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After with the confirmation of Hailee Steinfeld for the Bumblebee spin-off movie from Paramount's Transformers series, we have more information on the time setting (confirmed as 1985) and general feel of the project, directly from producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura. Check out some snippets below, and the full piece and video over on Collider!
Collider’s own Steve Weintraub recently spoke with producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura at the press day for The Last Knight, and he teased a distinctive film while confirming that Bumblebee will indeed take place in the 1980s:
“I know we’re doing a spinoff first in the Bumblebee movie, and that is a very distinctive departure from what you’ve been seeing so far… The objective of that movie is to develop more time with less robots in a way, and to go back to 1985 and go back to sort of the original heritage if you would of the Transformers. G1.”
[..]
As for the “less Transformers” line, di Bonaventura stresses the distinctiveness of Bumblebee, and just focusing on just one or two Transformers in the course of a film will be a very different kind of dynamic from the previous movies:
“There are dramatically less Transformers. We hired purposefully Travis Knight, who is a very distinct filmmaker. You can’t compete with Michael—you’re gonna lose. And also I think the audience wants something different all the time, let’s keep them interested. They’re gonna get a very emotionally complex story, a very tight story in terms of its location and in terms of its storytelling.”
[..]
“In fact it reminds me a little bit of Iron Giant years ago when I did that movie at Warner Bros. It just reminds me a little bit of that where it was very contained and yet it didn’t feel small.”
During Seibertron.com's visit to Kabam Games in Vancouver, we were able to meet the creative staff behind their Transformers Forged to Fight free to play game. We interviewed the following key players:
Cuz Parry : Head writer (has previously written the entire Skate series)
Mike McCartney: Game Director
Adam Cooper: Lead character artist
Pablo Greenham: Lead environment artist
Marcelo Matere: Promotional artist (Packaging artist for Hasbro since Armada)
Darren Evenson: Character designer
Nick Williams: Lead VFX artist
Derek Ng-Cummings: Animator
When did you discover Transformers?
Cuz: In 84 when it was playing. I was 18 at the time and me and my friends would sometimes chill watching 80s cartoons like Transformers and He-Man
Derek: G1 in 85
Darren: G1 in the mid 80s, I got Hoist for Christmas.
Nick: The toys and G1 cartoon in 1984. I had many of them as a kid, like Hot Rod, Ultra Magnus and Optimus.
Pablo: In 84 with the show.
Mike: My dad would go on business trips a lot and would always bring me something back. Once he brought me back G1 Hound, my very first Transformer. I loved him and brought him everywhere. One day I was at the grocery store and was looking at those capsule machines. I left him on top of the machine to put the money in and since I was only thinking of what prize I had gotten, I forgot about Hound. When I went back to get him, he was gone. I was seven and still remember it clearly.
Marcelo: 86 since Brazil got the cartoons a bit later.
Adam: 1985-86 with both the cartoons and toys.
Favourite Transformers character growing up?
Cuz: I liked how Cliffjumper was such a grumpy d&#k. I also liked Jazz since he was pretty much the same as Hong Kong Phooey, also voiced by Scatman Crothers.
Derek: Optimus Prime
Darren: Jetfire, I love how he traded sides.
Nick: Jetfire
Pablo: Optimus Prime
Mike: Shockwave and Soundwave
Marcelo: Grimlock and the Dinobots
Adam: Preaking and the Predacons. My favourite moment was in a G1 comic when they battled Megatron.
Adam Cooper explaining how he wanted Rhinox's Beast Mode to resemble more like the G1 Predacons
Favourite Transformers era design wise?
Cuz: The Generations toys, which are G1 but with more detail on their surfaces.
Derek: G1
Darren: G1
Nick: G1
Pablo: Prime, just a great mix of G1 and a more detailed movie aesthetic.
Mike: G1
Marcelo: Transformers Animated
Adam: IDW (especially All Hail Megatron)
Marcelo's art was found across the studio's walls
Favorite movie design?
Cuz: Hound and Bonecrusher. I really like how the later moves in the film, like he’s scating. Plus he has those massive over the shoulder shovels.
Derek: Bumblebee, with more noticeable car kibble.
Darren: Bumblebee, with the chest clearly made of car parts.
Nick: Drift and Hot Rod
Pablo: Demolishor, it was unlike any other Transformers design.
Mike: Drift from Age of Extinction, I love that Samurai look.
