Spotlight: Autobot Academy
Tried writing this once already but tungle just straight up ate it, so let’s try again! The spotlight before this one is here. Now we have Autobot Academy, with links you can find in the masterlist, written and illustrated by several folks including the brilliant @stonecrusherdrawsthearts!
Q) Give us a run down of your cont! What's it about, what's it called, what's it like?
[Stone] Autobot Academy is about the misadventures of the students of Autobot Academy. It’s admittedly a bit barebones to say it like that, so I’m gonna do semidramatic here. ahem
In a society much like your own but different in many fantastical ways, individuals gifted with strange abilities beyond the ken of technological advancement and scientific understanding have become increasingly common. Special “Hero Guild” facilities have been set up so that the cities of the vast galactic nation they call home are protected from both the minor threats and the dangerous calamities that threaten the lives of their citizens… but not life as you know it. Intelligent robots capable of thinking, feeling, and manipulating phenomenal powers inhabit the worlds of the Cybertronian Commonwealth, and the heroes that save these people are known by many names. Protectobot, Aerialbot, Maximal, Axellerator… but the most common and well known title is Autobot.
This is the story of the next generation of heroes growing up and facing the challenges that life throws at them to become the greatest heroes in the cosmos… assuming their antics don’t get them killed.
Q) Ooooooo. What characters take the lead here? Any personal favorites?
[Stone] I don’t know how, but somehow I came to appreciate Lightbright quite a bit, to the point where the now-starting Season 3 focuses… quite a bit on her. Characterwise. I also really like how I ended up writing Arcee in this universe, that sentient ball of sass that may or may not spew acid on occasion.
[Dev] While the obvious leads are those like Hot Shot, Lightbright, Artillery and such, there are a lot of fun characters, some of which I’m not yet able to talk about. Even one-shot villains and characters. That being said, some of my favourite cast members include Tap-Out, Beta and Hot Shot.
[Sap] People who know me know I’m a big fan of Nautica in general, I’m committed to putting Flareup in everything TF related I ever make, and I’m admittedly head over heels for Artillery. For a surprise favorite, for what was originally a swap in cause I forgot Nightbeat was already used, I really love how Muzzle has turned out.
Q) Is there a bigger point to this, like a theme or some catharsis? Or is it just fluffy fun?
[Stone] Personally speaking for me, it’s always been something to do so I don’t stress out about the complexities of life. So, uh, pen it under fluffy fun for me.
[Dev] Honestly, the main reason I do it is I enjoy it, and it gives me the chance to tell stories ranging from the serious to the whacky. That and getting to work with a great crew. So yeah, fluffy here
[Sap] I just like doing stuff with my friends. Also pushing my obscure faves for SummerSlam and doing something with my surplus amounts of ideas.
Q) How long have you been working on it?
[Stone] Well, for me personally it all started in late 2017. Back then I was in a bit of a creative slump. My first continuity had become a revenant of what it was, people who I considered friends were raising concerns, and I felt like I didn’t have much to do then. But then a friend of mine popped by and asked, “Hey, you wanna work on something together?”
“A new fan continuity that’s kinda a spin on that old concept we tried a year back, but we mix it up with BNHA to add a zing!”
“...Eh, don’t have anything else in mind, why not?”
And it kinda spiralled from there… after my original collaborator decided to tackle other projects, I took on help by some friends, Devaron9 and Saperion.
[Dev] I’d started out simply colouring pages for Stone’ previous project, and started to do so when Autobot Academy first started in 2017. I then got the chance to write with the first issue focused on Steeljaw, and from there got to write many, many stories.
[Sap] Legitimately can’t remember. I probably proofread or colored something before, then somehow skipped straight to writing multiple issues about Nautica? The others probably remember better.
Q) Wow, that’s a long time, you’re dedicated! Give us a behind-the-scenes look! Show us a secret ;))
[Stone] OKAY! For preexisting material, I’m going to show you the first ever picture of Autobot Academy Hot Shot. Are you ready? I don’t think you are~
Yeah, he uh… went through a phase. A very armada-esk phase.
Lightbright was designed by Megatronski, with a slightly less sleek profile and more IDW-ish head
Megatronski also designed the biggest figures on either side of the dichotomy:
As for future works... we've got quite a few in the pipeline, but for now these shadows of what might be will probably have to do...
Q) OOOOOO they look so cool!! Where did you draw inspiration from? What canons, what other fiction, what parts of real life?
