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Angry Birds/Transformers #4 (of 4)
John Barber (w) • Marcelo Ferreira (a & c)
The action heats up as the Eggspark begins to alter the fundamental forces of Piggy Island itself! With the Autobirds and Deceptihogs forming an uneasy alliance, will their combined might be enough to halt inevitable doom?! Find out in the thrilling conclusion to this years’ most mind-bending mash-up!
FC • 32 pages • $3.99
Angry Birds/Transformers #4 (of 4)—Subscription Variant
John Barber (w) • Marcelo Ferreira (a) • Guido Guidi (c)
FC • 32 pages • $3.99
Transformers: Drift—Empire of Stone #4 (of 4)
Shane McCarthy (w) • Guido Guidi (a & c)
FINAL FATE! This is it—DRIFT and RATCHET show down against the STONE ARMY! Will DRIFT rejoin the AUTOBOTS—or forge a new fate in the farthest reaches of the galaxy?
FC • 32 pages • $3.99
Bullet points:
This issue’s fallout will impact TRANSFORMERS comics for years to come!
Ties in directly MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE!
Transformers: Drift: Empire of Stone #4 (of 4)—Subscription Variant
Shane McCarthy (w) • Guido Guidi (a) • Sarah Stone (c)
FC • 32 pages • $3.99
Transformers #38—Days of Deception
John Barber (w) • Andrew Griffith (a & c)
THE ONYX INTERFACE! The AUTOBOTS and DECEPTICONS face down human forces—and strange battlelines make for strange allies. Who will emerge with the ancient ENIGMA OF COMBINATION… and who will usher in the COMBINER WAR…?
FC • 32 pages • $3.99
Bullet points:
All-out war in the wilderness!
Will the Decepticons learn of the humans’ treachery?
Wait, wait—did you say “the humans’ treachery”?
YES I DID!
Days of Deception continues!
The stage is set for COMBINER WARS!
Variant Cover by Jeffrey Veregge!
Transformers #38—Days of Deception—Subscription Variant
John Barber (w) • Andrew Griffith (a) • Casey W. Coller (c)
FC • 32 pages • $3.99
Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye #38—Days of Deception
James Roberts (w) • Alex Milne (a & c)
JOURNEY'S END! Across time, across space, from prewar Messatine to postwar CYBERTRON—it's all been heading towards this—the moment when the fate of the AUTOBOTS and the DECEPTICONS is sealed. At the heart of it all: three killers, two outcomes... and one terrible, terrible choice.
FC • 32 pages • $3.99
Bullet points:
Days of Deception continues!
Variant Cover by Jeffrey Veregge!
Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye #38—Days of Deception—Subscription Variant
James Roberts (w) • Alex Milne (a) • Nick Roche (c)
FC • 32 pages • $3.99
Transformers: Primacy
Chris Metzen & Flint Dille (w) • Livio Ramondelli (a & c)
OPTIMUS PRIME vs. MEGATRON. AUTOBOTS vs. DECEPTICONS. At the dawn of the conflict, battle lines are drawn and sides are set… now legends will be made. The war that would define a planet begins in earnest—and its revelations will shake the TRANSFORMERS’ world to the core!
TPB • FC • $17.99 • 104 pages • ISBN: 978-1-63140-234-0
Bullet points:
“This is a great new story arc for fans of any version of the Transformers.” –Geeked Out Nation
Transformers Classics, Vol. 8
Bob Budiansky, Michael Higgins (w) • Herb Trimpe (a) • Guido Guidi (c)
Volume 8 collects Transformers Universe #1–4, all character biographies from TF issues #47–49, 56–72, and 74–79, plus G.I. JOE and the Transformers #1–4. Also includes issues notes by Mark W. Bellomo.
TPB • FC • $29.99 • 312 pages • ISBN: 978-1-63140-133-6
Bullet points:
Completely Re-colored!
Transformers vs G.I. JOE #7
Tom Scioli & John Barber (w) • Scioli (a & c)
THE WORLD AS THEY MAKE IT! Alliances are forged! Enemies are enraged! The war burns on Earth and Cybertron! And now… now the real battle begins.
FC • 32 pages • $3.99
Transformers vs G.I. Joe #7—Subscription Variant
Tom Scioli & John Barber (w) • Scioli (a) • Joe Quinones (c)
FC • 32 pages • $3.99
Bullet points:
If you’ve ever liked anything, you’ll love this!
If you’ve never liked anything—this will be the first thing you love!
