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Post by blueshift on Dec 18, 2018 19:46:01 GMT
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Post by Pinwig on Dec 18, 2018 20:02:31 GMT
Interesting. Quick look up on Ruckley reveals five fantasy novels but no comic experience? I wonder how IDW connected Transformers to him.
I think the subject is a given. The only reason Hasbro would want to end the current run is to make the comic a toy tie in again, but that didn't harm the 80s title too much. It could be fun.
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Post by Bogatan on Dec 18, 2018 20:09:24 GMT
It might be good it might be bad. I don't mind it being tied to the toyline but I worry that it means this series good or bad, will be replaced by what ever new concept Hasbro come up with after this trilogy. Or just some pretty abrupt changes when Seige toyline ends and the next part launches. Marvel handled the latter well, but they got to cram every new line in to (what became) G1 so got 8 years out of their continuity.
WFC will last maybe 4 years, but IDW will miss the first 4 months of that, at fortnightly thats likely to be about 90 issues. I guess thats not so bad, but if its bad its a long time to wait for something else and if its good it wont seem like enough.
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Dec 18, 2018 21:14:22 GMT
I'm interested to see what they do.
Andy
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Post by Fortmax2020 on Dec 18, 2018 22:14:06 GMT
Interested as well.
Is fortnightly a punishing schedule to maintain?
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Post by The Doctor on Dec 18, 2018 22:15:36 GMT
I have no strong opinion about this one way or the other but I think I can hear certain parts of the internet on fire.
-Ralph
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Post by blueshift on Dec 18, 2018 22:15:46 GMT
Interested as well. Is fortnightly a punishing schedule to maintain? I mean, IDW have been publishing fortnightly Transformer comics for the last what, five years? With the artists shared out it should be realistic. |
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Post by legios on Dec 18, 2018 22:30:50 GMT
I'm withholding judgement at the moment. I'm not feeling anything very much, positive or negative at the moment. I think I need to wait and see what this comic's "thing" is - what gives it it's particular identity.
The early IDW stuff had the "covert war" thing, RiD and Lost Light had the "what do you do with peace when all you can recall is war" angle, and the "finding a family" angle for Lost Light.
I'll likely try an issue or two, see what it is like. Make a judgement call then as to whether I am going to continue with it at that point.
Karl
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Jim
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Post by Jim on Dec 19, 2018 8:00:59 GMT
Cautiously optimistic; the writer comes across quite well, and the blurb for Winterbirth fits the war-kicking-off, bad-times-coming vibe that would fit a Siege series.
The artists don't come across as quite as interesting as those we've had in IDW phase 2 though. I would have quite liked someone like Dan McDaid, or maybe Henry Flint, on a series like this.
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primenova
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Post by primenova on Dec 19, 2018 12:21:39 GMT
Just seen cover B - windblade god we are getting that again, bad enough with it being in the cartoon
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Post by primenova on Dec 19, 2018 12:37:27 GMT
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Post by browny87 on Dec 20, 2018 9:11:42 GMT
we know the phase 2 people so well and there styles which resurrected the property we all know and love, so I think the new people have a big ask, I don't know much about them and can't find masses of their ideas, but I'm sure there will be good and bad stories just like there were with the last phases!
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The Huff
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Post by The Huff on Dec 20, 2018 16:59:42 GMT
The problem I'll have with a pre-war series set on Cybertron is that there will obviously be a lot of humanisation in the characters - before they even visit Earth.
Unless they surprise me and make it more creative and alien.
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Post by drmick on Dec 20, 2018 18:44:29 GMT
The problem I'll have with a pre-war series set on Cybertron is that there will obviously be a lot of humanisation in the characters - before they even visit Earth. Unless they surprise me and make it more creative and alien. No! They tried that before. James Roberts and John Barber have proved that the best stories are when the Transformers are written with human motives, emotions, failings etc. Bizarrely I think have also proved that putting humans in stories makes them worse! |
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Dec 20, 2018 18:54:06 GMT
The problem I'll have with a pre-war series set on Cybertron is that there will obviously be a lot of humanisation in the characters - before they even visit Earth. Unless they surprise me and make it more creative and alien. I agree. I'll take an interest if they go back to making them alien living machines. Martin |
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Post by primenova on Dec 20, 2018 20:00:20 GMT
But how have they all got earth modes on Cybertron?
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Post by The Doctor on Dec 20, 2018 20:04:40 GMT
Who knows. The comic isn't out yet!
-Ralph
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Post by Pinwig on Dec 20, 2018 20:18:47 GMT
I was thinking that watching Cyberverse the other day. In the Cybertron flashbacks on that they actually do have Earth modes.
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Post by Fortmax2020 on Dec 20, 2018 22:45:32 GMT
The problem I'll have with a pre-war series set on Cybertron is that there will obviously be a lot of humanisation in the characters - before they even visit Earth. Unless they surprise me and make it more creative and alien. I agree. I'll take an interest if they go back to making them alien living machines. Martin Yes please! While well made the over-humanisation of them put me off the comics the last few years. |
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Post by The Doctor on Dec 20, 2018 22:50:59 GMT
The alternate cover art is absolutely lovely. Really different and striking. Sorry don't know how to link as Andu made it appear on his phone!
-Ralph
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Dec 20, 2018 23:10:42 GMT
Lovely stuff.
