|
There's some fun in there, but it really is 80s Marvel output. For the most part I do not get why people swear they hold up where the cartoon doesn't, and that goes double for the UK stuff. Like, apart from people in this thread. I absolutely get the goon contrarian streak of liking things more the less sense they make. The_Doctor posted:
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2024 00:43
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 29, 2024 01:02 |
|
|
Good Listener posted:Seeing they're doing some kind of Marvel Transformers reprints makes me wonder if I'm a jerk for not thinking any of the old comics seemed that appealing personally. Maybe I just haven't been shown the good cool art and stories? Nah. There's some charm in some of the stuff but Bob Budiansky was one hundred percent just knocking out 22 pages a month for a toy commercial and will tell you this and while I don't think he slacked off it was a paycheck book and there wasn't any passion. Please note it is FINE to work for a paycheck. It's when Simon Furman comes along in the mid 50's of the run that things start to get interesting and it's also when Hasbro stopped caring quite as much as who showed up and wanted the book to push them.
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2024 01:15
|
|
|
I like the Budiansky stuff more than the Furman stuff The Furman stuff is formative but his tropes have also been done better in modern fiction
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2024 02:05
|
|
|
It was the UK comic that was allowed to shine, weaving in a bunch of extra stories around the US mainline, using characters the US hasn't used and taking over the post-movie storyline. Got a bit messy though especially towards the end.
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2024 02:06
|
|
|
Marmaduke! posted:It was the UK comic that was allowed to shine, weaving in a bunch of extra stories around the US mainline, using characters the US hasn't used and taking over the post-movie storyline. Got a bit messy though especially towards the end. Yeah, and it was bringing Furman over to the US stuff where it took off for me but nothing had quite the same punch as like Target: 2006.
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2024 02:11
|
|
|
Eh I liked the US comics a lot. I always thought they had a tiny bit more mature themes in them (RIP Scrounge). I also liked that they focused on other characters other than Prime and Megatron. Ratchet had a huge role, and Blaster was more than just a stereotype. Were they GOOD comics? Nah. But I really enjoyed them, more than the cartoon truth be told
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2024 02:13
|
|
|
I've not read them but the old UK comics' art is so unappealling to me. I hate the "character is one solid color" stuff they do.
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2024 02:17
|
|
|
Medullah posted:Eh I liked the US comics a lot. I always thought they had a tiny bit more mature themes in them (RIP Scrounge). I would generally agree with this. The comic is in many ways more definitive a portrayal than the cartoon to me, especially for the characters who never got the spotlight in the show.
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2024 02:22
|
|
|
Good Listener posted:Seeing they're doing some kind of Marvel Transformers reprints makes me wonder if I'm a jerk for not thinking any of the old comics seemed that appealing personally. Maybe I just haven't been shown the good cool art and stories? Nah, old comics in general can be pretty hard to get into. There were just a lot of big differences in the ways that comics had to tell stories back in those days, and while many people can get carried away by the weirdness of an epic story about space robots, that can also be one of the obstacles to the story catching on, since with space robots there's nothing anchoring the story to any real-world reference points. Everything gets abstract. Apparently one of the big artists of the original comics just died. https://bwtf.com/news/jose-delbo-passes https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Category:Images_by_Jos%C3%A9_Delbo
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2024 02:23
|
|
|
Droyer posted:I've not read them but the old UK comics' art is so unappealling to me. I hate the "character is one solid color" stuff they do. Funny, it's the total opposite with me, I found 90% of the US art loving appalling. Which I feel bad for saying given José Delbo just snuffed it but so much of it was just fugly and sloppy. Ultimately though, while I feel the UK stories were generally superior to the US ones, they're not any great shakes by today's standards either, and I don't care to read any of them ever again.
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2024 02:59
|
|
|
The Marvel series is What If Tom Scioli But Somewhat More Drawn Out and it can be an acquired taste. I ran across the one with the infamous Shockwave cover as a young lad, and I KNEW things were more exciting in the comic than on the show.
