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Shane McCarthy interview at Comic Book Resources. Naturally, discussion focuses around All Hail Megatron, as well as the reader's (split) reaction to it.
http://comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=18585


Hmm....

Well...I like the "Red Power" agitprop art cover for issue #8.

SPOILER! (select to read)

And it looks as if Roadbuster will be making an appearance in #5. I'm not jumping to any conclusions just yet, of course, but does this mean the Wreckers are still around after all (what's left of them)?

No mention of the nine million copies sold, then?

You'd think having characters entirely based on a pair of failed Japanese toylines would be a fair old tip of the hat as well, but there we go.

An amazingly badly written article [The method approach to a feature on a badly written comic?]. The "Energon hit the fan" bit had me groaning as a clear sign of someone Trying To Hard and then we get misattributed issue art (claiming three instead of four), minimum research ("the very first Transformers character ever to make the jump from the comic page to the toy aisle", whilst you could possibly argue the toss about Universe Jhiaxus and Cybertron Primus not being exactly based on their Marvel counterparts the Fallen toy still counts there).

Mind, they can't be blamed for the crap McCarthy gives them in reply to questions. People who don't like the title don't have the major gripe that it's a radical departure from what's gone before (and using the Megatron/Starscream bitching is hardly that is it?), the gripe is it's a terrible new departure.

SPOILER! (select to read)

And what the **** is going on with Perceptor's face? A monicle? Is he Sir Patrick Moor? Actually, that would be a amazing new departurte

Worse than that, the more I see of the new guy the more he reminds me of a Jeff Anderson style dull generic background Transformer.

EDIT: By new guy I mean Drift, not McCarthy, who most likely looks like a Dan Reed drawing.

Oh, and one thing I was going to put down to a article screw up is Danny Whitwicky being nicknamed Sparkplug, but Shane uses that name himself. Whilst there's really no reason the characters name can't combine two different members of the family from the original show it does seem strangely odd. Especially as it hasn't been used in the comic itself yet...

All I'll say is I loved the picture of Kup (leading the wreckers I also assumed) with a cigar (or something like it).

Kup loves it when a plan comes together...

Doesn't exactly make me want to get later issues.

Why is Kup chewing what looks like a cigar? Yeesh!

I do love how they keep telling us the Autobots have been beaten across the galaxy. SHOW DON'T TELL!!!!!!

Andy

But then we'd miss out on vital issues of the Decepticons beating up New York. They really must take this time to show that the Decepticons are the bad guys, which is a new and dynamic direction for the title. Only rare visionaries like Scott Ciencin have ever taken time out to produce sixty pages of mind-numbingly dramatic corpse porn like Sean has, and McCarthy's cutting edge published cartoon fanfic has over 20,000 totally uncited, unverified sals to solidly back up his dynamic manifesto of "Starscream should actually do something, like he did with the Underbase, Matrix, siding with Galvatron, attempting a coup with Shockwave, and going rogue on Earth just four short (well, in terms of time it's short; in terms of reading the comics IDW have produced in those four years, it's long with so many 'o's it'd throw the baord out) years ago", y'know.

Long story short, Ideon is miles better.

Red Dave Prime wrote:All I'll say is I loved the picture of Kup (leading the wreckers I also assumed) with a cigar (or something like it).

Kup loves it when a plan comes together...

Nice Reference!:D

Red Dave Prime wrote:All I'll say is I loved the picture of Kup (leading the wreckers I also assumed) with a cigar (or something like it).

Kup loves it when a plan comes together...

Yeah that is a really nice image. Hope the explanation for Kups revival is decent. The Red Power issue 8 cover is also very nice, as is Guido's Perceptor as a sniper.

AndyTurnbull wrote:I do love how they keep telling us the Autobots have been beaten across the galaxy. SHOW DON'T TELL

Yup.

