Mairghread Scott Introduces the Transformers to Windblade - Interview

I'm not understanding this suddenly so urgent need to put more Cybertronian T&A into the comics (and games). First off, she's an AUTObot ... So why is she a jet? If she is too stupid to know what faction she should be how is she going to make any sense out of what's happening on Cybertron? Secondly, this political crap on Cybertron is lame... the series is not going to last more than 12 issues. I blame the fandom for this mess. If they had the decency to beat off to a porno before polling, Windblade would have never been voted into existence!

>the first all-female creative team to ever work on a Transformers series

Don't care.

Let's focus less on being progressive and more on good stories. I don't really care that there's a few new female characters in the universe or that the people working on this are women. Just give me a plausible explanation for the characters' presence and a story that's not really meh like those Rage of the Dinobots and Beast Hunters comics and I'll be happy.

84forever wrote:I'm not understanding this suddenly so urgent need to put more Cybertronian T&A into the comics (and games). First off, she's an AUTObot ... So why is she a jet? If she is too stupid to know what faction she should be how is she going to make any sense out of what's happening on Cybertron? Secondly, this political crap on Cybertron is lame... the series is not going to last more than 12 issues. I blame the fandom for this mess. If they had the decency to beat off to a porno before polling, Windblade would have never been voted into existence!

That never phased Victory Saber, being a jet.or Silverbolt. Ooh! Powerglide, he was a plane too!

Also, some of us enjoy the societal workings of Cybertron. These are living aliens, they have a culture, even if it does revolve around killing eachother. Lets see what lifexand death means to them, and what. The universe means to them. Lets have some thoughtful, deep Star Trek type moments. We've done the "Megatron turns into a gun. Megatron shoots Optimus Prime! Itsnot very effective..." schtick over... and over... and over... again and again and again...

84forever wrote:stuff

Dude, not cool. Please refrain from using that kind of language here on Seibertron.com. Remember, we have youngin's posting here too. Keep it classy, not crass-y.

First off, she's an AUTObot ... So why is she a jet? If she is too stupid to know what faction she should be how is she going to make any sense out of what's happening on Cybertron?

I would name every Autobot flier I could think of, but we'd be here for days.

Well, not literally, but you get the point.

Flashwave wrote:

84forever wrote:I'm not understanding this suddenly so urgent need to put more Cybertronian T&A into the comics (and games). First off, she's an AUTObot ... So why is she a jet? If she is too stupid to know what faction she should be how is she going to make any sense out of what's happening on Cybertron? Secondly, this political crap on Cybertron is lame... the series is not going to last more than 12 issues. I blame the fandom for this mess. If they had the decency to beat off to a porno before polling, Windblade would have never been voted into existence!

That never phased Victory Saber, being a jet.or Silverbolt. Ooh! Powerglide, he was a plane too!

Mindmaster wrote:

First off, she's an AUTObot ... So why is she a jet? If she is too stupid to know what faction she should be how is she going to make any sense out of what's happening on Cybertron?

I would name every Autobot flier I could think of, but we'd be here for days.

Well, not literally, but you get the point.

Unfortunately, he's stuck living in 1984 that nothing past it applies to his ideals, including the plane-based Autobot of 1985: Powerglide.

84forever wrote:I'm not understanding this suddenly so urgent need to put more Cybertronian T&A into the comics (and games). First off, she's an AUTObot ... So why is she a jet? If she is too stupid to know what faction she should be how is she going to make any sense out of what's happening on Cybertron? Secondly, this political crap on Cybertron is lame... the series is not going to last more than 12 issues. I blame the fandom for this mess. If they had the decency to beat off to a porno before polling, Windblade would have never been voted into existence!

Hey did you know that female characters in comics can be there for, I dunno, reasons that aren't T&A? That Autobots aren't just cars? The underlying misogyny in your post is pretty appalling. You should honestly be ashamed of yourself.

Treetop Maximus wrote:>the first all-female creative team to ever work on a Transformers series

Don't care.

Let's focus less on being progressive and more on good stories. I don't really care that there's a few new female characters in the universe or that the people working on this are women. Just give me a plausible explanation for the characters' presence and a story that's not really meh like those Rage of the Dinobots and Beast Hunters comics and I'll be happy.

This is actually a fairly important milestone, actually. I don't want to assume you're a straight, white male, but generally speaking it is harder for women to break in to comics, let alone on larger, predominantly male (straight, white) creative teams. So I wouldn't be so quick to disregard this, honestly. It might not be a big deal to you, but that's no excuse to be so snide/dismissive of this.

I have no doubt in my mind that IDW picked Scott because her ideas and the story she wants to tell meshes with the direction IDW have been taking Transformers, so I'd like to think that the people responsible for probably the best two years of Transformers comics in recently history know what they're doing/pick their collaborators well.

Sabrblade wrote:Unfortunately, he's stuck living in 1984 that nothing past it applies to his ideals, including the plane-based Autobot of 1985: Powerglide.

Digs like this can be construed as personal attacks, let's not go down that path.

