The Energon Pub

[ScottyP]

I despised the crosshatching texture, or at least my eyes did. Dizzying in a weird sort of way.

I can see how that might affect some readers, actually, now that you mention it.

I thought it was a very good way of blending Tramontano's glossier colouring style with Burcham's texture.

I appreciated the intent and it kind of worked for the Cybertron scenes, but when it carried over to the Earth stuff I got a bit disoriented. No big deal, went and picked up my last few weeks of pulls and it isn't as bad on ink and paper as on a screen.

[Kurona]

Crosshatching?

[Va'al]

Crosshatching?

Square pixel grains in the backgrounds, across the whole issue.

[Va'al]

In yet more comics news, but probably the last for now, from iTunes, we have a three-page preview of Optimus Prime #8 - aka the Jazz-centric issue with art by Casey Coller and colours with JP Bove! Check it out below, and head back in a couple of weeks for more.

Jazz confronts his past—and the Autobot’s future—in front of millions of television viewers. But will he make the people of Earth understand Optimus Prime's mission... or turn against it?

[Randomhero]

Man I love Caseys Art. Always have. I get why he doesn't do interiors but I wish he did.

[Kurona]

Oh, we're back to this art! Fantastic! Zama's style grew on me and I do recognise how it was appropriate for the story, and Tramontano I'm also a fan of; but Casey's is my absolute favourite for this book and helped make ex-RiD so great.

[Randomhero]

I think Johana is a better for his line art however. Josh is a good colorist but his coloring is just too inconsistent anymore. With Guido he uses a very realistic modern comic style. With Alex and Zama is uses too much of a old school dot color style and with Casey Nick and Andrew its just so saturated. feels joyless sometimes. its a little jarring at times.



It's nice to see John doing some more coloring though it's very flat

[ScottyP]

Dear IDWGodJesusAllahXenuJosephSmithKrishnuMosesCthuluITriedAndHopeYourDeityOfChoiceOrNoChoiceWasListed,

Please put Casey Coller on an ongoing.

That is all,

Scotty.

[Bounti76]

Can we please get rid of the damn captions? Anyone reading this book knows who everyone is.

[Nexus Knight]

Can we please get rid of the damn captions? Anyone reading this book knows who everyone is.

Uh, no? Considering some monthly readers may not be as into Transformers as others and have to live a life, it's not hard to see how they could forget the names of some of these lesser known bots.

[Bounti76]

Can we please get rid of the damn captions? Anyone reading this book knows who everyone is.

Uh, no? Considering some monthly readers may not be as into Transformers as others and have to live a life, it's not hard to see how they could forget the names of some of these lesser known bots.

How about, yeah? If it's a book you subscribe to every month, regardless of how fanatical you are about Transformers, wouldn't you care enough about your monetary investment to follow along with the narrative and learn the names of the characters in the book you're paying for? Lost Light doesn't caption every single issue. Till All Are One doesn't. I genuinely don't understand why OP has to do it all the time, considering all three are books with relatively large casts (TAAO's being the smallest).

[Nexus Knight]

Can we please get rid of the damn captions? Anyone reading this book knows who everyone is.

Uh, no? Considering some monthly readers may not be as into Transformers as others and have to live a life, it's not hard to see how they could forget the names of some of these lesser known bots.

How about, yeah? If it's a book you subscribe to every month, regardless of how fanatical you are about Transformers, wouldn't you care enough about your monetary investment to follow along with the narrative and learn the names of the characters in the book you're paying for? Lost Light doesn't caption every single issue. Till All Are One doesn't. I genuinely don't understand why OP has to do it all the time, considering all three are books with relatively large casts (TAAO's being the smallest).

Not everyone has a good memory. Paying for something doesn't mean you instantly remember everything you read/watched. I know people who care a lot about their stories, but sometimes have to be remind even what the heck is going on.

[Kurona]

I think it would be better if there was a page before the story that showed pictures of characters, with their names and a tiny description below.

Like, for instance...

[Va'al]

The third and final preview for next week's releases from IDW Publishing Transformers comics comes in the form of Optimus Prime #8, out this Wednesday - which is when our review will be going up too. Read more below courtesy of CBR, and enjoy Casey Coller's return to interior art!

Jazz confronts his past—and the Autobot’s future—in front of millions of television viewers. But will he make the people of Earth understand Optimus Prime’s mission… or turn against it?

[Randomhero]

Hector Ramirez...because why not. This is awesome.

[Va'al]

Courtesy of Previews World, we have two variant covers for IDW Publishing's Optimus Prime #9 - the main retail one, and the retailer incentive by fan artist Zerob! Very Arcee-centric either way, but you can check them out below! And note: they include the wrong credits in at the top of the book, with variant A still sporting issue 8's names, unless it's referring to the cover artist, in which case Casey Coller is indeed the culprit.

THE LIFE OF SIDESWIPE! A Junkion machine finally gives long-injured Sideswipe a new lease on life! But when his brother goes missing, Sideswipe and Arcee return to Cybertron-and nothing will be the same between them ever again.

[Deadput]

The heck does Sideswipe need a respirator for?

And what even is that second cover?

[Kurona]

The heck does Sideswipe need a respirator for?

