (beast and robot modes) swarm as the battle continues.

WASPINATOR (weak): Waszzpinator…h-hero?

[transformers-mosaic]

Transformers: Beast Wars - Second Chances - Page 21

Originally posted on February 2nd, 2011

Story - Shaun Flaherty Art - S.R. Ayers Letters - HdE Alternate page - Timothy Pugh, JAME

deviantART | Seibertron

wada sez: See below for an alternate version of this same page, which was replaced with Ayers’ take at a point where it seemed like it wouldn’t be finished on time, per a comment from Flaherty: “Over the course of the 3+ years it took to produce this project, artists joined the team only to later drop out or disappear from the face of the Earth. For a minute, it looked like Tim was to be among the latter, but then this page showed up in my inbox! Unfortunately, we had already tapped R to produce the same page (21-A). Both are great in their own ways, so we wanted to include both, but like JZ said, they are very different!” Flaherty also noted: “The game is intended to be Crazy 8s -- a tribute to my great-grandmother.”

PAGE TWENTY-ONE (five panels)

Panel 1.  A close-up of Waspinator’s (robot mode) face.  He holds a hand of primitive playing cards in front of his “nose”.

Reference: Waspinator (Seibertron) Waspinator (TFWiki)

Panel 2.  Waspinator sits at a stone slab table with a small group of protohumans; the female child he rescued sits to his left (our right).  Each holds a hand of primitive playing cards.  On the table are two stacks of cards: one faced up, one faced down; the game is Crazy Eights.  Waspinator places a 2♥ on the discard (faced up) stack; he looks toward the child with as much of a smile as his design allows.

Reference: Protohuman Chak and Una

WASPINATOR: Take two.

Panel 3.  Outside the protohuman village.  Inferno (robot mode) patrols, protecting his new “colony”.

Reference: Inferno (Seibertron) Inferno (TFWiki)

Panel 4.  Outside the protohuman village.  In the foreground, Quickstrike (robot mode) sits on the severed head of a Fox Kids Transmetal Tarantulas drone (robot mode), resting his chin in his right (cobra) hand.  In the background is a pile of damaged and deactivated drones (beast and robot modes).

Reference: Quickstrike (Seibertron) Quickstrike (TFWiki) Tarantulas

Panel 5.  A close-up of the face of a Fox Kids Transmetal Tarantulas drone (robot mode) from the pile in Panel 4.  Its eyes glow green; within each is a green, digital representation of Tarantulas’s (robot mode) face with as much of a smile as his design allows.

Reference: Tarantulas (Seibertron) Tarantulas (TFWiki)

[transformers-mosaic]

Transformers: Mosaic - "First Night"

Earliest evidence posted on October 7th, 2007

Story - Shaun Flaherty Art - Michal Solarz Colours, Letters - wadapan

deviantART

wada sez: I found the clean lineart and original script for this strip chilling on Shaun Flaherty’s deviantART, and figured I may as well finish the job. This is another straightforward story, starring Quickstrike after he joins the Predacons in “Coming of the Fuzors”. The monster he runs into is itself a fusion of Terrorsaur and Scorponok, who fell into the lava inside the Predacon headquarters during the quantum surge, and were last seen Transmetallizing... Rather than drawing inspiration from their toyline-only Transmetal forms, Solarz has drawn a horrific monster with all the organic material burned away. For the coloring, I went for a heavily gradient-based approach to crudely evoke the CGI rendering of the cartoon. I decided to color the Terrorsaur/Scorponok fusion as white-hot metal, rather than bringing in any tones specific to those characters; this was as much a shortcut as it was a storytelling choice, honestly. I’m pretty pleased with how the lava effect came out, I’ve never done something like that before! Finally, I took the opportunity to switch out the fonts from the dialogue, and to add a title to the first panel, using fonts that recall the actual opening title credits from the cartoon. As Quickstrike’s original toy has a lot of sentimental value for me, I was really glad to be able to bring this strip to life. If I’m being honest, though, I find the writing a little strange—in the show, Quickstrike is a very talkative villain, but here he’s a meek and silent victim. Weird choice. The artist has also pushed the Beast Wars characters towards a much more robotic style, with things like Quickstrike having a separate conduit connecting his cobra head to his torso, and Megatron’s bladed weapon appearing as a grabber claw. This second change in particular is notable because the original script actually calls for Megatron to stab the monster, not shoot it! You can read that below, and see the original art.

