Interview with Magdalene Visaggio, Writer of IDW Transformers vs Visionaries
Tuesday, January 16th, 2018 3:32PM CST
Categories: Comic Book News, InterviewsPosted by: Va'al Views: 21,510
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You can read some extracts below, and the whole piece directly on the website Women Write About
Comics, and enjoy the lineart for Brendan Cahill's variant cover (and colours by Lauren Bennett) for issue #4 of the series, too!
Firstly, how long have you been a fan of Transformers? Was it always your dream to write a comic for them?
I’ve been a Transformers fan to varying degrees since I was very little; they’ve always been around, and G2 was airing when I was eight or nine years old. But Transformers was never a passion of mine, nor was writing it a lifelong dream; when I was pitched this book, IDW EIC David Hedgecock asked me if I wanted to write Visionaries; the Transformers came in later. What got me excited was the idea of reviving and reinventing a largely forgotten franchise; the Transformers were the object they’d be acting against, but the actors would be the Visionaries.
The Visionaries have been silent for 30 years, did you have any say in any changes made to any characters?
Fico and I got basically all the say. Reinventing the Visionaries was very much done internally between me and Fico, and we presented what we wanted to do to IDW and then to Hasbro, and got the sign-off. We looked seriously at the characters and their situation, and then had to think, well, how do we integrate this into the IDW Hasbroverse, which is very sci-fi heavy, and have it still feel organic? We played a lot with more overtly sci-fi angles—at one point, the Visionaries, which are aliens, I might add, were much more obviously so. We decided to move away from the high fantasy aesthetic and worked to develop one that might make sense for a society forcibly removed from its technological origins. We had a very free hand.
[..]
Like I said, I haven’t been up to date on Transformers. But I knew and loved Kup from the 1986 movie, and so when they told me he was going to die, I was just shocked. Utterly, utterly shocked that the responsibility for taking out friggin’ Kup was going to be landing in my hands. Kup has always been one of my favorites (Kup, Springer, Ultra Magnus, Arcee, and yes, even Hot Rod are my TF dream team), so I immediately understood this wasn’t going to be a small thing. So I never took this lightly.
That’s why I structured the first issue the way I did; Kup takes a lot of the spotlight, and I showed him as the one pushing for something better; the old seen-it-all got to play idealist at the end, and I loved being able to do that for him.
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Posted by Rodimus Knight on January 16th, 2018 @ 4:28pm CST
Honestly, they might as well have added Jem and the Holograms to the Hasbroverse.
Posted by kurthy on January 16th, 2018 @ 5:33pm CST
Rodimus Knight wrote:Another chick who looks like she came out of Jem and the Holograms.
Honestly, they might as well have added Jem and the Holograms to the Hasbroverse.
That would be truly, truly outrageous! Hasbro should be on top it all.
Do you think they'll ever have a change of heart?
Posted by Daniel Adkins on January 16th, 2018 @ 7:35pm CST
Posted by LE0KING on January 16th, 2018 @ 8:55pm CST
Posted by Daniel Adkins on January 16th, 2018 @ 9:10pm CST
LE0KING wrote:even the writer didn't want the crossover
???
I don't know where you're getting this idea, dude. Visaggio was asked to pitch for Transformers Vs Visionaries.
Posted by LE0KING on January 16th, 2018 @ 9:20pm CST
Daniel Adkins wrote:LE0KING wrote:even the writer didn't want the crossover
???
I don't know where you're getting this idea, dude. Visaggio was asked to pitch for Transformers Vs Visionaries.
This part of the interview here all but says that she just wanted a visionaries book.
"But Transformers was never a passion of mine, nor was writing it a lifelong dream; when I was pitched this book, IDW EIC David Hedgecock asked me if I wanted to write Visionaries; the Transformers came in later. What got me excited was the idea of reviving and reinventing a largely forgotten franchise; the Transformers were the object they’d be acting against, but the actors would be the Visionaries."
Posted by DeathReviews on January 16th, 2018 @ 10:06pm CST
Posted by Daniel Adkins on January 16th, 2018 @ 10:09pm CST
LE0KING wrote:Daniel Adkins wrote:LE0KING wrote:even the writer didn't want the crossover
???
I don't know where you're getting this idea, dude. Visaggio was asked to pitch for Transformers Vs Visionaries.
This part of the interview here all but says that she just wanted a visionaries book.
