Transformation 134: Grab the Beard.

5/12/2014

Did Rodimus Prime die?

How long have Cyclonus and Scourge been married?

Did I win the fancy dress party with my Tom Baker costume?

How could a dodgy character in 1987 have easily gotten hold of all the names and addresses of a bunch of children?

All in my look at issue 134!

6 Comments

Simon Hall

7/12/2014 02:07:06 am

This issue is my favourite Death's Head / Transformers story. For the reasons mainly cited in your review - the banter between Cyclonus and Scourge, its got Geoff Senior, there's some choice layouts to frame the story and its just a good, solid unfussy bit of storytelling. The colours also look fantastic here too, suitably grungy and yucky looking.

Tim Roll-Pickering link

8/12/2014 05:21:21 am

It's odd that Furman couldn't seem to decide if the basic set-up on future Cybertron is an analogy of First World War, with literally entrenched stalemate, or the Second, with a resistance scurrying around in tunnels with secret codes.

Zarak would hardly be the first leader to encourage and even stage mob action to discredit rivals and advance his political goals. But there are nuanced ways to present this and there's crude villainy.

It would be interesting to see if there's a list of the full Marvel UK output somewhere. I've got a recollection that the mid 1980s saw a general slump in the annual market with a lot of long-running books ceasing around this time - there doesn't seem to have been a Spider-Man annual for this year and elsewhere World had given up on the Doctor Who annuals (just as they were getting their act together). Add in Marvel UK's drift from superheroes to licensed properties - I suspect their only superheroes at this time were the odd backup strip.

DC/London Editions Magazines would partially fill the superhero gap in 1988 with their Superman and Batman titles but otherwise this very different market in the UK may be one of the reasons why Marvel UK's attempt to aim at both sides of the Atlantic landed in the middle.

Harry

9/12/2014 04:15:58 am

Was the reduction in superhero stuff published by Marvel UK due to the increased availability of American comics in specialist comic shops in Britain? I know I saw plenty when on holiday in Blackpool in either 1985 or 1987 (we went twice), but, regrettably, there was nowhere over here that I knew of that stocked US comics (maybe in Dublin?). So it meant most of the superhero stuff that I got to read was the likes of the Spidey/Iron Man of 2020 story, or the Iron Man story that was used in Transformers as a back-up a little after that.

Stuart

10/12/2014 01:19:54 pm

Certainly awareness of the original American comics seems to be coming to the fore at this time (as we've seen, both this comic and Action Force have had to acknowledge their US forebears in their respective letters page), though realistically how applicable that would be to the generally younger target audience of Annuals I'm not so sure.

I did wonder at the absence of the Spider-Man Annual, not doing one-coupled with the Stranger Danger comic having to recap who he is- suggests the post Zoids team up late 80's weren't a great time for Peter Parker in the UK.

Tim Roll-Pickering link

11/12/2014 04:03:01 am

I've no idea about the comic shop expansion - I wonder if there are any distributor records still in existance that would show one way or the other. I think 1987 would have been about the time the industry was recovering from a mini over-ordering crash and distributors were loosening the terms of entry credit to absurdly low levels so there could well have been a growth.

Alternatively the letters may just be a sign of longer term readers now being just old enough to discover long standing stores like Forbidden Planet.

One possible factor was the way US comics were pitching for an older audience just as the UK market seemed to be swinging in the opposite direction. But we'd need someone who knows more about the overall market to answer.

Felicity link

4/11/2019 10:23:37 pm

For some reason, despite allowing all the JavaScripts, I can’t leave a comment on the previous entry, so here’s the comment I would have left:

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Wow! Look at that Dave Gibbons cover!

Most of the time the planet is “Nebulos” and the people are “Nebulans” but at one point in “The Rebirth” one of the Nebulans calls the planet “Nebulon,” so I can’t blame you for using both names. :-)

Was Richard Starkings’ Marvel UK shared universe plan what led to all those things tying into the Mys-Tech corporation in the early 1990s?

It’s hard to imagine Shockwave laughing maniacally, either in cartoon or comic personality! I’m glad you included the panel! :-)

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And now the comment on this entry:

Cyclonus grabs Scourge by the beard the same Rowdy Roddy Piper grabs George Buck Flower by the beard in “They Live” (1988)!

I wonder if Llyra’s skimpy outfit is based on the SF trope, starting from at least the 1960s, that in the future clothing rules would be even more relaxed and everyone would dress in ways we would find provocative but to them it’s normal.

Transformation 134: Grab the Beard.

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