Auto Assembly 2013 News

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inflatable dalek
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Auto Assembly 2013 News

Post by inflatable dalek »

Not much in the way of big news this year (I think cards are being played very close to the chest over Dark Cybertron), but the general tidbits

[Anything in square brackets is just my speculation and/or bad comedy].
:


The -acy Series:

When the video where Fint Dille introducted himself as a guest for 2014 was played he called himself the author of Monstrosity, Autocracy, and "Primeacy", so presumably that's going to be the third of that series (and indeed, he mentioned it so casually it may well have been announced elsewhere and I've just missed it).


[So they've already run out of actually words ending in "Acy"?]

ReGeneration One:

Andrew Wildman revealed the cover to issue 96 [Which I don't think he was supposed to do, but that's Wildman for you] which is a deliberate mirror of the one to the free comicbook day issue with Rodimus Prime in place of Optimus.

"Issue Zero" started off life as a proposed Annual, the idea of calling it issue zero initially had no connection to the zero point story but Furman liked the idea so much he wound up linking the two more directly.

Jose Delbo physically posted his art to IDW, resulting in them having to scan it and then email it to themselves in order to get it in their normal art system.

The fight between Galvatron and Ultra Magnus in issue 94 will "Homage" the one in Target: 2006 [Because obviously that's something that wasn't done too well first time round and would be improved by a re-hash].

Both Grimlock's plot to lose his Action Master body and the headmaster heads one were things that would have happened back in the 90's if the comic had continued [That seems unlikely to me- especially as I'm fairly sure last year Furman said the Headmasters thing wasn't something he thought of till after selling the idea of Reg to IDW- but we are talking quarter century old memories].

The two ongoings:

Dark Cybertron and what follows at the start of next year will introduce a lot of [Generations toyline?] new characters.

MTMTE will being going in a new direction for its second "season" after the crossover [hardly surprising as they've now found the Knights of Cybertron] that will see the status quo shaken up. The Scavengers and the DJD won't be showing up again till next year either.

The reveal about Ultra Magnus wasn't inspired by his toy (Roberts had actually forgotten about the mini-white Prime). [I think he would also like me to say he wasn't thinking of Ace Rimmer either]

Roberts was selling the heavily annotated script to issue 6, and I think the most interesting thing is in the original synopsis done when planning out the series Maximus would have died at the end and the [presumably not called The Lost Light at this point as there's a description of a scene in Swerve's of characters arguing over a moniker] ship would have been named in his honour at the end.

And I'd forgotten about the bit where Skids points out Magnus isn't much like how he used to be back in the day FORESHADOWING.
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Post by Denyer »

Wonder whether Furman heard any of the panel bits about Arcee? (Basically all of the younger creators disavowed anything to do with the characterisation.) Although I'm sure he'd have denied intending to suggest "female" is a mentally unbalancing aberration, and focused on the outcome simply being Jhiaxus's meddling.

Little bit surprised that Megatron: Origin pre-dating the spotlight by some margin and introducing similar body shells (pretty logically -- race of alien robots that mimic other cultures, after all) wasn't mentioned, though, at least IIRC.

It's hard to reconcile Jhiaxus as a Frankenstein type character and creating Monstructor, Arcee, etc. with much of the rest of the history we've seen in flashbacks. Him and Nova Prime seem too much larger-than-life cackling stereotypes, and whilst the Marvel US style annual one-shot was fun it dialed any characterisation back to that era as well.

The fact that TFs draw from many other cultures for alt-modes and general interest is something I'm hoping Roberts gets around to working in -- it'd be quite new; other than a few Autobots going "native" such as Hound and Jazz (and profiles of monstrous Pretender shells, etc) it doesn't get much discussion.

I'm worried by Dark Cybertron...
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Post by Rack 'n Ruin »

I don't think Dark Cybertron can hurt RID at all. That title needs something to get it going. I am very concerned by the impact it may have on MTMTE though. Personally, I rather IDW avoid bringing the titles together for a long while yet, and really let MTMTE run wild. Frankly, if RID got canned I wouldn't lose too much sleep, loss of Prowl, Blurr & Shockwave apart.
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Post by Auntie Slag »

Is it set in stone that MTMTE and RID are merging into one comic soon (soon being this year?). And will they split again? Won't that just confuse readers? I'm confused.

