Transformation 156: Vote Spike.

8/5/2015

It's a surprising lack of topical political humour as I look at the how it turns out that, like Labour, we backed the wrong brother back at the start of the series and it was the elder one we should have been following all along.

Meet Spike and see the first time chromedome plays with someone's mind, all in my look at:

Trial by Fire! Part 1

17 Comments

Nathan

8/5/2015 02:37:00 pm

I remember reading this issue and deciding that next time I would buy 2000AD instead. And I did for a few weeks

snowkatt

8/5/2015 07:52:09 pm

its galen actually http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Galen_%28G1%29

galan is the main artist from G2 ( manny galan ) and he had a murderous deadline to work against
and was trying to emulate derek yanigers style

anyway i always liked this issue ( in its original US version )
it managed to tie in headmasters with the main transformers comic series

somewhat seamlessly introduce spike
and was one of the last few high points of budiasnkies run together with baptism by fire totalled and the underbase four parter
all the others are dire dire dire dire stuff

they are not even funny

anyway this half is not exactly excitement personified and mostly set up but a solid if unspectacular foundation

i always attributed galen's sudden 180 degrees shift in attitude to him being bonded with fortress maximus' mind
but your interpretation also sounds solid

because he looks so human i often forget that galen is NOT human
and his send off and character arc is pretty well done for a character was all in all in 5 US comics

and at least he got a character arc and a send off something a lot of other characters wouldnt get

Stuart

9/5/2015 05:41:28 am

Well that's an embarrassing name mistake. How do you people take anything I say seriously? It should all be corrected now.

snowkatt

11/5/2015 12:22:36 pm

weeheeel >.>
i found another error in the first caption box
it reads "my" instead of "me"

ie : you didnt see me in headmasters right ?

John D. link

10/5/2015 04:18:14 pm

Lets never speak of manny galan. Some of the worst TF artwork of all time, even including the really bizarre art that preceded the deception civil war stories (issue 70ish?).

snowkatt

11/5/2015 12:21:05 pm

galan's art is a bit ...uhh ..well ...unrefined
to put it politley but he was working under murderous time constraints
having to cough up entire issues in a matter of days

no wonder his art work suffered ( ask igor kordy about that on his new x-men run he will tell the same ;p )

but the worst transformers art as far as i am concerned goes to tom scioli

his artwork is bizarre out of proportion makes no sense the lay outs are ridiclous and his characters are stiff
its not even a homage to kirby
kirby knew how to lay a page out how to move things from left to right
how to choreograph and display action and his character were never ever stiff

scioli is just a jumbled mess with gaudy colors

oh and with preceding the decepticon civil war you mean TF US 68 ?
by dwayne turner ?
the human factor ? http://tfwiki.net/wiki/The_Human_Factor!

not a highlight but still better then scioli

John D. link

14/5/2015 07:30:03 pm

I always assumed tom scioli was press ganged into drawing a few issues about a robots tie in that he had no inter in whatsoever. Galan's art was horrendous, like something I would have sketched out myself when tired and just thrown away. And yes I mean dwayne turner! - what was that about? Again, like somebody's rubbish childhood oencils, but drowned in extra ink. It's not exactly surprising the book got canned when you think of the nonsense that was permitted in the US before furman's late renaissance. The damage was done.

Simon Hall

13/5/2015 01:49:20 pm

Says much about this issue that the discussion here has centred around artists working on other TF books...

I liked Galan's art, you could see it was rushed and he was trying too hard to mimic Yaniger's style, but he did some good work. I think G2 # 8 (the one with Prime & Megs standing on a pile of corpses) was his best.

As for Scioli, he has a very traditional approach to comic art - if you compare his work to Kirby or most other mid C20th comic artists and you'll see a similar style. He plays with the form a lot, leading to some interesting layouts and compositions, whether you find all this slightly too arch and distracting from the main business of telling a story is down to personal taste, but it makes Barber's drab 'this will happen now and then we must mention continuity point x' witterings more interesting. The four colour process they've gone for on G.I. Joe vs TF is another deliberate choice to sell the books' retro credentials - which is another reason why it looks so nauseating.