Marcelo: Barricade but only from the first trilogy. I do not like his redesign in The Last Knight. I liked how he had more car parts previously and his head didn’t have 6 eyes. Now the designs all make the bots look similar to each other with the alt mode kibble morphing and shaping up their bodies to all have similar humanoid looks, which makes them less unique from bot to bot.
Adam: Megatron in both Dark of the Moon and The Last Knight.
Marcelo (in the background) drew all attendees their favourite character from the game
Favourite character to fight with in the game?
Cuz: Bumblebee
Derek: Bludgeon
Darren: Windblade
Nick: Motormaster
Pablo: Windblade
Mike: Bonecrusher
Marcelo: Windblade
Adam: Bludgeon
What is your preferred strategy when playing?
Cuz: I use Ironhide to go through lower level bots, using his #2 special. Since range weapons can be avoided, I preffer getting in, hitting with the heavy attack while trying to get the opponent against the wall.
Derek: With Bludgeon, I use ranged attacks as much as possible until I can use special #2.
Darren: Windblade’s sword has a high bleed and she can avoid ranged attacks well. I fight at a distance and then I carve up with the sword.
Nick: I never use the special #3, with Motormaster, I use special #1 as soon as I get it because of the range.
Pablo: I never use specials.
Mike: I use autofight on raids. When fighting, I block and wait for an opening.
Marcelo: tap tap tap, heavy attack.
Adam: With Bludgeon I like mixing up range with heavy attacks while waiting for a special.
Here is a video of youtuber Steelsh showing us Bludgeon's specials
Starting the week with some Transformers: The Last Knight news, we have that Empire Magazine article (scanned by TFW2005 user Temenos) we've seen being thrown about for a while now, that accompanies the various online versions and interviews. Talking to Michael Bay directly and the writers for the movie itself, the piece covers production for TLK, and adds information about the director, the creation process and future Transformers projects with Paramount, such as the Bumblebee solo movie - apparently set in the 1980s, and probably aimed at a younger audience - and an animated prequel on Transformers lore and mythology, set on Cybertron as rumoured - the writers for Ant-Man, Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari, will be behind it.
Some other stand-out take-aways from the piece: The final version for the story ultimately came down to writers Ken Nolan (Black Hawk Down), Art Marcum and Matt Holloway (both on Iron Man). Two pitches made into the story, but three storylines are present overall (King Arthur, WWII, and a third - probably the space/Quintessa material). Multiple time settings were considered in the writer's room pitches, and it seems that an Ancient Rome movie may appear at some point. The sixth movie was drafted before TLK was completely polished up, so it's bound to change before actual production.
Also, Michael Bay lost his hair and his dog during production of this film. And John Turturro's Simmons character is based on Bay.
In other Transformers: The Last Knight news, we have a new piece by Empire magazine featuring an interview with Paramount's robot franchise producer Ian Bryce! The full piece can be read here, but we've selected some snippets below on his collaboration with Michael Bay, the effects, the locations they used for the movie, and the future of the franchise. Check it out!
How would you describe what you do with Michael?
It’s sort of my job to help guide him and show him how we can get there efficiently. But he’s got a really good tummy himself. He knows what his day is and then I help manage the big picture for him and figure out how to get him from one place to the other, getting through it on time. Mike is prodigiously fast. The minute he arrives he starts shooting and he doesn’t stop until he goes home. For the size of movie and the scope and scale of the movie, our schedules are very competitive.
[...]
What was it like working on the Arthurian battle?
It was really fun actually, because neither one of us had done it. If you’re fans of movies like Gladiator, The Longest Day, any period battle sequences... The trick for us was to figure out how to give it the scale that the movie deserved and fitted in a financial box that was necessary. We made the battle quite a bit bigger than originally intended, just because we felt that being part of the opening sequence of the movie we really needed to grab the audience’s attention. It was shot in three days but we jammed a lot of stuff into that sequence with horse stunts and archers and fire and spinning balls, the trebuchet. We got a lot in there.
[...]
What are your thoughts on how this Transformers universe is opening up and spiralling out?
The Bumblebee spin-off is scheduled to shoot this summer and release next year. The conceiving of it was done previously, back in the writers room, so now they’re beginning to execute that. I think each one is somewhat reliant on the last one. If this movie is well received then you make that judgement when the movie comes out and push to the next movie. It’s been that way throughout the franchise, we never really committed to the next one until the last one came out and we saw what happened. We’ve taken a one step at a time approach, trying to be faithful to the audience. If they still love it, we keep doing it.