I just want one good comic, and I don't want them messing it up with silly Marvel style crossovers and some muppet saying to Roberts "Ok thanks very much, we'll take it from here".

There is a road map for this thing, but I've been content not to look into it since Cliffjumper said we could in theory get 100+ issues out of James as that's the average life expectancy of a really good comic writer.

So I hope IDW don't cut that short with their silly plans.
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Post by inflatable dalek »

Denyer wrote:Wonder whether Furman heard any of the panel bits about Arcee? (Basically all of the younger creators disavowed anything to do with the characterisation.) Although I'm sure he'd have denied intending to suggest "female" is a mentally unbalancing aberration, and focused on the outcome simply being Jhiaxus's meddling.
Though I should say for those who weren't there that they didn't randomly decide to have a go at Arcee and it was a bit more polite than that. There was a question along the lines of "What they hell are you thinking with Arcee?" which got the fairly polite response of "We weren't thinking anything, it wasn't our idea we've just since had to work with what's been established" (and they were very careful not to say either way what they personally thought of it, even if it felt fairly implicit "Alex only drew her Spotlight!").

James and Nick talked about how the background characters in Megatron: Origin were something they were cheerfully allowed to ignore during the Overlord panel on the Friday (as in, his appearance there became something of an exception as Roberts has since incorporated it into MTMTE), and indeed Nick did sheepishly say "the guy who drew it may be watching..."

EDIT:Though that's not as harsh as it sounds, the IDW teams do seem to have a good solid piss take based friendship.
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Post by inflatable dalek »

@Slag: They're not going to merge as such (as in both comics will still come out with their own name, numbering and author), but the crossover will run across both books (so Dark Cybertron Part 1 will, say, be in MTMTE, part 2 in RID and so on) for, IIRC, a total of 12 issues, or six of each.
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Post by Denyer »

inflatable dalek wrote:the IDW teams do seem to have a good solid piss take based friendship.
Mmm. Milne particularly seems to revel in the Alan Moore type full script... was I dreaming or did someone say "mummy and daddy are fighting again" at one point?
the crossover will run across both books (so Dark Cybertron Part 1 will, say, be in MTMTE, part 2 in RID and so on) for, IIRC, a total of 12 issues, or six of each.
Hopefully it'll read okay for those of us following the one book, because from what I've read of RID (with the exception of the annual, which was quite fun) it's too much in the style of the previous ongoing.
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Post by inflatable dalek »

Denyer wrote:Mmm. Milne particularly seems to revel in the Alan Moore type full script... was I dreaming or did someone say "mummy and daddy are fighting again" at one point?
Yeah, that was Mr. Roche (or at least something very like that anyway).

I do think Milne seemed badly jet-lagged (either that or he's never met anyone called Stuart before as he seemed to find my name a bit confusing even when the person sat with him wrote it out for him), which may have made him a bit more acerbic than normal (or at least in comparison to podcast interviews I've heard with him) in the panel.

Though name-confusion aside he was perfectly nice when I spoke to him, he just looked like he needed a good nap (I didn't run into him on the Sunday so he may have been much more settled by then).
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Post by Denyer »

Didn't really notice, but then we are British and tend to prefer humour with a few masonry nails hammered through the plank.

How many issues are left in "season one" do we know?
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Post by inflatable dalek »

Effectively it ends with issue 22, then we get the between seasons TV film of Dark Cybertron (though I just made that analogy up myself) before the second storyline starts.
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Post by Knightdramon »

Issue 21 wraps up the Remain in Light arc, issue 22 is an "aftermath" issue showing us a bit more of Rung and a possible backstory.

There's a one-shot "Dark Cybertron" issue before each series, starting with their issue 23, intertwine for the saga until around issue 29 or so.

