The Energon Pub

Andrew Wildman has posted information on his blog, Wildwords, about his work on the final troubled issues of Marvel's Transformers comic series. His update has been mirrored below.

The Last Transformer?

Well almost. Following on from my previous post I have been having a look around to see what remains of any Transformers and GI Joe artwork. Not a lot to be honest. there seems to be only one GI Joe cover left and only three Transformers covers.

First up for consideration is Transformers #79. We were almost at the end of the series here and probably knew it. The decision to cancel the Marvel Transformers book came as a shock to Simon and myself and was not on the cards. It was selling well by todays standards but back then it was falling under the editorial radar. Marvel didnt really take the book seriously even though sales were steady. We had to cram a lot into the last two issues and this was the penultimate one. Interestingly it features Spike Witwicky on the cover. That family name that went on to recent movie stardom.

The artwork on the cover is also very much of its time. The maniacal grin on Galvatron's face was very much influenced by The Joker. This was also before the days of Photoshop so we had to get a bit clever with methods of colouring. I wanted the Galvatron head to be in blue rather than in black line filled with blue. The only way to achieve this back in 1990 was to do that piece of art on a separate overlay. I think it was 1990 or maybe '91 but for some reason its says Dec 4 1986 in the margin. No idea why.

So there you have it. I will probably be putting it up on eBay but by all means make me an offer if this is one of those covers that is special to you. It was for me, but now its time to move it on.

Imagine if Marvel had the TF rights today?

First Gen wrote:Imagine if Marvel had the TF rights today?

I dunno. With that professional ice skater suit on that new Spider-Man, I kinda doubt the TFs would be much better off than they were with Bay.

First Gen wrote:Imagine if Marvel had the TF rights today?

ok:

marvel zombies, cival war, secret invasion, siege, throw transformers in there, could be interesting

I would LOVE to have the piece of Spike standing alone. It's probably the single most striking image of Transformers art ever.

Sadly I've had to sell off the bulk of my comic collection over the last few years thanks to the economy tanking, but some stuff I refuse to part with even if it means living out of my car. Most of my Marvel Transformer comics are in that category so I'm happy to say that I still have this issue. That cover is definitely one that stays imprinted in one's brain no matter how many years go by. The whole art style by the end of the series is truly unforgettable. Somewhat (ok, a lot) out of place for giant transforming robots, in terms of expressions but it helped convey emotions so much more than what we see in the IDW iteration. When a 'bot was pissed off, there was no mistaking it. You didn't have to rely on the text to get the idea.

Ah yes, the issue that spurred me to retroactively collect every comic of this other TF universe I'd been neglecting all my life, affirming my eternal loyalty to Marvel continuity by the end of '91. As far as affording this, well, now would be as good a time as any to win the lottery!

EDIT: Okay, now I hope the guy who posted before me wins it first.

First Gen wrote:Imagine if Marvel had the TF rights today?

It can't be worse than the current run.

First Gen wrote:Imagine if Marvel had the TF rights today?

After the train wreck that was New Avengers/Transformers?

No thanks.

First Gen wrote:Imagine if Marvel had the TF rights today?

I'd rather imagine "What if IDW had the Marvel rights today?"

Or imagine "What if we could retcon Joe Quesada out of Marvel's history?"

First Gen wrote:Imagine if Marvel had the TF rights today?

hm... let's see... the bots would be the center of attention, spike wouldn't be a douche g.i.joe wannabe (that's nowhere near as cool as a JOE by any means)and Sparkplug would be around instead of some lame general, Optimus woulda stepped up and reigned in the current situation with human/cybertronian relations and not be sulking about a failiure (that wouldn't have happened anyways because the real Optimus would have anticipated the humans freaking out when their inhibitors stopped working, thus preparing the team better and saving Ironhide), the art wouldn't change every other issue.... shall I go on? At least when Marvel fails at a storyline they use some kind of universe altering event to retcon it, instead of just write new story arcs like the old ones didn't happen. And I'm not sure, but didn't the Transformers/avengers crossover have some creative input from IDW? If so, that surely didn't help. Now I realize Marvel did some silly things with Transformers in the 80s (prime's death I mean COME ON! ), but compare to what some characters' books went through it wasn't that bad. Anyways, Marvel has issues (pun intended ) but nothing like IDW

Im not so much into comic books but I would like to read up on Transformers history. Especially what happened after the Rebirth cartoon series. I always dig through piles of comics at the flea market, but never find Transformers, just stupid superheroes. And I detest men in tights.

gantzrunner wrote:

First Gen wrote:Imagine if Marvel had the TF rights today?

