Misc. talk about comic storylines, observations or upcoming issue declarations/anticipation

Here's something that's been puzzling me:

On the splash page of B&W preview art for Infiltration #3, does anyone have any idea who the second Autobot from the right is? It looks like his alt mode is a Ferrari Testarossa, so it *could* be Freeway of the Throttlebots, but it's hard to tell with his back turned.

Well, logically, it has to be either Sunstreaker or Wheeljack.

Here's a question.

Will Grimlock see a redesign? A more modern interpretation of the T-Rex that transforms in a classic fashion?

LBD "Nytetrayn"

...because they're the only remaining confirmed members of the cast. I believe it's Wheeljack, because you can see Sunstreaker in the full-size preview pic posted online a while ago:

So, looking at the preview pic on IDW's website (the Art du Jour mentioned on the front page) for Infiltration #4, it looks like Bumblebee has a female hologram. That's...odd...

I think it's nifty... and another subtle boot to the head of the notion that giant Transforming robots have human sexes...

BTW, Transfans interview with Tim Seeley, author of the latest Devil's Due TF/Joe crossover The Art of War.

http://www.transfans.net/interviews_seeley.php

Maybe for Beast Wars. I certainly doubt we'll see a retrofit of MTMTE for G1 -- it was very tied to Dreamwave's continuity, has the old designs (butchered, in some cases, by the art and colouring) but is recent enough that IDW probably wouldn't want to target the same market.

Cybertron... would probably depend on whether they did a Transformers: Cybertron comic.

edit: Mass-market comic. I think they're doing something for the fanclub.

just read on the frontpage that IDW will be reissuing MTMTE tpb's and releasing a hardcover thereof... that HC is SO MINE. then i can sell my volume 1 and my issues 5-8.

I don't think anyone answerd this on the old board so I'm going to ask again:

Does anyone think that it's odd that Thundercracker has blue optics when it seems like IDW is going with the 'bots have blue and 'cons have red and yellow? Could the picture in the lineup be some kind of foreshadowing? Like how Ratchet pointed out that he was just a grunt and didn't take perverse pleasure in hurting others like Runabout and Runamuck. Or am I just grasping at straws?

I think this was asked recently but...
do the collected and reprinted Marvel UK comics cover all the issues? I thought I heard that they didn't, because they were initiated by one of the artists, so it only had issues he did. I take it then that there's little chance of the un-re-issued comics ever being re-issued?
I thought I remembered a list of issues the reprinted collected works covered, and it seemed pretty complete, at least for what they had released so far. are they not going to go all the way to issue 1?
of the USA Marvel run, I own originals of all but 2 of the 80-issue series. I've only ever seen a torrent for it once, and it didn't work.

IDW would be more likely to reprint the Marvel Transformers Universe, complete with the extra entries in the G1 comic.

Not quite sure what you're asking, so...

Stuff that Titan didn't reprint:
http://tfarchive.com/comics/marvel/reprints/overview.php#not

Stuff they did:
http://tfarchive.com/comics/marvel/reprint...rview.php#lists

What's in the original Collected Comics issues:
http://tfarchive.com/comics/marvel/index.php?s=collected

Titan didn't reprint some stuff basically because Furman doesn't like his early work.

Kinda off topic, but I don't know where else to post this question:

Does anyone else do online comic subscriptions and have them mailed to your house? My only comic shop is about 30 minutes away and it is a pain in the fender to get to. I was researching some earlier today, but didn't find too much, plus I'm not sure how to get an incentive cover if I see one I like.

www.mailmemycomics.com sells TFs subs for cover price plus $1for postage (per ish), each one sent an insulated mailer. They only list Infiltration, but if you e-mail them they'll hook you up with Beast Wars, Stormwhatever & Hearts of Steel too.

So Hearts of Steel just got me back into comic shops, and I found and bought all of War Within Volume 2, having only ever read Volume 1. Should I bother to pick up Volume 3? I know it isn't finished, but are the 3 issues that were released worth picking up? Is there any kind of ending?

