I think it's generally agreed that the -Ations were very good. However the current on-goings are arguably the best Transformers fiction we've ever had.

 

Oh, absolutely I agree. There's some great stuff happening right now.

My earlier comment about Roberts may have come across more harshly than intended - I think he's great, but I'm not sure I rate him any higher than Barber, and definitely not Budiansky or Furman. Too soon for that. But in time...

 

In TPB format I'll agree, if you jump back on this site to like....2007 you'd find a thread started where I posit that there is no point in buying an "ation" title that doesn't have the #6 on the cover.

 

I can't rate anyone higher than Budiansky since he's basicaly the heart and soul of Transformers. The ammount of effort and time he put into writing every character and trying to make them different enought is amazing.

Roberts is still green, I mean he's only what a year in writing TF stuff (not counting the co-writing and guest writing).

If he stick around for as long as Furman I'm pretty sure we'll all get sick of him after 20 years of writing when he runs out of ideas and starts recycling plot threads and we'll hang on the new big talent that comes in but that's just how things work  

 

 

Read Eugenesis. Also Roberts is way above Furman. Furman's great, but I seriously believe the only reason he's so popular was simply because of the huge amount of stuff he's written, even if it's not amazing quality. He was the best we had for a long, long time, but that doesn't make him the best ever. Barber is fantastic when it comes to continuity, but he's not an amazing writer. His strengths are elsewhere.

 

Eu-what?

 

I think he means the fan novel from James Roberts it's really good.

 

Eugenesis. It's the epic Transformers fan-fic that Roberts wrote in his fan days. I have it downloaded somewhere, but I haven't had a chance to read it yet. Apparently it's pretty great.

I agree that Budiansky and Furman are incredibly important to the Transformers fiction, but I can't give them credit for being "better" than Roberts. There is pretty much no comparison in terms of the depth of the writing (and as Split Lip said, Barber isn't at this level either).

Now, I think Roberts has the benefit of writing this at a time when he has almost carte blanche, an extremely developed fandom, and a long-time experience with the fiction. There is no way Budiansky would have been allowed to write these stories in his day, so that's neither here nor there. Budiansky is the undisputed "father" of Transformers, but it mostly ends there. His Marvel run had some great stuff in it, but it's far from the best.

Furman also in large part deserves his reputation only in context... at the time, there was quite simply nobody else interested in taking Transformers seriously, and he gets major points for doing so. However, I think being the best Transformers writer of the 80's is sort of damning with faint praise. Furman isn't quite exciting enough to be "great"... but he was the best we had at the time.

Judged purely on the writing itself... the tandem plotting, the ensemble cast, the sharp dialogue, the world-building, the underlying themes and sociological concepts, the turbulent twists, the secrets, and just plain being emotionally and intellectually compelling on a regular basis... there's absolutely no comparison. Roberts is the best we've had.

For now... until he runs out of ideas, or the lubricious praise of the fans goes to his head.  

zmog

 

Off topic question... Was Eugenesis ever published, or is it only available online? And where can I get my hands/eyes on it?

Edit: Nevermind, Found it. Here's a link from my old favorite TF site:

http://tfarchive.com/fandom/features/eugenesis/

 

I'm guessing I'm about one fourth into Eugenesis and it is really amazing. My only complaint is that the quintesson scenes are boring to me but may not be to other people.

If you're a fan of MTMTE then Eugenesis will probably make a great and interesting read especially since character names from that book (I think just the names not necessarily the characters). Like Quark and Fulcrum, who knows maybe James will use more from that book in the future and people who read it will know where it came from.

 

You can get it online here
TFArchive - Transformers Fandom

I think the only physical copies of it were given out at a convention in the early 2000's.

EDIT: i see you beat me to it then  

 

Furman is in general what I call "an idea guy". He has some really cool and interesting concepts and ideas but he just isn't that good when it comes to implementation and realisation.

The infiltration protocol is briliant and the whole concept is briliant but it was never fleshed out proprely and in stead Furman was more focused on his "end of the world dark universe is coming super threat" plot.

The way he was doing Headmasters was anotherone that I liked. Even the War Witin which I could never force myself to finish had a couple cool ideas here and there.

It's just that he just isn't that good of a writer. Also fuck Grimlock, he made me hate the character!

 

I used to call Furman a "Modern day Mary Shelly" If you've ever read the original Frankenstein, there are some GREAT idea there....but it wasn't actually that well written.

 

If you're gonna read Eugenesis; have some really upbeat music or a happy movie to watch after the fact.

'Cuz fffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu...

 

Yup, that's about right. Also, my major issue with Furman through his IDW run was simply that the characters were all incredibly dry. There was almost nobody whose dialogue was distinguishable from anybody else. They were all mouthpieces for the Larger Plot, and all sounded like Furman. Basically he lost touch with the fact that the panorama of distinct and colourful characters are the heart and soul of Transformers... not cosmic extinction events.

zmog

 

Roberts is NO WAY above Furman at-his-best. Sorry, that's just fantasy, and I have no doubt that Roberts himself would say the same thing.

Sure, Furman's recent RG1 output has been lacklustre, his Dreamwave work was pretty dire (well, as was everything from Dreamwave...) but the "-ation" series had flashes of brilliance, and some of those Marvel UK stories... okay, decades of being hyped up obviously mean they come across as "over-rated" (much like MTMTE) but that doesn't deny their brilliance; the multi-plotting, the characterisation, combined with the artwork... and all for a KIDS comic.

That's the other thing - modern writers (inc. Furman) are writing for a very different market, so in some ways, it's unfair to compare.

But I'd put the best of Furman against anything else out there.

I just think it's too soon, after a handful of issues, to suddenly declare Roberts "the best ever". As I've said previously, he's good; very good - and is truly great value for money with how dense each issue is.

But he has flaws - the (oft-dreadful) humour balance he has yet to get a proper handle on; his alleged "wonderful characterisations" are actually essentially ONE characterisation (everyone's a wise-cracking, sitcom-type dude; I can almost hear a laughter track when I read some issues)...

But hey, to be honest, there's something from almost every TF writer that I've enjoyed; they've all contributed to a franchise of comics that I've enjoyed immensely over the years.

 

I'd hardly call, what, 22 issues, a handful. Plus four more if you count the Chaos ones he helped plot with Costa, and then there's the prose stories and mini-comics from the LSOTW trade.

And I really don't get the 'everyone's funny, they have the same personality' thing. Yes, most of the characters have funny dialogue, but they're funny for different reasons, because of their personalities: Magnus is funny because he's neurotic, Rodimus is funny because he's childish, Whirl is funny because he's a psychopath, Spinister's funny 'cause he's a moron, etc. The only characters who I'd describe as wisecracking, actually trying to be funny, are Swerve and, I guess, Misfire.

 

I don't know, apart form the Fumanisms and the generally eloquent vocabulary, I actually think Furman does a good job at distinguishing between his characters. Also, we're talking about alien robots, I think it's pretty understandable that they don't speak like everyday people.

Maybe his execution is not always the best, and he has a tendency to rush thing in the end (that often comes from the pressure form the editorsqpublishers, though), but looking back there are still so many stories by him that captivate me, and I'm not much of a nostalgia whore (I used to love DBZ as a teen; now it feels more like guilty pressure). So far I'm tempted to say that Roberts is my new favorite TF writer, but I think neither him nor Furman lack as writer compared to their non TF colleagues. I could name quite a few stores by the likes of Claremont, Bendis, Jenkins or even Millar I've enjoyed less than those of Furman (even though I do love some of their other works).

 

Agreed!