Shane wrote:There’s a lot of people that are absolutely loving the book and singing its praises,

Haven't been able to trek round forums of late, so if anyone has: where are these people, and what sort of figure is being attached to "a lot"?

CBR wrote:Joining the ranks of classic Autobots like Jazz and Ratchet in the upcoming fifth issue of the series will be Drift, a brand new character who holds the distinction of being the very first Transformers character ever to make the jump from the comic page to the toy aisle

Marketing department lies don't help anything.

Shane wrote:The way I see it is, when you first get to a party you don’t know anyone and you make simple judgment calls, ‘Oh she’s like this.’ ‘Oh he’s like that.’ But the longer you stay the more you realize, wonderfully, you’re usually full of shite and totally wrong in your assumptions. This is what I love about storytelling]
Since I've (unusually) been near to a comic store and perused...

That's one of the things I love about reading: interesting teasers that make me want to find out more. What I've seen so far is Prime near death yet again, Autobots routed, and three issues and a preview issue of 'destruction' that's been watered down more than G2. If Hasbro weren't keen on genuine named deaths, an example raid being recounted and visuals of some smoking ruins of outposts across the galaxy would have illustrated the current status quo.

And on the score of the analogy... offhand I can't think of any novel I've read nearly a hundred pages into and found disappointing that picked up much after that. Some webcomics, but those don't have a price tag attached, and some albums that only have a bit of good material which comes later in the running order, but those are the ones to wait and buy when they're remaindered.

The "wait and it'll be really good and you'll understand" line is fraying a bit a third of the way through the title. Devastation made some pretty poor use of page space, but AHM really takes the crown.

Very nice Perceptor by Guido.

Thing is, there are probably hundreds of possible characters (well, robots) that don't have Hasbro protection - Euroforce, Diaclones that were never used, Japanese stuff, Marvel/Sunbow stuff, probably Gobots, maybe stuff from RiD and the like (plus IDW were allowed to kill a G2 character without anyone caring). It might've been a bit Brad Mick, but there's a slew of characters who could be shown in some outpost and totally wiped out without Hasbro caring.

Personally, I don't think there is much of a veto in place on the comics - the Ationverse's constant let-offs are symptomatic (sp? doesn't look right) of Furman being really reluctant to kill characters off when they might be useful, or saved for a more dramatic death later - he painted himself into a corner by making the better characters the main focus, and not wanting to kill them off (e.g. the totally pointless survival of most of Prowl's unit - the universe wouldn't have missed Ironhide, Ratchet or Jazz being killed at the right point, but it'd seem Furman's fond of them, so they stay). I can't see Furman having taken the role of writer if someone else had final say-so on that sort of thing, but I think a lot of the carnage was saved up for a big all-out war which he just never got around to.

McCarthy is just reluctant to kill anyone as he only knows the names of about thirty characters - I am mildly surprised we haven't seen post-Movie characters getting wiped out in an Underbase style, though. That said, bigger picture doesn't seem to be his strength, does it?

Which is ironic considering the alleged "epic scale" of the series.

Denyer wrote:Haven't been able to trek round forums of late, so if anyone has: where are these people, and what sort of figure is being attached to "a lot"?

It's the IDW Forums' "OMG OMG OMG one of the creators noticed me please commission my fanfic" arselicking brigade as far as I can surmise.

The same people who think Angel: After the Fall is the greatest, most singularly perfect comic ever produced, and not in fact a massive waste of potential that combines shockingly executed ideas with some of the worst art this side of José Delbo that shits unashamedly on the legacy of one of TV's best ever finalés.

EDIT: Hrm. I don't hate IDW. Really.

Denyer wrote:Yup.

Haven't been able to trek round forums of late, so if anyone has: where are these people, and what sort of figure is being attached to "a lot"?

There are definitely people who are enjoying AHM as it is, though I'm not going to attempt to figure out numbers on either side.