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2024 03:38
|
|
|
I think the Marvel UK stories from Target: 2006 through to like Time Wars are great. After that the comic spent a while being three strips crammed into one issue so you got like a quarter of a US issue, then a four or five page UK story and then a backup strip like Action Force/GI Joe or Machine Man 2020 or Visionaries or something, and the UK specific stories are still decent but they're so short they're doing something different to what they were doing before. Initially it's stuff that's the aftermath of Time Wars and then it jumps ahead and doesn't actually fit into any continuity anywhere, then Furman goes and starts writing the US issues and the UK specific stuff dries up. The US comic is for me at it's most interesting when it's doing weird or dumb poo poo like the Carwash of Doom or that one episode where Megatron is stuck in gun mode the whole thing. And yeah, anyone that mentioned Scrounge, that guy stuck in my head for years both for how he went out and for how they just out of nowhere went "Yeah we're bored with the Transformers on earth, we're going to do a quick arc on Cybertron with a bunch of new guys, enjoy"
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2024 14:46
|
|
|
Medullah posted:Eh I liked the US comics a lot. I always thought they had a tiny bit more mature themes in them (RIP Scrounge). Blaster's electro-static scrambler rifle is almost as much of a character in the Budiansky run as Blaster himself (and I'm not trying to downplay Blaster by saying that)
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2024 15:02
|
|
|
Phy posted:Blaster's electro-static scrambler rifle is almost as much of a character in the Budiansky run as Blaster himself I will never forget Blaster fighting Grimlock for leadership of the autobots on an asteroid in the middle of nowhere. While Grimlock is wearing a crown. And is determined to murder a bunch of human kids on basically a whim.
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2024 15:05
|
|
|
Sentinel Red posted:Funny, it's the total opposite with me, I found 90% of the US art loving appalling. Which I feel bad for saying given José Delbo just snuffed it but so much of it was just fugly and sloppy. It's honestly yea. It's hard for me to get into the stories if I don't like the art and I haven't seen any panels and such from the old comics on either the US or UK end that makes me interested even though I'm sure they're all good artists.
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2024 15:06
|
|
|
Fil5000 posted:I will never forget Blaster fighting Grimlock for leadership of the autobots on an asteroid in the middle of nowhere. While Grimlock is wearing a crown. And is determined to murder a bunch of human kids on basically a whim. Man I forgot about the Grimlock characterization in the comics. I like that the Dinobots in the book weren't the comic relief big dumb mooks they were in the show, Grimlock was brutish and primal but also fairly intelligent. Though his downfall arc after taking leadership was disappointing.
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2024 15:10
|
|
|
Medullah posted:Man I forgot about the Grimlock characterization in the comics. I like that the Dinobots in the book weren't the comic relief big dumb mooks they were in the show, Grimlock was brutish and primal but also fairly intelligent. Though his downfall arc after taking leadership was disappointing. He gets more interesting stuff to do on the UK comics, there's a whole bunch of early UK stories about the dinobots and they don't do the "me Grimlock talk dumb" thing.
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2024 15:51
|
|
|
Shockwave coming out of the Irish Sea at Blackpool and killing a man, and then building a secret base off the coast of Blackpool will never not be funny to me
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2024 16:41
|
|
|
ShaneMacGowansTeeth posted:Shockwave coming out of the Irish Sea at Blackpool and killing a man, and then building a secret base off the coast of Blackpool will never not be funny to me Shockwave, what was the logic in that?
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2024 17:09
|
|
|
Come on, it's the last thing either Megatron or the Autobots would expect so it makes perfectly logical sense.
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2024 17:33
|
|
|
The Transformers... ARE ALL DEAD. Issue 5 of the US comic. Which episode of the show did Shockwave murder all the Autobots except Ratchet, necessitating digging the Dinobots out of a tar pit, again?
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2024 18:57
|
|
|
CAPT. Rainbowbeard posted:The Transformers... Transformers #5 was my first comic I ever chose for myself as a little kid, from a newsstand spinner rack. Before that, I just had the Richie Rich back issues my dad would bring home from used bookstores by the boxful. My mom saw the cover and yelled at both me and my dad for buying it for me, because she thought it looked too scary.
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2024 21:35
|
|
|
Way I see it while the Marvel comics aren't all that great they did have a bunch of good ideas that got used better by later incarnations of the franchise, also Budiansky did some very important establishing work for the franchise for something that was just paycheck and he's always handled being pestered by us TF fans with a good sense of humor(not to mention being an essential resource for The Ark books because he had held onto a ton of production materials from his time being in charge of the comics) so I have a high opinion of him
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2024 01:47
|
|
|
drrockso20 posted:Way I see it while the Marvel comics aren't all that great they did have a bunch of good ideas that got used better by later incarnations of the franchise, also Budiansky did some very important establishing work for the franchise for something that was just paycheck and he's always handled being pestered by us TF fans with a good sense of humor(not to mention being an essential resource for The Ark books because he had held onto a ton of production materials from his time being in charge of the comics) so I have a high opinion of him Bill is genuinely heartened people like his work so well.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2024 02:35
|
|
|
When I was young the cartoons and toys were all I knew of the Transformers. One day I was in the store and looking at tha magazine rack when I saw something most odd. A small digest comic, similar in how Archie had a billion of those around. Except it was not Archie, it was the Transformers. And the cover? The Transformers are all Dead. Being what, Five or six or whatever that sight blew my mind. Picking it up blew my mind further. Autobots hung upside down like corpses from the roof? Some didn't even have a lower half. And I could swear that one guy there was Ultra Magus. Optimus a head. Megatron hurt and Shockwave in charge?! Shockwave besting Megatron?! A deal between Ratchet and Megatron of all bots?! Megatron being bested and buried via trickery?! The return of Optimus Prime! What a freaking ride. Never saw another digest like it, never hear about it, never seen discussion about it. Some times I wonder what the deal with it was.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2024 04:05
|
|
|
The Last Call posted:When I was young the cartoons and toys were all I knew of the Transformers. One day I was in the store and looking at tha magazine rack when I saw something most odd. A small digest comic, similar in how This issue?
