USA Today Interview with Transformers Continuum Author Editor Andy Schmidt

There's an Andy Schmidt interview on USA Today this morning with some Don Figueroa sketches. Check it out here:

'Transformers' comic creator sees 'a richer, deeper portrait' - USATODAY.com

I'll say before and i'll say it again, DON is the fricking man!!!

"The first new Transformers comic book series in five years"?

Also, "There are lines of dialogue that hearken back to older Transformers appearances, like the animated movie, for example."

Is anyone else awfully reminded of War and Peace?

Fantastic. I remember seeing a lot of Don's work at the beginning of the IDW run, etc and thinking it was a great departure... but this is equally as impressive. If there was one artist who deserved to have his creations cast in plastic, it's definitely Don.

That classics based looking prime is outstanding. <3 Don.

Good read too

These aren't the designs in the comic. Just concept designs before Don refined them.

Nice interview. I'm starting to warm up a little bit more to the idea of the ongoing, but still not digging the art. If those pieces that are shown actually make it into the series and become the new status quo designwise... ugh. Looks like you can kiss almost everything Furman and Su did goodbye, thn.

I really hope you're right. The "change in style" is one thing, and I already don't like that, but a complete and total redesign...

Oh, they'll all be redesigned to match the movie style, just that some will (more or less) retain E.J. Su's basic Earth mode bodies in terms of layout of parts and such.

Maybe he means since the last ongoing? When did DW go under?

Late 2004. IDW got the license in Mid 2005.

Omega Superme was one of my favs too

man, those are spectacular Designs. love how Primes boots expand, and he's even got some 07 movie toy style automorphing going on there with the calves.

I really like the large departure from almost anything previous that BB and Jetfire are.

my only gripe with it, though, (and i'm more or less astonished Hasbro hasn't pushed this a bit) is i've always wonder why (even if they don't 'tweak' the designs) that IDW hasn't stay more rooted in the Classics/Uni2.0 designs ~ since there is no official fiction, and it seems kinda strange for IDW to be doing something completely unrelated to, well anything, while there is a line out there that is that aesthetically closely tied-in to what they are doing anyway. (i was really happy to see Guido bring a lot of that in on AHM)

But i'm much happier to see hybridized G1/movie designs then the GundamFormers of the earlier IDW books.

If these were movie designs, they'd be terrific. But I'm not so happy with the G1 comic diverging so much from G1.

That Bumblebee is awful. Though the Optimus design is spot on.

I'm not a fan of the G1-Movie hybrid style, but I do find the B-1 Bomber Jetfire very interesting to look at.

I like the prototype designs even if they vary a bit, as long as they keep a faceplate on Prime

yeah that's about how I feel

dont get me wrong I will give this a chance but so far I'm not liking the movie blending into the classic characters.

I just wish we'd stick with one continuity. When IDW took over and started the -ation series, it looked like they were really going somewhere, but then everything had to be rushed and tied up for AHM, which was ok, but nothing we hadn't seen before (Autobots look like theres no hope, Deceps look like theyve won, Prime makes miraculous recovery, Autobots win, Megatron goes home in an ambulance...well, spaceship). Now we're getting something 'new' again. Will this give them an opportunity to revive the old Unicron angle again? Lets hope not.

mmmm...

Those concepts are kinda cool. Still not sold on the movie-ized G1 designs as a whole. Why not E.J. Sue's realistic style? Or just go full-movie designs?

i like the univeerse,classic, movie look on these guys mrime very classic look on him as shown all hail megatorn bumblebee like that movie look on him with the dors on his back, jet fire looks very close to his movie fcounter part only differnce hes more blocky cartoon looking ironhide littel disapointed hes van again i would have perferd hummer, or suv ill probably get passed that.

cant wait to to see decepticons i would like to see combiner or 2 if there in this series

jetfire looks like a gundam

that jetfire is vile ewwwwww

Those designs are AWESOME!!! Please, please, PLEASE be the official ones!

I'm not digging these designs. I'd prefer the generations kept seperate.

I'll wait for the trades, but I think given my lukewarm feelings toward AHM, I may end up dropping the comics altogether, which would be a shame given how Spotlight Perceptor looked quite interesting.

Can I has toys of those please?
I really like that Ironhide design. I would buy a toy of that.

I will say though that Jetfire is probably the weaker of these three designs. With some refinement though, it'd probably work.

