Category: James Roberts

Revisitation 137: Dying to Reboot.

6/8/2023

This week, Optimus Prime is dying...

...to have the comics become good again.

Plus, the returning Cybertronians are getting NAILed hard, Rodmimus doesn't ask the important questions and Prowl is itching to do some peace crimes, all as I look at the start of Phase 2, The Death of Optimus Prime!

3 Comments

Revisitation 133: Gods and Monsters.

8/7/2023

5 Comments

This week, Sunstreaker legs it from Devastator, Drift feels a stabbing pain in the chest and the Decepticons come together, all as I look at Chaos Part 3!

5 Comments

Revisitation 129: Meg and Kimia.

9/6/2023

2 Comments

First up this week, I guested on the Robots in Your Eyes Podast, talking two episodes of the G1 cartoon, which was a blast and can be listened to HERE.

Back in the world of comics (and at the time of writing, news has just started to break about the successor to IDW being Skybound, more on that in the weeks to come), offers the had of friendship and Cyclonus offers the hand of death as I look at Chaos Part 1!

2 Comments

Revisitation 128: The Bill.

3/6/2023

5 Comments

This week we have another very long one and I'm virtually going out the door on holiday, so a no preamble, it's my look at Chaos Theory Part 2!

5 Comments

Revisitation 127: Poetry in Motion.

28/5/2023

4 Comments

This week, it's a big massive one, so no preamble, it's the time, 127 issues, the first step on the Rung to the true IDW era, with my look at Chaos Theory Part 1!

4 Comments

Revisitation 98: Bang Bang, He Shot Me Down.

6/11/2022

2 Comments

This week, it's the biggest Revisitation yet as I look at a comic that asks more serious and complicated questions than any Transformers story to date.

Plus, it has time for a Shaun of the Dead gag.

It's all as I apply the right amount of pressure to my look at Last Stand of the Wreckers issue 5!

Plus, Addendum 11 has Skyfall say "We're done" as I look at the text story Bullets!

Spend Sunday getting Wrecked.

2 Comments

Revisitation 93: Points of View.

8/10/2022

1 Comment

This week, I'm back from Covid (and also worked out I'd misnumbered a few of these), but still very tired so, with no extra introduction:

I look at Last Stand of the Wreckers issue 4!

Plus, an Addendum on the other trade extras!

1 Comment

Revisitation 88: Family Reunion.

27/8/2022

1 Comment

This week, what's your motto?

Chose option B as I look at Last Stand of the Wreckers Issue 2!

Plus, a look at the text story, Zero Point!

1 Comment

Revisitation 79: Puppet on a String.

26/6/2022

3 Comments

This week, it's the most exciting of things to talk about, a genuinely good comic!

Nick Roche returns and sets the agenda for the rest of IDW, whilst Denton Tipton may not be able to Go bigger, but is still bang on target.

All as I look at All Hail Megatron issue 15!

3 Comments

Let’s Go Round and Round and Round and Round and Round.

18/3/2019

0 Comments

Target 1986. By James Roberts. TF-25: A Celebration fanzine, 2009.

This is the third in the sequence of Ko-Fi sponsored posts, this time from Charles Murphey, who asked me to write a piece on any convention fiction of my choice. And though I have many fine examples (and I will no doubt be touching on the TFNation conclusion to Animated when I cover that series), I have picked a particular favourite from a very familiar name.

2009, ten years ago now, was the quarter century anniversary of the franchise. To celebrate, the TMUK group put out a fanzine at that year’s Auto Assembly convention that had a simple central gimmick. One piece for every year. Some were behind the scenes analysis, some quick comics and a few gag pieces. Plus fan fiction. All by people still recognisable from fandom like Andy Turnbull and even a post-IDW fame Nick Roche on the back cover.

The biggest section was given over to 2006. Which was clearly a year where nothing happened that anyone could think of something to write about. So instead, we got a combined prequel and sequel to the defining comic story of 1986, Target: 2006, written by James Roberts.

James is about a year away from his first professional credit as a consultant on Everything in the Right Place, but within fan circles this was still a fairly big deal. Eugenesis had not been read by a massive amount of people, but everyone in the community knew about the person who was insane enough to have self-published a door stop novel and there was a fascination about both it and him. And, considering this was his first return to fan fiction since (at the time he considered Eugenesis his final statement on Transformers), that gives a very good reason for him to have the most space in the special.

As we would expect from Roberts, the story is very smartly structured, switching first person narratives between Megatron in December 2005 (the story is set in TMUK continuity and keeps to the idea that the film starts over the new year to try and reconcile the two dates. The means the part of the fanzine celebrating 2006 is not only a tie-in to something from the wrong year, but only the last half page is actually set in 2006) as he muses on his destiny and Galvatron and tries to perfect a time machine, and January 1989 and Ravage wonders just why Galvatron seems more like a convincing Megatron than the actual Megatron.

I’m not going to go in-depth on the plot here, the story isn’t currently widely available, but as with Eugenesis there’s always a chance it might show up online at some point and I’d rather not ruin the whole thing.

Safe to say though, we do get a very carefully thought through time paradox about the creation of the time machine (this rather ignores the implication of the original comics that both Autobots and Decepticons had their own and instead makes it a bespoke invention of an Omega Supreme sized Decepticon called Bolt) and Megatron wondering if the Galvatron he met briefly in 1986 was really the future him and what is his actual destiny.

In 1986 Ravage also gets lots of good work. In particular the opening of his first person narration is lovely, in theory just being a rather breathless recap of the history of Galvatron as told to him by Scourge after waking up, but which still have some deft character moments to it to stop the whole thing being exposition.

Being James Roberts, there’s also some continuity patching, most notably explaining what happened to Omega Supreme during Target: 2006. Which is clearly a thing of Roberts as it was also going to be covered by a time and dimension hopping subplot that we would have seen in Lost Light if its run hadn’t been curtailed. I think I prefer the more throwaway nature of the gag here that takes a few seconds to sink in.

But it is the work on Megatron that stands out. This is not quite the take we would come to know from his IDW work, I don’t think More Than Meets the Eye Megatron would casually kill a lackey once they’ve outlived their usefulness, but there is a similar weariness and uncertainty about his place in the world and his legacy that is extremely well done and shows neatly why Roberts was able to take the extremely dubious idea of Autobot Megatron and make it work.

Coming back to this a decade later, its remarkable how fully formed Roberts writing seems, even more so than Eugenesis this fits comfortably in style alongside his professional work, especially the couple of short prose stories that were included in More Than Meets the Eye. There’s huge amounts of good and great fan fiction and art, but such a smooth transition from that to pro work is fairly unusual. He was and is clearly a major talent we’ll probably not quite realise how lucky we were to have on the franchise until a few years down the line when looking back on his overall work.

Is this fanzine worth tracking down for just this story? Well, that depends how rare it really is. I do know there were plentiful copies at the next couple of Auto Assemblies, but I suspect most of those have gone to people unwilling to part with them. But if you’re lucky enough to get hold of one, even beyond this centrepiece it’s a tremendously fun magazine with plenty of good material in it. And the story itself is a remarkable piece of work by any standard.

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Forward>>

Revisitation 137: Dying to Reboot.

Revisitation 133: Gods and Monsters.

Revisitation 129: Meg and Kimia.

Revisitation 128: The Bill.

Revisitation 127: Poetry in Motion.

Revisitation 98: Bang Bang, He Shot Me Down.

Revisitation 93: Points of View.

Revisitation 88: Family Reunion.

Revisitation 79: Puppet on a String.

Let’s Go Round and Round and Round and Round and Round.

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