Interview with John Barber and Kei Zama on IDW Optimus Prime Series

Synopsis
REVOLUTION is over—but the danger to Earth is just beginning. As OPTIMUS PRIME pulls Earth into the larger universe, he’s painted a target on Earth… and a new alien incursion begins when a corkscrew shaped craft drills into our world!



Story

What do we have here? A new title from John 'Continuity' Barber? Look at it this way: Revolution is over, Reconstruction is starting, corporate is backing out slightly just for a little bit, and it's time to patch up what's left of crossover events. Enter the same cast, a different title, and a lot of clashing personalities. Welcome back to Earth.



Barber has a penchant, has always had it, to play with story from an entry point. This series is probably the most promisingly enabling of that, with Optimus Prime being narrator and thread, as his personal story bleeds into his formation and current situation, shaping and being shaped by the context and the players around him.



This is true for the flashbacks, in which we see his young idealist law-enforcer self. This is true for when we switch back to the current events, where those ideals are a little shakier, and other people are more likely to call him out on things, from Pyra Magna (more of her please), to Soundwave, and even to his older allies.



For a reader who's followed RID, Transformers, all the crossovers and events, and even before all that, back to earlier stories with red-blue-bot, some of this may feel familiar, sure. But it's an excellent first issue that doesn't compromise its jumping on point in any way. It has enough new stuff to keep regulars in, and enough grounding to bring new audiences along too. That's a win-win for me.

Art

Kei Zama's work on the pages is something to behold. It's not often that an excellent cover artist is also a truly great interior artist, and when it happens, they deserve all the praise they can get. One of the interviews about her cited a number of heavy influences, from Marvel G2 to 2000AD, but I also see some James Raiz in more TF-friendly terms, and it's definitely her own take on sequential narrative, with bold inks and shading to boot.



And if the lines are gritty, and bold, and heavy without crushing the page, Josh Burcham crushes the work with some of the best colours he's produced in his career. If you thought Sins of the Wreckers was good, this goes in a different, even better direction altogether, and the two styles work oh so very well.



With the old style coming back, and a lot of new faces, Tom B. Long has a lot on his lettering plate, but do we really have any doubts that he can make it work, even with new art and busy panels? Not at all. The flow is great, the captions fit, and nothing is sacrificed. Plus, IDW got Paul Pope (with Lovern Kindzierski) to do a variant cover. Sara Pitre Durocher tags the shiz out of graffiti art, regulars Casey Coller, Joana Lafuente, Andrew Griffith are still magnificent, and the Sonny Liew and Tim King are great additions/banes to completists. Nice touch on the UK-variant Zama cover too, with David Garcia Cruz on colours.

Thoughts
Spoilerish ahead

We know this by now: Roberts and the MTMTE Lost Light team work best with the fandom they created, Barber and his rotating titles and teams are in charge of the core mythology, lore, and backbone storylines for the IDW verse. Optimus Prime, in this first issue is very similar to the early RID books I loved so much - internal narration devices included - and yes, while full of stuff, leads directly from the general reader that bought Revolution.



If this is what Reconstruction is going to bring, I'm quite happy to cautiously join in for the ride, and for one, accept our benevolent diplomatic if ego-inflated robotic overlords. And if they look this good doing it, thanks to Zama and Burcham, it's definitely going to be a swish ride for a little while at least, despite the criss-crossing plotlines that the editorial team will have to keep track of (thanks, synergy - we will achieve Total Brand Awareness).

I also really like that they're exploring Earth outside of the usual territories, with Mexico and the Alps showing up in this issue. Let's hear it for global crises not meaning US-based!

The interviews keep on rolling in for John Barber and the whole of IDW's Optimus Prime ongoing. Comic Book Resources were able to snag an interview with Mr. Continuity himself and ask him even more questions about the new ongoing and where it will be headed. You can check out the full interview HERE and catch a sneak peak below. Let us know what you think of this latest interview in the comments section below!

In Prime, you have this unique lead with literally millions of years of history. Will you be digging into that?

We’ll definitely be digging into Optimus Prime’s past. The first arc has a parallel story set before the war — back when Optimus was Orion Pax, a police officer on Cybertron. It’s another view, on another world, in another time, of a lot of the same issues at play in the present day: the relationship of a protector to the protected, and how Optimus/Orion looks at his enemies. Back then, Cybertron was on a downward curve, historically speaking. Orion’s on the precipice of a four-million-year-long war that he winds up being an essential part of.

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Optimus tends to have a crew around him. Will that be the case in here? Who can fans expect to see at his side?