Burn wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:Unfortunately, he's stuck living in 1984 that nothing past it applies to his ideals, including the plane-based Autobot of 1985: Powerglide.

Digs like this can be construed as personal attacks, let's not go down that path.

But it's true, he actually stated so himself the last time he posted on a topic and it'S in his name.

Real Cool Guy wrote:

Treetop Maximus wrote:>the first all-female creative team to ever work on a Transformers series

Don't care.

Let's focus less on being progressive and more on good stories. I don't really care that there's a few new female characters in the universe or that the people working on this are women. Just give me a plausible explanation for the characters' presence and a story that's not really meh like those Rage of the Dinobots and Beast Hunters comics and I'll be happy.

This is actually a fairly important milestone, actually. I don't want to assume you're a straight, white male, but generally speaking it is harder for women to break in to comics, let alone on larger, predominantly male (straight, white) creative teams. So I wouldn't be so quick to disregard this, honestly. It might not be a big deal to you, but that's no excuse to be so snide/dismissive of this.

I have no doubt in my mind that IDW picked Scott because her ideas and the story she wants to tell meshes with the direction IDW have been taking Transformers, so I'd like to think that the people responsible for probably the best two years of Transformers comics in recently history know what they're doing/pick their collaborators well.

Not to mention that Scott is a good writer. Look at the first two issues of Beast Hunters (which were really not that meh at all), look at the Prime episodes she wrote: 'Chain of Command', 'Hard Knocks', 'Hurt', 'Orion Pax: Part 2', 'Stronger, Faster'.

And yes, the fact that it's the first ever all female creator team on a Transformers comic is important. In 30 years of the franchise, this is the first time! Do you know how many women are in the fandom? Do you know how many women have only had a handful of characters to relate to, and no writers? This is a massive step in the right direction, and one that every fan should welcome.

Va'al wrote:

Real Cool Guy wrote:

Treetop Maximus wrote:>the first all-female creative team to ever work on a Transformers series

Don't care.

Let's focus less on being progressive and more on good stories. I don't really care that there's a few new female characters in the universe or that the people working on this are women. Just give me a plausible explanation for the characters' presence and a story that's not really meh like those Rage of the Dinobots and Beast Hunters comics and I'll be happy.

This is actually a fairly important milestone, actually. I don't want to assume you're a straight, white male, but generally speaking it is harder for women to break in to comics, let alone on larger, predominantly male (straight, white) creative teams. So I wouldn't be so quick to disregard this, honestly. It might not be a big deal to you, but that's no excuse to be so snide/dismissive of this.

I have no doubt in my mind that IDW picked Scott because her ideas and the story she wants to tell meshes with the direction IDW have been taking Transformers, so I'd like to think that the people responsible for probably the best two years of Transformers comics in recently history know what they're doing/pick their collaborators well.

Not to mention that Scott is a good writer. Look at the first two issues of Beast Hunters (which were really not that meh at all), look at the Prime episodes she wrote: 'Chain of Command', 'Hard Knocks', 'Hurt', 'Orion Pax: Part 2', 'Stronger, Faster'.

And yes, the fact that it's the first ever all female creator team on a Transformers comic is important. In 30 years of the franchise, this is the first time! Do you know how many women are in the fandom? Do you know how many women have only had a handful of characters to relate to, and no writers? This is a massive step in the right direction, and one that every fan should welcome.

Yup, I went a little mental yesterday and bought all the TF Prime FOC related collections on comixology just to check out her writing. Sure not all are her's but I want to know what came before her's.
Plus Grimlock'Ss always awesome.

Scott has talent; of that I have no doubt. But she can be hit and miss, as evidenced by the latter issues of Beast Hunters and even as early as Chapter 3 of Rage of the Dinobots, where her story either goes off the rails or includes a false conclusion or a plot twist that doesn't actually go anywhere (looking at you, Ser-Ket coming back to life only to die again two pages later). I do think she has a very solid grasp of the characters and her dialogue is always good, but the story structure doesn't always mesh coherently.

Whatever Hasbro edicts are in place for Windblade may be hindering her further...

Since I'm planning on getting the toy, I'll read the first issue of the miniseries and decide whether or not to get the TPB afterwards.


And while I'm glad there are more women working on Transformers fiction, I really wish it was a mundane occurrence rather than some progressive event we should all embrace, because (to my perception, anyway) the author's gender should be wholly irrelevant when writing about space robots transforming into fire breathing dinosaurs.

Henry921 wrote:And while I'm glad there are more women working on Transformers fiction, I really wish it was a mundane occurrence rather than some progressive event we should all embrace, because (to my perception, anyway) the author's gender should be wholly irrelevant when writing about space robots transforming into fire breathing dinosaurs.