No offence to all the other comics, because they all try really hard, but TRANSFORMERS VS. G.I. JOE is the best thing ever.
Variant Cover by Kody Chamberlain!
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SHOUT! FACTORY CELEBRATES THE 30th ANNIVERSARY OF TRANSFORMERS WITH A TREASURE TROVE OF ENTERTAINMENT SPANNING THREE DECADES, “30 YEARS IN 3 DAYS – SHOUT! FACTORY LIVE AT BOTCON 2014” LIVE STREAM EVENT AND MORE!
Since 1984, the thrills of the TRANSFORMERS saga, the action of epic battles between the AUTOBOTS and the DECEPTICONS, and the memorable ROBOTS IN DISGUISE characters continue to spark the imagination of millions worldwide. The TRANSFORMERS brand is a global pop-culture phenomenon, bringing entertainment and excitement to kids and fans through countless collectible toys, animated series, films, comic books, video games and a convention dedicated to TRANSFORMERS collectors.
In honor of the year-long celebration of the TRANSFORMERS 30th Anniversary, Shout! Factory, in collaboration with Hasbro Studios, salutes the beloved TRANSFORMERS franchise by broadcasting from the floor of BotCon and by placing emphasis behind its uniquely diverse home entertainment offerings of TRANSFORMERS animated series (spanning 1984 – 2013). As part of the “THRILLING 30” festivities, the multi-faceted campaign from Shout! Factory includes TRANSFORMERS 30th Anniversary branded product highlights, gift-with-purchase ecommerce opportunities, special digital live stream event “30 YEARS IN 3 DAYS –SHOUT! FACTORY LIVE AT BOTCON 2014” – featuring TRANSFORMERS series marathon with special coverage from BotCon 2014 – and many more surprises to further engage fans and collectors.
For continuing updates on the TRANSFORMERS 30th Anniversary celebration from Shout! Factory, please follow us on Twitter @ShoutFactory, hashtag #BotCon2014.
“30 YEARS IN 3 DAYS – SHOUT! FACTORY LIVE AT BOTCON 2014” DIGITAL LIVE STREAM EVENT
Shout! Factory, in collaboration with Hasbro Studios, presents “30 YEARS IN 3 DAYS LIVE AT BOTCON 2014,” a three-day digital live stream takeover featuring marathon of TRANSFORMERS series episodes, exclusive digital segments and highlights from BotCon 2014. Viewers can tune in to this special marathon event on Friday, June 20 through Sunday, June 22, exclusively on http://www.TF30years.com and Shout! Factory’s YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/shoutfactory).
The live stream will originate from the BotCon floor at the Pasadena Convention Center. Viewers and fans are encouraged to share their passion for the TRANSFORMERS via Twitter using the hashtag #TF30years, #BotCon2014 and @shoutfactory.
Content and times are approximate and subject to change.
All times are listed in PDT (Pacific Daylight Time).
TUNE-IN to “30 YEARS IN 3 DAYS – SHOUT! FACTORY LIVE AT BOTCON 2014” DIGITAL LIVE STREAM EVENT” at http://www.TF30years.com and Shout! Factory’s YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/shoutfactory).
