Monthly Archives: January 2014

Marvel Retrospective I: “The Transformers”

This is the first in what will hopefully be a series of articles re-visiting Marvel’s version of Transformers, covering the 80 issues released in America and the 4-issue miniseries “The Headmasters.” Images are scanned from my personal copies of each comic.

Here we go again for the first time...
Here we go again for the first time…

It was a world transformed.

In 1984, Marvel comics began a series of comics that would be the very first representation of Transformers in fiction, edited – and soon written – by Bob Budiansky, the same man who named most of the early characters and wrote the bios printed on the toy packaging.

Though I feel the animated cartoon that soon followed became, for most folks, the definitive version of the G1 story, the comic rumbled along far longer than the ‘toon lasted and morphed into its own totally unique version of the mythos.

I was a kid in the early 1990s, when Transformers was in decline, and my first introduction to the property was by way of an old Marvel comic I found at my local library. I spent much of my childhood scavenging yard sales, book stores, and flea markets for signs that Transformers once existed, and it oftentimes paid off in the odd issue of the Marvel comic, usually far distant in the chronology from any other that I owned. So I pieced this story together in my mind and it became just as cherished as the cartoon that I also adored.

Continue reading Marvel Retrospective I: “The Transformers”

More Than Meets Some Haikus!

[Ed. Note: I come from a fanzine background, so I love highlighting not just news but creative work as well. So have some haikus from our contributor Windchaser!]

Cyclonus the grump.
Can’t deal with emotions.
Tears face in grief.

Robot Tailgate
So old, yet so very young.
New horn seals friendship

With amnesia
Skids has forgotten so much
But not Getaway

Oh, Chromedome
So unlucky in love.
Remember Rewind.

Leader Rodimus
Not quite a Prime yet
Rod Pod too silly.

See Ultra Magnus
The big voice for reason
Small robot inside

IDW “After The Dark…” Teaser Images Reveal HUGE Twist

AfterTheDarkOptimus AfterTheDarkWindbladeAfterTheDarkMegatron

 

Over on their Tumblr, IDW’s been tossing out teaser images for what comes after Dark Cybertron with the “After The Dark…” tagline. The first one, with Optimus Prime (or possibly still Orion Pax?) over a planet that looks suspiciously like Earth, was a bit of a surprise after IDW swore off Earth-based stories a couple years back. The second, with Windblade and Cybertron, surprised no one (but was nice to see!).

It’s the third one that’s the real shocker, not so much for the character it features – Megatron – but for the details. Yep, that’s an Autobot symbol on Megatron’s chest, and his associated setting? The Lost Light.

Things just got a whole lot more interesting.

 

Wiki Wednesday: Maccadam’s Old Oil House

It’s New Year’s Day, and for many people that means it’s time to face the day with a blinding hangover. In honor of the season, let’s take a look at Cybertron’s favorite place to get plastered:

Situated over at sub-level six on Cybertron‘s lower-east quadrant, or just east of the High Council Pavilions in Iacon, is one of Cybertron‘s most renowned enterprises:Maccadam’s Old Oil House—the biggest single source of black market fuel on the entire planet. Its main attraction, beyond the excellent service, exceptionally pure oil and general selection of fuel, is that the proprietors make no distinction between AutobotsNeutralists and Decepticons. If you can pay, you can stay.