After Bumblebee fighting Barricade for some soda, check out the new Empire magazine exclusive still image from the upcoming Transformers: The Last Knight live-action movie, featuring the scout battling one of the TRF drones in what is probably Chicago! Also included below is a part of the interview with the writers that will appear in the print version of the magazine. Check them both out, and let us know what you think in the Energon Pub.
The photo shows series regular and Autobot hero Bumblebee, in amongst a traditional Michael Bay conflagration. The new issue of Empire features some extraordinary access to the action movie director, detailing some eye-popping insights into the billion-dollar franchise and its new writers-room approach.
The last film in the franchise was, Age Of Extinction, was “kind of an outlier,” Bay explains in the new Empire. “Because of losing Shia and just figuring out where we were gonna go. It was testing the waters a little bit. This gets us back in the groove”.
Bay’s writers, meanwhile, tell us how they quickly realised that pretty much anything they asked for, they’d get. They had written an English castle-dweller called Sir Edmund Burton, who holds secrets of Transformers lore. “We said, ‘He’s an Anthony Hopkins-type character,’” says co-writer Ken Nolan. “And two days later Michael’s like, ‘So, we’ve got Anthony Hopkins.’” Another new character is Cogman, a psychotic robot butler (“He constantly wants to kill people,” says co-writer Art Marcum) who has been excitedly described by Spielberg as “the greatest four-and-a-half-foot character since Yoda”. Co-writer Matt Holloway, a Downton Abbey fan, one day said as an aside, “It would be so funny if Jim Carter voiced this character.” A short while later, Bay announced, “Jim Carter — we got him.” “It’s good to be Bay,” says Nolan. “Everybody says yes.”
Not entirely related to the Transformers movie-verse - in fact, there is practically nothing at all here - but a new interview over on CinemaBlend with comics creator Rob Liefeld has shown how Akiva Goldsman, the producer in charge of the Writers' room that produced the scripts to be used in the upcoming The Last Knight, Bumblebee spin-off and probably more sequels after those, approached the whole shared universe of Hasbro properties. Check out the relevant snippets below!
Since 2015, Oscar-winning screenwriter Akiva Goldsman has become a big name in the world of cinematic universe franchises. In collaboration with Paramount Pictures, he not only created a braintrust that would help formulate the future of the Transformers series, but also went on to do the same thing with Hasbro and brands like G.I. Joe and ROM: Space Knight. We haven't seen an actual product from this process just yet, as none of the developing projects have made it to release -- but the methodology is continuing to spread, as the same approach that's going into the construction of the recently-announced Extreme Cinematic Universe.
[...]
[Liefeld:] So I kind of was thinking, 'I'm going to go to this meeting and maybe I'll get a good look at some Dark Tower stuff,' and what ended up happening is he goes, 'I want to hand you this giant black leather-bound equivalent of a phone book,' and it said, "The Transformers Bible." This thing is awesome and Akiva goes, 'I just want you to know, there's only eight of these in existence. Michael Bay has one, I have one, the head of Paramount has one, and the five other people involved have them.' So I flipped through it, and it's every treatment, outlines, screenplay, for the lineup of Transformer films that they have planned, that he was a showrunner for...
So he said to me, he said, 'It's pretty cool, right? I'm like, 'Yeah!' He's like, 'I ran this room; this is what we came up with. This is what I did on behalf of Paramount.' He goes, 'In a couple months, I'm going to go run the Hasbro room, and we're going to do the same thing for ROM, Micronauts, G.I. Joe. We're going to put together this Hasbro Cinematic Universe, and then he said, I would like to do yours next. And I said, 'Uhhhhhh, Okay, WOW!'
Via entertainment website Collider, we have a new interview with film producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura, which touches upon plot points of the upcoming Paramount live-action movie Transformers: The Last Knight. There are some definite spoilers about the plot, among some pointers about names, more names involved in the future Bumblebee spin-off movie, and so steer away
In between getting to see Bay work up close for the first time and watching tons of explosions and gunfire, I was able to participate in a group interview with producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura.