Well, it's fairly easy to see where things were going, because we got the solicitations at the time -- more would be discovered about what Megs had been up to, followed by Prime coming back and a big fight.

I'd wait to see if it gets a direct-to-trade conclusion first, personally.

Just in case anyone's still looking: http://idwpublishing.com/tfstorm3.shtml

NICE. Bludgeon's new duds are looking like they'll be cool.

>__>

*facepalm*

..Why? Dear God, why?

WHY?!


M "Did NOBODY Notice That He SUCKS?" Sipher

Well, I sort of see it like this. I'd give James "Brad" another shot at writing, just because of who was in charge of him at the time. I'd be willing to see what Ruffalo can do outside of Lee at least once.
If it is the exact same, then yeah...

http://www.skyjammer.com/wiigii/lousymicroart.jpg
http://www.skyjammer.com/wiigii/lousyridart.jpg
http://www.skyjammer.com/wiigii/lousymicrovehiclesart.jpg
http://www.skyjammer.com/wiigii/paradron-mutant.jpg

"House style" isn't the problem.

A complete and utter lack of understanding of composition, anatomy, basic physics...


M "He Stinks. That's The Long And Short Of It" Sipher

It'd certainly be good to see some preview pages before this one...

You have my sympathy if you're the colorist for that issue. Seriously.

I remember when I critcized this guy back in Chicago at otfcc in 2004.

Worst Artist ever.

nope

made the face because im kinda surprised by the huge outcry of "OMG he sux! nooooo!!!!!"

i mean. i half expected it but theres long threads on every major board about it
id hate to be Rob xD

More and more people have come to the conclusion that an inability to draw proportions isn't just a stylistic difference since DW tanked.

The top link of Sipher's probably illustrates it most clearly -- Fort Max's shoulders shift size by a factor of two between two adjacent panels. As for what the hell happened to UM's head...

im sure thered probably be the same reaction if by some stroke of luck i had to pencil anything, so i feel ya rob!

impress us all! xD

Feel free to post those links to the relevant thread in the IDW forum, since I don't really feel like signing up for that.


M "What's Fort Max's Right Arm ATTACHED To? Why Does Hubs' Entire Front End Change Shape Between Panels?" Sipher

Okay, I've been looking at this page, and am confused on one point: which UK volumes reprints material also in US volumes? And which are which?

I'm not quite following -- the Titan UK volumes don't duplicate material that's in the Titan US ones, if that's what you mean.

There's a UK story list here with US issue numbers noted where applicable:

http://tfarchive.com/comics/marvel/index.php?s=storylist

It helps to have read some of the US material to follow what happens in the UK ones, but it's not essential -- by and large they're self-contained arcs that join up with each other rather than closely interweaving the US stuff.

Oh, I see; I saw both of the Unicron-themed volumes, one from the US and one from the UK, and thought they were the same material. My bad.

There's a preview image of one of Rob Ruff's covers for the Sixshot Spotlight on IDW's Art Du Jour...

Not as puffy as his Micromasters work...still kinda squat though...

Yeah, better than Micromasters but still terrible.

Sixshot never looks good with those wings flapped out across his arms like that, how can he move properly with the equivalent of flat boobies? You can fold them over, in fact, I think you're supposed to.

By the way Denyer, I was looking over the TF Archive site you post links to from your reviews recently and I read over the comic summaries and was really impressed with them. I've only read a few UK stories and the rest of the summaries in self-contained chunks but never altogether their US counterparts like that, very interesting, it adds a lot to G1 as a whole. I wish IDW would publish some UK stuff in Generations, like "Man of Iron" at least! That is an excellent introductory G1 story.

yeah, i was thinkign the same thing... almost like he's too used to drawing the micromasters, and poor Sixshot got the "squatty body" treatment... if this cover is any indication, the art in this issue will be a COMPLETE throwback to the DW days...

Guy needs to stick to coloring. Even Sixshot's guns are stubby, and I wasn't sure that was possible, really.

If you take the torso and head (which is a little higher than it should be to pull that pose, but not enough to be notable like Pat Lee's floating head/arm Prime) and then ditch everything else on that body, including the wings, then you have the start of a good Sixshot sketch.