CAP: "Welcome to the Darksyde, Fuzor. CAP: "Try not to get lost." Panel 2.  Over Quickstrike's shoulder, we see a pool of lava.  In one spot, the lava burbles. NO DIALOGUE Panel 3.  A grotesque, Transmetal amalgamation of Scorponok and Terrorsaur bursts from the lava toward us.  It breaches the panel borders as if it is leaping out of the page to attack us. NO DIALOGUE Panel 4.  Toward the left side of the panel, Quickstrike steps back defensively; his "hands" shield his face.  He is just out of reach of Scorponok/Terrorsaur's claw.  Toward the right side of the panel, we discover that Megatron has driven his whiplash cutlass through Scorponok/Terrorsaur's mangled torso, preventing its attack. NO DIALOGUE Panel 5.  A close-up of Megatron.  He looks down at Quickstrike, smirking. MEGATRON: I believe you belong to me now. Panel 6.  A close-up of Quickstrike.  He looks up at Megatron, meekly. SFX/QUICKSTRIKE: gulp MEGATRON (OP): Yes...

[transformers-mosaic]

Transformers: Beast Wars - Second Chances - Page 11

Originally posted on February 2nd, 2011

Story - Shaun Flaherty Art - Jeffrey Witty Colours - Jenny Son Letters - HdE

deviantART

wada sez: Peep below for the original script.

PAGE ELEVEN (six panels)

Panel 1.  A close-up of Depth Charge’s (robot mode) face.  He is dumbfounded by what we see in Panel 2.

Note: Although Rampage’s “healing factor” has helped Depth Charge to pull himself back together, he should still appear battle damaged until he logs some time in a creation/restoration chamber.

Reference: Depth Charge (Seibertron) Depth Charge (TFWiki)

DEPTH CHARGE/RAMPAGE (thought): H-ha-ha.

DEPTH CHARGE: You’re kidding me.

Panel 2.  Waspinator (robot mode) presents his “reinforcements”, Inferno (robot mode) and Quickstrike (robot mode).  The two Predacons are off-line, but Waspinator has reassembled them with mud, sticks, vines, etc.; he is surprised that Depth Charge is not as impressed as he is.

Reference: Waspinator (Seibertron) Waspinator (TFWiki) Inferno (Seibertron) Inferno (TFWiki) Quickstrike (Seibertron) Quickstrike (TFWiki)

DEPTH CHARGE (continued): These are your reinforcements?!

DEPTH CHARGE/RAMPAGE (thought): Haaa-ha-ha-ha-haa!

WASPINATOR: Waszzpinator not think they so bad.

DINOBOT II (OP): Tarantulas installed a C/R tank aboard the Nemesis --

Panel 3.  Dinobot II (robot mode) walks toward us.

Reference: Dinobot II (Seibertron) Dinobot II (TFWiki)

DINOBOT II: -- its wreckage is not far.

DINOBOT II (continued): If you hurry, you may make it back in time.

Panel 4.  Depth Charge points his weapon right in Dinobot II’s face.

DEPTH CHARGE/RAMPAGE (thought): Just do it.

DEPTH CHARGE/RAMPAGE (thought): Blow ‘im away.

DEPTH CHARGE: And why should I trust you?

DINOBOT II: It does not appear that you have much of a choice.

DEPTH CHARGE/RAMPAGE (thought): You know you want to!

DEPTH CHARGE/RAMPAGE (thought): I do.

DEPTH CHARGE: Shut up!

Panel 5.  A close-up of Dinobot II’s face.  He means what he says.

DINOBOT II: I give you my word of honor.

DINOBOT II (continued): Tarantulas will not reach his objective.

Panel 6.  In the foreground, we see the back of Dinobot II’s head; he looks upward, toward Depth Charge.  In the background, Depth Charge (vehicle mode) flies away from us, carrying Inferno and Quickstrike.

DEPTH CHARGE: I’m holding you to that, Pred.

[transformers-mosaic]

Transformers: Beast Wars - Second Chances - Page 1

Originally posted on February 2nd, 2011

Story - Shaun Flaherty Art - Cory Holmes Colours - Roy Stiffey Letters - HdE

deviantART

wada sez: Like many Mosaic strips, and official tie-in media from 3H Productions, Beast Wars - Second Chances aims to show the fates of various characters who were left on Earth at the end of the cartoon. Tarantulas was presumed destroyed in the episode “Other Victories”, but clearly some vestige of him remains! “Operation: Ninth Eye” was reportedly an idea of Mike Priest’s, a reference to Tarantulas oddly having nine eyes instead of eight in beast mode. See below for Shaun Flaherty’s original script, which was dated to April 21st, 2009. In addition, each of the writers on Beast Wars: Second Chances contributed a personal bio explaining their history with the franchise; you can find Shaun’s “Writer Spotlight” below as well.