During an extended conversation with one of the few people that’s been involved in all the Transformers movies besides Michael Bay, he revealed how The Last Knight came together, how the film explores the Transformers mythology, what’s different about this sequel, how they determine which characters to include, if they listen to the fans when making the films, future sequels, the status of the Bumblebee spinoff, if people need to have seen the first four installments to understand The Last Knight, how Grimlock plays a larger role, their relationship with Hasbro, and so much more. If you’re a fan of Transformers, I promise you’ll love this interview because it’s loaded with info. Check out what he had to say below.
[...]
Are there direct connections, though, that you would see to the Bumblebee spin-off of things in this movie? Does this set things up?
Di Bonaventura: Sometimes is the answer. It’s not always, because I think then it feels like you’re really trying to widget it all together, and it becomes a little too neat. But I think–I don’t think, I know–some of the things will have a very direct relationship. You’ll see some things in here that are laying a pipe. You won’t necessarily know that it’s laying a pipe for another movie, but it’s there.
So there’s probably, in a really meaningful way, two or three things in this movie that really have a meaningful aspect in terms of it, and then there’s a bunch of little things. But we’re not making this movie to set up the other movies. That’s what I’m trying to say. If you get too carried away with that, you stop thinking about this movie.
And this movie, the two lines of mythology in a sense give you freedom to go a lot of different places later on that may or may not directly relate to another movie, but it’s opening up the universe in a way that I think, in that way it’s probably the most provocative, in terms of the movie. It’s opening a really large universe of what Transformers is, and where they’ve come from, and how we relate to them, and how they relate to themselves.
[...]
I’m curious where you guys are at on the Bumblebee?
Di Bonaventura: It’s being written.
Can you say who the writers are?
Di Bonaventura: Christina Hodson is the writer.
Is there a plan–I think it has a release date, if I’m not mistaken.
Di Bonaventura: I think the Paramount release said ’18. I think it said 2018. I don’t know if they put an actual date, but I believe they–honestly, that release came out about 4 months ago, and all I’m trying to do is get it ready as soon as I can!
[...]
Is this one of these movies where–will people have to have seen the first four to enjoy this film?
Di Bonaventura: No, no. That’s another conscious thing. The opening of the film will introduce the sort of exploration of the mythology that we’re going to do. Therefore, it’s not necessary to have seen the films before, because it’s going to establish the–let’s call it the mystery of the movie, and the direction the movie is going to go in.
That was a very conscious attempt, because that’s the other thing you forget as a film maker. Not everybody–you kind of fell like everybody’s seen it, so they can come right along for the ride. So the opening sequence, which is probably–I don’t know, it’s been a while since I counted the pages, but I’ll say ten pages, sets the mystery of the movie, of this movie. If you’ve never seen another Transformers movie, you don’t need to.
[...]
Was that Grimlock being more in the film–was that a nod to fans that wanted to see more Dinobots, or more action with the Dinobots?
Di Bonaventura: I think everybody wanted to see more Dinobots, including ourselves, you know what I mean? We all were like god, we wish we could have found a way in that story to include them more. So that was one of the hopes/priorities going into this, was to try to find a way to bring them back into the stories?
So is it more than Grimlock, or mostly Grimlock?
Di Bonaventura: There’s a few others, but Grimlock is, to me–I like Grimlock the most, so that’s probably why I talk the most about it, you know? And I just saw a sequence, so that’s probably why it’s on the top of my head. He’s funny. He’s like a naughty dog in this movie. He’s really sheepish when he does something wrong. He’s a great character. He’s really–we’re bringing out a side of him that you’re going to like–you’re going to relate to.
[...]
If you’re introducing a new villain, is Galvatron/Megatron still around? Does he play any role in this?
Di Bonaventura: Yeah, Megatron for sure is around. I mean, are we talking about some of the ones that are…
Staffer: You can talk about some of the new ones.
Di Bonaventura: So if you go back in the mythology, how Transformers were actually created, where did it start, where did they go from being a sort of a slave-race to a sentient race–we’re delving into that aspect of the mythology, so the characters that are involved in there are Megatron before he’s Megatron, Optimus before he’s Optimus, the Librarian, the Quintessons, there’s a whole group of things that have to do with how, in a sense, the Transformers were birthed, and also with how they were divided. What brought up the division, and what were the jealousies involved.
So I think on that level, you’re going to deal with things that feel from a stakes level higher, because of the importance of the sort of thought, right? There’s still, of course, the threat to the world and that sort of threat we have, but I think that threat is amplified now, because you’re going to feel why certain aspects of our world, why we’ve been fighting in a sense.