Optimus still has a big crew with him. The real difference here is that Optimus’ actions are so big, the people around him can’t help but be pulled into the orbit of what he’s doing. Soundwave is still at his side, and Pyra Magna and the Torchbearers (who form Victorion) are there, but she’s not exactly standing at his side. Arcee is cautious toward him, but in a different way. And Aileron, who was a Colonist who sees Optimus as a space-messiah, has had her worldview shattered a bit. She sees Optimus is just a guy – a big, metal guy – dealing with things as best he can.

But then Optimus brings in a half-dozen new Colonists, all very eager to follow his every word. This decision doesn’t sit well with all of his crew, but it introduces some very obscure faces into the fold – characters like Oiler, Slide, Gimlet, Bump, Midnight Express, and Roulette. Don’t be worried if you don’t know them — nobody else on Optimus’ team knows them, either. But Aileron and Pyra are both colonists themselves, and seeing these hopeful ‘bots willing to lay down their lives for Optimus, right or wrong…well, they get a little uneasy with the situation.

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How does bringing in a new artist like Kei change your approach to Optimus and these other characters?

When I thought about what a comic drawn by her would look like, it was like a whole new approach to the Transformers opened up. I mean, I’ve been writing these characters for a while, and I’m always super-excited to get to do this stuff, but the idea of Kei’s vision of the characters, of the way she’d draw G.I. Joe characters, and how she’d approach all this…it seemed like such an exciting idea.

Carlos Guzman, our editor, didn’t take too much convincing, and he brought in Josh Burcham to color and Josh has brought a very unique, very cool color palette. The book has an amazingly distinct look to it. It doesn’t feel like anything else out there, which is amazing.

Via the usual iTunes screenshot uploads, we have an early look at the next issue of the new IDW Publishing Transformers ongoing series - Optimus Prime #2 - in which we meet the newcomers to Earth in their corkscrew ship. Check the three pages mirrored out below!

NEW CYBERTRON! A massive corkscrew-shaped space ship has drilled into Earth, bringing with it a surprising disruption to OPTIMUS PRIME's plans. Meanwhile—ARCEE fields a dangerous offer that may be too good to resist!

Corkscrew ship? isn't that the same kinda ship that was in the original animated movie

#Sideways# wrote:Whew, the art is not the best. I can't tell what's happening half the time. Also, did Wreck-Gar just rip his own head off to prove a point?

But truly, I'm hoping that Wreck-Gar eventually could be the Deadpool of this universe: Breaking the fourth wall whenever possible and being rather insane comic relief.

I'm not sure, but I think the problem might be the coloring rather than the line work. There's barely any contrast between shades. Everything has the same lighting despite being different colors. This isn't so much a problem with characters who aren't Junkions. The other Autobots are only made up of one or two primary colors anyway.

Via another surprising choice for a reveal, we have the IDW Publishing Transformers Optimus Prime #2 full issue preview. The images come courtesy of comics website Comic Crusaders, and can be seen below - head back to Seibertron.com for our review once the book is out next week!

NEW CYBERTRON! A massive corkscrew-shaped space ship has drilled into Earth, bringing with it a surprising disruption to OPTIMUS PRIME’s plans. Meanwhile—ARCEE fields a dangerous offer that may be too good to resist!

Optimus Prime #2
John Barber (w) • Kei Zama (a & c)
FC • 32 pages • $3.99

I don't know.....compared from Issue #1 to this......the art style is just cluttered, there's no better word for it. There's too much crammed into every panel, too much going on to follow the narrative without multiple re-readings, etc. If it continues this way, I may just unsubscribe from the book and catch up with it on the wiki.

Let's start the new year with some contemplation and good art, with two new incentive covers for upcoming issues of IDW Publishing Transformers comics - first up, Optimus Prime #3's retailer incentive cover by Joana Lafuente, with Earth, Optimus and a lot of spaaace. Check it out below via Previews World!

Optimus Prime #3
John Barber (w) • Kei Zama (a & c)
An uneasy peace between Optimus Prime and the newly arrived Junkions is threatened by Soundwave’s discovery within their massive ship…
FC • 32 pages • $3.99

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:

Bounti76 wrote:I don't know.....compared from Issue #1 to this......the art style is just cluttered, there's no better word for it. There's too much crammed into every panel, too much going on to follow the narrative without multiple re-readings, etc. If it continues this way, I may just unsubscribe from the book and catch up with it on the wiki.

I'm in a similar situation with the art, it feels cluttered as you said, and not as clear as I'd like to see. it's not bad, but it feels...unrefined

Disagree, review coming up soon.