The Energon Pub

Chris Ryall has updated his blog with the covers for issue #2 of the upcoming IDW Transformers Generation One Ongoing series. The series is being written by Mike Costa, and penciled by fan favorite artist Don Figueroa, and colors by James Brown.

The covers shown for issue #2 include one by Don, and the Bumblebee variant done by Andrew Wildman, infamous Transformers UK artist, and artist for Dreamwave's War Within series, 'The Dark Ages'. Andrew is drawing the variant cover for each issue in the first story arc.

Check out the two covers for issue #2 here originally, and mirrored below.





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tigertracks 24 wrote:...the Bumblebee variant done by Andrew Wildman, infamous Transformers UK artist...

What, do we not like Andrew Wildman? His art style looks pretty good to me, nothing to get infamous over.

Cool covers, nice composition, but I'm afraid Don's style of hybrid movie-cartoon faces isn't for me. The pronounced cheekbone and jowl areas really make the Autobots look gaunt and generic...they have the same face. Not that G1 didn't sue the typical 80s anime robot face designs but Don's previous work gave most characters unique character.

Not a fan of the main cover at all. Artwork like this is why I never got into the IDW books at all.

it's not just the faces that look like a movie hybrid... the bodies look very movie like as well. For a time don was my favorite TF artist, and it saddens me to say i don't like this new style. oh well, it did take me ahwile to warm up to e.j. su's art too, so maybe it'll grow on me.

all the faces look exactly the same but with different helmets.
ive never been a comic fan but the cover art here seems sub-par. oh well, its only one issue and cover art and story dont always represent each other.

Whoa. Is anyone going to mention they just plopped Rodimus front and center?

Is that an upgraded from his Skorponok beatdown Hot Rod or a completely different bot? That definitely isnt the same robot from the TO #1 cover

I don't mind the movie stylings for the bodies as the figures still look robust and I like the mechanical details. The faces are gaunt and have a sinister look about them, which throws me off when I'm looking at the Autobots, which I have ingrained in my mind as reasonably pleasant looking fellows. If those faces were on the Decepticons, it wouldn't be so bad and actually would look proper. Megatron with that kind of facial appearance would be just fine.

I think that you could have a movie-cartoon hybrid style that doesn't make the faces look gaunt and emaciated. I personally like EJ Su's concept work on Prowl, for instance:

Well I for one LOVE this new art style. Don's just trying to evolve as an artist... I say let him. It's not just the faces that are different, the general design style seem much more classic Manga. Beyond that, Don was one of the first TF artists that gave us designs that had plausible transformations built in. This concept is continued beautifully here. He raised the bar all around with his level of detail, and I am glad to see him taking it a step further. But hey, it's a matter of taste. I hope others come around, too. Change is good; it's what Transformers is all about!

In any case, I'm excited about the new series.

The best about this comic will be Wildman's cover.

Personally I think Don is a good artist, a little too over-hyped but still pretty good.
but f**k Don's new style while interesting just dosen't fit into the G1 verse, I wouldn't mind a different and new incarnation of the TFs to have that kind of style, but not the old guys.

The new Don stuff is pretty off-putting to look at. The bots look generic and, thus far, seem to have lost the expressiveness of their original designs. I'm not into this at all.

Damn, I usually love Don's stuff but them's some ugly G1 bots right there. I gotta agree with Dead Metal, this style could work for a new cast of characters in a new world, but it just looks like the characters we know and love have been disfigured.

Is the interior art going to be in this style too? I'm assuming it is since I think Don was doing the interiors too.

Oh well, I heard the new writer is good so hopefully the story will be top-notch to make up for it.

Oilspill wrote:Damn, I usually love Don's stuff but them's some ugly G1 bots right there. I gotta agree with Dead Metal, this style could work for a new cast of characters in a new world, but it just looks like the characters we know and love have been disfigured.

Is the interior art going to be in this style too? I'm assuming it is since I think Don was doing the interiors too.

Oh well, I heard the new writer is good so hopefully the story will be top-notch to make up for it.

