IDW Transformers: Lost Light #21 Geoff Senior Cover #2

It looks like a coloured-in convention doodle.

I hope the reboot refrains from using nostalgia artists, with the possible exception of Don Figueroa. This isn't the same Geoff Senior who did Target:2006, Legacy of Unicron or Edge of Extinction. Whether he's out of practice (though he's been doing these guest spots off-and-on for a few years now) or the purse from IDW is miserly, it's starting to cannibalise his legacy a tad.

Carnivius_Prime wrote:Love Geoff Senior and his work always has so much style and energy to it but even he can't make that Rodimus design look good.

Agreed.

ZeroWolf wrote:I don't think it's that bad, but I do want to see more fresh talent brought up through the ranks, same with writers. I still think they should have an anthology type deal where every few months they put out a book which is several one shot stories of tf fiction where a new writer and a new artist is teamed up and we see what the result is.

Definitely agreed on bringing in New talent and New ideas. Hopefully they also refrain from the kind of art used in the Primacy Trilogy too. Certainly not a fan of any of that.

Geoff Senior is my fav classic TF artist. Met him at Auto Assembly years ago. Nice fella. Got a signed Death's Head print.

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:Thanks to a Tweet from James Roberts himself, we have a new cover of Lost Light to show you, and this one is Geoff Senior's cover for Lost Light Issue 21! The cover features Geoff Senior's ever classic art styles utilized on the Lost Light crew, along with the Scavengers. The colors for the cover are done by Josh Burcham. This very team also did the flashback scenes for Requiem of the Wreckers, and they continue to showcase their talent here.

Check out the cover below, and let us know what you think of Geoff Senior's and Josh Burcham's cover below! Do you like the fact that Geoff is back in action, doing some panel work and some covers? Let us know as well!

Seeing Ultra Magnus and Rodimus being drawn by Geoff Senior has really slammed it home to me how much LL and other comics have changed the franchise and perceptions of the characters.

In comics from 1986-1991 these were serious characters who had some gravitas to them, now they are caricatures of themselves where Geoff's cover conveys a sense of urgency but the interior will be filled with cliches and other distractions.

I have enjoyed Lost Light and MTMTE before it but every issue I'm seeing it more far removed from the original serious action comic that I really loved as a child and later as an adult, Roberts does have his moments but more and more of late he is throwing in political statements that are less and less subtle. "Will of the people" "Fake news" and "Strong and Stable" to name a few, these were so blatant in his pushing his own political views onto others and done so in a mocking way that it takes over the story so it feels like I'm reading his own political views with some transformers stories woven in around them as opposed to the other way around.

With all that said he does write some good stories but I'm feeling that he is running out of steam and doing a bit of a lazy handwaving job to tie it all up in the end so much so that I don't feel much connection with the characters on an emotional level, that I did say when reading Marvel 80 or Armada etc. It feels far more like watching an episode of Friends which is comedy driven that tries to throw serious issues in for a change but never really pulls it off quite well so when you get to the end it just doesn't resonate with you.

Keen to get answers to where Skids went and the fate of Pharma and others such as Sentinel Prime, but fully prepared for the fact these will meet my expectations as well as the scheduled release dates of the issues...

Rant over

ZeroWolf wrote:I don't think Roberts will touch on sentinel prime, in fact I don't think the titans returns stuff went down to well at all. So anything lingering will be completely forgotten. I also don't mind the characters being different as this is idw not marvel, the same that hot rod isn't rodimus from Energon. We also shouldn't want them the same, otherwise what's the point as their stories were concluded. What happens now doesn't take away from what's been done.

While I agree in principal that we shouldn't ask for a total rehash, Transformers to be has been a primarily action themed story with other elements woven in.

It's moved along way away from that core premise to something that if done today as a fresh new show, probably wouldn't appeal to me as a child as it's too slapstick without much gravitas.

Guess in 20 years time our kids will be talking about this though as the golden era as we all do about Marvel's heyday

Okay, I've heard variations on this a lot now: "This book too overt with it's politics", "Get politics out of my comic" etc I often ascribe this attitude to people who are new to comics. Because political satire and allegory have been a thing in comics since they started in Newspapers.

If you want nuanced, subtle politics I'd advise you to read an actual book, because comics are a dynamic and visual medium and throw their message at you. The younger the audience the book is aimed at, the less depth there is to the message. Yet the message does still exist, it is simply over their heads.

Let's be frank, nothing about the politics of this era is new in any way. The internet has just made the naysayers more vocal.

Transformers can be taken as a parable on Warfare and it's escalation. A large scale study on the cause and effect of something so deeply tied into the history of our own species. It would be fascinating to see someone try to humanise War through this series. To educate on the cost of war and the toll it takes on life, resources etc

Without two robots mindlessly smashing against each other and without patronising guffaws. It hasn't been done yet, the writer hasn't risen to the challenge. Stories have been tailored at selling the next wave of toys or a writer telling the stories they want with Robot skins over it. Both of these facets can still be integrated into a more fixed narrative, a commitment to an all encompassing serialised storyline would require a big ask of HasTak and a singular uncompromising editorial/creative vision. Which I'm not entirely sure is achievable long term with a licensed property. Yet I am hopeful the Rebooted Universe can give as something new. Unbeholden to out of date G1 and the other dated series that can after it. Time will tell.

Not really related to IDW but I love these Geoff Senior pics on his site. Both for conventions and depicting Transformers at those locations where the conventions were held.

Megatron and a very blue (G2?) Grimlock battle at the Isle of Wight (that grass looks a bit too toxic with that choice of green but other than that and the super bright sky in both images I love this)


Unicron obliterating the seaside town of Brighton. I've always loved Senior's rather savage badass version of Unicron as opposed to the mostly immobile version depicted in the 86 movie.


Still by far my fave TF artist. There are those who do better defined details and shapes and such but none have the sharp kinetic style I crave from my Transformers comics (and I still far prefer the way he draws G1 faces than any other TF artist since... Roche is probably among my least favourite for that..too many weird goblin faces...)

Follow his Instagram for cool Transformers pics. https://www.instagram.com/senior.geoff/

Anyways i'll leave this topic now. Enjoy your idw comics, dudes.

ZeroWolf wrote:That unicron pic is epic!

Agreed. I also agree with comic Unicron being more menacing than movie Unicron, even though the animation in the scene when he transforms is beautifully done.

Even though my all-time favorites are Andrew Wildman and Guido Guidi, I also like Senior's work a lot. I didn't care for his style when I was younger, but I appreciate it more now. Did he do the entire run of the Marvel UK comics?

Nah, he was used quite sparingly, usually for the first part of one of Simon Furman's epics.

It was quite a disappointment, even as a nipper, knowing that Legacy of Unicron was going to be his last UK interior.

However when he returned a couple of years later, it was a treat.

As for Lost Light 19... when was that pushed back??

Was looking forward to read it today

Grimlock to the rescue!