I experienced them together as a kid, and I always preferred the toons. Still, when I was young, I had my nose in those Universe bio comics quite a lot, even up through the late 90s. Those things got some serious wear. Overall I look back on the comics pretty fondly, but at the earlier ages it was tough to get past the "eww they're colored wrong!" type thoughts, you know?

These days, I'm not the biggest collector of the comics, but I do keep one foot in the door.

 

Yeah...

First, the bios were my world. I loved the character details. But the comics were IT for me. I did see some episodes of the show eventually and it was a lot fun, but the comic seemed more epic and deep. What really hooked me and exploded my little, eleven-year-old brain was the idea that these "Transformers" weren't just robots, but a race of "sentient" alien beings. Wow!!!

And seeing my first two TF toys, Gears (kicking butt in US issue three with Spider-Man) and Skywarp (the first TF re-activated by Teletraan who, quite loyally, raised his fallen leader before any other) in those pages before the show and before any of my friends had any idea made me feel like it was something special. Plus, the emotional high of learning that the "4-Issue Series" would have an issue five only to see the cover to that issue was unreal. I love it!

I still haven't read all the comics. (In fact, I just ordered the first IDW trade.) But I don't know if I could. It's been a long time since eleven. Every time I try, I find myself laughing more than anything.

 

I tend to buy the new comics more for nostalgia's sake too... the writing and overall quality is inconsistent enough that I would have dropped them ages ago if I held Transformers comics to the same standard as I hold other titles. They're certainly my "guilty pleasure" comics, because otherwise I'm pretty snobby about what I read.

Though I do like it when someone "gets it right" and tells a really good little TF story. Naturally, all of us have different ideas of what constitutes "getting it right"... one person's Ramjet Spotlight is another person's Warrior School (even if that would be WRONG!).  

I have the collected TPB for Marvel's Transformers Universe... I have the individual issues around somewhere too (practically disintegrating from use). They're really my bible. A while back, I got tired of having to go find it so often, so now the TFU trade just sits next to the computer at all times.

Yes, I know that's incredibly geeky.  

zmog