You can expect a five-page preview of #1 to be posted sometime soon, as it comes out in about a week and a half, but I know we saw the first page and it was Breakdown busting something up walking out of an exploding something...but yes, it was done in Don's current style. It will certainly take some getting used to.

How can ANYONE complain that the faces are too generic? G1 characters have ALWAYS had the same faces, with their only distinguishing features being on their helmets and color schemes! Always. Don is just drawing the robot faces in a more "realistic" manor, giving them functional details instead of the impossible "magic bendy metal" that we've been forced to accept for the past two decades. I for one am happy to see someone trying something more real.

You may not like it, but give it time... the designs may grow on you, especially after you've seen more than just a few sample images and after Don has tweaked and perfected the look. I for one didn't like it at first but the more I look a it the more it grows on me.

Think of how much love Don has to pour into each page to make images that complex and detailed. It's rather astounding.

That said, I want that Andy Wildman cover. I like "sketchy" artwork now and then. And if he's retiring soon like the rumor mill has been saying, then we need to enjoy his final output of artwork while we can.

JazZeke wrote:How can ANYONE complain that the faces are too generic? G1 characters have ALWAYS had the same faces, with their only distinguishing features being on their helmets and color schemes! Always. Don is just drawing the robot faces in a more "realistic" manor, giving them functional details instead of the impossible "magic bendy metal" that we've been forced to accept for the past two decades. I for one am happy to see someone trying something more real.

The faces look too generic because the style is becoming too mecha. They no longer have the distinctive characteristics of being a Transformer.

Second, they're talking robots from outer space! I don't care about realism.

I'm willing to give this new series a chance because Don was so important in reviving interest in the brand in '02, and because the new writer apparently did an amazing job with G.I. Joe. But honestly, I'm really not enjoying the new artwork.

This series was supposed to be a neo-G1, and now IDW saying it's not... I'm not sure how to feel about that.

The art is...eh. It doesnt really stand out from any of the movie books that are out (aside from maybe the colors) Does Hot Rod look different, even from the cover of issue 1? Story-wise, I'm actually looking forward to it, especially if Galvatron and Co. are gonna enter the fray.

JazZeke wrote:How can ANYONE complain that the faces are too generic? G1 characters have ALWAYS had the same faces, with their only distinguishing features being on their helmets and color schemes! Always. Don is just drawing the robot faces in a more "realistic" manor, giving them functional details instead of the impossible "magic bendy metal" that we've been forced to accept for the past two decades. I for one am happy to see someone trying something more real.

G1 came out over 20 years ago and the style at the time was the generic anime robot faces like in most mecha anime of the day. I'm a G1 fan but not to fault where I'll say something has to be just like G1 despite the room and need for advancement and improvement.

I don't see the approach to the faces as realistic because if you want realism, robots don't to simulate the appearance of facial muscles like in any robot faces such as G1 or Don's current style. Robots could "speak" if necessary through an equivalent to speakers.

To me, the "robotic faces" Don draws isn't as creative or innovative as what was done in the live action movies for pushing the limits of stylization or EJ Su's Transformers concept work. To me, a less human robot face makes more sense than Don's style of very human faces. Honestly, if he's going to be recognized for putting detail, he could vary the appearance of face types.

My main criticism about the face design is that it's not aesthetically pleasing to me and there's a sinister look about them due to the emaciated look. These faces are better suited to Decepticons in my opinion. In fact, I think they'd look great on Cyclonus or Megatron.

However, the bodies I really like. The more overt mechanical details appeals to me. I love G1 and the blocky style but I also really like the movie style of visible mechanical elements.

JazZeke wrote:You may not like it, but give it time... the designs may grow on you, especially after you've seen more than just a few sample images and after Don has tweaked and perfected the look. I for one didn't like it at first but the more I look a it the more it grows on me.

I definitely agree that we should give the look some time to mature and evolve. Comics normally develop day by day, month by month, so hopefully changes will happen and Don will refine the style for the better.

