Post by legios on Sept 17, 2010 20:53:26 GMT
G100 is, for those not in the know, a fanzine written by Matt Marshall and drawn by Andy Turnbull.
In essence it is a reworking of Frank Miller's 300 as a Transformers story, with Thunderclash in the role of King Leonidas of Sparta – acompanied by 99 Autobot warriors - facing down the mighty army gathered by Skyquake.. Now, pastiche(*) of other sources has an established history in Transformers – after all the majority of Matrix Quest was an excuse to pastiche various films. So the idea of retrofitting something into a Transformers story has firmly established precedents. The proof of the pudding is in how well it is accomplished, and I am pleased to say that the creators of G100 make a good job of it.
A good job has been done of paring down 300's version of Thermopylae to a few essential set-pieces and then finding ways to make them work in the context of a fragmented, war-torn Cybertron. Actually, one of the things that struck me as I read this was that it, as part of its backstory, took a similar idea to one of the War Within series – of Autobots and Decepticons fragmenting into groups – and rendered it with more of a sense of scale than the official media did. The War Within version made Cybertron feel like a town divided between feuding gangs, whereas G100 does sketch in the idea that it is set on a Cybertron that is home to warring nations.
The depiction of Thunderclash here is very striking. It is very different from the TMUK version who is what I tend to default to when I think of the character but he works rather well as a stalwart warrior king prepared to do what he believes must be done
In terms of the stories structure it, of course, hews heavily to the general course of events in 300, but is quite effective at exploiting them in slightly different ways – such as reinterpreting Thermopylae as a bridge across a deep chasm rather than a narrow valley, both of these are choke-points but the former somehow feels more appropriate to Cybertron. (Fortunately G100, in transplanting the story to Cybertron, also lacks the burden of Frank Miller's politics, which caused me some issues when I read 300.) . Interesting to note that Matt Marshall chose to discard both a betrayal subplot and the flanking action that was important both in 300 and in the actual battle, having the Autobot defenders simply worn down by time and weight of numbers. I think that actually works to sell the idea that they have chosen a battle that was always unwinnable – they do not fall through subterfuge or the fortunes of war, but by an inevitable necessity.
One addition to the story that I do like is the idea of a dedicated chronicler being sent to record their struggle, rather than the story being told by a particpant who was lucky enough to survive. The suggestion that what we are reading is a story told by Rook, commissioned to do so by someone who knew that the sacrifice of Thunderclash and his Autobots would act as a rallying cry for all the divided Autobot factions. As well as being wonderfully in character for the wily buzzard whose idea it was, it also opens up a wonderful vein of doubt regarding the story. How far are we to take this as a true account of events, and how much is embroidered by Rook to suit a political purpose. It is difficult to be certain, and that hint of unreliability in the narrative does appeal to me.
The closing pages are a nice addition as well, in keeping with this theme of political foresight. Having Xaarron aware in advance that this stand could be used to unify the Autobots, and actually acting to ensure that it transpires in the most politically effective way is a wonderfully cold-blooded depiction of him and an excellent extrapolation from his comic appearances. It is of a piece with the 'bot who wired the first Autobot Micromasters with self-destruct systems without their knowledged 'for the greater good'.
Life wouldn't be complete without some niggles though. On first reading I have to admit that I was hard-pressed to work out where Thunderclash stood in relation to the Council that he addresses in the opening pages. Now this may just be me being bit slow on the uptake admittedly. It was only on a second reading that this really fell into place for me.
I've spoken a lot of about the story but, in following in the footsteps of 300, G100 is deliberately chosing to tread in the path of a project that was about wedding everything to a very specific artstyle. The physical structure of 300 – comprising successive double-page spreads with other panels foregrounded on top of them - was one of its most distinctive features and Andy's page layouts have done a very good job of replicating that structure. There are some individual images I rather like as well – the depiction of Monstructor as a true rampaging giant is rather nice, and his rendering of Xaarron is note-perfect.
What does hurt the art a little, in comparison to its inspiration, is in being quite so starkly black and white. Not to say that it is actually bad. I like black and white art and there is some wonderful use of black here for emphasis, framing and leading the eye. The thought struck me as I was reading though that at times it felt like could do with being more greyscale and having more graduated shading. It felt a little like it could have benefited from the ability that this would have presented to feed into the sense of approaching doom as the story progressed by changing the shading patterns.
This should not be taken as a criticism of the art, more a sense in the back of my mind of something that would have added an extra string to the projects bow.
I do unreservedly love the cover though. It is both an effective tribute to the original and an image that works wonderfully well in black and white.
The inclusion of the one page Sin City tribute which originally sparked the idea for the project at the end of the magazine is a nice touch as well.
It is always good to get a decent chunk of fiction from a convention trip, and this is a very creditable attempt at adopting the style of a very distinctive and techically unusual work.