Friday, June 20:
11:00 AM "Triple Changer: From Toy to Comic to Screen"
11:30 AM The TRANSFORMERS (Generational 1): "More Than Meets the Eye, Part 1"
12:00 PM The TRANSFORMERS (Generational 1): "More Than Meets the Eye, Part 2"
12:30 PM "The Combiner: Forming the TRANSFORMERS Animated Series"
12:45 PM The TRANSFORMERS (Generational 1): "More than Meets the Eye, Part 3"
1:15 PM "The Headmasters: Voicing the Robots in Disguise"
1:45 PM "Into the Creation Matrix: A Conversation with Bob Budiansky"
Saturday, June 21:
10:00 AM The TRANSFORMERS (Generational 1): "S.O.S. Dinobot"
10:30 AM Panel: James Roberts Storyteller
10:45 AM The TRANSFORMERS (Generational 1): "Ghost in the Machine"
11:15 AM The TRANSFORMERS (Generational 1): "The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1"
11:45 PM The TRANSFORMERS (Generational 1): "The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 2"
12:00 PM Panel: Rescue Bots Cast Q&A
12:15 PM TRANSFORMERS BEAST WARS: "Beast Wars, Part 1"
12:45 PM "Maximize! Creating a New Breed of Transformer"
1:00 PM Panel: 2014 Hasbro Toys
1:15 PM TRANSFORMERS BEAST WARS: "Beast Wars, Part 2"
1:45 PM "Remembering the Spark"
2:00 PM TRANSFORMERS BEAST WARS: "The Agenda, Part 1"
2:30 PM TRANSFORMERS BEAST WARS: "The Agenda, Part 2"
2:45 PM Panel: Women in Animation
3:00 PM TRANSFORMERS BEAST WARS: "The Agenda, Part 3"
3:30 PM TRANSFORMERS BEAST WARS: "Optimal Situation"
3:45 PM Saturday Highlight Reel
Sunday, June 22:
9:30 AM TRANSFORMERS BEAST WARS: "Feral Scream, Part 1"
10:00 AM Panel: 2014 Live Script Reading
10:15 AM TRANSFORMERS BEAST WARS: "Feral Scream, Part 2"
10:45 AM TRANSFORMRES BEAST MACHINES: "The Reformatting"
11:00 AM Transformers Armada: "First Encounter"
11:30 AM Transformers Energon: "Cybertron City"
11:45 AM Transformers Cybertron: "Fallen"
12:15 PM Transformers Animated: "Thrill of the Hunt"
12:45 PM Panel: Transformers Animated
1:00 PM Transformers Animated: "Garbage In, Garbage Out"
1:15 PM Transformers Animated: "Garbage In, Garbage Out" with Commentary
1:45 PM Panel: Transformers Comics: IDW
2:00 PM TRANSFORMERS Rescue Bots: "The Alien Invasion of Griffin Rock"
2:30 PM Transformers Prime: "One Shall Fall"
2:45 PM "A Look at Polygon Pictures"
3:00 PM Panel: Transformers G1 Retrospective
3:15 PM Sunday Highlight Reel
TRANSFORMERS animated series home entertainment product highlights include:
The TRANSFORMERS: The Complete Series (Generational 1)
TRANSFORMERS: BEAST WARS
TRANSFORMERS THE JAPANESE COLLECTION
TRANSFORMERS ARMADA: THE COMPLETE SERIES
TRANSFORMERS ENERGON: THE COMPLETE SERIES
TRANSFORMERS CYBERTRON: THE COMPLETE SERIES
TRANSFORMERS ANIMATED: THE COMPLETE SERIES
TRANSFORMERS PRIME Seasons One, Two and Three
TRANSFORMERS PRIME: DARKNESS RISING
TRANSFORMERS PRIME: ONE SHALL STAND
TRANSFORMERS PRIME: ULTIMATE BUMBLEBEE
TRANSFORMERS PRIME: BEAST HUNTERS – PREDACONS RISING
TRANSFORMERS RESCUE BOTS: GRIFFIN ROCK RESCUE
TRANSFORMERS RESCUE BOTS: ENERGIZE
TRANSFORMERS RESCUE BOTS: HEROES ON THE SCENE
GIFT-WITH-PURCHASE OPPORTUNITY
*Loyal fans and collectors please take note:
Available while supplies last, receive a limited-edition 18”x24” collector’s poster with any purchase of TRANSFORMERS animated series home entertainment products from ShoutFactory.com
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All great questions. I'll try to give them great answers.
Here's the thing - Shane literally blew up the world in his last storyline. That is a really, really tough act to follow. I mean, I can't really blow up the world again. So rather than try to top that with spectacle - I guess I'd have to blow up the galaxy or something - I'm going to start small again, and then gradually expand the canvas. That's not to say that there won't be big events - there will be. They'll just be big character-events at first. No less status-quo changing, but we're staying Earth-centric in the beginning. You're going to find out why Earth is such an important place for the Transformers - and it's probably not the reason you think it is.
We'll definitely be building to events that, currently, are pretty far-off in the future. But the template I'm trying to follow is the one set by Bill Willingham in his Vertigo book FABLES. What that book does so well is juggle big storylines with smaller one, two or three-issue vingettes in between. With a cast as vast as Transformers, I feel like that's the best way to give as many characters the opportunity to shine as possible. But every issue will build on the next, even if it doesn't seem to at first. There's no guarantee how long I'll be on the book, of course (so... please, tell everyone to buy it and write glowing reviews online!) but hopefully I'll get to do all the things I have planned. That'll take quite a while.
I hope so. But the fact is, it's not a total reboot, like GI Joe was. These are still the same characters in the same continuity we've been seeing at IDW, so obviously there are many differences from the movie. I think we've struck a good balance though, between honoring previous continuity and being new-reader friendly. It would be great if fans of the movie jumped on. I think they'd really like what they'd see.
