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This works for more than just comics or even just comic adaptations. It seems like the current crowd wants to break all the “old toys” to replace them with their own shiny new toys with less nostalgia but more what they want.
As the longest run of Transformers comics, featuring multiple “phases” of they main story, and even a “2.0” reboot, the IDW Transformers comics run is going to be too hard for me to summarize, and that’s not even getting into the tie-ins and Hearts Of Steel. I’m doing this series as an “easy post” as I go through a major decluttering project that keeps kicking my skid plate as I go through it, so my easy post needs an easy post. So I want us all up to speed before I go over what I like and don’t like about their run. SPOILER: mostly the latter, and I’ll get into that over the next post or two.
In order to get us all on the same page when it comes to my reviews, because as it is I’ve unintentionally written the reviews in a way that reading the comics or seeing my reviewers are almost a requirement–and I apologize for that–I’m tapping into a series of videos from Chris McFeely’s Transformers: The Basics YouTube series to summarize the important details that will be brought up in my discussion. Some of them predate the reboot while others are only focused on what happened in the main books at the time. This is a basics of Basics on IDW’s Transformers run.
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Also check out Tom Bancroft’s YouTube channel Pencilish Studios and his podcast
After the license with Marvel Comics ended, odd given how Marvel was responsible for the entire story of the Transformers in the first place, there were no new comics. Well, no official comics as some pretty good fan comics hit the internet and I think Japan put a few things out, but while the toylines and cartoons continued with Beast Wars, Beast Machines, Machine Wars, and the Car Robot release that was the first Robots In Disguise line nothing licenced in the US was put out. It was an empty time for comic-reading Transformers fans.
Then Wizard did an article where writers were brought in to draw classic franchises in modern art styles, back when nostalgia was considered a positive thing instead of something to be attacked and embarrassed into hiding so the “better new stuff” could take over on the reasoning that it’s new. The big standout was a piece by artist Pat Lee featuring the Autobots and Decepticons, a modern art piece that captured the spirit of the art pieces of the toy packaging but in a more comic style. This led to Lee eventually getting the license thanks to fan support, and thus Transformers returned through Dreamwave
ave Productions, Lee’s new comic studio and publishing company.
Ask me what comic incarnation makes me the most nostalgic and I’ll say the Marvel run, at least during the Budiansky period. Ask me what my favorite is and I’ll tell you Dreamwave. Something about the creators and editors assembled for this project just really worked. Even Furman’s stories I didn’t just not hate but actually enjoyed. That’s a miracle if you saw part one of this series. Even things that annoy me in other runs were just more enjoyable in this one. So why did Dreamwave fail? It wasn’t the work.
Critics of race swaps, especially in mythology based on European folklore, wonder why nobody has considered tapping into African folklore to make something unique in fantasies and superheroes. It is relatively untapped as previous stories come from British, French, Japanese, Incan or Native American influences…to varying degrees of fidelity mind you. During a Free Comic Book Day preview a few years ago we were introduced to someone doing just that with YouNeek Studios, creating a universe centered around African mythology and thus not using white people in a story that makes sense not to have white people, while tapping a new source of mythology besides European or Japanese folklore. ICv2 looks into this studio’s new projects through Dark Horse. Frankly it sounds interesting. Now I just need someone to tell me if I’m allowed to read it. Also check out their own website with more offerings and their own app service.
Can’t we just enjoy good comic and comic ideas anymore and build up the format with unique story and genre exploration?
Arguably the most iconic cover in Transformers comics ever.
While I’m sorting through all of these comic books they’re obviously on my mind. As I write this I’m about to start working on the “T” lettered titles, and I will have probably exhausted myself doing so by the time you read this. It’s a lot of work but I had an interesting idea.
I’ve collected comics for…apparently too long give what I’m doing, but while I was gifted comics prior I didn’t really start collecting them until I learned there was a Transformers comic. Seeing the above issue of The Transformers #5 at my local drug store, as this was back when you could find comics almost anywhere, was my introduction to the series, though I wouldn’t start collecting until the next issue. I was even forbidden from buying issue #9, Circuit Breaker’s debut, as a form of punishment. Thankfully I was eventually forgiven and in my adult years I was able to get a copy, which I actually read in school as one of my teachers had a copy in the room. Stiil, it’s nice not having a hole in your collection.
Over the next few days, unless something comes up, I want to look at the various Transformers comic runs. You can already find reviews of all the comics I own as I’ve reviewed the whole franchise in either Today’s Comic or This Week’s Reviews when they came out, or in back issue/my existing collection in “Yesterday’s” Comic. This is going to be an overview of the comic run as a whole. It makes sense to start with the original. I didn’t enough of the UK run to form a solid opinion because I’m a US kid, but I can explore my comic introduction to the robots. I’ve broken it down into four convenient categories, covering the biggest periods of the run.
The Clutter Reports (my other site) Atop The Fourth Wall Crisis On Earth Prime Lean Into Artcast Bully Says “Comics Oughta Be Fun” Siskoid’s Blog of Geekery
Cartoon Hero’s Lair SF Debris Four Million Years Later
BW’s Daily Video> Surviving Failed Franchises
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Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on February 21, 2023 in Uncategorized and tagged commentary, Professor Geek.
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