Roberts said he's planning to tackle the DJD after Dark Cybertron. He's very familiar of the theory of "Tarn is Roller" [that I should print on a Tshirt soon].

Furman did make Regeneration One sound cooler than it actually is. He's hinting that we may be looking at a series multiverse in the comics as well. He said he's going to take Hot Rod to Rodimus Prime soon-ish. Rodimus had black boots on the cover of 96 instead of the red ones Hot Rod has.

Roberts also hinted something along the lines of "the character from another series that people want to see? He's up soon", which to me cryptically spells Rhinox in some capacity. In a podcast interview from yesterday, he also revealed that there's going to be a Deluxe Generations Rattrap.

So yes, interesting tidbits about Maximus for MTMTE. This makes it two times so far he's been marked for death [issue 6 and issue 15] but avoided it.
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Post by inflatable dalek »

Knightdramon wrote: Roberts said he's planning to tackle the DJD after Dark Cybertron. He's very familiar of the theory of "Tarn is Roller" [that I should print on a Tshirt soon].
Though he's mainly familiar with it thanks to you :p

He'll probably have Roller turn out to be the new Ultra Magnus and make Tailgate Tarn just to confound the big theory each one of us has.
Roberts also hinted something along the lines of "the character from another series that people want to see? He's up soon", which to me cryptically spells Rhinox in some capacity. In a podcast interview from yesterday, he also revealed that there's going to be a Deluxe Generations Rattrap.
The Rattrap thing is the least surprising news ever. Rhinox sounds very plausible (or at least inevitable) for the other character as well. Though I'm hard pressed to think of anyone people have been really clamouring for.

For those interested, the podcast mentioned (which has gone up gonzo quick) can be found here*, I shall be listening whilst going to buy an envelope for the SUPER SECRET surprise I'm sending Red Dave Prime:

http://www.fullmetalhero.com/content/fm ... erts-7442/


*At least I assume it's the shame one, how many Podcasts can one man do in a weekend?
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Post by Blackjack »

Knightdramon wrote:Roberts said he's planning to tackle the DJD after Dark Cybertron. He's very familiar of the theory of "Tarn is Roller" [that I should print on a Tshirt soon].
So it'll be kind of definitely not Roller? Though if Roller became a DJD member it's kind of a given that he's the informant mentioned in Bullets, no?

(Should get around to reviewing Bullets)
Knightdramon wrote:He's hinting that we may be looking at a series multiverse in the comics as well.
We've already got a crazy Hot Rod multiverse panel in the last issue. Not very excited, Regeneration One has been plodding on with its plot threads that don't seem to go nowhere... Hot Rod has been angsting about being a leader for half a year now.
Knightdramon wrote:Roberts also hinted something along the lines of "the character from another series that people want to see? He's up soon", which to me cryptically spells Rhinox in some capacity.
Would love to see a Roberts-penned Rhinox, considering Barber botched up Rattrap and turned him into Swindle or something.

Don't think people have been clamoring for Rhinox. I'd say Waspinator, but then he's already appeared.
Knightdramon wrote:In a podcast interview from yesterday, he also revealed that there's going to be a Deluxe Generations Rattrap.
Oh yay!
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Post by inflatable dalek »

Oh, and though I think it was already announced elsewhere, that fanmade female Seeker character will be popping up in one of the books as per the terms of that competition, which Roberts pointed out means they'll have to deal with the whole vagina thing at some point.
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Post by Blackjack »

inflatable dalek wrote:Oh, and though I think it was already announced elsewhere, that fanmade female Seeker character will be popping up in one of the books as per the terms of that competition, which Roberts pointed out means they'll have to deal with the whole vagina thing at some point.
Oh damn!

Completely forgot about the fanwank Seeker. It's just as well that Roberts has dibs on the character... I would probably end up liking her. Goddamnit Roberts.
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Post by inflatable dalek »

I don't think he said either way which book she was going to be in (thought it may have been announced along with her arrival at Botcon), it was more a collective "We".
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Post by inflatable dalek »

And having listened to the podcast, some extra things (some of which may have been mentioned in the panel and I just forgot):


Cyclonus' missing horn is a plot point and not just to annoy Ziggy.

