Looking Back, Over My Shoulder.
1992 Summer Special
1992 Autumn Special
1993 Easter Special
1993 Holiday Special
1993 Winter Special
1994 Holiday Special
1994 Summer Special
1994 Winter Special
Yes it is I, Unicron, embodiment of all that is evil.
The end of the regular Transformers comic in January of 1992 roughly marked the point Marvel UK would reinvent itself once again, mostly leaving the licensed properties behind that had kept it going over the previous decade and attempting to reinvent itself as a “Serious” comic publisher of its own titles, going toe to toe with the its American counterpart.
By the time the last Transformers special was published towards the end of 1994, the company had effectively destroyed itself, and was either already or in the process of being bought out by Panini (the Marvel logo would continue to be used on titles like Doctor Who Magazine until the end of the century though).
The whys of this are varied and too complicated for the breadth of this piece. But they include overreaching themselves, taking on the deceptive direct market and abandoning the high street, making lots of violent “I’ve just seen Blade Runner” cyberpunk nonsense during the early to mid-90’s when the most successful superhero style stuff in other media were things like Batman Forever, Lois and Clark and Power Rangers, suggesting a serious misreading of the room.
The big factor though was almost certainly that they were nearly all terrible and hard to tell apart.
Amidst all this, the real surprise is Transformers continued. Not just in comics, but on toy shop shelves. In both cases, not as it was, but still with enough success to chug on long after the American range had died. The fact the European toy-line just rolled into G2 is something of a minor miracle, and we’ve arguably being paying off karma ever since in terms of how most subsequent lines have whimpered out prematurely.
1992 Autumn Special
1993 Easter Special
1993 Holiday Special
1993 Winter Special
1994 Holiday Special
1994 Summer Special
1994 Winter Special
Yes it is I, Unicron, embodiment of all that is evil.
The end of the regular Transformers comic in January of 1992 roughly marked the point Marvel UK would reinvent itself once again, mostly leaving the licensed properties behind that had kept it going over the previous decade and attempting to reinvent itself as a “Serious” comic publisher of its own titles, going toe to toe with the its American counterpart.
By the time the last Transformers special was published towards the end of 1994, the company had effectively destroyed itself, and was either already or in the process of being bought out by Panini (the Marvel logo would continue to be used on titles like Doctor Who Magazine until the end of the century though).
The whys of this are varied and too complicated for the breadth of this piece. But they include overreaching themselves, taking on the deceptive direct market and abandoning the high street, making lots of violent “I’ve just seen Blade Runner” cyberpunk nonsense during the early to mid-90’s when the most successful superhero style stuff in other media were things like Batman Forever, Lois and Clark and Power Rangers, suggesting a serious misreading of the room.
The big factor though was almost certainly that they were nearly all terrible and hard to tell apart.
Amidst all this, the real surprise is Transformers continued. Not just in comics, but on toy shop shelves. In both cases, not as it was, but still with enough success to chug on long after the American range had died. The fact the European toy-line just rolled into G2 is something of a minor miracle, and we’ve arguably being paying off karma ever since in terms of how most subsequent lines have whimpered out prematurely.
The reasons for the specials carrying on is not completely clear, but almost certainly down to the licence still being in place and it being solid money for old rope, perhaps even with Hasbro simply renewing the deal automatically whenever it did come up as it was a harmless bit of extra cash.
Despite being eight of them, there is a shift in approach as they go along, and the feeling they were overseen by at least two different teams, probably starting with the group who’d worked on the comic.
The first thing to note about the 92 Summer Special is it again reuses the iconic cover from issue 100, but they clearly didn’t have a “Clean” version as the old logo has rather crudely being pasted over with a big yellow box. This will be rather a thing for the remaining issues (except those related to the Flame/Games arc, where the logo is just straight swapped), though it’s harder to tell as they all use post-88 logo covers, you can tell original strap-lines and promotion for posters and competitions have been carefully covered by new ones (“CLASSIC TRANSFORMER ACTION”).
Inside they nearly do something very clever but don’t quite pull it off. Grudge Match! Is reprinted with an Annual story placed during it... But instead of What’s in a Name?, it’s the truncated version of Victory! So close.
The other thing to note that applies to most of the rest is that old AtoZs will be pressed into service for most of them. Though thankfully this is the only one to have its equivalent of Transformation (which is missing from the second 92 special, but present for the rest) have an almost unreadable 3-D effect.