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2024 04:40
|
|
|
Strangfort posted:This issue? That was it The reverse cover was the Dinobots.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2024 04:50
|
|
|
I have physical copies of "TF are all dead" and "and now.. the dinobots" comics and plan to put them in frames at some point. I enjoy the cover art. I have enough Shockwaves and Grimlocks though. Also the Comic storyline is wild from what I know. Pass. But hey maybe I'll frame those comics sometime soon. I like those covers.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2024 05:53
|
|
|
TheDK posted:I have physical copies of "TF are all dead" and "and now.. the dinobots" comics and plan to put them in frames at some point. I enjoy the cover art. I have enough Shockwaves and Grimlocks though. Also the Comic storyline is wild from what I know. I still have around the first 40 issues of the Marvel TF comic. Too bad I didn't learn about bagging and boarding comics until years later. 
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2024 12:56
|
|
|
I had like a hundred issues of the UK comic. And as a kid I hole punched them and stuffed them in a binder. And I coloured in the black and white strips
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2024 13:46
|
|
|
Strangfort posted:This issue? I think the words are switched around so but it definitely makes shockwave look much more melancholy that he's trapped on a lifeless planet, but still what a badass cover.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2024 13:46
|
|
|
And if I remember correctly issue 4 was meant to be the last issue of a mini series, so it ended with Shockwave just massacring everyone and WELP that's it kids! Have fun!
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2024 13:55
|
|
|
They actually released the 4 issues as a group and just had the Decepticons keel over followed by a solemn victory speech by Prime, so that could have been how it all ended...
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2024 14:01
|
|
|
Yea I definitely know there's lots of important things in them for sure, I think the comics were on the way out by the time I was aware of Transformers though so I never went near them. I only saw the cartoon because of reruns in the late 80s/early 90s so it was already off tv at the time too. Some of the covers like that Shockwave one are sick but I dunno if the art inside holds up as well for me haha Glad others have such good memories though!
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2024 14:53
|
|
|
that cover is iconic. i kinda wish his empurata one was on a cover too but that would have spoiled some surprises.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2024 14:58
|
|
|
Good Listener posted:Yea I definitely know there's lots of important things in them for sure, I think the comics were on the way out by the time I was aware of Transformers though so I never went near them. I only saw the cartoon because of reruns in the late 80s/early 90s so it was already off tv at the time too. Some of the covers like that Shockwave one are sick but I dunno if the art inside holds up as well for me haha Glad others have such good memories though! While certainly true Transformers having a comic at the time they did was a giant source of advertising for the franchise that's a little hard to comprehend these days because understandably some think "who cares about a floppy comic?" And the answer was kids at the grocery store who got one if they were good cared.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2024 15:02
|
|
|
80s toy marketing was just a huge juggernaut of an industry. Thanks Reagan!* *don't thank Reagan for poo poo
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2024 15:25
|
|
|
Fil5000 posted:80s toy marketing was just a huge juggernaut of an industry. Thanks Reagan!* The cartoonist Brian "Box" Brown released a nonfiction graphic novel last year called The He-Man Effect: How American Toymakers Sold You Your Childhood. I bought it for my best friend for his birthday last year, and finally broke down and got a copy for myself recently. It sounds like it will appeal to most of us. https://www.amazon.com/He-Man-Effect-American-Toymakers-Childhood/dp/1250261406/
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2024 16:17
|
|
|
TheDK posted:I have physical copies of "TF are all dead" and "and now.. the dinobots" comics and plan to put them in frames at some point. I enjoy the cover art. I have enough Shockwaves and Grimlocks though. Also the Comic storyline is wild from what I know. Do it, man. I've been wanting to do the same thing with Are All Dead for a while (preferably one that's a little beat up and ratty) but I don't have a copy.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2024 16:59
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 29, 2024 01:02 |
|
|
I feel dumb as poo poo. I never read the comics, so I've only seen that cover a number of times but I could've SWORN it said "All Are Dead" not "Are All Dead" I mean... decades hahah.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2024 17:46
|
|