hm... let's see... the bots would be the center of attention, spike wouldn't be a douche g.i.joe wannabe (that's nowhere near as cool as a JOE by any means)and Sparkplug would be around instead of some lame general, Optimus woulda stepped up and reigned in the current situation with human/cybertronian relations and not be sulking about a failiure (that wouldn't have happened anyways because the real Optimus would have anticipated the humans freaking out when their inhibitors stopped working, thus preparing the team better and saving Ironhide), the art wouldn't change every other issue.... shall I go on? At least when Marvel fails at a storyline they use some kind of universe altering event to retcon it, instead of just write new story arcs like the old ones didn't happen. And I'm not sure, but didn't the Transformers/avengers crossover have some creative input from IDW? If so, that surely didn't help. Now I realize Marvel did some silly things with Transformers in the 80s (prime's death I mean COME ON! ), but compare to what some characters' books went through it wasn't that bad. Anyways, Marvel has issues (pun intended ) but nothing like IDW

Lets see:

Spike was dead. He died along with Fort Max in G2 #2 and they would have been killed off and brought back from the dead about 3 times by now.

Optimus Prime, Megatron, Starscream, and Bumblebee all would have been killed for the 10th time and brought back from the dead for the 11th time each.

Earth was nuked in G2 #12. The Autobots and Decepticons would still be blamed and both sides working together would only last about 1 issue.

We would have to put up those stupid super-heroes the Neo-Knights.

The series would be re-named and re-numbered 3 times by now.

Creative teams would last only 4-6 issues.

Yeah that crap would be so much better than IDW's great series.

Lets see:

Spike was dead. He died along with Fort Max in G2 #2 and they would have been killed off and brought back from the dead about 3 times by now.

Optimus Prime, Megatron, Starscream, and Bumblebee all would have been killed for the 10th time and brought back from the dead for the 11th time each.

Earth was nuked in G2 #12. The Autobots and Decepticons would still be blamed and both sides working together would only last about 1 issue.

We would have to put up those stupid super-heroes the Neo-Knights.

The series would be re-named and re-numbered 3 times by now.

Creative teams would last only 4-6 issues.

Yeah that crap would be so much better than IDW's great series. [/quote]


lol true, although I was thinking more along the lines of another relaunch. I guess if IDW went to doublesized issues, it would help me be more into the book. As it is now, it takes me all of 3 minute to read an issue then I gotta wait a month. I stopped reading at issue 11, so that I could rack up another ten issues at once just so I could hopefully get into the story. Perhaps as a whole, reading it all at once, ongoing will be epic. But on an issue to issue basis, it's just meh ( I mean come on I've seen Mosaics that had more story setup in one page). Also, not only does the artist and design changes bug me (and it bugged me with old marvel too) but sometimes the same artist draws the same character with two different designs (Optimus is old-school in issue 9, then in issue 10 he suddenly looks more like Don's new prime. Problem is both issues are Guidi lol) I'm an artist, so that kind of stuff drives me nuts, and with so little to read I spend a lot of time staring at the art lol. Back on marvel, that was my greatest irritation: why couldn't they keep the colors of established characters correct? lmao. Perhaps neither company is suited for Transformers right now.

Hey! Any hardcore fans win the lottery? Let's start a new comic company and do it right! If we could get Hasbro on board anyways

gantzrunner wrote:Hey! Any hardcore fans win the lottery? Let's start a new comic company and do it right! If we could get Hasbro on board anyways

I wonder what doing it right would be?. I mean I had criticism for the comics too, just seems with so many fans out there with many ideas, it's going to be difficult to please them all.
I wish anyone luck who tries.

Not saying I don't enjoy the comics now, but I do kinda miss what Marvel was doing. It just seemed a shame that some of their other books are around for decades and still going strong and they had to end Transformers.

Rated X wrote:And I detest men in tights.

...this was actually a funny take on Robin Hood. But anyway...

I remember when the TF comics were gone the first time around.
I was sad and stopped going into a comic book store for a long time as it was the only title I was buying.

At the time I'm was guessing there were a lot of "fad" type of TF fans that disappeared as the toy line waned?.

Why did Furman stop writing for IDW?

Shame the Dreamwave writers weren't hired. They knew the characters and didn't slag the Pretender concept.

Marvel Thunderwing was one of the greatest TF chsracters. What IDW did to him is unforgiveable.

Oh how i miss the Marvel and Dreamwave Transformers. How have slaggin IDW kept the licence so long?

The Botcon comics have been enjoyable over the years. They even made attempts to tie in with the Marvel TF comics.

Man, I would love to own a Wildman original art piece.