TransTech

[andrewcrane]

Supposedly the comic for the expensive official Transformers club will be switching to a storyline based on TransTech. According to some US-based message boards anyway.

[Bogatan]

I think its pretty much certain as it was hinted at pretty strongly by Pete in his preview of the next issue of the club magazine. Should be interesting. Maybe.

Andy

[The Doctor]

If 'Forest Lee' is still writing it, then count me uninterested.

-Ralph

[Bogatan]

Well. yes there is that.

I was thinking though that the art work might be good, if only because it'll be a chance to see what could have been, instead of Armada.

Andy

[andrewcrane]

It's kind of cool really. And fitting, seeing as some of the Movie designs are a bit TransTech-y.

[The Doctor]

bogatan said:

Well. yes there is that.

I was thinking though that the art work might be good, if only because it'll be a chance to see what could have been, instead of Armada.

Andy

Needs to be attached to a well written story for me to be interested though. I can already look at the Transtech designs on-line. Don't think a creative team has been announced for this story yet, so nowt to judge, though previous Fun Publications material I have found to be very poor in the scripting department which is why my general reaction is 'meh' to be honest.

Still, if folk are excited by the announcement then fair enough.

-Ralph

[legios]

Count me with Ralph on this one. Whether or not your basic model sheets are any good, you are only as good as the sequential art, the storyline and the actual writing. So far the Fun Publications stuff has managed to fall down on most of those counts, in my eyes at least. They have pretty much fallen foul of my policies on the number of times folk can go wrong before I lose interest.

The Transtech models were interesting, but not interesting enough to serve as a draw to something that is otherwise fairly automatically off-putting.

Karl

[Andy Turnbull]

Ideally I'd love to see a good series based on the Transtech stuff but the fanclub comics have been absolutely shite and unless Forest Lee gives up what he calls writing then this Transtech stuff will be bollocks as well.

Andy

[Andy Turnbull]

Well the first four pages are up at the club website here

Featuring elements cribbed from The Authority, Warren Ellis and Steven Grant's tenure on X-Man.

It's not as ass-numbingly bad as most of the stuff Forest Lee has written but I don't hold out much hope.

Andy

[charlesrocketboy]

The site's not loading - apparently, the comic is so bad the website itself is trying to spare me.

[Andy Turnbull]

Well give me a few minutes and I will assist you thanks to the wonder of photobucket!

Andy

[Andy Turnbull]

Andy

[charlesrocketboy]

Oh dear. It's a bit dull, isn't it?

And damn, "Fun" Club sure loves their multiverse stories...

[Bogatan]

Well the toys are a five year set so we are kind of stuck with the dimension hopping thing for another year or two.

Andy

[Andy Turnbull]

Yup.

And then you just know we will end up with horseshit tales from the Live Action Movie universe.

Andy

[charlesrocketboy]

bogatan said:

Well the toys are a five year set so we are kind of stuck with the dimension hopping thing for another year or two.

Who thought doing a five-year set that could only be used in universe-hopping stories was a good idea? Who? Because those people suck.

Though hey, Sky-Byte's on the fourth page. Maybe he'll be in the story and save us all from boredom with his awesome poetry.

Also, is this Cheetor supposed to be like normal-Cheetor or is this an AU where Cheetor talks dully?

[Bogatan]

Yes Its beyond me, you would have thought they'd take the chance to tell a nice simple tale about the 5 characters with about 150 pages there could have been depth apace and developement. Unheard of time for a con/club comic. Instead they decide to blast around every TF series jam in as many characters as possible usually with little reason.

Andy

[charlesrocketboy]

And Unicron, don't forgot gratuitous Unicron.

[Andy Turnbull]

I actually like the art in this. It's easily Alex Milne's strongest sequentials to date.

If the story offends you too much the artwork sans the drek from Forest Lee can be found here:

Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4

Andy

[The Doctor]

What a pile of shite.

-Ralph

[charlesrocketboy]

I like how in the unlettered art, Cosmos and his repaint Path Finder are both looking at each other in confusion. I hope that was Milne's idea and I haven't liked something from the script.

(Though if you're doing a "lots of people from multiverses turn up here!" setting, you better damn well do a whole room full of versions of a single character. I want to see a whole room of Starscream, all trying to backstab all the others at the same time)

[legios]

Well, that was unedifyingly dull really. The sequential art isn't horrible, but the actual dialogue and narration were pretty horrendous.

(Also, what is this with the Botcon stuff having migrated into the "Wildstorm" universe, what with all this talk of "the Bleed". Although, Transformers/Authority(the proper one) amuses me as a concept. "Bl**dy Robots. Robot brains full of electricity I can take away. Now give me all the beer on your rotten planet.")

Karl

[Andy Turnbull]

Oh the story is arse clenchingly bad, but Milne's sequentials are pretty darned good.

An Authority/Transformers crossover would be pretty damned fun in the right hands. Though I'd much rather see Elijah Snow and Planetary stumble across the remains of The Ark.

Andy

[KoshNaranek]

That's definitely Milne's best storytelling artwork so far. You can actually see what's going on without straining. I think the brighter colouring helps his cause too.

It does occur to me that, with the possible exception of Jim, if your surname is Lee you should be kept well away from writing or drawing Transformers.

- Tony

[Andy Turnbull]

Or Stan.

Andy

[The Doctor]

Question: if this did not have the Transformers name on it, would this strip be of any interest?

-Ralph

[charlesrocketboy]

Of course - because then we'd be going "hey, it's a boring strip and it's committing copyright infringement by stealing Transformer characters!".

I recently noticed an old TF-site news item saying IDW is doing a Transformers origin miniseries - I hope it contradicts Primus/Unicron/Vector Prime completely just to watch Fun Club crap themselves as they try to get out of the retcon hole they put themselves.

[legios]

thedoctor said:

Question: if this did not have the Transformers name on it, would this strip be of any interest?

It isn't of much interest to me with the Transformers name on it. I can't imagine putting another franchise shingle up over the door would do much to change my opinion.

Karl