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Post by The Huff on Dec 21, 2018 5:36:24 GMT
The problem I'll have with a pre-war series set on Cybertron is that there will obviously be a lot of humanisation in the characters - before they even visit Earth. Unless they surprise me and make it more creative and alien. No! They tried that before. James Roberts and John Barber have proved that the best stories are when the Transformers are written with human motives, emotions, failings etc. Bizarrely I think have also proved that putting humans in stories makes them worse! I agree there, but those stories were after they had been influenced by Earth culture. If there is too much before they have been to Earth (or humans even exist) it will irk me (like that 1920's type casino in that last Star Wars film!) The problem is, it's not an easy task and it will be inevitable so the reader can relate to the story. Perhaps it's best to look at these things as a translation. |
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Post by drmick on Dec 21, 2018 13:32:01 GMT
The problem I'll have with a pre-war series set on Cybertron is that there will obviously be a lot of humanisation in the characters - before they even visit Earth. Unless they surprise me and make it more creative and alien. I agree. I'll take an interest if they go back to making them alien living machines. Martin Are the best TF comic stories really ones where the characters were just alien machines? |
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Post by Fortmax2020 on Dec 21, 2018 14:16:53 GMT
There are as many opinions as there are readers.
Personally translating human culture doesn't make much sense or generate any interest for me. I find a lot of it just silly but can understand how the stories have spoken powerfully to others and created opportunities to examine contemporary issues.
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Post by The Doctor on Dec 21, 2018 16:27:12 GMT
I agree. I'll take an interest if they go back to making them alien living machines. Martin Are the best TF comic stories really ones where the characters were just alien machines? They are for me but that's a personal taste rather than 'right' or 'wrong'. -Ralph |
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Dec 21, 2018 16:54:47 GMT
Are the best TF comic stories really ones where the characters were just alien machines? Not "just" alien machines, but alien machines plus additional characterisation built on that foundation - without compromising the alien machines component of the character. The best _Transformers_ stories in TF comics were the early Budiansky ones and stories like 'Man of Iron' and 'Dinobot Hunt'. There were lots of other good _stories_ in TF comics, told with TFs as protagonists, but they weren't Transformers stories in the sense of stories that _required_ the characters in them to be Transformers in order to work. And some of them felt odd with TFs as protagonists because they had to be humanised beyond all similarity with the original TF franchise in order to work. Likewise with the cartoons - Masterforce being the best in my opinion, while many of the Movie era stories weren't really stories that needed to have TFs in them. The new Bumblebee film is great. If I read or see a TF story that doesn't need to be about transforming alien robots from another planet, then however good it is I wonder if it would have been just as good or better if the protagonists had been non-TFs. Martin |
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Post by drmick on Dec 21, 2018 17:29:04 GMT
Are the best TF comic stories really ones where the characters were just alien machines? They are for me but that's a personal taste rather than 'right' or 'wrong'. -Ralph Can you give an example though? I have to admit that before Roberts I was more of an event guy, than a character guy. I loved Babylon 5, I hated new Battlestar. I loved Furman's Marvel work but in those stories it didn't really matter who the actual characters were. That's a criticism that can be applied to most of IDW prior to Robert's and Barber's runs. I'm also older, more experienced, less patient now. I reckon I would have hated Roberts' style in my twenties. But now I have swung the other way- the mainstream comic industry has immunized me against enjoying big events. Now I prefer the more character focussed stories (as long as the stakes are high! Haven't completely let go of my fondness for the event!). Edit: I'd probably like Battlestar now. |
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Post by Pinwig on Dec 21, 2018 17:58:34 GMT
The best _Transformers_ stories in TF comics were the early Budiansky ones and stories like 'Man of Iron' and 'Dinobot Hunt'. There were lots of other good _stories_ in TF comics, told with TFs as protagonists, but they weren't Transformers stories in the sense of stories that _required_ the characters in them to be Transformers in order to work. And some of them felt odd with TFs as protagonists because they had to be humanised beyond all similarity with the original TF franchise in order to work. I'm with you on that, Man of Iron is obviously the classic example and my favourite all time TF story, but I've also wondered how far that style could have gone before it began to feel a little hollow because of the lack of internal thoughts. The increased distance between the reader and the characters is a big part of what made those early stories work - the unknown - but I don't know if it would have worked indefinitely. As soon as you start getting inside the characters' heads it becomes more human because humans are writing the stories and are looking for ways for the characters to identify with the reader. |
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Dec 21, 2018 18:02:28 GMT
Can you give an example though? OK, in the Marvel comics we had Bluestreak asking Buster Witwicky what a kiss was, whether it was a form of data transfer, and we had Autobots thinking cars at a drive-in movie were in some sort of ritual trance, and we had Skids and co. struggling with the concept of music and how humans behaved at rock concerts, and not understanding the concept of gender, and we had TFs uploading their consciousness into computer games and fighting in virtual worlds and the Internet, and we had Ratchet trying to talk to a traffic light and telling Buster that it proved speaking politely worked when it finally turned green, and so on. Little things like Jazz revealing that his name is unpronounceable by humans, and the Battlechargers mimicking a rebellious child and learning about graffiti, and the Throttlebots' brains being installed in toy cars, and so on. The concept of death was also different, because TFs could be smashed to smithereens and put back together again provided their brain module was intact or had been backed up. And TFs could repair or alter their bodies quite easily. All that stuff made the TFs appealing to me because it made me see our world with an outsider's eyes. And then Headmasters/Powermasters added a new dimension to the comparing and contrasting of cultures, by forcing the robots and humans to understand one another better in order to function as one. Nowadays, TFs have all those human cultural and biological concepts themselves, so the alienness that made them interesting is often diluted or gone. Martin |
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Post by Pinwig on Dec 21, 2018 18:06:27 GMT
The problem is though, that the longer they spend on Earth, the more acclimatised they would become to it, so their would naturally be less of the culture adjustment over time.
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