"But Transformers was never a passion of mine, nor was writing it a lifelong dream; when I was pitched this book, IDW EIC David Hedgecock asked me if I wanted to write Visionaries; the Transformers came in later. What got me excited was the idea of reviving and reinventing a largely forgotten franchise; the Transformers were the object they’d be acting against, but the actors would be the Visionaries."
Alright, I found the interview this is from http://womenwriteaboutcomics.com/2018/0 ... -visaggio/. Interesting.
Posted by Va'al on January 17th, 2018 @ 3:28am CST
Daniel Adkins wrote:LE0KING wrote:Daniel Adkins wrote:LE0KING wrote:even the writer didn't want the crossover
???
I don't know where you're getting this idea, dude. Visaggio was asked to pitch for Transformers Vs Visionaries.
This part of the interview here all but says that she just wanted a visionaries book.
"But Transformers was never a passion of mine, nor was writing it a lifelong dream; when I was pitched this book, IDW EIC David Hedgecock asked me if I wanted to write Visionaries; the Transformers came in later. What got me excited was the idea of reviving and reinventing a largely forgotten franchise; the Transformers were the object they’d be acting against, but the actors would be the Visionaries."
Alright, I found the interview this is from http://womenwriteaboutcomics.com/2018/0 ... -visaggio/. Interesting.
Always pleasing to see my news posts (with links and extracts - including the one quoted in the comments above) ignored entirely.
Posted by ZeroWolf on January 17th, 2018 @ 4:47am CST
Va'al wrote:Daniel Adkins wrote:LE0KING wrote:Daniel Adkins wrote:LE0KING wrote:even the writer didn't want the crossover
???
I don't know where you're getting this idea, dude. Visaggio was asked to pitch for Transformers Vs Visionaries.
This part of the interview here all but says that she just wanted a visionaries book.
"But Transformers was never a passion of mine, nor was writing it a lifelong dream; when I was pitched this book, IDW EIC David Hedgecock asked me if I wanted to write Visionaries; the Transformers came in later. What got me excited was the idea of reviving and reinventing a largely forgotten franchise; the Transformers were the object they’d be acting against, but the actors would be the Visionaries."
Alright, I found the interview this is from http://womenwriteaboutcomics.com/2018/0 ... -visaggio/. Interesting.
Always pleasing to see my news posts (with links and extracts - including the one quoted in the comments above) ignored entirely.
It's okay Va'al, I didn't ignore it
Interesting to note that the writer wasn't keen on writing Kup off so I'm curious as to who's decision it was and why.. (unless he's getting rezzed at the end as a good will gesture or something)
@whoever said about unicron ending the IDW verse.
Unicron at best (or worse) will reset the universe but they will still all be connected, till the licenses are split up again, which could be never. In fact all Unicron may do is eat up all the inconsistencies that have cropped up over the decade long run of IDW Transformers (sort of the same way that Crisis on Infinite Earths was supposed to do for DC)
Posted by Rodimus Knight on January 17th, 2018 @ 7:10am CST
Daniel Adkins wrote:Jem does exist in the Hasbro Universe. Rock 'n Roll used to be the Holograms' roadie.
Seriously? Two questions:
1) what issues does it cover that?
2) was that before or after IDW put out the comic book for Jem and the Holograms?
I am honestly curious since you don't really see anything about the crap going down in the other comics mentioned in the Jem and the Holograms Comic and if Rock 'n Roll mentioned them, before the comic series, then it could have just been one of them Easter egg kind of things.
Posted by Daniel Adkins on January 17th, 2018 @ 7:33am CST
Rodimus Knight wrote:Daniel Adkins wrote:Jem does exist in the Hasbro Universe. Rock 'n Roll used to be the Holograms' roadie.
Seriously? Two questions:
1) what issues does it cover that?
2) was that before or after IDW put out the comic book for Jem and the Holograms?
I am honestly curious since you don't really see anything about the crap going down in the other comics mentioned in the Jem and the Holograms Comic and if Rock 'n Roll mentioned them, before the comic series, then it could have just been one of them Easter egg kind of things.
It was in the Hasbro Heroes Sourcebook. Rock mentions them again Scarlett’s Strike Force #1 and Ian Noble had a Misfits poster in his room in the Action Man miniseries.
