The Energon Pub

Artist Livio Ramondelli has shared his cover art work for IDW's upcoming Transformers Spotlight: Orion Pax. This issue is due out in December 2012. Take a look below.

Transformers Spotlight: Orion Pax

James Roberts (w) • Steve Kurth (a) • Kurth, Livio Ramondelli (c)

BEFORE OPTIMUS PRIME—there was Orion Pax! Four million years ago, the future leader of the AUTOBOTS disappeared into the Cybertronian wilderness to save a friend. What happened next would take him to the very brink—and have startling repercussions on the current comics!

FC • 32 pages • $3.99

I am surprised this guy is still working on Transformers. I don't want to blast his hard work. I will say that I am not a fan. Coupled with how terrible Autocracy was, I really wished I had not bought that book.

That Orion looks more like iron hide than Optimus. Not liking the look. At least resemble Optimus a little

Actually (except the head), it looks a lot like the Kup recolor from eHobby a few years back.

Flux Convoy wrote:I am surprised this guy is still working on Transformers. I don't want to blast his hard work. I will say that I am not a fan. Coupled with how terrible Autocracy was, I really wished I had not bought that book.

I'm far from a Ramondelli fanboy but if you get the chance you should have a look at his gallery from Deviant art.

http://livio27.deviantart.com/gallery/27052490

Some of his work is truly amazing.I just think that the story layouts lately have been too detailed for his work. Splash pages and covers are where he's best.

Not trying to twist your arm though.

I'm still a bit p!ssed this guy and IDW decided to change Orion Pax from the pretty much established data clerk role to Cybertron's very own Judge Dredd.

That's Orion Pax?! From the thumbnail on the link, I thought it was Ironhide. The proportions look a little off, too.

Right? That looks nothing like prime, even pre-incarnation. Might as well create a new character and call him Rollar. Oh, wait! That's taken. Ironcup or Ironprime or something

President-prime wrote:Right? That looks nothing like prime, even pre-incarnation. Might as well create a new character and call him Rollar. Oh, wait! That's taken. Ironcup or Ironprime or something

Yep. I just checked out the guy's devianart page, and he does have talent. But that pic is just wrong on so many levels.

It's more like Pax is trying to impersonate Ironhide or something.

His art is pretty nice. Lots of Optimus...wonder why he decides to go with this specific design. Obviously he has lots of Optimus practice (from his devianart gallery). Just not liking my favorite transformers character portrayed this way.

I'm sorry, but why hasn't this guy been fired yet? I don't care how much effort is put into whatever he makes and how much we're supposed to appreciate it, the guy absolutely sucks at Transformers. His designs and proportions ALWAYS look incredibly stiff, and his coloring is so over-saturated and grainy that you can't tell one bot apart from another. I REALLY wanted to get Chaos and Autocracy, but in less than 1 issue I could barely understand what was going on since I couldn't tell who was who, thanks to this bozo!

Shadowstream wrote:I'm sorry, but why hasn't this guy been fired yet? I don't care how much effort is put into whatever he makes and how much we're supposed to appreciate it, the guy absolutely sucks at Transformers. His designs and proportions ALWAYS look incredibly stiff, and his coloring is so over-saturated and grainy that you can't tell one bot apart from another. I REALLY wanted to get Chaos and Autocracy, but in less than 1 issue I could barely understand what was going on since I couldn't tell who was who, thanks to this bozo!

FINALLY! I thought I was the only one. It was bad enough he ruined chaos. As far as the Orion Pax cover, if you look back at the G1 season 2 episode tittled War Dawn, its pretty close to that design body-wise, best guess is that he just went off of that.

Two major problems with this art piece: color saturation and proportion. If not for these, this actually would have been pretty neat to view despite having little resemblance (if any) to G1 Orion Pax.

Cooter wrote:As far as the Orion Pax cover, if you look back at the G1 season 2 episode tittled War Dawn, its pretty close to that design body-wise, best guess is that he just went off of that.

I'm not so sure about that. Seems to be a stretch to even say it was inspired off of that episode, but maybe I'm missing something.

Sodan-1 wrote:I'm still a bit p!ssed this guy and IDW decided to change Orion Pax from the pretty much established data clerk role to Cybertron's very own Judge Dredd.

I'll admit, I had to look up 'Judge Dredd'.

Anyway... I mostly agree with you. It just isn't the Orion Pax that we've gotten to be so familiar with since the first War Within comic. However, I would be open to an exploration of the original background of Orion Pax from War Dawn.

Probably wouldn't seem as interesting, though. At least from IDW's point of view.

quickmixed wrote:

Flux Convoy wrote:I am surprised this guy is still working on Transformers. I don't want to blast his hard work. I will say that I am not a fan. Coupled with how terrible Autocracy was, I really wished I had not bought that book.

I'm far from a Ramondelli fanboy but if you get the chance you should have a look at his gallery from Deviant art.

http://livio27.deviantart.com/gallery/27052490

Some of his work is truly amazing.I just think that the story layouts lately have been too detailed for his work. Splash pages and covers are where he's best.

Not trying to twist your arm though.

It's just weird. Covers are his bread and butter but this one is a bit lacking.