From what I've heard (and seen), Flamewar and Flareup haven't been portrayed very well in Hoist the flag. They've been objectified to ridiculous levels.

This Tumblr page will show a few examples.

What really gets me is that this is the complete opposite of what IDW's been doing. IDW has Windblade, and she's got a curvier frame, sure, but she's not sexualized at all. She's posed naturally in shots that aren't pandering to the male demographic, while FunPub has jiggling roboboobs.

My question is, how the hell did the artist get away with drawing them like that? How did an official artist for Transformers get the green light to draw sexed-up robots and sell it at Hasbro's official convention?

If I sound needlessly whiny, I'll see myself out.

 

I believe the artist illustrates many a manga.

How he got away with it, I dunno, it's a bit much, but I really don't care. I just wanna read about robits.

(But the motion line in that one panel had me on the floor when I first saw it)

 

I'd be less concerned with the sexualized robots and more concerned about his other drawing interests. In your fandom, lurking... - I made a disturbing discovery. The artist of that...

 

someone wanna just tell me straight up? i'm not clicking on tumblr lol

 

Kissplayers

 

Yeah, no idea why FP hired that guy...

 

That is revolting.

I'd like to read about robots without having my gender representation reduced to fap material for the boys.

 

The last post on this page is Relevant: BotCon 2014 superthread - Page 114 - Transformers Discussion - The Allspark Forums

Basically, communicating Why We Don't Objectify Fembots was not trivial, in a cultural or linguistic sense, to the artist, who happened to be a Japanese guy this year. The poses and such were NOT in the script.

He's extremely talented, he has a nose for spot-on cameos and beyond-encyclopedic Transformers knowledge, and I really don't know how deep the talent pool is for this stuff in any given year.

However I get the impression that FunPub is pretty displeased and isn't likely to hire him again without some kind of assurance.

 

I don't blame you, even I don't want the vise-versa of that.

But I still wouldn't care and find it hilarious.

 

Yeah the trouble is this I have enough of this stuff to deal with day to day without dealing with it in my hobbies too. TF has been good because despite the huge problems with female representation in general it has never been sexualised the way most female comic characters are.

Looking at that linked discussion though I think FunPubs response has been reasonable, they haven't tried to brush it off or accuse people of overreacting which is nice.

 

Characters not portrayed well in FunPub comics? Gasp.

 

Have any of them been needlessly sexualized?

 

Not just that, either. Apparently the artist has done explicit work having to do with underaged sex.

Not cool, FunPub. Don't hire this guy ever again.

 

I'm sorry but the artwork was fantastic, the man is REALLY talented and little "fanservicy" motions aside, flamewar and flareup look great in the comic. so much that comic makes me actually want to own flamewar

even if I have no basis on this, but in my opinion its why people voted female in the fan vote transformer poll for the majority, too many pervy fanboys wanted another fembot to drool over

doesn't help the majority of fembot fanboys in this fandom only like the characters for fap material, we saw this with transformers prime with arcee and airachnid, and dont deny it, it was ALL over the prime forum during the show

i see this as funpub selling to their main demographic in a way

as for the "shota thing", COME ON, its like you guys have NO IDEA how the manga market in japan works, shota, lolicon, its all common things over there in the doujin market, come on, honestly i want to see this artist work on transformers again, BECAUSE THE DUDE IS REALLY TALENTED

 

Not only is it offensive to imply that Japan is some sort of pedophilia-loving haven across the board (and thus perfectly okay), but choosing to ignore the implications that come from this artist's past experience plus the fact that he even made the staff of FunPub uncomfortable, all because you want more from this artist no matter what...

Man, that does not make you look good at all.

 

I'm not defending shota or lolicon work, i'm just saying you guys are blowing this up for no reason. those are common genres in the manga market, I guess being a huge anime fan stuff like this does not bug me, but i think this is all being blown up out of proportion when the dude is hella talented

 

The dude has talent.

It's just that there shouldn't be the implication of breastplate movement that isn't transformation related.

 

I agree with this though, i think the fansevice bits were a little much, but the dude can draw robots REALLY well. I think this whole situation is just being blown out of proportion for no reason

 

I agree with Guard Convoy on this guys art. He's SUPER talented, 10 times more talented than half the artists at IDW.
You remove the offensive fan-service in this comic, and I'm sure there'd be nothing but praise for this art.

He's also likely right on the entire creation of Windblade, yeah, it's been turned into something "progressive", but you can't get me to believe for one second that the large majority of votes didn't come from pervy fanboys.