Posted by Rodimus Knight on January 17th, 2018 @ 9:34am CST
Daniel Adkins wrote:Sorry, Va’al, I missed that part of your post while on mobile.Rodimus Knight wrote:Daniel Adkins wrote:Jem does exist in the Hasbro Universe. Rock 'n Roll used to be the Holograms' roadie.
Seriously? Two questions:
1) what issues does it cover that?
2) was that before or after IDW put out the comic book for Jem and the Holograms?
I am honestly curious since you don't really see anything about the crap going down in the other comics mentioned in the Jem and the Holograms Comic and if Rock 'n Roll mentioned them, before the comic series, then it could have just been one of them Easter egg kind of things.
It was in the Hasbro Heroes Sourcebook. Rock mentions them again Scarlett’s Strike Force #1 and Ian Noble had a Misfits poster in his room in the Action Man miniseries.
So I'm going to admit that I do read Jem and the Holograms, and I haven't seen Rock n' Roll in the comic anywhere. So I think as far as the current comic series go, it doesn't really connect to the rest of the Hasbroverse, but I think they are still using those names and images in it because they are Hasbro Properties.
So Jem and the Hollograms and the Misfits may exist in the Hsbroverse, the comic itself is not part of it.
Posted by Va'al on January 17th, 2018 @ 9:53am CST
Posted by ZeroWolf on January 17th, 2018 @ 10:29am CST
Posted by Daniel Adkins on January 17th, 2018 @ 10:35am CST
Rodimus Knight wrote:Daniel Adkins wrote:Sorry, Va’al, I missed that part of your post while on mobile.Rodimus Knight wrote:Daniel Adkins wrote:Jem does exist in the Hasbro Universe. Rock 'n Roll used to be the Holograms' roadie.
Seriously? Two questions:
1) what issues does it cover that?
2) was that before or after IDW put out the comic book for Jem and the Holograms?
I am honestly curious since you don't really see anything about the crap going down in the other comics mentioned in the Jem and the Holograms Comic and if Rock 'n Roll mentioned them, before the comic series, then it could have just been one of them Easter egg kind of things.
It was in the Hasbro Heroes Sourcebook. Rock mentions them again Scarlett’s Strike Force #1 and Ian Noble had a Misfits poster in his room in the Action Man miniseries.
So I'm going to admit that I do read Jem and the Holograms, and I haven't seen Rock n' Roll in the comic anywhere. So I think as far as the current comic series go, it doesn't really connect to the rest of the Hasbroverse, but I think they are still using those names and images in it because they are Hasbro Properties.
So Jem and the Hollograms and the Misfits may exist in the Hsbroverse, the comic itself is not part of it.
First off, of course you read the Jem comic. Everyone should read Jem. Because its a great comic.
And yes, as Va'al said, the Jem stories have never been explicitly stated to be in the Hasbroverse with Transformers and Joe, but we do know at least that A VERSION of those characters (with the same character designs) exists in the universe.
Actually, when you think about it, in order for Rock to have been a roadie for the Holograms before joining G.I. Joe, that means the Holograms and Misfits formed in the early 2000s rather than the 2010s.
Posted by D-Maximal_Primal on January 17th, 2018 @ 10:35am CST
Posted by Daniel Adkins on January 17th, 2018 @ 10:44am CST
Posted by ThunderThruster on January 17th, 2018 @ 12:18pm CST
That's the newly redesigned form of Spectral Knight Galadria.
The fact that you had to ask, shows how much of a step away from the original this version is.
Posted by Rodimus Knight on January 17th, 2018 @ 12:22pm CST
ThunderThruster wrote:
That's the newly redesigned form of Spectral Knight Galadria.
The fact that you had to ask, shows how much of a step away from the original this version is.
Looking at the image again, now many times do you think she'd bruised her face and gotten a fat lip from turning her head to fast and smacking into her shoulder fin?
Her significant other has been arrested already because the Doctor didn't believer her when she said the black eye was from her fin.
Posted by D-Maximal_Primal on January 17th, 2018 @ 12:24pm CST
ThunderThruster wrote:[That's the newly redesigned form of Spectral Knight Galadria.
The fact that you had to ask, shows how much of a step away from the original this version is.
Well, I wasn't born until 8 years after Visionaries came out and I really don't know anything about them and I still really don't, and I only sort of read issue 1 since I wasn't at all excited for it, so it's not really even the fault of the design.