AHM was planned quite a while before we consolidated our ideas for this new ongoing, so rather than start monkeying with Shane's story and forcing him to change his ending to better dovetail into our series, we created the CODA series to tie up the loose ends that the ongoing wouldn't have time to get to in the first few issues, and to work as a bridge between the two series'. Obviously all the issues are out now, so you guys can tell us how successful we've been in doing that.
The cast will definitely have it's core characters whom the major storylines follow, but we will break away from them occasionally to focus on other characters in the universe. Also, the core cast will definitely be evolving, expanding and contracting. It's not going to be "Optimus Prime and the Same Five Other Autobots" every month, but you'll definitely be able to tell who the important characters are by the end of the first arc.
Most of those "core" characters will come as no surprise to Transformers fans, but I'm definitely throwing some curve-balls in there as well. One of the major characters of my run will be someone I've had my eye on for quite a while. Shane in particular gave him some really interesting development in AHM. His inclusion in my cast will be the logical extension of what happened to him there.
As for the Japanese characters. Hm. Not a bad idea...
I have no plans to kill Drift. But... I have no plans to use him right away either. So, everybody wins. Also, I can't speak for Zander or Nick, who are both doing auxiliary books, my intention is to exclusively use currently existing G1 Transformers. Of course I'll be creating supporting cast members, but the core cast will be recognizable faces for the time being.
Every writer is going to have his or her own interpenetration of a character, and now you've seen mine of Starscream. I can tell you guys he's my favorite character, and that's why I was very excited to make him the star of my first-ever Transformers story in CODA #1. (Clever readers with an eye for pretentious writer-gags might even have noticed that I made sure his name was the first word written on the first page.) I'll agree there are some differences in how the character has been portrayed, but in a hugely collaborative medium like comics, those core character attributes are all you really need for a character. Brian Bendis doesn't write exactly the same Spider-Man as Stan Lee, or Gerry Conway, or David Michelinie. But he'll always be smart, guilt-ridden, wise-cracking and heroic. And Starscream's core attributes are always the same - he's ambitious, treacherous, manipulative and often cowardly. Anything after that is just an artifact of the medium.
Guys... that first question isn't fair. I'm going to be working with a lot of great artists on this title (and I have already in CODA) and I can't make that call. I will, however, say that working with Don on my first stroyline is like getting Spider-Man and having John Romita draw it. And the man does not disappoint. When I saw the art he turned in for the first issue, my mind was blown. I'd really never seen anything like it on a book I've written. I couldn't be more thrilled about it.
As for my favorite Transformers storyline... that's hard. Recently, I really did like AHM a lot. It had a lot of really great, fan-pleasing bring-the-house down moments. From the older, original marvel run, it's probably issue #13, written by the legendary Bob Budiansky, where Megatron temporarily loses his memory and is found by a criminal who uses him on a crime spree. That was over 20 years ago but the story - and the cover image - have stayed with me even though I was probably 7 when I first read it.
And from the original cartoon - not counting the movie, which is actually the first movie I ever saw in theaters - it was probably The Return of Optimus Prime. That Hate Plague really scared me as a kid.
Here's the thing: There are two legends in the Transformers comic book canon. One is Bob Budiansky. The other is Simon Furman. For the past five years, Furman has basically been the driving force behind IDW's Transformers universe (not counting Shane's AHM of course.) I think anything he did for us here is pretty equal to what he did for Marvel back in the day.
At the risk of bouncing myself out of later work opportunities, I'm going to be honest and say that, though I actually do think some of the ideas underpinning the Movie-verse are good ones, I much prefer the continuity I'm in. More characters to play with, really. And I like our Spike better than Sam (sorry Shia!)
This is a lame answer, but I enjoy them both in different ways. COBRA is a really dark espionage tale that I get a certain kind of evil satisfaction from. Writing about the bad guys is not only fun, but cathartic. They do stuff the good guys would never do, and finding motivations for chaos and mahem is a really rewarding challenge. But Transformers was always my first love, and the satisfaction I get from that is on a totally different level.
Back when I was in college, Wizard broke the news that Dreamwave had gotten the license for Transformers after Marvel lost it. I sat down at my job at the college library, and over two days I typed up a full pitch for a new ongoing Transformers series, planned up until about issue 60. It was the first comic book proposal I'd ever written. Of course, I never heard anything back about it. Obviously they already had their plans made before the announcement, even if I wasn't some totally unknown 19-year-old punk.