And I'll take both of these guys work over Delbo's slightly static efforts.

snowkatt

14/5/2015 12:01:19 pm

nah
i am familair with 60 70 and 80's "retro art
from ditko ( spiderman) to romita to kane ( gil not bob ) to colan ( iron man ) to kirby ( 2001 actually ) to steranko ( agent of shield ) to starlin ( the magus saga ) to trimpe ( the hulk ghost rider ) to budiansky ( ghostrider) to miller ( daredevil) to breyfogle ( batman) and more then just them
and scioli's art is absolutley nothing like them

his characters are static the layouts are confusing
its a detriment to the already mediocre story
id rather take delbo's art over scioli
at least you can see what his art is supposed to be its solid and workman like and he does organics and horror well

anyway this issue then
lots of build up not exactly spectacular
not much to say
but its a solid build up for the pay off in the next issue and budiansky deals with spike being foisted upon him reasonably well enough

and trial by fire and its follow up the desert island in space are the last few highlights of budiansky's run untill totaled and the underbase four parter
but everything else is dire stuff

Felicity

7/11/2019 06:19:31 pm

I agree with Snowkatt. Scioli would like to be Kirby but like a lot of fan artists he does not have the sense of construction or perspective. Delbo may not be as wild as Kirby but he does have a sense of construction and perspective.

Every reader has their own priorities, though. I’m more of a construction-oriented reader so I don’t get what’s so great about Neal Adams, yet many of the artists I admire cite Adams as an influence. (His advocacy for creators’ rights on the other hand is great.)

Auntie Slag

14/5/2015 03:55:30 pm

I remember feeling utterly cheated by this issue, because it had the coolest cover, what with HardHead looking all… hard, and then the absolutely pants artwork and lame storyline to fudge the Headmasters to Earth.

Also, ‘He’s Not Heavy, He’s My Brother’? I think you mean ‘He AIN’T Heavy…’. Call yourself a Hollies fan? Tsk! ;-)

Auntie Slag

14/5/2015 04:01:06 pm

Oh, and introducing Spike to our comic world felt like such a sell-out. IT was great to see Sparkplug again, but Spike was as much of a shoehorn as the Headmasters. And he didn't even look like cartoon spike!

The only way it could've gotten worse was by introducing Nergill.

Alex Smith

16/5/2015 03:01:30 am

It's okay, he looks like cartoon Spike by 2009, or whenever Time Wars part 1 is set.

I'm still waiting for my white jumpsuit.

Stuart

15/5/2015 01:55:01 pm

I've only read the first four issues of TF/Joe, but found it a pleasant enough barkingly fun read. It just doesn't have enough stamina to sustain an ongoing comic.

Ralph Burns

15/5/2015 02:16:19 pm

I still can't get over Grimlock and Soundwave lying to us all those times about how Spike wasn't real. Lies! Lies!
*pounds ground*

SPECIAL TEAMS!

snowkatt

15/5/2015 02:58:45 pm

spike doesnt believe they are real either

Felicity link

7/11/2019 06:16:22 pm

Another solid Delbo issue. I like the panel with the wall-sized monitor showing a typical Earth street scene at actual size, so it’s like the Nebulans are viewing it through a real window. I like the way he draws Spike’s spiky hair and the way his clothes hang.

IIRC we get some nice characterisation in the opening, both introducing us to all the Nebulans and also showing the difference in attitudes between the Autobot Nebulans and Decepticon Nebulans in how they view Earth.

I’m not too happy with Sparkplug’s attitude. Not everyone is good at mechanical things, OK, Sparkplug? Just accept your sons as they are.

I didn’t realise Bob Budiansky was annoyed at having to introduce Spike, so I guess he hid it well enough from some of us. Are they really the same apart from both being blond and bad at fixing cars? We’ll see if their personalities are similar as the story goes on. We get more from both of them via the Decepticon island and Underbase plotlines.

Gettin’ real sick of the “Transformation” writers disrespecting the cartoon.

Transformation 156: Vote Spike.

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