I was more asking because I actually really like her look. she's probably the 1 Visionary I actually like the looks of. Although, my favorite animal is the Cheetah, so I sort of like Witterquick for that. And I sort of liked the looks of that Virulina before she killed Kup. Other than that, I'm not really hooked at all.
also, thanks Daniel, I did see your response, but I wanted to respond to this one
Posted by ThunderThruster on January 17th, 2018 @ 12:36pm CST
Rodimus Knight wrote:ThunderThruster wrote:
That's the newly redesigned form of Spectral Knight Galadria.
The fact that you had to ask, shows how much of a step away from the original this version is.
Looking at the image again, now many times do you think she'd bruised her face and gotten a fat lip from turning her head to fast and smacking into her shoulder fin?
Her significant other has been arrested already because the Doctor didn't believer her when she said the black eye was from her fin.
"Cryotek, no!"
Posted by Va'al on January 19th, 2018 @ 4:03am CST
AVAILABLE: February 2018
CREATORS:
Magdalene Visaggio (Author) • Fico Ossio (Artist, Cover Artist) • Philip Murphy (Cover Artist)
Virulina, leader of the Darkling Lords, has discovered that the Transformers are vulnerable to magic—and now she’s using that weakness to try and gain control of Cybertron and wipe them out! Leoric and Ironhide team up to stop her, but quickly find themselves facing not only the Darkling Lords, but all of New Prysmos itself!
Posted by Big Grim on January 19th, 2018 @ 6:14am CST
Posted by Randomhero on January 19th, 2018 @ 7:45am CST
Big Grim wrote:Kinda a crappy way for Kup to go out.
Not as crappy as pipes getting stepped on and forgotten.
Or ya know..the Protectobots at least this death is explained. Magic yes but it wasnt one dude taking down a gestalt with one swing of a sword and then gunned down.
When I read it I said “yeeeeeeeah that’s gonna be fun when Springer finds out...”
Posted by Big Grim on January 19th, 2018 @ 7:51am CST
Randomhero wrote:Not as crappy as pipes getting stepped on and forgotten.
Or ya know..the Protectobots at least this death is explained. Magic yes but it wasnt one dude taking down a gestalt with one swing of a sword and then gunned down.
Fair points both.
Posted by Randomhero on January 19th, 2018 @ 8:40am CST
Posted by Coptur on January 19th, 2018 @ 9:02am CST
BUT having said that I did put aside those feelings and....
I actually didn't mind the first issue on my 2nd reading of it.
So many characters have been offed in IDW transformers Kup really didn't bother me.
Although I did think Ironhide should've shouted to Tankor to fall back.
Posted by LE0KING on January 19th, 2018 @ 9:11am CST
Posted by Randomhero on January 19th, 2018 @ 9:14am CST
Coptur wrote:TBH I don't like Mags Vissagio and I don't like the changes to the Visionaries
BUT having said that I did put aside those feelings and....
I actually didn't mind the first issue on my 2nd reading of it.
So many characters have been offed in IDW transformers Kup really didn't bother me.
Although I did think Ironhide should've shouted to Tankor to fall back.
I’m my opinion and I’m being very opinionated I think a lot of the negativity is it’s happening in a book people didn’t want. A lot of the vocal minority don’t want other toys playing with their transformers and don’t feel it’s right to kill off a big name like Kup(again) in a book that people just don’t want and it’s just more fuel for the fire.
Posted by Randomhero on January 19th, 2018 @ 9:32am CST
Posted by Coptur on January 19th, 2018 @ 9:43am CST
Randomhero wrote:Only thing with issue one I didn’t like was the editorial at the end which was “they made me kill Kup please don’t hate me.” It’s like they knew it was gonna get negative reactions and had to make a preemptive response and that stupid “in memeory of Kup” pages. Own it.
Yeah I can fully understand people were angry with the KUP thing, I'm so thick skinned over all the mass killing in IDW TF i'm just so nonchalant about it.
I should care because I like Kup LOL.
Yes true again nobody wanted the Visionaries introduction to be crossed over with the Transformers. The Visionaries really needed their own world built before it was brought down.
LE0KING - I agree and I didn't like how Prime Breakdown's fate in the series as it was done so cheaply...but Arachnid did have female character indestructible powers...
Posted by Sunstar on January 19th, 2018 @ 10:21am CST
Posted by ZeroWolf on January 19th, 2018 @ 10:46am CST
Posted by LE0KING on January 19th, 2018 @ 10:56am CST
Coptur wrote:
LE0KING - I agree and I didn't like how Prime Breakdown's fate in the series as it was done so cheaply...but Arachnid did have female character indestructible powers...