I missed #3 but got #4, and regretted it despite the increase in content. Every issue of AHM that I've read just makes me embarrassed with myself for buying it. However, from reading what defenders say I can understand how it would be possible to enjoy it as a consciously kitschy, over-the-top love letter to the cartoon. No depth, just silly fun. But the reasoning only works if I imagine it as an alternate line - the placement in continuity with Infiltration, and onward makes the kitsch and cartooniness impossibly grating and I have a hard time understanding how it could seem any other way.

Kup in the art there is a nice example. On the one hand, Kup striding in chomping on a cigar is kind of a funny image. On the other hand, this is supposed to be the same Kup who was an insane, paranoid, broken down old man, who killed comrades, kept a corpse for company, and ended up with likely permanent mental damage. Any possible silly retro-fest enjoyment is trumped by the irritation of the extreme 180 in his character.

Kup in the art there is a nice example. On the one hand, Kup striding in chomping on a cigar is kind of a funny image. On the other hand, this is supposed to be the same Kup who was an insane, paranoid, broken down old man, who killed comrades, kept a corpse for company, and ended up with likely permanent mental damage. Any possible silly retro-fest enjoyment is trumped by the irritation of the extreme 180 in his character.

Thats a very good point but do you think furman would ever have involved it into his plotlines? My main problem with his stuff was that it could have led into a serious cold war scenario with genuinely ruthless decepticons. However as the issues went on things reverted back to a style where it might as well have been cartoonish. The Optimus Prime spotlight was the best example. Furman seemed so hell bent on getting in the battle between monstroctor and Omega supreme, that the emotional focus of prime wondering if his loyalty to the prime blood(er..)line is lost. Also the relience on kid characters for the humans when serious adults would have made more sense and potential was a major uh-oh. And, granted it was cut short, Nova Primes descent into a cackling bad guy (with loyal henchman Igo.. er, I mean Jhiaxus) was another problem I had. Furman could have focused on the war between Cons and Bots and the effect it had on them but instead we got another sci-fi plotline which could have been any comic really.

I dont hate furman BTW. But the infiltration angle was more interesting then the stoopid Reaper army.

Rossum wrote:
Kup in the art there is a nice example. On the one hand, Kup striding in chomping on a cigar is kind of a funny image. On the other hand, this is supposed to be the same Kup who was an insane, paranoid, broken down old man, who killed comrades, kept a corpse for company, and ended up with likely permanent mental damage. Any possible silly retro-fest enjoyment is trumped by the irritation of the extreme 180 in his character.

Yeah, I had a similar reaction to Hot Rod's appearance, brief as it was, in AHM #4. And really, to repeat what I already said in the thread for the mentioned book, I'm willing to side with the notion that characters can be interchangeable, but it still would've been nice not have to rationalize or speculate why these shifts had occurred, especially if it is supposed be part of the same continuity. But, I don't expect any sort of explanation to occur anytime soon. It makes me sad.

Rossum wrote: However, from reading what defenders say I can understand how it would be possible to enjoy it as a consciously kitschy, over-the-top love letter to the cartoon.

The problem is McCarthy seems to be pushing it as some brave new direction... If he'd come out and said "People were fed up with Furman's stories which were packaged as standalone mini-series but contained no discernable events and required you to buy other series to have much chance of appreciating them, were full of character dead ends, cheap cop-outs and were showing no sign of going anywhere interesting for the next decade, so I thought 'What do more casual people think of Transformers?', got all the original characters and just had the Decepticons invading Earth with the Autobots trying to stop them, back to basics stuff, like on the kids' show" it'd be difficult to argue - it might not be any better, but he'd be doing what it said on the tin.

However, it's the seeming insistence that AHM is some brave new world, and that those who dislike it just can't handle that, that really rankles. For God's sake, G2 basically told everyone the comic they'd been following for a decade was a sideshow, and people loved it - that's a change of direction.