The next three are rather pleasing in managing to do something the Collected Comics hadn’t achieved in some time, present an entire storyline. With room to spare for a one off as well, as the Flame arc, Deadly Games! and the original one part version of Fall and Rise of the Decepticon Empire cover a year of releases.
Despite being eight of them, there is a shift in approach as they go along, and the feeling they were overseen by at least two different teams, probably starting with the group who’d worked on the comic.
The first thing to note about the 92 Summer Special is it again reuses the iconic cover from issue 100, but they clearly didn’t have a “Clean” version as the old logo has rather crudely being pasted over with a big yellow box. This will be rather a thing for the remaining issues (except those related to the Flame/Games arc, where the logo is just straight swapped), though it’s harder to tell as they all use post-88 logo covers, you can tell original strap-lines and promotion for posters and competitions have been carefully covered by new ones (“CLASSIC TRANSFORMER ACTION”).
Inside they nearly do something very clever but don’t quite pull it off. Grudge Match! Is reprinted with an Annual story placed during it... But instead of What’s in a Name?, it’s the truncated version of Victory! So close.
The other thing to note that applies to most of the rest is that old AtoZs will be pressed into service for most of them. Though thankfully this is the only one to have its equivalent of Transformation (which is missing from the second 92 special, but present for the rest) have an almost unreadable 3-D effect.
The next three are rather pleasing in managing to do something the Collected Comics hadn’t achieved in some time, present an entire storyline. With room to spare for a one off as well, as the Flame arc, Deadly Games! and the original one part version of Fall and Rise of the Decepticon Empire cover a year of releases.
This is where an inconsistent and occasionally half-hearted attempt to remove, or at least alter, NEXT and *See Issue boxes starts, though by the end of the run this will have petered out. Most glaringly, Fall... still promises Race With the Devil! Next.
The Easter 93 issue was actually my last ever Transformers comic, and the only one of the specials I got (though I do remember seeing The One With The Swoop/Divebomb Fight and not being allowed to have it. More of this on G2...), effectively ending my five year association with the brand. I never even knew it wasn’t the last one until many years later, so even now, despite not being the rarest (though it felt like it when I was trying to get a copy. Of course, soon as I did, it's everywhere on Ebay) or most valuable, it still means a lot.
The next and final wave see a change in approach, with the use of completely unrelated covers. Some have suggested that Marvel UK didn’t have a very good archive (which is at odds with the claims of Panini who inherited it and have been able to do things like reprint the entire first issue of Doctor Who Weekly, adverts and all, from their vault) and whoever put was putting the issues together didn’t care.
However, the last two specials use covers from the stories within on their editorial pages and, if we allow for someone having mistaken the close up of Thunderwing on the first ’94 issue, they all feature either Megatron or Optimus. So that feels like very much an, albeit cynical, attempt to front the characters kids would recognise over prioritizing the fact Scorponok is not the Decepticon who dies in final one.
The crossover from 93 into 94 does attempt to run a, rather old, storyline across two issue. Though with more padding this time, as Dam-Busters! (as the contents page calls it) and the Wrath two parter are pumped out by the colour Big Shutdown! and There Shall Come...a Leader! respectively. The later, which has traditionally has its first two pages switched (presumably so it can open on a dramatic Optimus Prime splash) prints them in the correct order for the first time.
The first ’94 special is also notable for the return of the old favourite, in character writing from a Transformer, as Unicron writes the editorial and tells you how much he likes the run of early stories where the Autobots are all dead.
The Easter 93 issue was actually my last ever Transformers comic, and the only one of the specials I got (though I do remember seeing The One With The Swoop/Divebomb Fight and not being allowed to have it. More of this on G2...), effectively ending my five year association with the brand. I never even knew it wasn’t the last one until many years later, so even now, despite not being the rarest (though it felt like it when I was trying to get a copy. Of course, soon as I did, it's everywhere on Ebay) or most valuable, it still means a lot.
The next and final wave see a change in approach, with the use of completely unrelated covers. Some have suggested that Marvel UK didn’t have a very good archive (which is at odds with the claims of Panini who inherited it and have been able to do things like reprint the entire first issue of Doctor Who Weekly, adverts and all, from their vault) and whoever put was putting the issues together didn’t care.
However, the last two specials use covers from the stories within on their editorial pages and, if we allow for someone having mistaken the close up of Thunderwing on the first ’94 issue, they all feature either Megatron or Optimus. So that feels like very much an, albeit cynical, attempt to front the characters kids would recognise over prioritizing the fact Scorponok is not the Decepticon who dies in final one.
