Newsarama on Hasbro and IDW Collaborations, John Barber, Michael Kelly

IDW Senior Editor John Barber describes the partnership as “a nice relationship of trust and mutual respect” built over the past eight years and the successes’ IDW has had with the properties. Barber, who worked previously at Marvel guiding titles like Wolverine, Stephen King’s Dark Tower and the Ultimate line, says that there’s a misconception about the differences between licensed comics and comics owned in-house.

“I always feel—and maybe this isn’t the case—but I feel like people want to create a situation where the licensed comics are in a different category than “normal” comics,” Barber points out. “In my experience, the practical reality of working on Transformers or G.I. Joe is essentially the same as working on a comic at Marvel. I mean—they’re not some unusual beast that’s outside the range of normal comics.”

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"Working with the Transformers team and getting these comics out in the toy packages, all while building to an epic story that’s satisfying to existing fans. I think that’s a big moment for us—and there’s this amazing thing happening near the end of “Dark Cybertron” that I couldn’t believe it was going to make the jump to the toys,” teased Barber. “But I can’t talk about it yet, which is a lame answer but it’s really a fun twist on a well-known premise. It was something that originated—I think, if I remember right—with Mark Weber on Transformers brand team, and More Than Meets The Eye writer James Roberts and I couldn’t believe it was an idea on the table, let alone that it would be reflected in the toys. Sorry to have to be really vague about it.”