Simon Furman updated his blog with details of Transformers #5 (the UK movie Comic) http://simonfurman.wordpress.com/2007/11/12/tf-uk-a-go-gone-5/ Although it did come out late last week, his post above has some spoilers for those in the UK who haven't found the issue yet or for those outside the country who may want to know what's currently happening in the comic. Plus, who can resist the free Transformers disc-launcher pack-in?
Omnius is pretty much right. The UK strips aren't anything big really with their short self-contained stories. The rest of the magazine is just re-prints of IDW material and some UK competitions. Tho' i will comment that the Guido Guidi art in this latest issue looks quite nice. Jason Cardy's colouring helped!
I will comment on one totally awesome thing in this issue. Ironhide's unit on Cybertron - two new guys, plus the (Target) Scouts Strongarm, Skyblast and Signal Flare. Also spot the cameo by Longview! It's really cool to see those guys given a little attention.
Yeah, the latest one-off is actually the best yet, with good art, some great colouring and the Scout/Real Gear cameos were a nice touch. The previous issue's art, by Don Fig, was let down by some sub-par colouring IMO and story-wise it didn't really go anywhere either. The letters pages/covermounts really tell you what market it's aimed at. It's worth noting that the one-shots also completely contradict IDW's Movie Prequel, which is serialised in the same comic! I don't think I'll be renewing my subscription after issue 12, sadly.
I enjoyed this one, it showed you how smart Ironhide was. I didn't get why Jazz got a biography though, when his spotlight is next month.
Hopefully IDW will work out some kind of deal for collecting them in a yearly block or something... Whilst it's nice to be able to say there's a UK comic again, I'm not taken by the format. And the high of the first issue hasn't been hit a second time, IMO.
i bought the first issue but was turned off by the lack of real content. The old Marvel A-Z and Dread Tidings were much better formats at presenting profile pages and letters. Plus there's the cost of each issue. I pay about £3.50 for each IDW comic including shipping and I get my enjoyment out of each issue. But this just isn't worth the money. I'd buy a trade paperback of the new comic strips but haven't seen fit to buy a further issue.
Apart from Judge Dredd Megazine, this is the only UK comic I actually pick up. I think the choice to try and do pre movie stories is what is hurting it, you can't do anything too drastic, and you can't use the actual movie forms, which means kids don't get it and there's no real consequence. IMO, the addition of exclusive toy characters is a good one, it means you can have the main bots running around doing nothing but looking good waiting for the movie sequel, and the new bots can go off and do all the proper stuff. I would love stories based upon Real Gears for instance, robots created post Allspark wave. Or one off humour pages (like Combat Colin in the old comics) the LOLgears thread shows theres gold in them mountains. On another note, if you buy issue #5 from Tesco, you get an extra free gift (apart from the disc launcher) lots of free stickers on a big sheet. Some of them are actually quite cool. If peeps want I can scan that sheet so you can see what you'd be getting?
Mmm. There isn't a lot of scope to explore, really. Also for me the the movie characters being very nondescript is a turn-off... I've no problem reading them as variations on earlier characters with the same names, but the palettes blur together and drawn art struggles a bit with the designs. That said, I'd go for a TPB or reprint, particularly one with good quality paper. Nice idea with the Real Gear stuff!
I picked mine up in Tesco - theres a tesco 'exclusive' with this issue in that you get a sheet of pretty cool stickers as well as the disc launcher! hahah just read tikgnat 's post Combat Colin was awesome
