Iirc, the "Man in Iron" was a drone/navigator sent by Autobot High Command to look for the Ark and its survivors and lead them back to Cybertron? Like a rescue team of sorts. Jazz was forced to destroy the pod to prevent the 'cons from getting to it and access his/its secrets. Please correct me for any errors as I lost my reprint of this eons ago. 

 

Guido Guidi does the best retro artwork from IDW. It looks retro but also of high quality. Whereas Wildman copying his old Marvel style for Regeneration One was just him putting half as much effort in as he should and calling it “retro”. His old Marvel artwork looked better to me than his Regeneration One art.

 

I hope this is good. You can never be quite sure with Furman. When he's stuff's good, it's some of the best and most influential storytelling the Transformers franchise has ever seen; but when it's bad, it's an absolute garbage fire. There is no middle ground with Furman.

 

Ah Fig. Sure do miss his art.
Iirc, he got burned by Hasbro and IDW when Andy Schmidt pushed his Stealth Bomber Megatron design onto toy shelves with no mention or credit whatsoever of his work on that design.
Correct me if I’m wrong or add to that if I’m missing anything. It’s been some years since that happened.

 

None of that's wrong, but to expand it was them reopening old burns  confused  as that Stealth Bomber design getting used the first time was after he had pitched something with it which got ignored, only for the pitchee (can't remember who, would guess Schmidt) to give the design to the ongoing. So he already stopped working with IDW soon after that and then Hasbro joined in.

I assumed that with his talent he must have moved on to another company, but unless where I'm looking just now is wrong looks like he's only ever done Transformers, with the occasional other property for Dreamwave or Hasbro. I'd love him back on Transformers but it's sad that there's nothing else. Screwed over by individuals at IDW and particularly Dreamwave, maybe he's found a happier line of work though which would be fair.

 

Thanks. I thought there was more.
Iirc I believe he did something creator owned after leaving TF. But it was likely short lived. No idea what company published it, but it wasn’t IDW.

 

Thanks for the short, sharp lesson.

 

Yeah, loved his Regeneration One alternate covers. Looks like he found unused artwork from the 80s.

 

So is this old timeline?

 

Yep

Seems to be set before the events of marvel us. I have this preordered. I love the original run even if regeneration was a disappointment for me.

 

Oh ok. I didn't read the Marvel stuff. Should I bother?

 

Probably not really. Summaries or maybe a few key issues, max. Some of them were decent stories, and some of them were CARWASH OF DOOM. With about 100+ issues to wade through, you're better off just reading the synopses on the wiki.

 

Car Wash of Doom is one of the better stories, actually. Right there with Mecannibals and wrestling matches.

 

You have plenty of time catch up.

 

I'd read Marvel series before I'd even consider IDW's stuff.

 

Seconded!

Just re-read Carwash of Doom the other day, perfectly enjoyable story. Silly? Yes. Fun? Also yes. The Marvel material is just a blast to read, and the UK content is especially cool.

 

Is it worth it? I was introduced to the comics during the Coasta/Barber switch.

 

Well, considering you can get the marvel G1 stuff in big collections for fairly cheap, I'd say so. You'll see how a lot of key concepts to the mythology are introduced.

Understand as you get into it that Budiansky was regualrly forced to introduce piles of new toys at once and it affects storytelling. There are some bad issues. You have also some amazing stuff. Comic Shockwave and Blaster, for example, are dynamite takes on both characters. When you get into the final 20 or so issues Furman comes on and takes the shit in an amazing new direction.

But as kingmob said up above, it's all fun and enjoyable. Even the silly or goofy stuff.

For Primus' sake we get Ratbat, Decepticon Leader and Fuel Accountant. And it's amazing.


https://www.amazon.com/Transformers...sprefix=transformers+classics,aps,194&sr=8-11

 

to be fair, if he got "burned" it was due to his own actions. i believe he was on a work for hire sort of contract, so any new designs he came up with on the job would have belonged to hasbro anyway, at least thats the way i understand it

 

1-12 and Furman's 56-80 aren't bad from the US run.

The UK run has a lot of good stories Dinobot Hunt, Target 2006, etc.