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Post by charlesrocketboy on Jun 11, 2009 16:36:42 GMT
Just had this pointed out to be from IDW's Botcon panel:I thought AHM was supposed to be a change in direction! And that's after the -ations! So that'd be three changes of direction in just over four years! Wonder what they're going to do this time? (I hope it's "oi Roche, write everything like RID"!) |
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Post by Kingoji on Jun 11, 2009 16:44:27 GMT
From the consecutive steps thus far, it'll probably be even closer to the original cartoon.  TransFormers is about change; we change into something else, and then we change back! |
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Post by charlesrocketboy on Jun 11, 2009 19:55:19 GMT
The depressing thing is that the closer it gets to old stuff, the higher the sales are.
Not that they STAY very high.
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Post by legios on Jun 11, 2009 20:34:17 GMT
The depressing thing is that the closer it gets to old stuff, the higher the sales are. That is the nostalgia effect. People pick things up because it reminds them of what are, in their minds, "the good old days". You see it in mainstream comics all the time. I'm rather surprised by the announcement of a "new creative direction" though. From what I'd read in interviews I was under the impression that their new creative direction was the one that they were currently laying the groundwork for and that they were going to spin an on-going series out of that. The idea of an RiD comic though is one that fills me with joy to be honest. Although I don't know that RiD is something that you can replicate - it feels a bit like one of those happy accidents that happens when lightning strikes during the americanisation of a foreign show, a non-scientific alchemy that is difficult to deliberately recreate Karl |
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Post by blueshift on Jun 11, 2009 22:47:14 GMT
A RiD comic would be amazing. Especially if written whilst on a lot of drugs.
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Post by charlesrocketboy on Jun 12, 2009 10:39:52 GMT
We'd never get an RID comic because IDW doesn't want to "flood the market". As a wise poster on TF Archive noted:
If not an RID comic, it'd be nice to transfer some of the RID ethos to G1 - the absurdity/serious blend, standalones, villains being outshone by other villains* and getting all the good lines with bits of lampshading. In fact, forget G1 or RID, let's just have Spotlight Predacon Trio!
* It'd be easy with Universe out, you just make the guys with toys out (including new guys like Acid Storm) into the, er, Decepticons, and the -ation guys who don't have them are the Preds. Which would be Astrotrain, Skywarp and Thundercracker. It'd write itself!
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Post by blueshift on Jun 12, 2009 11:01:58 GMT
I wouldn't say IDW have flooded the market. I think they've been (quite rightly) reserved in the amount and frequency of projects published.
Now Dreamwave, there was a company that flooded the market!
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Post by The Doctor on Jun 12, 2009 17:56:22 GMT
IDW do have some mad weeks where they put several TF comics and trades out rather than space them out.
-Ralph
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Post by dinogrrl on Jun 13, 2009 6:44:09 GMT
Yes, their timing of publication has been rather ass across the last year. Hopefully they'll fix that up.
Although AHM was/is supposed to be laying the foundation for the creative direction change, I can't fathom what the hell that will be. AHM might holla back to the old craptoon, but it's not a direct copy of it.
Actually, it's rather like the love child of Frank Miller and the 80's cartoon. Written when drunk, so that you leave half the story out.
I don't know where the hell they're supposed to go from there.
I wish the fandom would let the old cartoon die. I don't want to read that level of storytelling now, I'm 32 fer chrissakes. Bloody hell, I thought that cartoon was bollocks when I was 11.
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Post by legios on Jun 13, 2009 10:28:27 GMT
I wish the fandom would let the old cartoon die. I don't want to read that level of storytelling now, I'm 32 fer chrissakes. Bloody hell, I thought that cartoon was bollocks when I was 11. I think it is unlikely that this will happen for a while yet. In terms of organised US fandom the Sunbow cartoon is their foundational text, in much the same way that it seems the UK comic is the foundational text for much of organised UK fandom. The cartoon will remain the benchmark for comparison for much of US fandom for a good long while I should think. Karl |
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Jun 13, 2009 15:39:22 GMT
I wish the fandom would let the old cartoon die. I don't want to read that level of storytelling now, I'm 32 fer chrissakes. Bloody hell, I thought that cartoon was bollocks when I was 11. I think it is unlikely that this will happen for a while yet. In terms of organised US fandom the Sunbow cartoon is their foundational text, in much the same way that it seems the UK comic is the foundational text for much of organised UK fandom. The cartoon will remain the benchmark for comparison for much of US fandom for a good long while I should think. The paradox is that while the 1984 cartoon series may be one of, if not the, poorest of all TF cartoons in terms of quality, no year since 1984 has contributed as much to TF mythology as 1984. It was that year that started everything off by introducing the "bold new creative direction" that was giant alien robots arriving on Earth and disguising themselves as Earthen machinery, in order to survive in an unfamiliar world and continue their war, with a possible view of returning home. The Marvel comic told the story in an intelligent way, the cartoon in a more childish way, but they both delivered these essentials. I would say that the only "bold new creative direction" since that has come close to delivering that sheer density of new ideas linked to the Transformers concept was the introduction of binary-bonding - humans joining with Transformers to create a new hybrid life-form, as told quite well in the Marvel Headmasters series, but much better in the Masterforce cartoon - along with the associated twist of Transformers disguising themselves as humans and other organic life-forms. Unless people point out something important that I've missed, I would say that everything else which has claimed to be a "bold new creative direction" has either been the introduction of some story element that has bugger-all to do with alien robots in disguise but has been brought in because it works well on any platform (e.g. time-travel, planet-killers, grail quests) or a re-hash of one of those two major bold new directions mentioned in my first two paragraphs. Sometimes a very welcome and worthwhile re-hash - such as bringing those concepts to the big screen in a live-action format - but a re-hash nonetheless. Some readers may be sitting up and saying "What about Beast Wars?" and I would concede that if anything deserves to be classed as "bold new creative direction" number three, it would be that, but while I am in two minds I think it is really a hybrid of the 1984 concept and Pretenders - an original, creative take on previous TF concepts. Do I think there is a third "bold new creative direction" out there, beyond alien robots in disguise amongst us and binary-bonding, which is a Transformers story and not something just as well suited to any superhero comic/cartoon mythology? Maybe something focussing on nanotechnology. I once did some TF fanfics that went in this direction, but I don't think I went the right way with them since I focussed too much on cosmic outer space stuff. I would like to see someone progress the Transformers story from the platform of binary-bonding to something where the presence of the alien robots begins to affect the Earth in a much more subtle way, with nanobots spreading through the cells of all kinds of living organisms, and at the same time humans gaining new powers from nanotechnological enhancements. I doubt I'll ever see it though, since it's not visual enough for comics or the screen, and wouldn't be a good basis for a toy range. So I suspect the only true post-1984 "bold new creative direction" associated with Transformers will forever remain binary-bonding and human or animal Pretenders. But I hope I'm wrong! Maybe in a week's time I'll come out of the cinema happily acknowledging I was wrong! Martin |
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Post by charlesrocketboy on Jun 13, 2009 16:29:48 GMT
They probably mean "bold new direction" in the sense that it's not what IDW were doing before.
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Jun 13, 2009 17:38:55 GMT
I know, I know, I'm just taking the opportunity to have yet another pop at the endless stream of "new" in Transformers, most of which is actually a dusting down of the old. It's a hobby horse of mine.  Martin |
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