The Energon Pub

Hello! This is my first post here...

No doubt this is a fairly hot topic on this forum, but I'd like to hear people's opinions on the US comics versus the UK comics. I've only recently started to re-read them: like a lot of people I was obsessed as kid and wanted to re-read them all in sequence.

I've been buying the serialised compediums that were released in 2001 I think. These are the comics starting with the limited edition 4 part series which was edited by Bob Budiansky. I've got the first 6 books, which go on to feature the scripting by Budiansky until the 10th book when Simon Furman took over the US. The problem is I think I may have been reading the UK comics as a child.. I've checked the covers on this site and I definitely recognise them.

How extensive is the crossover between the US and UK comics. Are the UK ones better because they're mostly by Simon Furman? Are the serialised books I've been reading DEFINITELY the US version? Most importantly..

Is there a way to get the UK comics Collected in volumes or will I have to bide my time and find originals on Ebay?

I'm a little lost here and any assistance or direction to threads where this has been discussed would be brilliant!

Thanks in advance!!!

Basically, the UK issues spring off of the US issues, kind of like an expansion. Most of them are written by Furman and therefore are a superior story. Since the UK issues were released weekly they took the US material, cut each issue in half and released those alongside their own material. The stories were limited, however, since Furman couldn't make any major changes that went against US continuity, but he still did a really good job none-the-less.

It's possible you read some UK material, a few comic shops also released the UK issues, I bought a few when they were originally released at a comic store here. They were magazine size, however, bigger than a standard comic book, and the paper was flimsy.

Are the volumes you have from Titan? With names like, "Beginnings" "New Order" "Cybertron Redux"? If so, those are the collected US. Titan also collected several volumes of UK material, also released as larger books (about the same size as the original magazine sized). There were also small tpb which released several volumized black and white 5 paged stories from the UK issues. Most of these should be available through Amazon or other online retailers. It should be noted, however, that NOT ALL of the UK material has been rereleased.

THanks for the info! Yeah, it's the Titan books I've been reading. I did notice the UK compendiums, in the larger books but was unsure as to what they were. It's hard to know what I was reading back then as I bought the comics in Cyprus... possibly I was reading both.

My favourite stories where the Underbase saga and the Cybertronian Zombie stories... that gave me real nightmares!!

THanks again...

I (unknowingly) purchased some UK editions. Well, if Fallen Angel, Target 2006, and another I haven't gotten to yet are UK, then that's what I got. I'm still getting used to the artwork but the stories are pretty good. That's what really matters, I suppose. But by far my favorite stuff is the newest G1 IDW stories.

Yep. Target and Angel are both UK (Read Target first, btw).

Anything involving the movie guys like Galvatron, Hot Rod, Kup and all them are UK. Because the US were not using them, Furman was able to do what he wanted to them with no restictions. And from what I hear (I only have Target and Angel) he went all out.

Target 2006 was pure gold.

I've heard of Time Wars, that's suppsosed to be great. Has Titan released that in Graphic Novel format, and if not, will IDW release it like they have Target?

I found it on that website you linked. Now I wonder if it'll appear locally, they seem to have suddenly got a whole bunch of Titan trades in recently.

Yes, Time Wars has been released as a Titan TPB.

Here are all the ones that have been released.

"Dinobot Hunt"
"Target: 2006"
"Legacy of Unicron"
"City of Fear"
"Prey"
"Second Generation"
"Space Pirates"
"Time Wars"
"Fallen Angel"

As well as the small digest sized books:

"Way of the Warrior"
"Fallen Star"
"Aspects of Evil"
"Earthforce"

and I believe there were a couple of others but I don't have them.

I really liked that "Death's Head" character in Fallen Angel, I think it was. He was pretty cool, yes?

I find it odd that the continuity issues between later UK and US comics arose after Furman started writing both.

Time Wars= Best American Story Arc cranked all the way up to 11.

I Wuv my Titan mini-books.

UK Grimlock smacks every other kind of Grimlock for a 6.

Windsweeper wrote:I find it odd that the continuity issues between later UK and US comics arose after Furman started writing both.

Started? Furman wrote a vast majority of the UK material, starting very early on, and tied it into the US stories. It wasn't until the tail end of the series that continuity became glitched. At that time, I'm sure he just wanted to crank out a 5 page story and leave it at that.

Glyph wrote:

Loki120 wrote:

Windsweeper wrote:I find it odd that the continuity issues between later UK and US comics arose after Furman started writing both.

Started? Furman wrote a vast majority of the UK material, starting very early on, and tied it into the US stories.

As in, it managed fine while he was practically in the dark about the US storyline, and it's bizarre that it suddenly hit problems when he started controlling both simultaneously (read: Earthforce). That's how I understood the post, anyway.

Blah...I'm just going to shut up now. I was extremely tired when I wrote that post.