Agreed. Real equality is when no-one bats an eyelid regarding your age/gender/race/sexuality etc and just accepts you do a damn fine job. It's interesting because over the last 5 years or so there are waaay more females attending Auto Assembly here in the UK, which I feel is because the rampant machismo and objectification of women present in the movies hasn't influenced the comics overtly. Or then again, perhaps it's because they want a piece of Nick Roche and his unfeasibly tight t-shirts

Banjo-Tron wrote:

Henry921 wrote:And while I'm glad there are more women working on Transformers fiction, I really wish it was a mundane occurrence rather than some progressive event we should all embrace, because (to my perception, anyway) the author's gender should be wholly irrelevant when writing about space robots transforming into fire breathing dinosaurs.

Agreed. Real equality is when no-one bats an eyelid regarding your age/gender/race/sexuality etc and just accepts you do a damn fine job. It's interesting because over the last 5 years or so there are waaay more females attending Auto Assembly here in the UK, which I feel is because the rampant machismo and objectification of women present in the movies hasn't influenced the comics overtly. Or then again, perhaps it's because they want a piece of Nick Roche and his unfeasibly tight t-shirts

Real equality doesn't exist though, so I think it is important to highlight when things start to shift in another direction, because it allows for people to discuss these sorts in a context relevant to them (ie the role/lack thereof of women in Transformers, as a fiction and a franchise). It allows people to potentially re-assess their own view of women/gender in general via lively discussion I guess.

Though yeah I do agree it should be, in an ideal world, a non-event. But it isn't, and won't be, for a long, long time.

Edit: Another thing I want to address is the idea of an authors gender/race/etc not making a difference to stories about fantastic or otherworldly things, and I think I would have to politely disagree. I mean, the same argument could be made that stories about fire breathing space robot dinosaurs don't need in-depth political and social structures that resemble, in parts, things that have happened on earth. But they did, and it's been fantastic for the brand. So it wouldn't surprise me if Barber/Roberts/Roche/etc had an interest in social and political history that helped shape and influence the direction of the universe they are creating. Now that gender (in an alien environment not too dissimilar to our own) is going to be tackled, I think it makes total sense to get someone who has experience in being another gender, with being an outsider for something they did not choose. I'm not saying that Scott is a good fit BECAUSE she is a woman, but I do believe that being a woman will really help in telling an interesting story.

Or not who knows laffo

Hey, speak for yourselves. I am a fan and I had nothing to do with this so called "fan built" abomination they call a Transformer. The damn thing looks like some sort of human being rather than a transformer. It belongs in the realm of Bayformers, not IDW.

Treetop Maximus wrote:>the first all-female creative team to ever work on a Transformers series

Don't care.

Let's focus less on being progressive and more on good stories. I don't really care that there's a few new female characters in the universe or that the people working on this are women. Just give me a plausible explanation for the characters' presence and a story that's not really meh like those Rage of the Dinobots and Beast Hunters comics and I'll be happy.

I agree, just give us good stories without shoving PC down our throats. I just like Transformer stories I don't care who writes them.

The poll was public.

And for the record, Windblade, Chromia and Nautica have been brought into the franchise by (male) writers Barber and Roberts. Scott is the (female) writer in charge of the mini-series.

"Shoving PC down our throats" is kinda unavoidable when the comics have had an embargo on female robots for so long then suddenly have to give a (brand new, non-Arcee) female robot the spotlight.

Real Cool Guy wrote:

Banjo-Tron wrote:

Henry921 wrote:And while I'm glad there are more women working on Transformers fiction, I really wish it was a mundane occurrence rather than some progressive event we should all embrace, because (to my perception, anyway) the author's gender should be wholly irrelevant when writing about space robots transforming into fire breathing dinosaurs.

Agreed. Real equality is when no-one bats an eyelid regarding your age/gender/race/sexuality etc and just accepts you do a damn fine job. It's interesting because over the last 5 years or so there are waaay more females attending Auto Assembly here in the UK, which I feel is because the rampant machismo and objectification of women present in the movies hasn't influenced the comics overtly. Or then again, perhaps it's because they want a piece of Nick Roche and his unfeasibly tight t-shirts

Real equality doesn't exist though, so I think it is important to highlight when things start to shift in another direction, because it allows for people to discuss these sorts in a context relevant to them (ie the role/lack thereof of women in Transformers, as a fiction and a franchise). It allows people to potentially re-assess their own view of women/gender in general via lively discussion I guess.

Though yeah I do agree it should be, in an ideal world, a non-event. But it isn't, and won't be, for a long, long time.

Definitely. This seems to be the point that's being missed by a lot of readers.

Scott was hired to write the series because of her qualities as writer. Sarah Stone because of her artwork. They also happen to be the first woman writer/artist team in the franchise. That is, yes, secondary, but not unimportant. As pointed out, we do not live in an egalitarian, post-feminist society - at all.

And as also pointed out before, the creator's gender is relevant in terms of what type of experience can be brought to writing a character that shares some of the characteristics. I said it above: the characters were brought in by Barber and Roberts. And in fact, the whole concept of gender in a genderless race was brought in by Simon Furman. This is not a retcon, not a fixing, not a retelling - it's an alternative for more fans (and not just women!) to read about a different, minority aspect of the IDW universe's population so far relegated to off-page narratives or passing comments.

