Transformation 160: A Pickle For Branson.

5/6/2015

It;s the first ever gratuitous celebrity cameo in Transformers, starting us down a road that will lead to Buzz Aldrin being Optimus Prime's BFF.

With that taking up a third of the comic, there's barely any room for plot, but new boy on the block Lee Sullivan gives us some very nice art.

All in my look at Salvage! Part 1.

14 Comments

Ralph Burns

5/6/2015 08:56:35 am

Damn right Grimlock is Grimlock! I hope you've learned your lesson or it will be the V.V.H. for you!

Words cannot convey how much the cover image scared the absolute shit out of me at the time. Not because Magnus is having a bad time in some lava but because HIS MOUTH IS OPEN AND THE LAVA IS GOING INSIDE HIM AAAAARRRRRGGGGHHH.

In other news, the order to get the Psycho Probe is one of the great mad moments in TF-UK for it shows how Shockers is by now firmly on his slide to Planet Bonkersville. It's hard to imagine his former more 'in control' self going in for that kind of tomfoolery but at this point he's probably thinking: "Fuck it! Galvatron beat up my fish robots the other week! Time to get some psycho probing on!" Indeed, I can even imagine an exciting 'drum and bass' dance tune pulsing away as Shockers continues to snap his fingers to get Snaptrap to bring increasingly nutty devices for him while the Seacon dances to his tune with a top-hat and cane.

SPECIAL TEAMS!

Alex

5/6/2015 08:58:22 am

"The key to his success is that he's a fanboy. He may not have had much time for or understanding of Transformers, but he grew up on and loved its 1960's predecessors devoted to the likes of the work of Gerry Anderson or the Daleks. He knows how important books like this can be to young children and never looked down on it or gave less than his all. "

Lovely tribute to the man, there. The artwork for 'Altered Image' has been seared on to my brain since childhood.

John d.

5/6/2015 11:46:00 am

Did Branson appear in all UK comics at this time then? Still seems like a really bizarre appearance. Continued thanks for the skilful way you're highlighting how these stories were weird and out of step with us continuity. As a kid I felt the stories seemed kind of empty and missing characters but coils really articulate it! Why is the lettering weird on this issue? Ps I always loved lee sullivans work, really sells the Quintesson stuff to come.

Stuart

6/6/2015 07:24:23 am

@Ralph: I hadn't realised when writing but the PSYCHO PROBE is actually taken from that classic and much beloved favourite of the UK videos: The Girl Who Loved Powerglide. I wonder is Megatron's head will turn out to be as empty as Astoria's was?

@Alex: Thank you Sir.

@John: As far as I'm aware this is the only comic Braser turned up in. The environmental campaign seems to have been a bit of an excuse on both sides (Wikipeidia doesn't mention how old his children are, but I wouldn't be surprised if at least his son was a fan and this was an elaborate "Look kids, Dad is cool!" moment).

Simon Hall

7/6/2015 02:36:50 am

The 'Super Dick' thing you mention there is from that clipping in the Titan trades isn't it? That's probably not a fair 'regular press covers Transformers' thing, as its taken from the NME's Thrills page, which featured lampoons of the mores of the music industry. Still, I suppose its better than the usual 'Biff! Pow! Desperate Dan eats Cow Pie' style newspaper articles about comics.

As for Salvage, I'm immune to the flaws and not much happening in the first part, as my exposure to this came through reading it in a 1994 holiday special. I like how its kind of a slow story that builds up to a nice confrontation between Mags and Galvy.

And yes, lovely art from Lee Sullivan :)

@John d. The lettering is 'weird' as its the handwritten style of Tom Frame, whose distinctive lettering could usually be seen in the pages of 2000AD. I miss the days of hand written lettering.

Chris Chapman

7/6/2015 07:59:04 am

The TF Wiki makes a very good point here that Snap Trap's face is never seen in this or the next issue - that he's always got this weird shadow across him. Very odd. Was Lee not given a proper design reference?

Stuart

7/6/2015 11:11:49 am

@Simon: Aye, that's the piece I was thinking of. Did this actually get any other press coverage? I've hedged my bets in the article but don't recall anything else ever being mentioned (despite that being the intent).

I hadn't realised this had gotten the reprint treatment, I really need to try and get hold of those last few specials before I get there.

@Chris, I don't know if the reprints have darkened the art through the scanning, but it really doesn't feel like a problem at Sullivan's end to me in the original comic. It looks like he drew the face and for some reason the colourist decided to make Snap Trap's head and shoulder's dark grey/light black.

ChriS Chapman

7/6/2015 02:17:21 pm

Weird, it does seem really blatant in the Titan reprint... The shadows fall in the same way wherever Snaptrap goes.

Maybe the colourist didn't have a colour reference!

Auntie Slag

11/6/2015 03:12:05 pm

Was this the last time we ever see Centurion? What a rough little ending for the guy, completely reinvented as his own character (Wheeljack somehow having the power to give life, so its not just a Prime trait), do something cool and that's it!

I'm not overly bothered though, he looked so much cooler in his Prof Morris days when he was just two flashing yellow eyes behind a razor sharp American Football helmet.

Auntie Slag

12/6/2015 02:17:45 am

Here's something that's not been bothering me for 27 years; robots were dying all the time when they were thrown into the Smelting Pool. Yet Magnus and Galvatron just get entombed in volcanic lava, and come out of it reasonably ok.

The Terminator turned to liquid metal in T@ when lowered into the smelting pool. Can any Transformer survive a volcano then? Yes, you can argue all the "Galvatron was forged in the fires of a god, he doesn't follow conventional Transformer technology because he was made by another being", but Magnus was made at Wilko and he still seems capable of withstanding a volcanic event.

Felicity

8/11/2019 05:22:46 am

At the end of “Heavy Metal War,” the Decepticons are forced into the lava and presumed gone, though Megatron resurfaces shortly thereafter. In a neat parallel, at one point we see just his hand poking out of the lava in much the same as Galvatron’s is on the planet Thrull in “Five Faces of Darkness, Part 1.”

Stuart

12/6/2015 03:21:59 am

You've ruined the magic Slag. :(

;)

Felicity link

8/11/2019 05:27:38 am

I don’t know if I’d say Lee Sullivan’s art here beats the socks off any American we’ve had so far, as I think Delbo has a stronger sense of three-dimensionality. But after re-reading my old “Marvel Age” collection and reading about Sullivan’s art in “Robocop,” “Open Space,” and “Tekwar,” I’m interested in rediscovering Sullivan’s art, so this is good news that he’s in this review!

It seemed like Shockwave and Ratbat were in joint command until Ratbat abandoned Shockwave to fall back to Earth while the Decepticon island vroomed off into space. Since Shockwave explicitly survived in the British comics, it’s not unusual for him to continue to act as if he is in command.

I think we’re coming up to the “GI Joe” issue I was talking about before with Serpentor remembering the Battle of Hastings!

Felicity

8/11/2019 05:48:52 am

PS: two other impressive things:

1. The size of Fortress Maximus in that “Rebirth” art. Animated Fort Max is supposed to be another city Transformer like Metroplex and this really gets that across.

2. Megatron’s frightened pose in the next-issue preview art. That is some excellently-conveyed cowering!

Transformation 160: A Pickle For Branson.

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