JazZeke wrote:Think of how much love Don has to pour into each page to make images that complex and detailed. It's rather astounding.

That would be great if that was the case but I think it's more pragmatic. Ultimately, a job is a job even if you love what you do. I'm sure Don's passionate about his comic work and has some sincere feeling going into the art but at the same time it's commercial art at the end of the day. I'm sure that Don's style is at least in part mandated by the editorial staff, who answers to Hasbro.

Convotron wrote:I don't see the approach to the faces as realistic because if you want realism, robots don't to simulate the appearance of facial muscles like in any robot faces such as G1 or Don's current style. Robots could "speak" if necessary through an equivalent to speakers.

To me, the "robotic faces" Don draws isn't as creative or innovative as what was done in the live action movies for pushing the limits of stylization or EJ Su's Transformers concept work. To me, a less human robot face makes more sense than Don's style of very human faces. Honestly, if he's going to be recognized for putting detail, he could vary the appearance of face types.

My main criticism about the face design is that it's not aesthetically pleasing to me and there's a sinister look about them due to the emaciated look. These faces are better suited to Decepticons in my opinion. In fact, I think they'd look great on Cyclonus or Megatron.

Of course, I know that making the robots even more anthropomorphic is a step in the wrong direction for realism. But by "realism" I meant in terms of functionality. For a robot to be able to emote with its face in ways we've seen Transformers do, it would need a legion of little moving parts, not just the "magic bendy metal" that is presumed to cover up pseudo-science working parts underneath.

Convotron wrote:

JazZeke wrote:Think of how much love Don has to pour into each page to make images that complex and detailed. It's rather astounding.

That would be great if that was the case but I think it's more pragmatic. Ultimately, a job is a job even if you love what you do. I'm sure Don's passionate about his comic work and has some sincere feeling going into the art but at the same time it's commercial art at the end of the day. I'm sure that Don's style is at least in part mandated by the editorial staff, who answers to Hasbro.

Nope. That is all Don, as explained by the new editor of the Transformers comics on the IDW board:

Andy Schmidt wrote:That perception is not entirely correct. There was no corporate decision. Don wanted to take different elements from different incarnations and I stood by the decision. Don't not the only artist on here. Look at the "Last Stand of the Wreckers" cover we've released or the Bumblebee cover we've released. Neither of those are movie-fied. What we're doing differently is letting the artists be artists. We're letting them show off their unique skills. Casey, Guido, and many others are working on other TF projects and no one but Don is doing what Don does. No one but Guido is penciling them the way Guido does. It's about letting the artists bring something unique to their stories.

Well, since the IDW artists have free reign, that's a great thing for an artist but then there's full credit and full blame for them to shoulder for criticism and praise.

I hope Don does show the characters emoting more with their faces in the ongoing series then because the range of emotion I saw of this style of his in AHM #13 was frowning, glaring, and somewhat deadpan expressions that could be perceived as slight frowning due to the downward angles of the eyes and the framing of the brow rims of the helmets.

Honestly, I would enjoy this style more if the faces weren't as gaunt and/or small looking. I think this could be resolved by making the faces fill out more of the helmets, which kind of look oversized as they are now.

However, one issue I'm reminded of is that the up close shots of the faces in AHM #13 show that when the Autobots speak and teeth are shown, it looks like a corpse. The toothy mouths with no gums or lips along with the prounounced features like cheekbones due to the use of metal plate to make up the planes of the faces make them look cadaverous to me. Even if the characters were to smile, I don't know if they could be recognized as smiling or simply baring gritted teeth in a rictus grin. It kind of reminds me of a robot version of Willem Dafoe.



The extra detail in overall design is great, again, I like the mechanical details. I like how Optimus' helmet is more cartoon/anime-ish with the angled antenna parts. The fact that the faces have more detail looks better with someone like Optimus because you don't have a mouthplate infront of a flat/magic metal type face. The detail makes it now look like there is indeed something behind the plate.

Heck, my signature is a picture of Don's current style. I love how he draws the Transformers for the most part.