Shadowplay wasn't part of the original plan for the series, it and the Orion Pax stuff in RID were a result of Hasbro asking for there to be "More Optimus Prime" in the first year of the comic.

Despite that Roberts now regards Shadowplay as the middle of a trilogy that began with Chaos Theory and will conclude at some point in the second year, featuring the return of characters like Roller (Knightdramon: YAY!).

James doesn't currently consider the DJD to be real characters, more a series of personality bullet points that need fleshing out in their next apperance. (Which doesn't make it sound as if Roller is one of them... Knightdramon: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!).

Issue 22 will be the Skids toy pack in comic.

Roberts has only had two constaints put upon him from Hasbro:

No swearing (and those with the issue six script will know there were originally going to be a couple of "#?#!#" style lines).

A storyline about a memory virus that spread through characters sharing experiences was vetoed. He didn't mind this so much though as the stuff he really liked from that idea was eventually used when Chromedome went through Overlord's memories.

One thing that was mentioned in panel which I'd forgotten:

The Scavengers might not seem so likeable when we revisit them. The intent with having the DJD be introduced with them was to have the most horrible and evil characters in that same story so what were effectively the leads in Krok's crew would seem sympathetic in comparison. In a story with more Autobots... they're going to seem more Decepticon-ey.

That said, nothing after Dark Cybertron has [At the time of the convention and the podcast recording] been planned out in anything other than the most broad strokes. The first thing Roberts was going to have to do on his return from AA [Or in other words... now] was plan out all the beats for everything from issues 23 to...


40!


Yay!

I think he said 40 in the podcast as just a representative example but I'm holding him to it.

The podcast itself is well worth a listen as I'm just paraphrasing here, and the motto for the approach to the writing of the MTMTE ("Everything matters") is kind of awe inspiring when he lays down the full extent of what that means.
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Post by Skyquake87 »

Ooh just ooh i are excited.

Except for the stuff about Beast Wars characters popping up. This is probably just another weird personal foible of mine, but I am not keen on characters from what - in my head are- completely separate continuities and universes suddenly just being wedged into what is a revamped G1 continuity. Lockdown. There's another. I know the TF Universe is massive and there's been a planet full of the things, but still ... it just seems a bit ..'eh, lets stick fan character x in for well, why not?'. I'm too precious.

I'm not familar with fanwank female Seeker character. Must've missed that one. I hope she doesn't have a metal vagina (She probably does knowing how some minds work). And isn't some dreadful abomination like Arcee, because Jesus H Jones, female robots are just so weird.

If there's female robots, there's female robots. Why not? I don't mind them.


...watching Pamela Stephenson's 'Move Over darling' series during my formative years really has had a strange effect on me.
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Post by inflatable dalek »

The female seeker is called ****atron. Apparently Tramp created her.

The meshing of continuities doesn't bother so much in the sense that, say, Skybite is a popular and fun character and we're not going to ever get a RID comic so why not take that particularly great element out of in and incorporate him into the G1 comics?

it does fall down a bit with Beast War though as the only reason we didn't get more Beast Wars comics is IDW ****ed them up in the first place.

But, we are building up to a big anniversary, so having the two "Main" comics containing a celebration of the whole franchise is probably a good thing. it could be our Trials and Tribble-ations.


Or our Dimensions In Time.
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Post by Denyer »

Fond of both homage/piss-takes, personally.
Skyquake87 wrote:Why not?
Crap writing. eg, In the hands of a lot of authors (although I'm being generous with the term, as the stories are at the level of potato prints) you get Ratbat as an animal because that's what the character looks like.

Looking and even acting like females of a species... bring it on, if it isn't written from the perspective of a middle-aged bloke or hormonal teenager. Biological analogues, tokenism and maiden/mother/crone/virgin/whore/psycho/etc. portrayals I think we can really do without.
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