Burn wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:Unfortunately, he's stuck living in 1984 that nothing past it applies to his ideals, including the plane-based Autobot of 1985: Powerglide.

Digs like this can be construed as personal attacks, let's not go down that path.

I tried to tell you all that Sabrblade and Dead Metal have issues with anything that one posts that contradict their opinions. They just cannot let it go when someone says something they do not like.

You two need to back off of people. They have the right to their opinion just as much as you do without being attacked because they do not share your opinion. Kinda like you did with me, remember? It is a real turnoff to come here, read story after story, and see you two rail people for thinking differently from you.

Hero Alpha wrote:

Treetop Maximus wrote:>the first all-female creative team to ever work on a Transformers series

Don't care.

Let's focus less on being progressive and more on good stories. I don't really care that there's a few new female characters in the universe or that the people working on this are women. Just give me a plausible explanation for the characters' presence and a story that's not really meh like those Rage of the Dinobots and Beast Hunters comics and I'll be happy.

I agree, just give us good stories without shoving PC down our throats. I just like Transformer stories I don't care who writes them.

Ditto. More good stories. We get enough PC crap from the media.

Va'al wrote:

Real Cool Guy wrote:

Banjo-Tron wrote:

Henry921 wrote:And while I'm glad there are more women working on Transformers fiction, I really wish it was a mundane occurrence rather than some progressive event we should all embrace, because (to my perception, anyway) the author's gender should be wholly irrelevant when writing about space robots transforming into fire breathing dinosaurs.

Agreed. Real equality is when no-one bats an eyelid regarding your age/gender/race/sexuality etc and just accepts you do a damn fine job. It's interesting because over the last 5 years or so there are waaay more females attending Auto Assembly here in the UK, which I feel is because the rampant machismo and objectification of women present in the movies hasn't influenced the comics overtly. Or then again, perhaps it's because they want a piece of Nick Roche and his unfeasibly tight t-shirts

Real equality doesn't exist though, so I think it is important to highlight when things start to shift in another direction, because it allows for people to discuss these sorts in a context relevant to them (ie the role/lack thereof of women in Transformers, as a fiction and a franchise). It allows people to potentially re-assess their own view of women/gender in general via lively discussion I guess.

Though yeah I do agree it should be, in an ideal world, a non-event. But it isn't, and won't be, for a long, long time.

Definitely. This seems to be the point that's being missed by a lot of readers.

Scott was hired to write the series because of her qualities as writer. Sarah Stone because of her artwork. They also happen to be the first woman writer/artist team in the franchise. That is, yes, secondary, but not unimportant. As pointed out, we do not live in an egalitarian, post-feminist society - at all.

And as also pointed out before, the creator's gender is relevant in terms of what type of experience can be brought to writing a character that shares some of the characteristics. I said it above: the characters were brought in by Barber and Roberts. And in fact, the whole concept of gender in a genderless race was brought in by Simon Furman. This is not a retcon, not a fixing, not a retelling - it's an alternative for more fans (and not just women!) to read about a different, minority aspect of the IDW universe's population so far relegated to off-page narratives or passing comments.

Yeah, but if they didn't do this on purpose then why are they saying it in the first place. It is sexist in itself to make such declarations, by definition. I don't care if a girl or guy writes it, only if it is a good story. For some reason they are plugging the female team thing, and to me that is to help sales. If their writing is good enough, then it should stand on its own. Not because it is the "first female" anything.

My personal opinion is that having a Arcee called a "fembot" is ridiculous. Robots do not have a gender. I mean, this should be a no brainer to me. Arcee is not a fembot. Or a girl. Female. Whatever. It is a pink robot. An IT. Not a she.

Gender =/= sex.

shockblast2 wrote:

Va'al wrote:

Real Cool Guy wrote:

Banjo-Tron wrote:

Henry921 wrote:And while I'm glad there are more women working on Transformers fiction, I really wish it was a mundane occurrence rather than some progressive event we should all embrace, because (to my perception, anyway) the author's gender should be wholly irrelevant when writing about space robots transforming into fire breathing dinosaurs.

Agreed. Real equality is when no-one bats an eyelid regarding your age/gender/race/sexuality etc and just accepts you do a damn fine job. It's interesting because over the last 5 years or so there are waaay more females attending Auto Assembly here in the UK, which I feel is because the rampant machismo and objectification of women present in the movies hasn't influenced the comics overtly. Or then again, perhaps it's because they want a piece of Nick Roche and his unfeasibly tight t-shirts

Real equality doesn't exist though, so I think it is important to highlight when things start to shift in another direction, because it allows for people to discuss these sorts in a context relevant to them (ie the role/lack thereof of women in Transformers, as a fiction and a franchise). It allows people to potentially re-assess their own view of women/gender in general via lively discussion I guess.

Though yeah I do agree it should be, in an ideal world, a non-event. But it isn't, and won't be, for a long, long time.

Definitely. This seems to be the point that's being missed by a lot of readers.

