Transformation 100: A Tale Told By An Idiot.

11/4/2014

My regular readers.

Yes, we've arrived at our second milestone issue, and have moved into tripple digits. Well done for making it this far, and I'm afraid it's a long, long waffling one this week, as Furman celebrates with a story that may not be what you'd expect.

All in Distant Thunder!

For those who haven't yet seen, the full results of the TFArchive poll have now been given out, see the full list of articles HERE (I am not responsible for all of them if anyone wants to escape me writing style).

18 Comments

snowkatt

11/4/2014 04:52:12 pm

If those are your regular readers, which of those am I ?

And I wil be the voice of dissident again, ( as usual ) but I don't like monkies, never did never will.

So Zenag isnt exactly ingratiating himself with me, which for me makes his demise that much better.

But despite that and the fairly bland flashback framing, the flashback story it self deals with fairly adult language, concepts and imagery. 13 years before the Matrix ever made furore in the theaters.

This was pretty heady stuff and its done with certain aplomb.
As well as showing Prime absolute certain conviction in his own believes and willing to die for them. ( Echoed in one of the few better episode of the Cartoon, the Ultimate Weapon, where First Wid absolutley refuses to compromise his pacifist ways. And is equally willing to die for it, even if the stakes werent as high as in Distant Thunder. )

Not too mention the concept of an artificial reality, which is a alternate version of the Transformers reality and which nearly became a solid reality. (did that make sense ?)

Which also has shades of A Nightmare On Elmstreet especially the climax, where Zenag attack's Prime's back and dissolving because Prime refuses to play along anymore

Which mirrors Freddy's demise at the end of A Nightmare Of Elmstreet.

It may not look like it, but "Distant Thunder" is a tour de force and Furman really was flexing his muscles here

And lets not forget Wil Simpson, whose art really was suited perfectly to this story. The only other one who might have fitted the story, would be Dan Reed. But Simpson's art is just perfect for issue 100.

And i'm not creeped out ...yet

( * and for the ocassion i bothred to actually edit my comment)

Stuart

11/4/2014 05:14:32 pm

Fully agreed Will Simpson was the best fit for the art, the story plays to all his strengths.

Some excellent points about how well done some of ideas are as well.

You can be Frenzy. ;)

Stuart

11/4/2014 05:16:10 pm

Oh, and you're bang on with A Nightmare On Elm Street, in the classics book Furman credits it as an influence.

snowkatt

11/4/2014 06:05:16 pm

Frenzy ?!

...I had hoped for Prowl or Ratchet.
...I'll take Thundercracker.

Which volume of the classic books ?

The whole, "turning back and walking away from the antagonist who jumps and dissapears during the jump because of a lack of belief" just screamed A Nightmare On Elmstreet, to me.

I think the nightmarish dream reality would have befitted Dan Reed as well, but not quite as twisted and garish as Wil Simpson did.

Iv'e always liked simpsons work the moment I first laid eyes on it in Target 2006 part 7.

Tim Roll-Pickering link

11/4/2014 05:25:08 pm

I wonder if Furman was inspired at all by Secret Wars? There some of the biggest names disappear and return in their regular series with what they got up to in the meantime only subsequently revealed (causing some problems when the writers didn't seem to have a clue as to just what big event was being referred to). It's a great idea in principle but in practice it can be hard to do something that's both spectacular & meaningful enough to justify it without at the same time making the intervening regular issues incomprehensible.

And on the reuse of ideas there's also the traditional assumption in much of the comics industries that the readership completely turns over within so many years, although there are exceptions. Consquently a long series series would regularly recycle not just ideas but even whole scripts. So Roy of the Rovers might see off relegation with a single penalty more than once then have the same sort of adventure on his holidays between seasons, Dennis the Menace might pull exactly the same trick on Walter the Softie at five year intervals and so forth. The title might go one further and and run reprints that the current readership could be expected to have not seen before. I wonder just how many readers of Transformers: Generation 2 in 1993 had actually read Distant Thunder let alone remembered it.

Of course there were some exceptions with the cult following of the US superhero books being one of the most prominent. And Transformers was developing both its own cult audience and continuity, plus, jumping forward a couple of years, it would later underestimate the turnover rate and also find the stock of material for reprints a bit too new for the tactic yet the cast was too old.

The competition is fun but the colouring on the cover is at times a little off so one could have endless debates over some of them - do Laserbeak and Buzzsaw have slightly distinguishing features or is it enough to just list them both? Is that Conehead Ramjet or Dirge - the colours seem to meet in the middle. He has Bluestreak's shape & lack of shoulder missles but Prowl's colours...

And I see the Action Force strip has credits on later parts - is this an exception to the rule that pre c#121 US material is normally only credited on the first part?

snowkatt

11/4/2014 05:42:38 pm

i had not read distant thunder when i read G2 in 1994
hell i didnt even know about transformers UK or distant thunder untill 2001

Stuart

12/4/2014 07:48:23 am

I believe this is the first back up to have credits for the second part of a split issue (indeed, as the American TF stories don't carry them either it's the first split issue full stop to have credits).

I've only just noticed the recap uses the "Dr. Brainwave" name as well, suggesting someone simply didn't spot the character is called by the wrong name for half the (American) issue.