[Dev] Inspiration comes from so many places. Sometimes it’s comics like DC, sometimes it’s TV shows. Hell, even a really good bit of music can give me an idea for a scene.
[Stone] Since Dev gave you the basic answer, I think I’ll give one a bit more elaborate. The initial inspiration for the comic when it was proposed to me all those years ago was “My Hero Academia through a Transformers filter,” to put it in basic terms. While a fine idea on its own, I decided to add some stuff to that from various other media influences, including other “magic school” anime (There is a shocking amount of that) and even one or two “normal school” anime. Throw in some IDW for the backstory of the big good and the main bad guy and it was a little presentable in terms of worldbuilding. Then I decided to have a Role-Play game that happened alongside the comic to see just what would happen as a result. Players in that arena took influences from Transformers Victory, Homestuck, various animes, and so much more. And then people started writing fan stories influenced by other forms of media, and I took influence from those fan stories and it kinda… kept going, even after the RP fizzled out.
I even took influence from the works of my original co-author’s nostalgic but sadly short-lived continuity “Transformers Hurricane” in the overall storyline of Transmutate, namely her coming from a dark future ruled by Great Convoy who happened to be a dictator, though steady absorption of more media influences caused that storyline to develop into a bigger and more complicated thing until we wrapped up that plotline in Season 2’s big finale.
[Sap] In the camp of stuff I’m like, “in charge of”, there’s inspiration from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Borderlands, bit of Spider-Man, tiny bit of Megamind. But then there’s one storyline I’m really looking forward to that I can’t, like, pin an inspiration on. It kinda just came from the soul.
Q) Show off something you're really proud of, a particular favorite part of your cont.
[Dev] I would say something I’m really proud of is the Umbra Convoy reveal at the end of the Knowing Me, Knowing You. So much build up to that dramatic scene where he takes off the helmet. I felt incredibly proud because of it.
[Stone] I’d say the most proud I’ve been of this continuity is how the second season wrapped up. The seeds for what would become Siege of Acadeimos were planted right from the beginning by my original collaborator, but they grew like crazy, interweaving their roots into many of the storylines for the first two seasons until we finally got to the end of Season 2. There, they mixed with the bad future plotline that informed much of Season 2 and created a major event that took at least 200 pages to cover, including people dying, people getting their deaths retconned by time travel shenanigans, and those same shenanigans having a tyrannical dictator arise to threaten our heroes. The fact that we as writers were able to pull this off as well as we did… Well, I’d say it’s probably the biggest bit of awesome we’ve done so far… course, something in the next few seasons might dethrone that, who knows unless you read on.
[Sap] or a like, sappy(heh) answer, I think the thing about AA I’m most proud of is the inclusivity. My bi transgirl ass is so lucky to have two amazingly supportive friends who are kickass allies, to the point that even when I’m not actively making stuff gay, these two are deciding “ya know this character is gonna be a girl in this continuity” or “these background characters are gay cause why not”.
As for a point of personal pride, loved seeing everyone demand Nautica’s dad’s head on a pike.
Q) Excellent! What other fan canons do you love and why? Would you like to see them interviewed?
[Stone] I like Necromaster’s Brave New World for its tight focus on characters and also its willingness to throw said characters into mortal peril for the sake of a good story. I find myself binging it at least biannually, and also loved his first transformers comic, A New Translation.
Transformers: Mobius Run (over at @transformersmr-hq) is a fun little thing that is somehow both tight and slipshod in its construction. Like, it has very well thought out chronology and character dynamics, but it also made the substitute cardboard tube fusion cannon, like, an actual thing, and I can’t say I’m that flippant, so I gotta respect that.
And finally (for me at least) one more continuity that shined well when it did but ultimately succumbed to the predilections of time - Megatronski’s Transformers Connect series. That work, as short as it was, can make you care about the Decepticons better then anyone else, by making them feel like people. Sure, one of them may’ve been a yandere, another may’ve been flippant as hell, and a few might’ve been tearing at their own circuits trying to keep it together, but Connect, for all the time it lasted, made you care about these people, even if a good portion of them are objectively terrible.
Feel free to look into them if you want, but with Season 3's first issue being posted at my usual premiere outlet and with it soon arriving on Archive of Our Own, right now’s a good time to binge AutoAca if you feel like it.
Q) I’m absolutely agreeing on your recommendation of BNW and Mobius Run, they’re fantastic! I’ll have to look up Connect 👀
Thank you all! You do magnificent work on this comic, I really enjoy Autobot Academy and all its fun, I really look forward to what’s coming!