Scott was hired to write the series because of her qualities as writer. Sarah Stone because of her artwork. They also happen to be the first woman writer/artist team in the franchise. That is, yes, secondary, but not unimportant. As pointed out, we do not live in an egalitarian, post-feminist society - at all.

And as also pointed out before, the creator's gender is relevant in terms of what type of experience can be brought to writing a character that shares some of the characteristics. I said it above: the characters were brought in by Barber and Roberts. And in fact, the whole concept of gender in a genderless race was brought in by Simon Furman. This is not a retcon, not a fixing, not a retelling - it's an alternative for more fans (and not just women!) to read about a different, minority aspect of the IDW universe's population so far relegated to off-page narratives or passing comments.

Yeah, but if they didn't do this on purpose then why are they saying it in the first place. It is sexist in itself to make such declarations, by definition. I don't care if a girl or guy writes it, only if it is a good story. For some reason they are plugging the female team thing, and to me that is to help sales. If their writing is good enough, then it should stand on its own. Not because it is the "first female" anything.

My personal opinion is that having a Arcee called a "fembot" is ridiculous. Robots do not have a gender. I mean, this should be a no brainer to me. Arcee is not a fembot. Or a girl. Female. Whatever. It is a pink robot. An IT. Not a she.

No.

It is because of a sexist society, power dynamics and patriarchal norms that a statement like that stands out and is inevitable. If there were no issues with disparity of genders, race, sex, age, ability, language, belief, there would be no need to point it out.

Every time I see comments reacting negatively to any news like this, one question springs to mind: what are you all afraid of or worried about? Is there a serious concern that this will steal something away from you?


Also, shockblast2: If a moderator calls someone out for a comment, you do not add to that message with your own comment, especially if you're attacking the users that have just been warned.

I would just like to point out that I am not missing any 'point', I just have a different opinion about what constitutes equality. It's a bit sneakily disparaging to basically say that people who don't see things the same way as you don't 'get it' Va'al. Naughty Va'al

Banjo-Tron wrote:I would just like to point out that I am not missing any 'point', I just have a different opinion about what constitutes equality. It's a bit sneakily disparaging to basically say that people who don't see things the same way as you don't 'get it' Va'al. Naughty Va'al

Nope. We agree on what constitutes equality, obviously. (I'd be surprised if there were multiple interpretations of 'equal', other than the Orwellian one.)

I disagree with you on the fact that we are not there yet. And that is the point you and others are not getting. I'm not saying that you disagree with me therefore you're wrong, I'm pointing out that you seem to think there is no inequality at play a) in society, b) in the comics industry, c) in the Transformers franchise.

And that is just not true. Examples of diversity gaps below.



London Review of Book inequality in contributors and reviewed works: http://forbookssake.net/2013/06/24/find ... -of-books/

Women in comics in December 2013 and year review: http://www.bleedingcool.com/2014/02/28/ ... in-review/

DC


Marvel

Again, please don't tell me I'm not getting your point. I understand where you are coming from, I also disagree. Statistics can be interpreted in many ways, and I prefer natural change over enforced change. On the Oscars front for example, how many people of colour would win an award in order to feel that they were adequately represented in your opinion? Would you extrapolate say, the national percentage and then only be happy if that was reflected? What if it was exceeded? Does that mean that white people are under-represented? Or should we start pushing people into positions above others because they have the 'correct' race or gender? Does that really help anyone or anything? Talent, effort and attainment sidelined in order to push other agendas?

Maybe where you're from things are more fractured, but where I live almost half of my direct reports, and the workforce as a whole are women. Ethnically, I am actually in the minority when it comes to my team. Should I try to redress that balance by hiring more white people, or should I only care about what is in their CV and how they come across in an interview? Anyway, I'm glad that you are passionate and hold and rigorously defend your viewpoints, I only ask that you do not tell me that I disagree with you because I 'don't get' what you are saying

Va'al wrote:

Banjo-Tron wrote:I would just like to point out that I am not missing any 'point', I just have a different opinion about what constitutes equality. It's a bit sneakily disparaging to basically say that people who don't see things the same way as you don't 'get it' Va'al. Naughty Va'al

Nope. We agree on what constitutes equality, obviously. (I'd be surprised if there were multiple interpretations of 'equal', other than the Orwellian one.)

I disagree with you on the fact that we are not there yet. And that is the point you and others are not getting. I'm not saying that you disagree with me therefore you're wrong, I'm pointing out that you seem to think there is no inequality at play a) in society, b) in the comics industry, c) in the Transformers franchise.

And that is just not true. Examples of diversity gaps below.



London Review of Book inequality in contributors and reviewed works: http://forbookssake.net/2013/06/24/find ... -of-books/

Women in comics in December 2013 and year review: http://www.bleedingcool.com/2014/02/28/ ... in-review/

DC


Marvel

It is utterly pointless to point out the low number of women who work at DC and Marvel, other than the numbers of women who left due to not being happy about the direction the publisher wanted to go with their books, like Batwoman.