Speaking on the books in general, though I love seeing new takes and designs for transformers, I can agree with some that it seems kind of redundant to force a completely new aesthetic into what is suppose to be a G1 based book.
Way I see it, if you're going to do a G1 book, then do a G1 book. Keep new designs for something that's actually completely new altogether.

This post I quoted and tried to fix made my brain cry. I had to do it. Ban me if necessary, I just can't read this kind of thing anymore without going all grammar school on somebody's ass.

I apologize if I've offended you, dragon, but my brain couldn't look at it without trying to fix it.

On topic: I still don't understand how they can continually almost reboot their continuity, while trying to pull threads along from their previous almost rebooted continuities, all while pretending this was meant to be the continuity all along. This is why comic books have a hard time gaining a long-term following. They can't even keep themselves interested long-term.

I'll give it all a chance. Still haven't warmed to mixed continuity designs.

Those designs look almost Transtech-ish.

That Ironhide looks spectacular...

i really like Ironhide and Prime now BB not so much but everything else i am game for

I can't wait to see more new designs like these! It would be awesome to get some figures done in this style.

If G1 and had looked like that, I'd be all over that.

Hasbro should use this style for the next universe line, a mix of the traditional blocky 'bots with the movie look. Animated in this style would kick ass

Jetfire is awesome except for the fact that there is so much gray on his chest

so is the current line idw has been publishing different from this new one?

If these designs had BEEN the movie designs, I think that's the middle ground that a lot of the so-called anti-Bay "Geewunners" would have been happy with. As designs for the new comic... meh. I'm indifferent. They're cool for a change, but I liked Su's stuff better.

zmog

I dunno about those designs, I know they're just concepts..but it seems too drastic.

Looks kickass!

to quote a phrase, "THESE ARE NOT YOUR FATHER'S AUTOBOTS"

I...I don't know what to say "IMO"

I suppose maybe they will grow on me one day, just not right now.

JETFIRE, my most beloved Transformer ever has been reformatted into something I no longer recognize at all. this is a sad day that IDW and HASBRO have completely sold out to Bay's idea of what Transformers are supposed to look.

I know they are aliens and are supposed to evolve but to totally change them so insanely differnt all together? that's just crazy.

Didn't that happen in Armada first? Or Cybertron? I mean, a big green cargo or an overweight space shuttle...

That wasn't G1 Jetfire though.

I still see loads of G1 Jetfire in here. Heck, he's still white with loads of red detail marks. Just because the robot and jet isn't aping on the Robotech design school anymore, people cry about the sky falling.

BB is a Tesla roadster...........


it fits better than the Camaro did.

I don't really have a problem with doing G1 realistic. But if it's G1, keep it G1.

I can live with Bumblebee not being a VW Beetle. But G1 Bumblebee should never be some slick sportscar. There's enough of those already. Bumblebee is the underdog. He's the little engine that fucking could. We don't need another hood-chest door-wing autobot.

Can... not tell if trolling.

I was thinking much the same. The main problem with these movie-ized designs in a comic (as I see it) is where something looks one way as CGI or something similar, all that extra detail in a comic drawing amounts to that many more outlines around everything, and especially around the face it gets in the way of making a readable expression. (or an appealing, non-skull-like look)

I'm warming up to them, slowly.

LOVING Prime, especially his truck mode.

Jetfire looks kinda' odd. All that grey on the chest clashes with the white and red. And that doesn't look like any B-1 I've ever seen.

Please tell me those designs were dropped.

If they're in, I'm out and I've bought every IDW and DW comic going (bar the Movie ones)

I won't be the only one either. This will easily put more people off than it will attract. It's certianly not G1 and it's not movie either.

I can put up with Don's new style to a degree with the faces and such (although he's certainly no longer my favourite Tf artist) but this Jetfire? What is it supposed to be? It's awful.

If the art stays like this, I give this 'ongoing' less than a year.

Simply awful.

This is an excellent point. I've found with the movie comics, you can admire them on one level. All that detailing can be impressive to behold. But if I'm trying to read them I find all that clutter gets in the way. It's not just that it's a distraction. I think the artist ends up putting the extra effort into all those different perspective planes and flying parts at the expense of making a comic that reads well and flows well.

These designs would be superb in a CG movie, but they're not ideal for their intended medium.

Sketches look great, the Optimus Prime looks almost exactly like the classics figure (with a tiny bit more 'curvyness').

I love Don's art, but those designs are terrible. Sorry, D, your War Within redesigns were a lot better. IDW is talking about the G1 characters, right? Then make it G1. Don't create some weird G1-Movie mix no one will like.