The crossover from 93 into 94 does attempt to run a, rather old, storyline across two issue. Though with more padding this time, as Dam-Busters! (as the contents page calls it) and the Wrath two parter are pumped out by the colour Big Shutdown! and There Shall Come...a Leader! respectively. The later, which has traditionally has its first two pages switched (presumably so it can open on a dramatic Optimus Prime splash) prints them in the correct order for the first time.
The first ’94 special is also notable for the return of the old favourite, in character writing from a Transformer, as Unicron writes the editorial and tells you how much he likes the run of early stories where the Autobots are all dead.
Of course, as we get into 94 (with the first two issues now a little larger, full A4 size), Generation 2 is coming, and with it a Marvel comic. It’s therefore hard not to see the final two issues at least as being feelers by a desperate company for the viability of relaunching the series before Hasbro UK (the parent company of whom owned the all the rights and could therefore shop the comic to a rival, indeed, perhaps the reasonable success of these specials is what inspired them to plough ahead and do so when their attitude to G2 tie-ins was otherwise half-arsed) took it elsewhere. Certainly the penultimate issue's cover promising "CLASSIC TRANSFORMER ACTION" (there is actually more than one Transformer in the issue) implies new Transformer action was expected any time.
Which makes it a little surprising the Summer Special is the first to feel it was just thrown together, collecting Salvage!, a story hard to read in isolation and Dry Run!, which has a similar problem it tries to get round by removing the last page.
Which brings us to the final special, a near straightforward (The Hunting Party is missing) reprint of the last Annual. Which is a good strong run for Marvel UK’s decade long association with the franchise to bow out on, even if it perhaps not quite worth what fools (me) pay for it.
And my copy may not be complete, the editorial page, this time written in the style of a computer briefing, promises a Transformers poster (even though the revised cover covers up the promotion of the one that came with issue 322). Its removal would explain the loose staples, but I have never seen this mentioned anywhere before, has anyone ever seen this free gift?
Now, whether or not Marvel UK were using the final specials to see if their own G2 comic would be goer (ultimately any such plans would be lost in the collapse), a quirk of the licence allowing them to put out the very last one so it was on shelves the same time as the first Fleetway issue (and indeed, possibly beyond as exactly how long these were on sale for and when they were released is largely anecdotal) feels like a very deliberate fuck you to a competitor, to muddy the market at a crucial launching point. Or at least to grab on their coattails form any renewed interest. Though at least distribution was so poor it’s unlikely to have had any real negative impact from confused parents and kids grabbing the wrong one.
Which makes it a little surprising the Summer Special is the first to feel it was just thrown together, collecting Salvage!, a story hard to read in isolation and Dry Run!, which has a similar problem it tries to get round by removing the last page.
Which brings us to the final special, a near straightforward (The Hunting Party is missing) reprint of the last Annual. Which is a good strong run for Marvel UK’s decade long association with the franchise to bow out on, even if it perhaps not quite worth what fools (me) pay for it.
And my copy may not be complete, the editorial page, this time written in the style of a computer briefing, promises a Transformers poster (even though the revised cover covers up the promotion of the one that came with issue 322). Its removal would explain the loose staples, but I have never seen this mentioned anywhere before, has anyone ever seen this free gift?
Now, whether or not Marvel UK were using the final specials to see if their own G2 comic would be goer (ultimately any such plans would be lost in the collapse), a quirk of the licence allowing them to put out the very last one so it was on shelves the same time as the first Fleetway issue (and indeed, possibly beyond as exactly how long these were on sale for and when they were released is largely anecdotal) feels like a very deliberate fuck you to a competitor, to muddy the market at a crucial launching point. Or at least to grab on their coattails form any renewed interest. Though at least distribution was so poor it’s unlikely to have had any real negative impact from confused parents and kids grabbing the wrong one.
I suppose the really ironic thing is though, the reprint series, under different names, lasted longer than the parent comic (9 years as opposed to just over seven).
Which takes us to the end. This week I have battled food poisoning and insomnia, as if the very Universe did not want me to make it to the end (and this is going up into Saturday morning). But, is it really the end?
ISSUE 332
1991-1994
COMMENT
KO-FI
Which takes us to the end. This week I have battled food poisoning and insomnia, as if the very Universe did not want me to make it to the end (and this is going up into Saturday morning). But, is it really the end?
ISSUE 332
1991-1994
COMMENT
KO-FI
THE END.
NOT THE END.
TRANSFORMATION WILL RETURN
IN THE NEXT SIMON FURMAN THRILLER...