The times of Marvel and DC seeking out fresh new talent are long gone, if you want to work at either company you have to be invited. Both will make you an offer if they feel that the work you've done is good enough or right for them. And with that I mean you have to already work in the field and get noticed, either by working at indi comic labels, self publishing or webcomics.
If you go to them and tell them you want to work with them and even give them a treatment, they'll send you home, and if you're unlucky black list you.

So the only way to actually increase the number of female creators at the big two, is by having the indi scene and smaller publishers publish much more work by female creators, and have those works be popular and successful.
And there just aren't that many female creators in the comics business at the moment, the area that I would say is actually dominated by female creators is webcomics. Sure there are again mostly males, but the stuff by female creators is usually the best. Sure, there are loads of female webcomic creators who create crap, but from all the webcomics I've read and still read, the ones created by females outnumber the male created ones, simply by being better.
Then again, that might be because most of the good male creators then go on to be picked up by a publisher.

So yea, that number chart may look interesting at first, but it's a waste of time.

Banjo-Tron wrote:I only ask that you do not tell me that I disagree with you because I 'don't get' what you are saying

I'm not sure I 'get' (heh) what you're saying. You do disagree, and it seems to me that you do not 'get' the fact that pointing out that this (all-women creator team) is an important issue to raise, especially in the history of the Transformers franchise. And by 'get it' I mean acknowledge, accept and stand behind it.

By that definition, you don't 'get' the significance of pointing out that two women are actively contributing to the comics, as creators, for the first time ever in 30 years. You acknowledge it. But you do not share it.

You don't think it is necessary, I do.

And I think you're wrong, obviously, or I wouldn't be discussing this with you.

[As for positive discrimination, it's a potentially useful tool, if used in the right way. A lot of the reasons that prevent 'minorities' from applying for positions of power, jobs, creativity are not to do with their merits, but with the fact that their merits are downplayed - even by themselves - because of their diversity background. Would I hypothetically hire a woman over a man even if slightly less qualified? Yes. Would I do the same if the skills and knowledge gap were severely different? No. It's not about 'correctness', it's about creating a more diverse environment in which equality - the one you wrote about earlier, where the differences do not need to be acknowledged - can thrive.]

Dead Metal wrote:It is utterly pointless to point out the low number of women who work at DC and Marvel

It is never utterly pointless to point out that there is a lack of diversity in any field, ever.

The time for fresh talent is over? So we just accept it as a fact, and do nothing to challenge it?

There are plenty of women creators in the comics business. We need to acknowledge their existence, say what we think about them, be it good or bad. And what the movement with Scott and Stone on the Windblade comic is doing, is just that: visibility.

Sooo that's the third time you've said I don't 'get' it, I'll leave this discussion to the adults...

I'm done

Banjo-Tron wrote:Sooo that's the third time you've said I don't 'get' it, I'll leave this discussion to the adults...

I'm done

Please explain to me what is so disparaging about saying that you don't acknowledge, accept and stand behind my point.

As I read it, that is exactly what you said:

- You acknowledge the point.
- You disagree with it.
- You do not accept it.
- You do not stand by it.

Va'al wrote:The time for fresh talent is over? So we just accept it as a fact, and do nothing to challenge it?

I think DC proved that the time for fresh talent is over when they held an open competition for artists to draw Harley Quinn and then chose the winner from their own artist pool.

But then again, this is DC, they rejected the awesomeness of Rob Liefeld.

And I DARE any female artists to draw man-boobs as awesome as Rob.

I am anxiously waiting to read the mini series. I hope its good. Breaking out of the Optimus,versus Megatron mold is a good thing for the brand, and expanding on gender in the Transformers universe is a welcome ( albeit late ) change.

I understand women have been victims of patriarchal society for years, but I don't think pointing out that the first all-female creative team is a major event actually helps the cause of feminism... I feel it detracts from the overall goal of equality by trying to paint this as significant. This should be commonplace. It should be mundane. Scott and Stone should be recognized as the right creative team for the series entirely because of their merit, rather than their gender.

To stay on my soapbox a while longer, my earlier remarks about gender not mattering in regards to writing TF fiction must be retracted. Windblade is a female character. I'm not a fan of Cybertronians having sexual characteristics at all, but I can't entirely separate the human element of the creator from the alien element of the character, much as I'd like to.

Because gender has been introduced into the IDW-verse, the gender of the author can be relevant, I suppose, but I've yet to see any interesting use of gender roles or sexual politics in TF fiction and... don't want to, really. The only Transformer romance that has held my interest at all is Chromedome/Rewind, because it is well written. I don't think of either character as having gender, because they're robots without any well known human sexual characteristics. It's certainly preferable to G1 Arcee fawning over every lead character in every G1 cartoon.


Now, back to the Windblade mini: I think most of the fandom's made up their mind on whether they like the character or not. Even if it isn't the fan-created figure I personally voted for, I accept it as the will of the majority vote. I'm perfectly okay with a comic designed to shill the new character. I think introducing gender into the TF universe in some new way is fine as a plot point but hope to Primus it doesn't lead to new romances.