In a recent issue of Newsweek, the magazine featured an interview with Harry Orenstein - a Holocaust survivor and a the man practically single-handedly responsible for bringing the Transformers to the US way back when. Check out the whole piece in the magazine here, or read some relevant snippets from the interview below!
Orenstein is now 93, and his wife, Carolyn Sue (Susie), is 72, but he is too busy having fun to sink placidly into his dotage. Three days a week, from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m., he hosts a high-stakes game of five-card stud in his Manhattan apartment with his poker buddies. “He calls ’em friends,” Susie says, grinning. “They’re sharks!”
Ken Oakes, Orenstein’s longtime driver, brings him a glass of water and a few cough drops. “I’ve been driving Henry for 24 years, since I retired from my regular job as a manager for Sears,” he says. “I managed the toy department there. When the Transformers came out, we used to talk about it.” That’s because Orenstein was the man who saw the potential for Transformers in America. They made him a very rich man. Again.
“Transformers, more than meets the eye!” Orenstein croons.
“He sings all the time,” Susie says. “He sings himself to sleep!”
[...]
Henry turned the small toy car over in his hands, gauging the weight of it. He’d spotted the thing in a showroom at the New York Toy Fair, on a shelf off to the side, so far away from the main display he assumed it had been discarded. He gently flipped the front doors open and nudged the backseat, and poof: The car transformed into a plane. He thought, This is the best idea I’ve seen in many years!
“He went into a trance,” recalls Susie, who was with him that day. “I didn’t know what he was talking about!”
It was the early 1980s; Topper had filed for bankruptcy in 1972 after the bank called back their loan (Susie calls it “the blemish on his career”), but Henry had remained in the business, pitching ideas to large toy companies. He always had an eye for the overlooked, so when he saw that car turn into a plane, he got the feeling he’d had many times before. “Ideas don’t come in little pieces. It’s in; it’s out. It’s there, or it’s not. It’s like a sparkle,” he says. “I was just an inventor. You needed a big company to do what I thought should be done: making real transformations from complex things to other complex things.”
That tiny car was manufactured by a Japanese toy company named Takara. “I knew the president,” Orenstein says. “I went to him and said, ‘I think this could be a great thing, building a bridge between Japanese ingenuity and American marketing.’” He then went to Hasbro, the toy giant behind G.I. Joe and My Little Pony, and became a matchmaker, pitching his vision for a line of transforming toys that went far beyond cars turning into planes. “Very definitely, Henry was the bridge in this one transaction with Takara,” says Alan Hassenfeld, former chairman and CEO of Hasbro. “Henry basically had a sense that Transformers was going to be something that would be transformational for the toy industry.… To be able to take a car and, with a little bit of dexterity, change it into another toy, that was something magical.”
“It was Henry who really saw the magic, the potential, that was inside all these different brands that Takara was presenting,” says Tom Warner, Senior Vice President of the Transformers franchise. “There’s a lot of toys out there, but it takes a very special individual to look at something, identify it, and say it will be a big hit in the U.S. ”
[...]
Henry didn’t style Bumblebee or create Optimus Prime’s backstory—teams of writers, designers and artists at Hasbro developed the ubiquitous Transformers we know today—but he was there first, the one who saw the promise. “Henry was absolutely the catalyst that made this happen,” Hassenfeld says.
Hasbro, working with Takara, created the Transformers in 1984, and since then those multifaceted robots have become one of the most successful action figure brands in history, touching all outposts of popular culture, from comic books and a popular theme song to numerous TV series, imitators (GoBots, anyone?) and a blockbuster movie franchise. In 2007, the first Transformers movie made over $700 million worldwide. Three more films followed. Hasbro says the Transformers franchise has brought in more than $10 billion since 2004.
Via fellow Seibertronian Mindmaster, we have some new information about the Kabam studios mobile MMO featuring our favourite Cybertronians - Transformers: Forged to Fight. Gaming website Gamespot has sourced an interview with both Kabam and Hasbro, which you can view in its entirety here, and some snippets offered below. Read up on the background of the upcoming game - which seems to blend classic Transformers elements with the movieverse - and join the conversation in the Energon Pub!
Developer Kabam and toy company Hasbro today announced Transformers: Forged to Fight, a mobile game based on the well-known franchise.