But to think that now, less than ten years alter I am actually writing a Transformers ongoing, starting at issue 1... well, that couldn't be more of a dream-come-true type situation.
Humans will be getting squished and robots definitely get atomized, but this is not going to turn into a dark, gritty book like COBRA. COBRA is a very specific tone for a very specific book - if I was given the chance to write the G.I. JOE ongoing, I wouldn't use COBRA's tone there either. That tone works in that franchise specifically because we're only looking at a small corner of it, and the main book exists to give it context. Now I'm handling the flagship of Transformers, and my job is to keep that ship steady so creators like Zander, Chee, and Nick Roche can party below decks if they want.
I'm very lucky to have spent the last year watching how Chuck Dixon handles those kind of flagship responsibilities on G.I. JOE, and I have learned a lot from him - specifically how generous he is to creators like me, who handle the smaller books. I hope I can do as good a job as he does of both writing the main book, and staying involved with the smaller ones.
As long as they don't make me look bad by being better than the comic, they can do whatever they want.
(But seriously, I think it would be great if they aimed at a slightly younger audience than Resolute did. I discovered the Transformers cartoon at age 6. It would be nice to have something that could be enjoyed for people that age again, now that the previous series is over.)
It's a difficult line to walk. Sure, the hard-core fans want to see robot action, but for your average reader, they're going to pick up the book and say "who cares about all these robots? I have no idea what's going on." In my opinion, having human characters is a way of grounding the story in a familiar world, and having an instantly relatable character.
That's why the Transformers movies make sure they have a major plot line involving Sam Witwicky trying to get with the hottest girl on Earth - because that's a lot more relatable to audiences than an interstellar war between talking cars. Whether you think those subplots are brilliant or terrible, I can guarantee you those movies would not have been as successful worldwide if they didn't have a kid, his car, and his girlfriend along with Optimus and Megatron.
That said, my stories are definitely going to err on the side of more robots rather than more humans. But humans are definitely major characters, on par with the Autobots, and we will definitely be seeing some stories through their eyes. Just not as many.
I have not met a die-hard fan that doesn't credit Simon as having written some classic storyline that established these characters in comics for them. He is a living legend, and he really did set a template for how to write Transformers comics, the way that Chris Claremont defined X-Men comics for a generation. The pressure to follow that is huge, certainly. I really hope I don't blow it.
My favorite Autobot is Blurr, and I make sure I gave him at least one scene in the first storyarc. My favorite Decepticon, as I mentioned above, is Starscream, all the way. And though Starscream and most of the other big Decepticons are going to be benched for a little while, they will be back in a big way.
But this is the way the story is working out. I don't want to shoehorn in tons of scenes with Blurr or Starscream just because I like them. I don't even think about it, really. When they're needed, they'll show up. And luckily, Hasbro has not questioned this at all. So far, they're happy with what I've been doing, and have been very supportive and helpful.
To write, it's Tomax, Xamot and Hawk. As a fan, it's Flint. Back in the old cartoons, I was always wondering why he wasn't kicking Duke's butt.
You guys are just intent on getting me in some kind of trouble. The honest answer is, I have not yet seen GI JOE, so I can't say. But a friend of mine just got it (and REVENGE OF THE FALLEN) for me on Blu Ray, so definitely own both.
If the right idea struck me, I’m definitely interested. But even though (or maybe because) I write for both sets of characters, their universes feel totally different to me. It would be like crossing Mickey Mouse over into the JLA. I'm not a good enough writer to make that work. We definitely have people out there who are though, so I suppose it is always a possibility.
I never kiss and tell. I'm a gentleman of the old school
Gender definitely does exist. And where I stand on the fembot issue is this: A Cybertronian robot should have the right to marry anyone he or she desires, provided that they are consensual beings.
Other than the book I'm working on (duh)... I'm going to say that the ultimate Transformers comic book would be anything that Nick Roche is working on. I first met him at BotCon this year, and I have learned so much from him, not just about who these characters are, but how to tell stories with them. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that there is no writer/artist double-threat working right now who knows and cares as much about Transformers as Nick. I will follow that guy anywhere. I am really, really lucky to have him as support on this book.
I've known Supreme Convoy for probably two years now. He's a cool guy and part of the very cool circle of the writer/comic book fan friends I've made since moving out here to the Los Angeles. As for what our "geeking out" entails... once again, a gentleman never tells.
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