Karl
* (note: Pastiche is a word that is often misused, I do not intend it here as a criticism or to make less of the work but strictly in the sense of a literary technique of building something out of something else).
In essence it is a reworking of Frank Miller's 300 as a Transformers story, with Thunderclash in the role of King Leonidas of Sparta – acompanied by 99 Autobot warriors - facing down the mighty army gathered by Skyquake.. Now, pastiche(*) of other sources has an established history in Transformers – after all the majority of Matrix Quest was an excuse to pastiche various films. So the idea of retrofitting something into a Transformers story has firmly established precedents. The proof of the pudding is in how well it is accomplished, and I am pleased to say that the creators of G100 make a good job of it.
A good job has been done of paring down 300's version of Thermopylae to a few essential set-pieces and then finding ways to make them work in the context of a fragmented, war-torn Cybertron. Actually, one of the things that struck me as I read this was that it, as part of its backstory, took a similar idea to one of the War Within series – of Autobots and Decepticons fragmenting into groups – and rendered it with more of a sense of scale than the official media did. The War Within version made Cybertron feel like a town divided between feuding gangs, whereas G100 does sketch in the idea that it is set on a Cybertron that is home to warring nations.
The depiction of Thunderclash here is very striking. It is very different from the TMUK version who is what I tend to default to when I think of the character but he works rather well as a stalwart warrior king prepared to do what he believes must be done
In terms of the stories structure it, of course, hews heavily to the general course of events in 300, but is quite effective at exploiting them in slightly different ways – such as reinterpreting Thermopylae as a bridge across a deep chasm rather than a narrow valley, both of these are choke-points but the former somehow feels more appropriate to Cybertron. (Fortunately G100, in transplanting the story to Cybertron, also lacks the burden of Frank Miller's politics, which caused me some issues when I read 300.) . Interesting to note that Matt Marshall chose to discard both a betrayal subplot and the flanking action that was important both in 300 and in the actual battle, having the Autobot defenders simply worn down by time and weight of numbers. I think that actually works to sell the idea that they have chosen a battle that was always unwinnable – they do not fall through subterfuge or the fortunes of war, but by an inevitable necessity.
One addition to the story that I do like is the idea of a dedicated chronicler being sent to record their struggle, rather than the story being told by a particpant who was lucky enough to survive. The suggestion that what we are reading is a story told by Rook, commissioned to do so by someone who knew that the sacrifice of Thunderclash and his Autobots would act as a rallying cry for all the divided Autobot factions. As well as being wonderfully in character for the wily buzzard whose idea it was, it also opens up a wonderful vein of doubt regarding the story. How far are we to take this as a true account of events, and how much is embroidered by Rook to suit a political purpose. It is difficult to be certain, and that hint of unreliability in the narrative does appeal to me.
The closing pages are a nice addition as well, in keeping with this theme of political foresight. Having Xaarron aware in advance that this stand could be used to unify the Autobots, and actually acting to ensure that it transpires in the most politically effective way is a wonderfully cold-blooded depiction of him and an excellent extrapolation from his comic appearances. It is of a piece with the 'bot who wired the first Autobot Micromasters with self-destruct systems without their knowledged 'for the greater good'.
Life wouldn't be complete without some niggles though. On first reading I have to admit that I was hard-pressed to work out where Thunderclash stood in relation to the Council that he addresses in the opening pages. Now this may just be me being bit slow on the uptake admittedly. It was only on a second reading that this really fell into place for me.
I've spoken a lot of about the story but, in following in the footsteps of 300, G100 is deliberately chosing to tread in the path of a project that was about wedding everything to a very specific artstyle. The physical structure of 300 – comprising successive double-page spreads with other panels foregrounded on top of them - was one of its most distinctive features and Andy's page layouts have done a very good job of replicating that structure. There are some individual images I rather like as well – the depiction of Monstructor as a true rampaging giant is rather nice, and his rendering of Xaarron is note-perfect.
What does hurt the art a little, in comparison to its inspiration, is in being quite so starkly black and white. Not to say that it is actually bad. I like black and white art and there is some wonderful use of black here for emphasis, framing and leading the eye. The thought struck me as I was reading though that at times it felt like could do with being more greyscale and having more graduated shading. It felt a little like it could have benefited from the ability that this would have presented to feed into the sense of approaching doom as the story progressed by changing the shading patterns.
This should not be taken as a criticism of the art, more a sense in the back of my mind of something that would have added an extra string to the projects bow.
I do unreservedly love the cover though. It is both an effective tribute to the original and an image that works wonderfully well in black and white.
The inclusion of the one page Sin City tribute which originally sparked the idea for the project at the end of the magazine is a nice touch as well.
It is always good to get a decent chunk of fiction from a convention trip, and this is a very creditable attempt at adopting the style of a very distinctive and techically unusual work.
Karl
* (note: Pastiche is a word that is often misused, I do not intend it here as a criticism or to make less of the work but strictly in the sense of a literary technique of building something out of something else).