And we have certainly seen evidence of romantic possibilities in Scott's works, such as Stronger, Faster introducing the Airachnid/Breakdown possibility and the bit of Ratchet flirting with Arcee, but I have no idea whether that was her idea or a Hasbro/showrunner mandate, so I'll just politely ignore it. She is certainly capable of subtly, as showing Chromia in the Beast Hunters comics as concerned and nurturing rather than romantic, so she gets a pass.

I'm not fond of Stone's art style. But it is very distinct and fits the Windblade design better than James Raiz's interpretation, in my humble opinion.

And the plot is apparently about a newbie trying to fit in on a Cybertron ruled by Starscream and screwing up his regime and fighting against his response, so at least there's something in there I like.


In short: gender should be less important than merit, but it isn't in this world and we've let it derail this thread about the Windblade mini, which you may or may not like for whatever reason. I think as a general rule of thumb we fans support the notions of equality, and should be able to discuss the comics regardless of who's writing or drawing them without being bogged down into a debate like this. Let it be released, and then, presumably sometime in the future, we'll see other all female creative teams on one comic or toy or show and it'll be as normal and familiar as the creative teams we're used to now.

Va'al wrote:

Dead Metal wrote:It is utterly pointless to point out the low number of women who work at DC and Marvel

It is never utterly pointless to point out that there is a lack of diversity in any field, ever.

The time for fresh talent is over? So we just accept it as a fact, and do nothing to challenge it?

There are plenty of women creators in the comics business. We need to acknowledge their existence, say what we think about them, be it good or bad. And what the movement with Scott and Stone on the Windblade comic is doing, is just that: visibility.

No, did you even read what I posted or did you start the first sentence, get offended and then reply?

Taking something out of context, and ignoring the rest does not make it untrue, it does not work with evolution, nor does it here.

The times of Marvel and DC looking for fresh talent is over. That does not mean that the time for fresh talent in comics is over, that means that Marvel and DC no-longer seek-out fresh new talent or let people apply to work with them.
They check the market and pick out the creators that seem to be the most popular and successful and thus most profitable.

So when they employ someone, it's based on hos much money they can make with them, it has nothing to do with what gender or sexuality they have. If the stuff they make is popular or seems to have potential, they'll invite them to work with them.

So yes, to look at Marvel and DC and blame them for the low number of female comic creators is utterly pointless.

I did read the rest, and I'm not offended, at all!

I hope it's coming across that I'm just trying to have a discussion, not argue for the sake of arguing.


I am not saying that DC and Marvel are to blame, those graphs are examples of some of the available material showing the gender gap. They are, though, the biggest names in the market, and the ones that most comics readers will associate with the industry. But they are symptomatic of what is currently the case.

As the other links I posted above show, yes, there are women creators - but they're not visible. As I advocate for colourist, letterer, editor, translator's rights in terms of recognition on publications, I advocate for another unsung portion of the creative force behind the industry.

As I said, DC and Marvel are not solely at fault for the disparity, nor is IDW, or Image, or Boom! Studios, or Dark Horse, or Titan, or Jonathan Cape, or Self Made Hero, or Penguin Books. But they can do more to make sure that the equality that we all clearly appear to be wanting or asking for is achieved. And I do believe that it can be done by positively discriminating towards the so far minorities: acknowledge when something new is happening, make sure people realise it's new -- then move on, once it's finally become the norm.

And this is where I disagree with points like Henry's above (while I get the sentiment, obviously). We do need to get into these debates. We do need graphs that show some numbers. We do need to talk about how many women writers are writing. Because it's not the norm, and it should be.

Va'al wrote:I did read the rest, and I'm not offended, at all!

I hope it's coming across that I'm just trying to have a discussion, not argue for the sake of arguing.


I am not saying that DC and Marvel are to blame, those graphs are examples of some of the available material showing the gender gap. They are, though, the biggest names in the market, and the ones that most comics readers will associate with the industry. But they are symptomatic of what is currently the case.

As the other links I posted above show, yes, there are women creators - but they're not visible. As I advocate for colourist, letterer, editor, translator's rights in terms of recognition on publications, I advocate for another unsung portion of the creative force behind the industry.

As I said, DC and Marvel are not solely at fault for the disparity, nor is IDW, or Image, or Boom! Studios, or Dark Horse, or Titan, or Jonathan Cape, or Self Made Hero, or Penguin Books. But they can do more to make sure that the equality that we all clearly appear to be wanting or asking for is achieved. And I do believe that it can be done by positively discriminating towards the so far minorities: acknowledge when something new is happening, make sure people realise it's new -- then move on, once it's finally become the norm.

And this is where I disagree with points like Henry's above (while I get the sentiment, obviously). We do need to get into these debates. We do need graphs that show some numbers. We do need to talk about how many women writers are writing. Because it's not the norm, and it should be.

The graphs are still pointless, they would make more sense if they where accompanied by a graph showing how many women are active in the comic industry and then compare those three graphs.
On their own they're just used as finger pointing and only serve to exaggerate the extent of the issue.