And what even is that second cover?

The respirator is simply thematic and symbolic; covers are supposed to grab a reader's attention and sometimes tell them what's actually going on inside the issue, so without context Sideswipe just floating in a jar wouldn't really convey his medical condition. A respirator allows that to be communicated to the reader.

And yeah, the anatomy and proportions on the second cover are all out of whack.

[TF-fan kev777]

And yeah, the anatomy and proportions on the second cover are all out of whack.

Kinda like she went to the plastic surgeon and said, "Can you make my 2 boobs look like a single car hood?"

[Kurona]

And yeah, the anatomy and proportions on the second cover are all out of whack.

Kinda like she went to the plastic surgeon and said, "Can you make my 2 boobs look like a single car hood?"

... but, she's... consistently looked like that not just in the book, but throughout the entire continuity? With the exception of Heart of Darkness, but that wasn't flattering to anybody...

[SW's SilverHammer]

... but, she's... consistently looked like that not just in the book, but throughout the entire continuity? With the exception of Heart of Darkness, but that wasn't flattering to anybody...

My favorite look for arcee is still her Alex Milne design. Still love that weird no cheek look she had. Also

Kinda like she went to the plastic surgeon and said, "Can you make my 2 boobs look like a single car hood?"

That's how most of the Autobot cars look anyway. Add in Shockwave and his glass boob shelf, and we have some extreme cases of back pain.

[Va'al]

But Who Is Jazz, Really?
(Spoiler free-ish)

Synopsis
Jazz confronts his past—and the Autobot’s future—in front of millions of television viewers. But will he make the people of Earth understand Optimus Prime's mission... or turn against it?

Hey, I got here eventually

Story

Once again, I find myself apologising for the lateness of this review - let's call it doing an IDW shall we? just to make me feel better - and making it fall so close to all the Transformers: The Last Knight news. On the other hand, the IDW Optimus Prime ongoing in unquestionably good and staying good, so swings and roundabouts!

Topical

The usual framing device that John Barber uses for most of his TF writing is replaced here by a fairly ingenious magazine style interview - the very same interview that has been prepared in previous issues leading up to this one - with the perspective being Jazz, playing along pretty much behind the scenes all along so far.

..except, well, you know..

Jazz, as pointed out in the previous issues, is an interesting choice of character - Cybertronian character - for a first big mediatic approach to Earth after Optimus' power-grab/forced annexation/colonialist actions. And all of those threads come up, and create the crux of the story...

Hmmmmmmmm

But, while Jazz is indeed the main player and spotlight taker in the issue - almost literally - Jetfire and Pyra Magna also take on some very shiny roles, both in flashbacks and present for the former, and the present and a potential future for the latter. There are things afoot, and there are still creases to smoothen out from the past. Hopefully before everything spirals again.


Art

Zama is away from the book again this month, letting Casey W Coller to cover the interior art for a change. And Coller's art has a regularity to it, a crisp, linear feel to the lines and outlines of the character designs and layouts, that may very much appeal to recent readers - and fits perfectly with the framing device of the script.

Just look at it..

The artistic collaboration here is with John Paul Bove, and a special one it is at that. Bove has shown how he can mimic several colour styles in the past (and is the colour wizard behind the Hachette definitive collection, too), but what he does here is keep the continuity with Burcham while also adding a lot of his own shine to it.

..look at it!

Of course, Tom B. Long is on lettering, and the different formats offer a whole new playground for his skills too - I actually wonder how much of his production set went into the final look of the issue, and if so, he was excellent. As for the covers, the thumbnail spotlights the Coller/Bove variant, but all the other versions of excellent art can be found in our database entry!

Thoughts
Spoilerish ahead

The magazine style interview is not an entirely original comics device (recently seen in the likes of The Wicked and The Divine, for example) but the way that it's employed in his issue, and how Barber manages to blend this new toy with his trademark running POV commentary - and how it feeds directly into the story - is extremely pleasing, and satisfying.

OH! THIS is when it happens

The characters, with Jetfire and Pyra Magna taking the biggest chunk, have some very very nice developments in backgrounds and perspective, and there's plotting and planning set up for things about to happen - plus gorgeous designs from Coller and Bove, covers included. Why would you not want to pick up this issue, you cool cats you?

. + out of

[Kurona]

I think this might be my favourite issue yet - I've fallen completely in love with Jazz and Jetfire. This is up there with Soundwaves and MTMTE Revolution as one of the best standalone issues in IDW Transformers imo

[Randomhero]

I loved it but I was really expecting Jazz to say something like "look, he was going to kill my friend and commander. I did what I had to do. I'm not proud of it and I can't ask for forgiveness but I ask to let me help"

That's all I really wanted. Not to say this was a bad issue at all. Casey is my fav artist and john is my fav writer and it was a solid issue.

[D-Maximal_Primal]

I loved it but I was really expecting Jazz to say something like "look, he was going to kill my friend and commander. I did what I had to do. I'm not proud of it and I can't ask for forgiveness but I ask to let me help"

I was hoping Jazz would mention that too, and maybe even mention how said friend then saved the universe (maybe not so much that last part). But it was a great issue, the best of OP so far IMO