I don't hold anything against AHM for the political crap, either - I'm sure an extension of the Dead Furmiverse without AHM existing would have just meant a longer wait for an equally unfulfilling conclusion, and Furman's spaffed enough pages up the wall with his wafer-thin six-issue mini-series that contained three issues of plot, the ultimately pointless nature of some spotlights (Mirage, the Wheelie PR stunt) and threads like the Reapers and the Headmaster bullshit. I hold AHM being crap against AHM.

What I really don't get is why IDW didn't just come out and call a continuity reboot for AHM - by the looks of things, it effectively is anyway, so why constrict the writers? McCarthy is not be paying much attention to Furman's stuff as it is, so it wouldn't effect him, and it'd free Furman up for whatever contractual obligation stuff IDW are letting him do. It'd also have meant the opportunity to title and promote AHM as Ultimate Transformers or Transformers Reloaded, snagging casual readers, rather than titling it "Yet Another Self-Contained-My-****ing-Arse Transformers Mini-Series".

Cliffjumper wrote:and Furman's spaffed enough pages up the wall with [...] the ultimately pointless nature of some spotlights (Mirage

Mirage wasn't Furman.

Halfshell wrote:Mirage wasn't Furman.

Just testing.





>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>:swirly:

Cliffjumper wrote: However, it's the seeming insistence that AHM is some brave new world, and that those who dislike it just can't handle that, that really rankles.

Yes, I left that unsaid. There really is a dissonance between how the series has been promoted and described and how it actually is, and I can't figure out why they did it that way. The Soviet style art gave the impression that it would be a somewhat bleak picture of Decepticon rule, and all the 'new and unfamiliar' talk made it sound like it would be an entirely new take on TFs. Instead, it's been a rather cheery, bright story that feels a lot like the cartoon (and apparently Dreamwave). It's like they're setting it up to disappoint readers.

I really hate when I read one of your rants about the Furman arcs, because it makes me see them in that light too and I can't really find good arguments against it. But how can you complain that the series required extra reading via the Spotlights if you feel the non-essential Spotlights were ultimately pointless?

Because some of them really do expand on vital stuff to the main series - Nightbeat's means we're all watching him for weird behaviour rather than taking his actions at face value, without them Revelations would be very out of the blue. The ones for Soundwave and Grimlock largely bookend the Machination thread, Prime's one introduces the Monster Pretenders, Arcee' establishes what she is - all of this would be "WTF?" moments in the main book without the spotlights taking time out to explain things.

However, some of them go the other way and serve no purpose. I can forgive Furman making SL: Mirage off topic seeing as apparently he didn't write it, but Wheelie is a waste of 22 pages, a random side-step as someone somewhere fancied the attention-grabbing ploy of making a comic about LOL WHEELIE LOL tolerable - it turns out if you don't have Frank Welker's second-worst vocal performance and the script isn't written by a lazy, cigar-chomping cardiganed Reaganite dinosaur who's got to finish this off so he can do those MASK scripts, an episode of Inhumanoids and a fill-in issue of Dazzler, this is pretty easy - you just write him as Bumblebee IN SPACE. Well done Simon, you won a bet Andrew "Andy" Wildman no doubt, he'll be doing the washing up all month, and the IDWverse has a Wheelie who isn't an annoying little cock. Now, the question is, aside from shoving some domestic chores onto your unemployed housemate, why? What exactly was the point?

It was an entertaining enough story on its' own terms, but it's symptomatic of the total lack of focus in Furman's work, and means I have little sympathy with his magnum opus being condensed - if he'd not been so self-indulgent at various junctures we might not even be talking about this now, as the 45,468 people who bought Infiltration #1 might not have had their attention draw to that interesting spot of carpet on the floor to their left instead...

Because some of them really do expand on vital stuff to the main series

True but what exactly was main series about? The decpticons infiltrating earth? Ore 13? The reapers? A major problem for IDW (and not furmans fault alone) was that the 6 parters should have been the main story with other series/spotlights feeding in. Instead it was like an ongoing, albeit with huge gaps.