Using them is like stating global warming is BS and proving it by pointing out that winter is still colder than summer.

I also don't get why you had to only focus on the beginning of the sentence, take that out of context, ignore the rest of the post which explains the point, and then rant about something I did not actually say just to have a discussion.

I don't want that kind of discussion, I'm for equality, and I don't care who makes my comics as long as they're good. In fact it's only a pretty recent development for me to actually care enough about the writers to actually learn their names and check what else they've written.

I don't appreciate being pointed at and made out to somehow be against equality just because I'm not extreme about it enough and don't have a weird self-hate for being born with a penis. That's not just you, but more a broad complaint for a phenomenon I've been seeing more often recently.

Dead Metal wrote:The graphs are still pointless, they would make more sense if they where accompanied by a graph showing how many women are active in the comic industry and then compare those three graphs.
On their own they're just used as finger pointing and only serve to exaggerate the extent of the issue.

Using them is like stating global warming is BS and proving it by pointing out that winter is still colder than summer.

I also don't get why you had to only focus on the beginning of the sentence, take that out of context, ignore the rest of the post which explains the point, and then rant about something I did not actually say just to have a discussion.

I don't want that kind of discussion, I'm for equality, and I don't care who makes my comics as long as they're good. In fact it's only a pretty recent development for me to actually care enough about the writers to actually learn their names and check what else they've written.

I don't appreciate being pointed at and made out to somehow be against equality just because I'm not extreme about it enough and don't have a weird self-hate for being born with a penis. That's not just you, but more a broad complaint for a phenomenon I've been seeing more often recently.

You Dead Metal, you deserve the matrix of leadership, and the internet.

Thanks to IDW's Chris Ryall we have a sneak peek at the first page of their upcoming Transformers: Windblade mini-series. The series takes place in the aftermath of the Dark Cybertron event and focuses on Hasbro's Fan Built Bot poll character Windblade, written by Mairghread Scott and drawn by Sarah Stone. Check out the first page mirrored below:

Some proof that Sarah Stone (‏@fayren)’s Windblade is gonna be beautiful series. Issue one page one art and colors by Stone.

That... That... That... That... (*slaps face*) That has to be the single most beautiful piece of Transformers artwork ever produced in the whole span of all 30 years from 1984 to today! Sarah Stone should be given a slaggin' medal for just that art piece alone! Why, make her become the official permanent artist for all things Transformers from here on out and we'll likely never have to worry about bad artwork ever again!

Sabrblade wrote::shock: That... That... That... That... (*slaps face*) That has to be the single most beautiful piece of Transformers artwork ever produced in the whole span of all 30 years from 1984 to today! Sarah Stone should be given a slaggin' medal for just that art piece alone! Why, make her become the official permanent artist for all things Transformers from here on out and we'll likely never have to worry about bad artwork ever again!

Are you being sarcastic, based on what's been said before on this thread?

I do really like it though, reminds me of Möbius for some reason. Looking good.

Banjo-Tron wrote:

Sabrblade wrote::shock: That... That... That... That... (*slaps face*) That has to be the single most beautiful piece of Transformers artwork ever produced in the whole span of all 30 years from 1984 to today! Sarah Stone should be given a slaggin' medal for just that art piece alone! Why, make her become the official permanent artist for all things Transformers from here on out and we'll likely never have to worry about bad artwork ever again!

Are you being sarcastic, based on what's been said before on this thread?

I do really like it though, reminds me of Möbius for some reason. Looking good.

Does this look like I'm sarcastic?



This artwork is drop. Dead! GORGEOUS! I cannot praise any further since no amount of praise could even begin to hope to do it justice!

I'm with Sabrblade on this one. Artwork is goddamn gorgeous!

Wallpaper. NOW.

I wish the actual toy's jet mode looked like that, with all the red and "face paint." Though looking at the toy again it does look like the VTOLs can actually swivel down like that, which is really awesome.

That is a beautiful page, the colours just pop and I love the transformation scene starting in the top establishing panel, crossing over from the panel into the negative space, moving between negative space and the border-less panel and then ending in the border-less panel.

I love it and it shows that someone knows her page layout and shots.

El Duque wrote:

That is gorgeous! Some of the best, most fluid Transformer art I have ever seen. Looking forward to this book.

I really Realy like the artwork for this, as it goes against the other styles present in the ongoing series. The one thing honestly though is it feels a bit odd, like game concept art, at least in the first panel of the skyline.

Hot damn, that is some beautiful artwork! While I don't want to lose the Roche/Milne combo (and man do I miss E.J. Su), I'd love to see Sarah Stone guest in the main series.

Looks good. Still don't like the face.

This is the first time ever in Transformers history that we have a female Autobot that can convert to a jet. (Beast Wars Metals Airazor doesn't count.) Awesome. I'm looking forward to this comic and character. This artwork is very powerful.

I'll add my voice to all the others: that does look really really good!

I feel like there may be some sort of Fiona Staples influence, especially in how the background is rendered compared to the foreground.

But yes, very much looking forward to this next month!