Described as a "high-definition, action-fighting role-playing game with strategy elements," Forged to Fight claims to offer trademark Transformers action. You will assemble an "ultimate" team of Transformers, including Autobots and Decepticons from across almost every era of the Transformers history, and then do battle. The game is set in a colorful 3D world, and battles take place in a number of varied and unique arenas. Click through the images in the gallery below to get a closer look.
The game is set in a "strange new world where multiple realities collide," which in turn creates a "massive planetary battlefield." So, you know, Transformers stuff. Some of the features include 1v1 battles, RPG elements described as being "deep," and base-rading. Some of the playable Transformers include Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Megatron, Starscream, and Grimlock. These characters can be leveled up through gameplay, unlocking more abilities over time.
Forged to Fight enters beta in some territories soon, and will be released widely across the world in Spring 2017. The game is in development at Kabam Vancouver, which is the studio that made Fast & Furious: Legacy and Marvel Contest of Champions.
[...]
The release teases a "unique" story that goes beyond purely good and evil--what more can you say on that front--and is this canon?
McCartney: We've worked closely with our partners at Hasbro to create the story of our game. In doing so we've ingested every classic cartoon, comic book, movie, that you can imagine. Our team has immersed ourselves in the Transformers Universe in order to understand each character’s unique personality and quirks. As the game begins Optimus Prime is returning to his home planet of Cybertron after many years of conflict on earth. During the course of his travels his ship encounters a strange anomaly in space and crash lands on a strange planet. Through the course of the game Optimus is attempting to unravel the mystery and escape the planet.
[...]
How much freedom are you afforded in the Transformers universe? It's obviously a massive, revered franchise--but I'm guessing you want to push things forward with your own unique voice, so to speak, as well.
McCartney: We work closely with our partners at Hasbro to ensure that we stay true to the franchise and lore established over the course of the last 30+ years. We also take the history of the Transformers franchise very seriously. For example, before we start work on a new character we have a bit of a classroom session for everyone working in that character. Our Transformers experts walk everyone through the history of the character and his / her personality traits. This gets everyone in the right mindset before starting work on a character. With regard to the story and character dialogue, Hasbro has been amazing. They give us the freedom to create our own vision and then feedback if something isn't true to lore, or if we're pushing something too far. For the most part this interaction has been minimal. We're excited about continuing work with Hasbro in the future and we have a lot of ideas we can't wait to collaborate on.
We return, once more, to the IDW ever-shifting stables and rosters of creatives, for another interview in the Seibertron.com folder of 'the minds behind the hands behind the robots' that we read and love and hate and hate to love and love to hate. This time round? It's an entirely new addition, for an entirely new title, riding the wave of an established story...
Readers, please welcome the co-artist on new title Transformers: Lost Light, the newly renamed brainchild of James Roberts and Alex Milne - Jack Lawrence!
Va'al - Jack, we are ever so grateful to have you find some time for us, with all the new workload you undoubtedly have! You are the latest victim collaborator of James Roberts after all... but, first things first: where does the Lawrence story begin? How did you first encounter Transformers?
Jack Lawrence - Right at the start. I want to say 1984 now of course, but I can't be sure whether it was end of '84 or early '85. My brother was into them first; the only ones available locally at first were the mini Autobots.
He got Bumblebee and Brawn, and not being interested in cars, I got a Skeletor to replace my broken one. Very soon after that I saw the TV show and it all snowballed from there!
Va'al - So you started from the toys, and went into the show - but it sounds like they didn't grab you immediately: do you remember what the actual turning point was for you? Was it a later toy? An episode, a comic issue, or magazine?
Jack - I remember the actual turning point exactly. It was a couple of weeks later, and we were on holiday here in the UK. My brother had Bumblebee and Brawn with him, and another kid here had Optimus Prime.
I was still pretty unimpressed, until I saw the leaflet that came with Prime and there were the Decepticons. I'd had no idea they existed until that point. Megatron, Soundwave and the Seekers just grabbed me and the obsession began!
Va'al - Another one for the bad boys, huh? So the toys have caught young Jack's eye - which was one was your favourite as a kid? Are there any you still kind of miss or would go back to obtain if you could?
Jack - I was 100% Decepticon until the Prime TV series. That show changed the whole thing for me and I've defected to the Autobots (even got the symbol tattooed on my leg to prove it!). As far as the toys go, Soundwave was the one I wanted the most, but didn't actually get him until I bought a second hand one when I was 13 or 14. He was SO hard to find.