Well my problem is that Scott brought Breakdown in with a ton of potential. He was designed to be an interesting character, with a history as a second class citizen, who came to a new world to become the person he was meant to be. There hasn't been much time to build on that yet, but here he is, nameless thug #7.
If they kill him it will be just another slap across the face of the only writer who cared about giving idw transformers a future.
Posted by ScottyP on January 19th, 2018 @ 11:00am CST
Oh, sorry, I fell asleep. That's 3 pages which have accomplished nothing whatsoever, neat.
Posted by Coptur on January 19th, 2018 @ 12:12pm CST
LE0KING wrote:Coptur wrote:
LE0KING - I agree and I didn't like how Prime Breakdown's fate in the series as it was done so cheaply...but Arachnid did have female character indestructible powers...
Well my problem is that Scott brought Breakdown in with a ton of potential. He was designed to be an interesting character, with a history as a second class citizen, who came to a new world to become the person he was meant to be. There hasn't been much time to build on that yet, but here he is, nameless thug #7.
If they kill him it will be just another slap across the face of the only writer who cared about giving idw transformers a future.
Yeah I hear ya
Posted by snavej on January 19th, 2018 @ 12:39pm CST
Posted by Targetmaster Kup on January 19th, 2018 @ 1:00pm CST
snavej wrote:I wonder if IDW will manage to kill all the Transformers we have known before the comics are killed off by falling sales?!
I think that's the plan. UNICRON will kill everyone and then reboot!
Posted by ZeroWolf on January 19th, 2018 @ 1:59pm CST
snavej wrote:I wonder if IDW will manage to kill all the Transformers we have known before the comics are killed off by falling sales?!
Ever the optimist but I seriously hope any reboot is soft as I don't wish to return autobot vs decpticons again, at least not for another 10 years maybe? Going back to basics won't get us very far if we end up going in circles.
Posted by Sunstar on January 19th, 2018 @ 2:42pm CST
Posted by Whifflefire on January 19th, 2018 @ 4:56pm CST
Posted by ZeroWolf on January 19th, 2018 @ 6:23pm CST
Posted by steve2275 on January 19th, 2018 @ 10:10pm CST
Posted by Sunstar on January 20th, 2018 @ 12:49am CST
steve2275 wrote:wait this is real?
I also wish it was a bad dream.
Posted by Coptur on January 20th, 2018 @ 12:46pm CST
One being making Megatron an Autobot tbh at first I thought it was cool idea but not long term.
Posted by ZeroWolf on January 20th, 2018 @ 1:50pm CST
Also this could of been a perfect time to introduce the other megatron...the BW one, someone who shows what you can do when you really work at it.
Posted by WreckerJack on January 21st, 2018 @ 6:08pm CST
Posted by Daniel Adkins on January 21st, 2018 @ 11:00pm CST
ZeroWolf wrote:Actually I'm the opposite, Autobot Megs was fantastic, I just wish others had given him the chance instead of just wishing back to evil. There was other good characters to lead the cons and other threats (look at onyx prime), we don't need decepticon megs anymore, not in the idw comics at least.
Also this could of been a perfect time to introduce the other megatron...the BW one, someone who shows what you can do when you really work at it.
If you want Beast Wars Megs, just buy Optimus Prime #15.
Posted by Coptur on January 22nd, 2018 @ 6:25am CST
ZeroWolf wrote:Actually I'm the opposite, Autobot Megs was fantastic, I just wish others had given him the chance instead of just wishing back to evil. There was other good characters to lead the cons and other threats (look at onyx prime), we don't need decepticon megs anymore, not in the idw comics at least.
Also this could of been a perfect time to introduce the other megatron...the BW one, someone who shows what you can do when you really work at it.
Yeah I can't argue with BW Megatron maybe playing a bigger role by now unfortunately we have Oynx Prime because of the Power of the Primes of toy push (i understand it's business) .
I don't think we've seen enough of the colonies and their own cultures. We should've seen by now BW Megatron get his hands (or teeth) on a copy of G1 Megatron's book.
Wreckerjack - to be fair to the preview pages they're transformers depicted on each page. Just dead ones.
Daniel Adkins - how do you know that's not T-Wrecks..