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Richard Branson Likeness Removed from Hachette TF Collections

Discuss anything about the Transformers cartoons and comics! You can discuss anything from G1 to Cybertron as well as the comics from Marvel, Dreamwave, IDW and more!

Richard Branson Likeness Removed from Hachette TF Collections

Postby D-Maximal_Primal » Wed Nov 28, 2018 8:42 pm

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Ready for some strange news from the world of comics? Well, brace yourself, cause we got an interesting one here!

This story begins in the Marvel UK Generation 1 comic, specifically Issue #160 of 332. In this issue, Richard Branson and his likeness show up in the comic as an entrepreneur who was working on removing contamination from the Thames River, specifically Transformer bodies. The art was originally only going to be in the likeness of Branson, but artist Lee Sullivan had some fun drawing a near perfect likeness to Branson for the issue. As a result, Marvel decided to get his approval to name the character in the comic Richard Branson, to which he granted approval.

However, as writer Simon Furman explains in his Twitter post, they had no paperwork proving that the likeness was approved, so they had to recently change the likeness and name of the character, which means Lee Sullivan redrew the panels featuring Branson in the Hachette collection. So while this means that Richard Branson has been replaced by a "Mister Johnson", it does provide the cool news that Lee Sullivan has drawn some recent Transformers artwork!

Check out the quote form Furman below, along with a shot of the panel then and now, and let us know what you think of this wonky tale below!

Note: We thank TFWiki for the images of the original artwork to go with Wilson Jim on Twitter who provided the images of the new comic. Links are included in the photos below.

In the absence of actual paperwork from those dim distant days proving we had Branson's permission to use his likeness, it was decided to err on the side of caution. I did actually try and contact Branson. But in the end we got Lee Sullivan to make art changes... to his own art.


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Re: Richard Branson Likeness Removed from Hachette TF Collections

Postby Bumblevivisector » Wed Nov 28, 2018 9:08 pm

I wonder if "Mr. Johnson" is reference to LBJ, because the altered art ended up looking like another U.S. ex-president, Jimmy Carter! Now I can't shake this feeling that Centurion's final fate was to be used as raw materials for low-income housing...and we still don't know what happened to Professor Morris when he somehow gained sentience, do we?

I also realize how lucky we were that #160 got reprinted in IDW's UK Classics before whatever complications arose to prevent publication of the Space Pirates - Time Wars trade.
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Re: Richard Branson Likeness Removed from Hachette TF Collections

Postby -Kanrabat- » Wed Nov 28, 2018 11:09 pm

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THANK YOU ARTICLE 13!


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Re: Richard Branson Likeness Removed from Hachette TF Collections

Postby Samsonator » Thu Nov 29, 2018 4:20 am

Motto: ""Death is the only way out.""
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Richard Branson got the Henry Cavill treatment... looks just as unnatural.
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Re: Richard Branson Likeness Removed from Hachette TF Collections

Postby snavej » Thu Nov 29, 2018 11:19 am

Motto: "Follow your instincts and your common sense."
That's a fine Johnson you have there, sir! ;)
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Re: Richard Branson Likeness Removed from Hachette TF Collections

Postby blackeyedprime » Thu Nov 29, 2018 1:48 pm

Motto: "Me Grimlock, you slag."
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Can't be any signal on dinobot Island...erm..Virgin Island to give him a call and get his approval.
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Re: Richard Branson Likeness Removed from Hachette TF Collections

Postby no-one » Thu Nov 29, 2018 3:06 pm

snavej wrote:That's a fine Johnson you have there, sir! ;)

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Re: Richard Branson Likeness Removed from Hachette TF Collections

Postby skyshadowprimus » Mon Dec 10, 2018 8:07 am

Samsonator wrote:Richard Branson got the Henry Cavill treatment... looks just as unnatural.


He probably got it done on the NHS, they may have had funding issues after being sued by a greedy millionaire ;-)
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