PAGE ONE (six panels)

Panel 1.  Prehistoric Earth, as seen from space.

CAP: Earth.

Panel 2.  Outside a cave.  It is surrounded by quiet, desert terrain.

CAP: Four million years ago…

CAP/COMPUTER VOICE: “…Three --

CAP/COMPUTER VOICE: “-- Two --

CAP/COMPUTER VOICE: “-- One --”

Panel 3.  Inside the cave.  It is one of Tarantulas’s abandoned laboratories/lairs.  It is dark, but just enough sunlight spills in from outside to see that it is filled with deactivated equipment.  A monitor glows green, but what is on its screen is not visible.

Reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cssWMayeniQ (1:29) wada sez: dead link Tarantulas’ lair

COMPUTER VOICE (OP): -- Zero.

COMPUTER VOICE (OP): Countdown sequence complete.

COMPUTER VOICE (OP): Initiate Operation: Ninth Eye.

Panel 4.  Equipment comes to life.  Lights come on.  An arachnoid skitters.  On a monitor is a body of text; it reads as follows in Cybertronix (Predacon characters):

OPERATION: NINTH EYE

FRAG IT. TORCH THE SLAG OUT OF EVERYTHING.

Reference: Arachnoid Cybertronix

COMPUTER VOICE (OP): Initiating.

TARANTULAS (OP): Hm-me-he-hee…

Panel 5.  More equipment comes to life.  More lights come on.  More arachnoids skitter.  On a monitor is a wire-frame schematic of Arachnid (beast mode).  On another monitor is a wire-frame schematic of Transmetal Tarantulas (robot mode).

Reference: Arachnid Tarantulas

TARANTULAS (OP): M-ma-ha-ha-ha!

Panel 6.  An extreme close-up of the monitor from Panel 3.  On its screen is an extreme close-up of a green, digital representation of Tarantulas’s (robot mode) face; he laughs maniacally.

Reference: Tarantulas (Seibertron) Tarantulas (TFWiki)

TARANTULAS: Mah-he-hee-ha-ha-ha!!!

Believe it or not, the project that became BEAST WARS: Second Chances began over a year ago. In September 2008, Josh van Reyk, one of the creative minds behind Transformers: Mosaic, pitched the idea of a Beast Wars one-shot to a handful of us writers and we ran with the idea!  Hundreds of email messages ensued as we hammered out the story.  A lot of great stuff ended up on the "cutting room floor" as we tried to cram as much Beast Wars awesomeness into 22 short pages as possible. So, that's the beginning of how this baby came together, but what about me?  What's my story?  In case you're wondering, here's a taste: My name is Shaun Flaherty.  I am 30 years old and newly married.  I went to school for acting and currently manage a health club. But before all that, there were Transformers. Being born at the very end of the Seventies, I was a Star Wars kid, but soon after the Jedi returned, I discovered something else.  On my first day of kindergarten in 1984, my father presented me with Optimus Prime and 25 years later I still love robots in disguise. Fast-forward a decade or so, past weekday afternoons and a Movie, past reruns and Generation 2.  I discovered Beast Wars late one Saturday morning on a crappy little TV with terrible reception and it was love at first sight. Five delightful seasons (including Beast Machines) and then it was gone. DreamWave promised more, but delivered only one short story.  IDW promised more, but delivered something that wasn't quite the Beast Wars that I had in mind. Our goal with BEAST WARS: Second Chances is to recapture magic, even if only for a moment.  Our goal is for Second Chances to feel like Beast Wars to you. Although the finished product is still a way's away, we hope you'll like what you'll see. -- Shaun Flaherty

[transformers-mosaic]

Transformers: Mosaic #589 - "Sermon"

Originally posted on March 17th, 2011

Story - Shaun Flaherty Art - Waseem Bashar Colours - Caroline Richard Letters - E&C

deviantART | Seibertron | TFW2005

wada sez: Set after Lugnut’s incarceration at the end of the third season of Transformers Animated. Note the candy Trypticon in the background of his dream sequence! Clean inks and colors below. Check back tomorrow for an unpublished strip by most of this creative team.