Fully agreed the plot reuse is just typical of the times. Brian Clemens was specifically in my mind as his attitude when the Americans picked up the Avengers is pretty much the same as Furman's when he went on the U.S. book- "This new audience is my main focus so the Brits are just going to have to put up with seeing Emma Peel trapped in an old house/the Primus origin again".

Tim Roll-Pickering link

12/4/2014 08:09:16 am

Well normally when you aim something at both sides of the Atlantic it lands firmly in the middle...

Auntie Slag

12/4/2014 09:46:12 am

I quite enjoyed this issue, beginning with Will Simpson's stellar art, especially on Prime. Outback looked suitably destroyed and very dramatic with oil gushing from the sizeable hole ripped from his torso. I don't think we'd seen such brutality up to this point. And I wouldn't count facsimile Prime torn apart as anywhere in the same league emotionally, being a facsimile.

Its a shame that the Predacons were never so nasty again when you see their handiwork, sure after ripping into who they thought was Prime they wouldn't think twice about tearing anyone else apart. Oh well.

What I really enjoyed though, was that the story concentrated on some of the 1984 cast. For so many issues we'd been getting pummeled with the introduction of new characters and their toys. For me things were starting to feel a bit watered down, and this was probably the last time Thundercracker ever spoke in the comic? At last some of the originals were getting panel time, and not in a Delbo background filling kind of way.

And so many good things to like about this issue; the brain leeches, Ratchet's cocky smile to Shockwave, Frenzy bricking it, the already mentioned dynamic camera angle artwork and most of all Optimus' telling of the story feels thoroughly adult and engaging.

This couple with the very real feeling of danger for Optimus and Outback. The Wreckers felt very menacing in this, and it felt like they really could (and would) rip Optimus apart as easily as the Predacon's to his facsimile.

It was slightly unusual seeing an Autobot hug another (Xaaron & Prime), but only for a second. I mean up until this point as kids we'd only seen robots fighting and talking, so it was like a brief glimpse to another element of Transformers in a way, like they enjoy contact as much as humans, like shockingly they don't spend all their time fighting. The hugging blended into what felt like a much more grown up issue. I'm not sure it ever felt that mature again.

Ralph Burns link

13/4/2014 01:06:17 pm

At the time this issue was a titanic landmark for my young self. Being the age I was it has felt like an agonisingly long wait to find out where Prime and chums had went during Target:2006 and the extra story pages and wraparound cover just gave the impression this was extra special. One of stories I just can't think of objectively outwith the weekly context of the time.

Stuart

13/4/2014 01:40:23 pm

I'm very much the same with Time Wars, objectively it's so easy to rip apart but I still love it.

Auntie Slag

15/4/2014 07:12:01 am

Totally agree there Ralph. Its easy to forget that as kids weeks felt like years. The Prime/Prowl/Ratchet disappearance dragged on for eons, so it was totally captivating to find out what happened. That it was a flashback did not matter.

Ralph Burns

15/4/2014 08:13:20 am

Also the mad limbo space/time interdimensional madness really stood out at the time, which is easy to forget after many 'out there' tales that followed, ie it's before time travel was a regular part of the ongoing story. This is still not that far on from when this was a 'robots in disguise amongst humanity' type book

Auntie Slag

15/4/2014 02:03:25 pm

Oh quite so, quite so.

*adjusts pipe and shifts his weight against the gate whilst staring wistfully into the middle distance*

Nick

18/4/2014 03:48:44 pm

Congratulations on hitting issue 100! I don't comment as much now as I was a few months ago, simply because I don't have the knowledge to do so but rest assured I'm still reading and loving the hell out of this blog. I don't remember much of #100 aside from Brawn hitting a textbook bodyslam on Soundwave on the cover ... I had no idea that was Alan Davis though. I just met the man himself at LSCC a month or so ago. I forgot all about the scary story inside with the cyborg tamarins knocking seven shades out of Optimus. I'm not the biggest fan of Will Simpson generally but he was the perfect artist for these antagonists. I remember buying a second wave Action Force figure, which featured Dr Mindbender on the inlay catalogue and thinking dumb ol' Hasbro had the name wrong. I also thought Brainbender was a rip-off of Major Bludd. Keep up the excellent work with the blog.

snowkatt

21/4/2014 12:09:33 am

at least you will learn a few things reading this comic then ; )
but if you really want to learn more about the background of the UK comics i recommend picking up the uk classics books from IDW

not only do they reprint all UK stories from the beginning including man of iron the enemy within and raiders fo the last ark

they are also contain complete histories behind the scenes stuff and more by james roberts

book 2 has at least 80 pages of behind the screens material if not more

the only criticism i can lay at the book is that they are rather small ie normal american comic book size not the over sized UK format

and the art suffers slightly under it everything is rather compressed
i woudl have prefferred if it was the same size of the idw collection hardcovers ( those are massive ) but that would also incure a hardcover price tag

Stuart

19/4/2014 10:46:44 am

Thank's Nick, it's amazing to me I'm already close to a third of the way through this. No force in the Universe can stop me now!

Felicity

9/10/2016 03:46:23 pm

It seems to be standard comic policy to use yellow speech balloons whenever the background is white, probably to help them stand out.

I notice that Action Force uses the spelling “Lady J” whereas IIRC GI Joe went with “Lady Jaye.”

Transformation 100: A Tale Told By An Idiot.

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