It annoys me that he's ignored details like the two ridges that should be on either foot, done something totally strange with the shoulder wheels, has the perspective on the chest fins all wrong, put a vent on the front of the jeep mode on the wrong side... when he's drawn the correct placement inches away. The perspective on either gun is also off slightly, particularly on the right hander (check the small barrel on the bottom as opposed to the main gunbarrel for Sixshot's right rifle, the large barrel versus the far back of the gun on the left). He's also left off the wing wolf claws on the forearms, but I can forgive that one since they'd be mostly behind the rifles anyway. The most galling thing to me is that the back (terribly shortened) wings have been drawn... coming out of his shoulders.


Perspective, god damn it. LEARN IT.


I'm going to have to skip this one just to save myself the unnecessary headaches. Seriously, I don't know if the dude's just lazy about the pencil work or what, but he sure seems to like to disguise things with his color work.

I will say that the wing wolf turned out decently, but the best part should be the center of attention, namely the robot mode.

No stories are reprinted in both US and UK volumes. The UK reprints are only doing UK-exclusive stories.

DULL SURPRISE!


M "Perspective. It's A Lost Fundamental" Sipher

We now have the cover to Ruffolo's Sixshot book.

And... I think I might skip the issue. I know I'll end up buying the TPB, so it's not like I'll be missing out on the story.

It's really only severely lost on Rob Ruff and Pat Lee. Guido Guidi and EJ Su are rock solid on it, and Don Figueroa is on the ball 99% of the time. Ruffolo seems to have spent his time learning how to polish his coloring skills rather than decent perspective and proportions. I would hope, like Walky, that he's at least gotten his story direction act together.



Yes, already posted. It already got my sufficiently frustrated reply.

Why did Ruffolo have to be on the issue I looked forward to the most?!

Sixshot is TALL, blast you! Do you get paid extra to draw the Pat Lee puffy-legs™? And, gah, the two chest-flaps aren't even at the same angle....

*cry*

Here's Sixshot's original packaging artwork:



Look familiar?

Ugh.

Just... ugh. You'd think he'd at least use an original pose. No wonder some of the IDW forum people are swooning over how "G1 box art"-esque it looks.

All we've seen is the cover and I already hate the thing. That's like a record.

Yeah it's gonna be a cool issue even though Ruffolo is a crappy "artist".

I'd like to see a 2nd wave of Decepticon infiltration unit in Nebulos, specifically the Head/Target masters. Maybe Furman could give a decent origin to the "binary bonding" process. It seems like a good possibility, since the jig was up when Thunderwing attacked Nebulos, perhaps giving them all new alt-modes to "fit in".

I'm pretty sure they're all Cybertronian, Thrust certainally is.

A "coincidence" of Nebulan and Cybryton vehicular technology would be lame. Maybe in a return adventure they'd not bother seeing there being no point and shift the story from desguise to something else.

Nebulan vehicles in the comic were like WWII war machines with a WWIII edge. I don't remember much from the cartoon except for some kind of giant killer excavator which I think became Skorponok. Neither fiction had the Transformers adapting to their technologies for alt-modes and kept them as Cybertronian/Futurisitc Earth ('cept for the animal HMs).

I'd assume that the Nebulan technology in IDW is very fuel-efficient, at least that's what I gather from that solar-powered plane thing. Like what Earth vehicles would be if we weren't reliant on fossil fuels.

Yeah I'm big on a continuity with longevity, which is why I never got into anything after Beast Machines. Well, I did a little, but I don't miss it. I think some Evolutions stories could be cool if they were really interesting, like a story set in the 50s during the Cold War with hot rod Autobots (even Tracks as a C1 Corvette) and you could play up the whole "alien robot death machines" which seemed to be the epitomy of what people thought were going to kill them back in those days. Sputnik Transformer? Rock on!

But on the other side, "Micromasters" was a part of the DW universe and was totally crappy so I skipped it and would've sooner bought "Hearts of Steel" had it come out then.