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Va'al - Hi John-Paul! It's great to hear you'll be working on the insides of another Transformers comic, though this time you're actually at a keyboard rather than with a palette! How did you get the gig?
JP - The short answer? Lots and LOTS of death threats.
Probably how the talks went down at IDW
The longer answer is that outside of Transformers and IDW I had been writing for some time on creator owned stories and writing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles here in the UK. I had been pitching some ideas for Transformers stories for some years, but with the amazing IDWverse books they're planned a long way in advance so there's not much space for any additional tales in there. I'd nailed my colours to the mast regarding working on a G1 cartoon continuation comic and I'd also approached IDW with an idea for a Beast Wars book to celebrate the 20th anniversary. Interestingly these two ideas had the potential to dovetail together and connect if necessary. When FunPub looked to partner with IDW to produce the comic, John approached me to pitch and the rest is (future) history!
Va'al - Perseverance seems to be the way to go, then - a tip to keep in mind. So when Barber approached you, did you get a guideline or directive, or were you given free rein as to what the story might do (other than include this year's toys, of course)?
JP - My main guideline was that it had to be in continuity (which any BW fan will know is an interesting and muddy one) and it had to feature the toys. I had already pitched a mini series that would bridge the gap between G1 and Beast Wars so the story was always going to live in that time frame. A lot of the characters that the toys represent were already baked into the story so the main challenge or restriction was getting as much of what I planned into just one issue. I had to take my original outline and focus in on a very specific part and specific time and place from it.
It is a very full issue and the goals I set myself were that it should be a Beast Wars and G1 story that matters, with moments that shape and add to your understanding of the mythology in ways that are both inevitable AND surprising. I really wanted to see what some G1 characters had become and what some Beast Wars characters were like before they had become the characters we knew.
If I ever get the chance to expand on this it has been built in such a way that it is the middle part of a trilogy. The first part would be very G1 centric and the third part more BW centric with this issue functioning as a bridge. There's a really, really incredible moment, a scene between two important characters that I would love to one day tell. What starts Dawn of the Predacus off is the consequences of an act of sacrifice that make the Great War anyone's to win or lose.
DotP is a complete one shot but we know it isn't the end, we know some of these characters continue into BW and we know that some G1 characters don't make it through the Great War. There's still a lot of time between here and the Beast Wars (and here and The Rebirth) that I had planned out and hope to one day tell you all about.
Va'al - That sounds like you really planned the events out quite a lot already before getting the brief, definitely! You mention a number of characters that you wanted to include: was anyone forcibly or inevitably left out?
JP - Oh yeah, I'd been planning these stories out a long time before the opportunity came up. I can't say too much as there are still other characters getting toys to be revealed, but there's a lot of G1 characters I wanted to touch on. Again, if the book does well maybe we will see them yet! Mainly there are characters I'd like to have had more time to play with, especially Tarantulas.
Va'al - We are seeing a very different Tarantulas in IDW's version of events, of course, but that's another story... So we are to find something bridging a gap, which feeds from established work and feeding into other established work - what was the hardest part to tweak to make it all work, in your opinion?
JP - I'm a continuity junkie so finding the connections between various points on the timeline was something that came quite naturally. The hardest part was deciding what to leave out as the space I had was limited. I wanted to avoid multiple timelines and realities, and have what happens here to inform and have impact on the stories we're already familiar with. Just because we know the war ends doesn't mean we know HOW the war ends.
Though the big challenge was that the Beast Wars show referenced points from various continuities that contradict each other. Making sure that that this story was in continuity with as much of those other stories as possible was tricky, but hopefully rewarding for most fans.
Va'al - I do not envy you that task, at all. Was there anything you were particularly pleased to have been able to work in, either as an in-joke, a reference, or just a personal itch scratched?
JP - There is a Transformers the Movie nod which was so satisfying... I think, beyond getting to give characters I adore new words to say and new characters some life, my main satisfaction comes from setting the foundation for things in Beast Wars that were perhaps not best explained and seeing how their origins stem from G1 events... It adds another layer to stories we already know.
Va'al - I'm sure we'll be seeing it for ourselves very shortly, at this stage! Before we round this off, how was collaborating with someone else on the visuals, this time round? How was the experience of working with Corin Howell?
Not the BotCon comic
JP - I'd worked with Corin before on a couple of pages but I'd also had the good fortune to meet her at last year's San Diego Comic Con. Her style is very different from what I'd worked with in the past, a more expressive, more animated look which in a way captures two aspects of both G1 and Beast Wars. As a colourist it gives you a lot to play with as well. Of course she has the misfortune to deal with me as a writer and a colourist! Who can she complain to about the demanding writer or the unreliable colourist!?
Va'al - She'll be up to the challenge, I'm sure. JP, it's been great to have you have this chat with us to build up some extra hype for the comic and BotCon - thank you for joining us! Are there any last words you want to throw out to readers and fans?
JP - Only that I hope everyone has a great BotCon, the guests are amazing, the artists are amazing and the toys (some still very secret) are going to knock your socks off! I hope people enjoy the book too, naturally! And if you do please spread the word, there's so much more story to tell! Thanks to everyone that has supported me and the books I've coloured and really pushed to have me write something in the Transformers universe, it's a dream come true.
Oh, and don't forget to sign the petition for a G1 Cartoon universe comic!
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BotCon 2016 will take place in Louisville, Kentucky, on April 7-10th. You can check out news and coverage of the event, as things happen, right here on Seibertron.com, and join in the discussion in the Energon Pub boards!
