As long as it's better than Heart of Darkness or whatever that crappy Galvatron story is called. My 13 year old could have done the artwork for issue 1 and it would have been better. What the hell is IDW thinking putting out this trash? I buy all the IDW TF G1 comics and this is the worst issue I've ever had to look at. might as well take my $4 and wipe my ass with it!!

 

The quality and polish on the stories and dialogue aren't there as is, and they want to crank it out twice a month now? I predict this ending poorly.

 

Heart of Darkness SUCKS!!! I agree. Galvatron is my favorite 'con. I was gonna buy it but something said "look inside before you pay for this." The art was just poor. Does anyone at IDW have Joe Ng's number? Please call him and let him draw some robots. Kthnx.

 

Heart of Darkness is actually pretty good, once you get past the art (which is a "love it or hate it" thing- I'm in the "love it" camp, myself). And Joe Ng? That guy who aped Pat Lee's style back in the Dreamwave days? Nothnx.

Ah. Still bitter about Last Stand of the Wreckers not being about characters from the cartoon, then? (If I have you confused with another user with a Sideswipe screenname, please ignore this.)

And in regards to the bolded section of the post, DENTON J. TIPTON. At least Andy tries, and is generally pretty approachable about errors.

 

obviously its been awhile since you've seen Joe's work


G.I.Joe TF poster coloured by *NgBoy on deviantART

optimus prime by *NgBoy on deviantART

Peace through tyranny by *NgBoy on deviantART


the dude's an AMAZING artist all around and has grown TREMENDOUSLY since his Dreamwave days [ya know. the days where everybody was meant to adapt to a house style that most likely wasnt their own natural drawing style]
Poke around his gallery and see the great stuff he's done lately for Capcom etc!


not that he would have the time to draw Transformers now what with him being a full time artist for UDON


 



[and btw, Denton is a fantastic guy and a great editor. I had a great time working with him on Transformers! so be nice! lol]

 

Seems to me like they are trying to blaze through Costa's "3 year plan" one year early, so they can start fresh again.

 

No dude Heart of Darkness sucks, the first issue was pretty much "Oh! I didn't know Galvatron was so strong, Oh! I didn't know Galvatron was that powerful," it was worse than Drift hype (I don't dislike Drift I only mean the fan reaction stuff I rather like em) And Furman's Cyclonus was this proud and noble warrior who cages the beast of chaos within who was never going to die from being apart from the dead univeres. Galvatron had to make a plea for him to join. Now they claim Galvatron gave him life, now he's just a damn cheerleader.

 

I was annoyed from the start of the IDW reign since someone decided that a "fresh approach" meant immediately avoiding any way of tying the new G1 into Beast Wars by having the Great War start in the present. Look, I started my fandom from the moment I saw the very first ad for Marvel's Transformers #1 on TV. I owned that comic the very next day. As much as I love those years, BW remains the greatest piece of TF media ever released. So I was annoyed by it's absence right from the start.

The generally poor quality of the material, coupled with a ******ed $4 cover price for something that often took me 3 minutes to read, and it wasn't hard to drop IDW's TF comics.

 

Yeah but how'd you feel about DW? I personally loved that stuff.

 

Unless there's some kind of retcon I don't know about, the IDWverse Great War wasn't a recent thing. Just because we don't know a whole lot about the history of the war doesn't mean Stormbringer happened directly after Megatron: Origins.

 

Well, that's what I get when I post when I'm mad. Generalizations and ill-informed-ness.  

You make a good point about Joe Ng's work, and the accursed house style. I hadn't checked out his recent stuff, and I'm glad you pointed it out.

 

Is Don taking another break from TF?

 

no worries ^__^

 

I figure 125 may be set in the far future and idw's going all out to create the effect....

 

I'm tired of getting burned on a monthly basis for the past 2 years in the name of "being positive and hopeful".

Based on that sad fact, and noting that Costa's name is still all over the next 8 months' worth of stories, I'd say that there is not only ample info, but that a "solid judgement" is way overdue.

I've had my gripes about the various main TF writers we've had from DW to IDW, but increasingly I'm realizing that Costa is the only one I consistently dislike.

I've never read "Eugenesis", but I liked Wreckers in general. The real question is whether James Roberts' involvement can improve Costa's shoddy work now that the production rate will be doubled. If it turns out well, I can always pick up the trade paperback versions... but at this point, I'd rather play it safe and vote my disapproval by keeping my money in my pocket.

Hardly surprising coming from an avowed Green Lantern fanatic.  

By contrast, "cosmic space fantasy" stories tend to bore me... whether it's Green Lantern, Silver Surfer or Marvel's Nova/Guardians cosmic space crossover frenzy from a couple years ago. Different strokes for different folks, I guess. I just relate better to things that are grounded in some kind of familiar element, and I find that Transformers without the context of the Earth setting becomes pretty meaningless. I might as well be reading about generic space aliens or superheroes if they're not "robots in disguise".

I don't think the lesson here is that Earth stuff is any more "silly" than space stuff. If anything, the space stuff is patently often even sillier, but a well-written storyline that puts characters first can transcend any setting.

zmog

 

When I go back and read classic GIJOE or Classic Transformers. I pretty much read a issues worth of content and am exhausted from the experience for a while. I am not saying that IDW's storylines are inferior to vintage books for the content, because there have been adventures here that felt really epic.

Escalation, Devastation , Stormbringer, The Spotlight collection, Last Stand of the Wreckers, Ironhide, and Drift are largely what I've loved.

I like how They cover things like headmasters or other facets of g1 transformers like double dealer, that were mired with limited fiction and they operate without the restraints of being a toy commercial. Maybe the potential has only been partially realized to bring out the characters. Though resetting of G1, while occasionallly jarring does help a bit so they don't have to trip over the underbase, or generation two comic leaders among other simple things, like alternate origins for galvatron.

More pressure for them to do this stuff bi-weekly could be bad. But at least the previous issue should still be fresh for them to draw from. It effects people like me who just pick up the trades, with additional trades. For those who pick up the individual issues. It may be more of a pain.

 

A thousand times yes to this. Furman's stuff felt cohesive and character-driven, no matter how much people cry about the Furmanisms. In my opinion, he is and should always have been the architect/caretaker of TF comics continuity. The only chance they've got of getting me back into buying TF comics is by going with that whole suggestion of having him pick back up on the original G1 continuity. Give him that, give him a good artist as a partner who stays the hell away from the insect-alien-faces, and pay them to make good comics. Don't switch people out all the time, don't renumber the books, don't say "this is continuity but this isn't," just let them do their thing.

 

Well lets hope they get their finger out and stop delivering the drivel they have the past few months. And that the art improves and is continuous. I've lost count of how many different alt modes each TF has had since AHM seemed to be the changing point for all of them after the -ations series.

 

Cohesive, yes... but I have to draw the line at "character-driven". His stories are firmly "event-driven", with most of the characters just acting as puppets dancing out the motions of the plot.

Arguably the only characters in Furman's IDW with any degree of distinct personality are Hardhead, Nightbeat and Grimlock. Besides those few, it's hard to find any line of dialogue in his run that couldn't be delivered by just about any other character. It's my one beef with his stuff for IDW. The PLOT always overshadows the characters.

Other than that, it's cool. I'd love to see Furman running the show, maybe editing, developing story arcs and stuff, but leaving the dialogue to writers with a better grasp of personality.  

zmog

 

I must be a "casual" cuz I'm excited for this. I've always been more of a Hot Rod vs. Galvatron fan, so this'll get me buying the comic again.