Seibertron.com's ScottyP and Razorclaw0000 were in attendance at the NC Comicon being held today and tomorrow at the Raleigh Convention Center in Raleigh, NC. IDW is a show sponsor and a Transformers panel with
Optimus Prime writer John Barber was held this afternoon, with editor David Hedgecock also present. While no major announcements for the IDW Transformers or Hasbro Universes were made today, we do have notes from the Transformers panel where Barber gave some details and teases for the upcoming issues 7 - 10 of
Optimus Prime. Plus, we have some bonus coverage notes from the "History of IDW" panel from earlier in the day that featured IDW CEO Ted Adams, Chief Creative Officer Chris Ryall, Steve Niles, David Hedgecock, and Shelly Bond.
IDW Transformers Panel - Details and Teases for Upcoming Issues of Optimus Prime
- Issues 7 - 10 will each more or less stand alone, but buildup into a single story.
- "A lot will happen" in issue 6.
- Not many details given for issue 7, but the art will be by Priscilla Tramontano.
- Issue #8 will be a Jazz-centric story and features the long awaited return (for at least this one issue) of Casey Coller!
- Issue #9 was called "The Life of Sideswipe" but we're unsure if this is an actual title or just how it was phrased. Art on this issue will be by Kei Zama.
- Issue #10 will be another story about "Barbarian Galvatron" and will be set earlier in the history of this universe than any other stories have been. Livio Ramondelli will handle most of the art for the book (as is typical of flashback stories such as this one) with Kei Zama contributing a framing sequence.
- By the end of Issue 10 we'll find out who (if anyone) becomes Earth's representative on the Council of Worlds.
- There will of course be more of Thundercracker & Buster, perhaps also in the upcoming Hasbro Heroes Sourcebooks where we'll find out exactly how Thundercracker can open bags of dog food to feed Buster, but we were warned this may not make it into the final versions of the books.
- Comics harkening back more due to technology and availability being easier with Comixology, can get back issues on sale at any time unlike the 70s.
- The foundation of how the IDW Transformers and G.I. Joe series could potentially work together in a timeline (despite events like All Hail Megatron) was actually seeded by artist Andrew Griffith who was an avid follower of the Joe series.
- Someone at Hasbro (usually Michael Kelly) makes final call on the larger events and plot points. Hasbro trusts them to tell the stories they think will resonate with fans.
- Hasbro enthusiastically signed off on Chromedome/Rewind. Hasbro said (paraphrasing) "We asked you to make them like real people, and you did."
- Talked about Transformers vs GI Joe - Tom Scioli wrote letter into letters@idw email address about something unrelated, and one thing led to another and IDW pitched to him to do it.
- Barber wrote a full script for #0 and the final product ended up nothing like it. This was said in an upbeat, joking manner.
- The original plan for the about to be released Transformers vs. G.I. Joe: The Movie Adaptation was for Rob Liefeld to do the art with Scioli coloring, but this never went very far and Scioli ended up doing almost the entirety of work for the book on his own.
- Audience was reminded that Action Man #1 takes place in the Channel Islands - which is kind-of sort-of where James Roberts lives.
- Q&A session began. Someone asked about other Sunbow property crossovers. Nothing was directly answered except to say that we'd all know an answer to this by the end of the year and for those interested to keep up with Revolutionaries. Was also noted that Revolutionaries Issue 8 will include a guide to all of the obscure references and Easter Eggs from the series up to that point.
- There was a question regarding whether or not Hasbro ever said "No" to an idea. One was recently rejected for Revolutionaries but they declined to elaborate on precisely what it was in case they use some elements of it in the future, but it was noted by Barber that due to the rejection he feels like they ended up with a better story.
- As a follow-up detail to the above, while the Transformers: Prime cartoon was airing they weren't allowed to include Predacons in Autocracy or to have a cover within the series where Optimus Prime sported a Decepticon logo (this would not have been a plot point, merely a fun cover idea, but that was still rejected).
- It was noted that sometimes ideas aren't able to be used because of intellectual property issues, and that this was especially challenging with Rom and Micronauts.
- Someone asked why Thundercracker is a writer. Barber replied that his favorites from the Mike Costa Ongoing-era were Swindle and Thundercracker, and when they came back to the Earth stories he thought Thundercracker's perceived understanding of humanity through television would make for a good story.
Bonus Notes From the "History of IDW" Panel
- The original business plan for IDW said "No Comic Books"!
- Television division is going strong with Wynonna Earp and Dirk Gently.
- First attempted TV project was a reality show called "Bar Talk" which never went anywhere.
- Talking about getting Transformers license. They were up against Marvel, DC, and Darkhorse for the license after Dreamwave's collapse, and it was both their passion and ability to make Transformers their premier title that convinced Hasbro.
- Adams reflected that they were known as the "Horror Comics" company and that those fans were initially upset about the Transformers license.
- Mentioned acquisition of licenses such as My Little Pony, TMNT, and Skylanders as other pivotal moments.
- Chris Ryall wanted to do Rom for over a decade and first asked about it the day after they got the Transformers license (unknown if this was a little embellishment to help with a joke, but the point was he had been trying to do this for a very, very long time).
- Rom was difficult to get going because the licenses were a mess. Parker Brothers owned the toy and Marvel owned some of the characters. Hasbro buying Parker Brothers helped with one side of that.
- Ryall had actually given up on Rom, but then Hasbro made it happen.
- Revolution came about during a lunch meeting between David Hedgecock, John Barber, and Ted Adams.
- First pitched the shared universe to Hasbro and expected to be able to gradually build to it with teasers and Easter Eggs, but then it was just decided to go all in to it when it only took Hasbro a few months to approve of the concept.
- Mentioned that Rom is the paranoid dark corner of the universe, whereas the Transformers titles are the sweeping, epic science fiction stories.
Let us know what you think by replying to this post, and stay tuned within the coming days for more NC Comicon coverage by way of a special upcoming episode of the
Twincast / Podcast which will feature very special guests!
