I have 0 interest in the ongoing, I just think his proportions look a bit strange compared to the other art that's been seen for this series so far. I like how Liefeld's the only name people can bring up when thinking of infamously bad comic artists, as if there haven't been worse ones since or something.
But it is true. I know many of the new Transformers artists (and their "secret" nsfw art) from deviantArt, tumblr, twitter etc. I have been able to follow their "rise" so to speak. Many have been around for a few years now in the Transformers fandom. I even know some of them personally.
Not Sara, but a few of the artists working on the current reboot were known on Tumblr for nsfw content. I'm sure IDW is aware of this, but I won't be too specific in case it jeopardizes someone's job.
Herzspalter has been a significant artist in the fandom for a long time and is undoubtedly deserving of being commissioned by IDW, and I do really love the conposition and work on this cover. I get the style complaints, but for me it is how Megatron\'s style mirrors the way she draws Megatron in her hilarious G1 Redone comics, which I admit takes away some of the seriousness in the cover for me.
You know with our high expectations we kinda forget that art is subjective and arbitrary, to some that cover might not be the greatest and some might prefer the likes of what we got today. We also should be thankful we even got a reboot at all dispite how ify it's starting out and not a bunch of g-1 based one-shots, and who knows, with enough time and care from the talented people working on them it might be able to stand toe to toe with its predecessor.
Wonder if we'll get a Buzzsaw and Howlback, either in its own pack or with Soundwave in a set, maybe to counter the Ironhide and Prowl.
Gonna stop you right there: There are plenty of ways art can be objectively analyzed but consumption of art can definitely be subjective, that doesn't mean it can't be criticized or analyzed but arbitrary? That's just flat out wrong. I'd argue the majority of art had thought and / or meaning put into it. I'm not obligated to be nicer to someone just cuz they were a fan-artist before being asked to make a piece for whichever publisher.