But it was the characters and their personalities that kept me hooked rather than the toys themselves. Back during G1, I inevitably tended to be disappointed when I got a new toy. They never seemed to live up to their box art or the Bio card. Powermaster Optimus Prime really stands out for that; the illustration of him on the back of the packaging made him look just absolutely incredible and I was so excited to get him for my birthday. Of course, we all know he's kind of a brick, and kid me was hugely disappointed with his two points of articulation!
So there aren't really any toys I want to go back and get. I tend to look ahead rather than to the past. I absolutely love what Hasbro are doing with the toys now. I'm on the lookout for Weirdwolf, sorry, Wolfwire, at the moment, and I do want a really good Ratchet. He's one of my favourites, but the only version I have is the Prime toy. None of the others have really done it for me. I'm hoping Hasbro will do a nice, chunky one soon.
Va'al - That's fascinating, I can see some of my own thoughts about toys in there, too! If the toys could leave you a little disappointed, then, when did the art and fiction love start? Was it all with the G1 cartoon back in the day, or did something later really stoke the fire (before we reach Prime, as you just said)?
Jack - It was always the bio cards that fired my imagination and kept my love for them going. The mottos alone often gave such incredible insights to these complicated characters. I loved the show, but it was hard to catch over here, so I had all the videos they released and watched them over and over. The Movie still stands as one of my favourite films; I just love it.
I got the Marvel UK comic every week from about issue 23 I think, until it ended. It kept my interest because it was Transformers, but again, it never really lived up to the seeds that were planted in those bio cards. It actually wasn't until the entire Prime universe that it finally clicked into what it had always been in my head. The two video games and the TV series are absolutely perfect as far as I'm concerned.
As a matter of fact, Transformers did lose me in 2009 after Revenge of the Fallen. I did not enjoy the film, and the toys for that and the main line left me cold. The whole landscape of Transformers seemed to lack any of what I originally fell in love with. Not long after that decision, I started to see previews of Prime and a little fire reignited in me. Again, it was tough to catch over here, so as soon as the complete season DVD was released, I grabbed a copy and fell in love again.
Then, a couple of years later, MTMTE came out and was the book I'd always wanted to read, and the book I always knew James was capable of. It very quickly became my favourite comic; I actually stopped buying comics except that one because what was the point? It had everything I needed!
Va'al - So this is talking about the aesthetics and appeal that Transformers had and has on you - what about the interest in actually creating material (art, fiction, anything else), rather than just consuming it? When did that start?
Jack - Well, before I owned any of the toys, I was drawing them based on the photos in that first leaflet. I knew seriously that I wanted to be a comic artist from about the age of 12; Up until then it hadn't occurred to me that it was a job that I could aim for. At that point, it seemed only right that Transformers be one of the comics properties I was aiming to work on.
I got involved with TMUK, the UK-based fan club, in 1995 and started contributing to fanzines. I illustrated "Atonement", a Christmas Optimus Prime story written by James Roberts in 1997, and it's also how I met and became friends with Nick Roche all those years ago.
I've been working as a pro creator since 2003, mainly on UK books. The pay is good, and I sort of fell into a comfortable, but unsatisfying rut. Once IDW got the TF license, I planned on getting some samples together, but work was plentiful and I just couldn't find the time. I worked on Skylanders with them last year and loved every second of it. I knew then that I had to at least try for Transformers. So towards the end of last year, I decided to gamble; stop taking jobs on, work through what I had, then put something together to show IDW. The gamble paid off and, though I can't quite believe it, I'm working on my favourite comic book!
Va'al - For someone working in the robot field for so long, that's actually the first time I've heard that version of the story! We've established that you've been following the fiction for really quite some time - but why become part of its creative team? What really drew you towards making Transformers comics?
Jack - I enjoy drawing them and I have a burning need to create, so I've never really analysed why I want to work on Transformers; I just do. I can tell you I was hesitant to go for it for a long time for two reasons. Firstly, I was nervous that working on something I love would somehow taint it and I was NOT prepared to lose my love for them, and secondly, I wasn't confident that I could do them justice. I started to find, for some reason, that I was getting Transformers commission requests at conventions and as that became more common I realised that not only was it increasing my love for them, I was making people happy with what I was doing. People keep telling me I'm overly critical of my own work and that was obviously what I'd been doing.
The real turning point came when I'd become frustrated and dissatisfied with the stuff I was working on because it all seemed to lack emotional depth. I'm an emotional person, and respond to highly emotive storylines, passionate characters. James has brought a level of that to MTMTE that I rarely see in other comics and I just thought, "That. That's what I want." I'm honestly enjoying my job now more than I have at any time over the last 13 years.
