Transformers/G.I. Joe announcement image by Tom Scioli. This is a new ongoing series we’re launching in spring 2014, a cosmic sort’a thing co-written and drawn by Tom, with co-scripting by John Barber. Transformers and Joes gone cosmic!
That is a pretty horrible picture and the concept has been done before. Why not try something different - like couldnt IDW team the 'formers up with Doctor Who?
The picture is of the old crossover from the looks of it. My guess is they don't have any concept art yet and are just using that for the sake of an image to go with the announcement.
I know that they have to hype their own products but we've had loads of Joe/ Former crossovers - from Marvel, Dreamwave and IDW themselves. And is this really going to be an ongoing?
Maybe I'll be wrong and this will be a stunning book but for the moment definitely no interest in it all.
If it equals the delightful daftness of the last couple of Devil's Due crossovers it could be good silly fun. But I can't see it sustaining an ongoing.
I presume this is replacing Reg? Well if nothing else it can't be as tired.
inflatable dalek wrote:If it equals the delightful daftness of the last couple of Devil's Due crossovers it could be good silly fun.
I don't think there's any need to fear on at least that front. I've checked out Tom Scioli's website in the past, and I doubt he'd be able to write po-faced or perfectly straight -- or sane -- if you held a gun to his head.
He's really an unexpected choice. For better or worse, unless Barber does A LOT of reining him in, this will almost certainly be one of the most idiosyncratic interpretations of Transformers in years.
Red Dave Prime wrote:Can we all assume that at some point Cobra and the Decepticons will reveal their super secret weapon...
A Gestalt!
You joke (or maybe not, considering current trends), but it's happened before. Twice, in fact; Devil's Due Art of War and Dreamwave's Transformers/G.I. Joe Vol. 1.
The former had the spoof-tastic "Cobratron", while the latter had written Bruticus as Destro's creation, if I'm remembering correctly.
It at least sounds like they've got the right writer/artist in then, it'll be interesting to see how someone so off the wall will work with Barber who, as a writer, very much a nuts and bolts making everything fit together kind of guy.
zigzagger wrote:You joke (or maybe not, considering current trends), but it's happened before. Twice, in fact; Devil's Due Art of War and Dreamwave's Transformers/G.I. Joe Vol. 1.
The former had the spoof-tastic "Cobratron", while the latter had written Bruticus as Destro's creation, if I'm remembering correctly.
I wasn't joking. I actually have the Dreamwave one and while the story is a bit hit and miss I love the art of it and the ww2 stylings.
This wont be linked into the two regular ongoings though I hope. A stand alone ongoing is surely the better bet.
inflatable dalek wrote:It at least sounds like they've got the right writer/artist in then, it'll be interesting to see how someone so off the wall will work with Barber who, as a writer, very much a nuts and bolts making everything fit together kind of guy.
I think it will work. Scioli is an incredibly weird and wandery writer so Barber could fulfil a useful role to get a monthly product out of him and feed in fun, obscure details. I think Barber probably doesn't get enough credit as an editorial presence on MTMTE. After all, a good editor is invisible.
I met Scioli last year in Angouleme and we got talking about lines of influence - how you can take a throwaway thing like He-Man and the Masters Of The Universe and unpack all this wonderful stuff that it stole from quite liberally - it's an 80s artifact but it was made by people who were from the 50s and 60s and were generally quite widely read with surprisingly good taste. We talked about the delight of rediscovering those things with an eye to history, how even the lowest of the lowbrow will have old, grand dreams rattling around inside of it. I thought I was being very clever and leading the conversation, then he looked pointedly at his American Barbarian collection and I realised that he was a Level Eight Mage at this influence-tracking stuff and I should pay attention to the things he has done.
So I'm trying not to get too excited but there may well be a lot of unpacking of what exactly things like Transformers and GI Joe are trying to say in their weird, derivative way. They both have these winding legacies in 20th century culture, from Gerry Anderson to Gary Gygax, X-Men to Rossum's Universal Robots.
Terome wrote:I think it will work. Scioli is an incredibly weird and wandery writer so Barber could fulfil a useful role to get a monthly product out of him and feed in fun, obscure details. I think Barber probably doesn't get enough credit as an editorial presence on MTMTE. After all, a good editor is invisible.
For sure, I do think he's done good work as an editor. Especially compared to Andy "Which character is this speech bubble supposed to be pointing at?" Schmidt.