Va'al - That's heartening to hear, as the More Than Meets The Eye fandom has been very vocal in both its appreciation and criticisms of the series! How does it feel to join the ranks alongside Alex Milne? Do the two of you cross paths at all?
Jack - So far, Alex and I haven't really crossed paths at all, other than some brief greetings on Twitter. I've been a fan of his work since the Dreamwave days though, and just love his MTMTE work. Love it.
I'm most excited to be playing in the same sandbox as James and Nick though; we've all known one another for so long, created stuff together as fans. I've rabidly consumed everything they've done at IDW and now the three of us have just been invited to a signing together in Manchester this December. It's really exciting.
Va'al - Yes! You're all TMUK alumni too, right? How are you finding working with James Roberts' scripts, now that you get to not only read them, but materialise them? Do you have any input in the creative process?
Jack - Before I got the script to issue 1, I had people warning me about the length of James's scripts and I had to really hold back from saying, "Look, I've worked in comics since 2003. I've worked to countless scripts; long, short, good, bad. Sometimes terrible! MTMTE, to me, has been the best comic on the shelves since day 1, bar none. Maybe, just MAYBE, part of that can be attributed to James's scripts?"
Nevertheless, I was prepared to settle in for a day and wade through a potentially unwieldy script. That's not the case at all. What I sat down to was 45 minutes of pure entertainment that I couldn't wait to get drawing and I told him as much as soon as I'd finished. And again, working on Lost Light is the most fun I've had in my career to date.
As for input in the creative process, I'm not interested in co-scripting with him; I am a writer, but in this I want to leave James to do what he does. The stuff I'm most interested in exploring creatively is body language and character work. In that I'm given tons of creative freedom.
Va'al - That last part is also very good to hear, but now I'm curious: how do you approach those elements? Do you use references (toys or models or other), do you do rough layouts and drafts, do you jot it all down and go back to it? And, I suppose relatedly, are you a digital or paper kind of artist when it comes to comics pages?
Jack - Usually, when I'm working on a toy line-based property, I buy all the toys and have them constantly at hand for reference. That's how I did it when I was working on Skylanders. But with Lost Light, the character designs are too far removed from the toys, so you can't really do that. I used Alex's designs as reference, kind of finding my own voice in them while keeping continuity with what came before in MTMTE. We'll find out if I was successful in December!
In terms of the process, I do thumbnail layouts which I scan and print out in blue line, then pencil over them. Then I scan the pencils and print those out in blue line and ink them. And yeah, always paper and ink! I love the physical relationship between artist and materials too much to ever go fully digital.
Va'al - That sounds like a very long, and careful process, actually - must come in handy for shows and events where paper sketching is only option available though. I'm curious about your work though: in building your own voice, do you look at any other artistic influence, in robot-designs or anything else in the comics or art world at large?
Jack - My influences for Transformers come mainly from the old box art, back during G1. But it's more an ingrained sort of thing, rather than constantly using it as reference now. As for my comics style, I'm pretty much set in my ways at this point. Besides, deadlines tend to necessitate a "get up and get on with it" attitude!
Autobots Assemble!
There are a few artists who have inspired or influenced me over the years; Ed McGuinness, Humberto Ramos, Ryan Ottley, Sean Galloway to name a few contemporary guys. John Romita Jr was THE guy who made me want to be a comic artist, so I have a deep love of clear, uncomplicated storytelling from him. I think, in some ways, my comic style is quite old-fashioned in terms of layout, etc. I like things to be clear. I did get a very simple piece of visual advice from Didier Crisse, ooh, about 10 years ago that I won't bore you with, but that echoes in my mind and I use every single day.
Va'al - I won't pry, but you have definitely piqued my curiosity even further... and I do think this is a good note to end on, actually! Is there anything you want to add to what we've discussed so far, any last words before we see your work in the comics next month?
Jack - No, I think we’ve covered just about everything. I don’t do blogs and stuff, but if you could add my Twitter account, that’d be great!
Va'al - In that case.. thank you for your time, Jack, and we'll see you soon aboard the Lost Light!
You can find Jack on Twitter, and can meet him and James Roberts at the Lost Light #1 signing in London, in December - more details on that event here.
We Have Achieved Something: An Interview!
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