Transformation 173: Cyclonus' New Hearing Aid.

4/9/2015

This week we say goodbye to Bryan Hitch and hello to a tense nervous headache for Cyclonus. Plus, someone at last points out Rack'N'Ruin is a really odd looking fellow.

Plus, can Peter Pez Clown Policeman IN SPACE give Energy Giving Beefballs a run for their money?

All in my look at Wrecking Havoc Part 2!

And don't forget to join in with the new Readers Pictures section in the bookshop.

26 Comments

Ralph Burns

4/9/2015 07:15:57 pm

Don't *@&£ with Peter Pez.

SPECIAL TEAMS!

Stuart

4/9/2015 07:16:53 pm

Just imagine if he were to eat Energy Giving Beefballs.

Ralph Burns

8/9/2015 12:27:23 pm

I'd fear him more if he ate some Ricicles and joined forces with Captain Ric.

SPECIAL TEAMS!

snowkatt

8/9/2015 12:21:54 pm

im going to have to disagree here
the art feels remarkably flat stiff and undynamic
all characters behave remarkably awkward or stiffly

the panel where galvatron evades racknruin's attacks looks more like his is squatting while trying to swat a fly then evading an attack

the lackluster art goes hand in hand with a lackluster story
it might lay downa lot of ground work for future stories but in the end its still lackluster and remarkably lightweight
it has a fight scene to try and hide the lack of interest but int he end fluff with a few hooks for future stories is all it is

one of the weaker installments as far as i am concerned

Ralph Burns

8/9/2015 12:25:40 pm

I agree. Then and now I always found the art and story (while ok) a bit flat after many weeks of mad zombie and gladatorial action. While I know Hitch does not come back on the strip did he still do som covers later on? I'm sure he did a Springer cover in the early 200's though I could be misrembering.

SPECIAL TEAMS!

snowkatt

8/9/2015 01:30:30 pm

its mostly set up wrapped in two action scenes to give it a bit more oomph but the story it self is very flat and the art rather stiff with awkward stilted poses

reed might be very wibbely wobbely but his art is never stiff or lacking in kinetic action

according to the tf wiki hitch leaves the comic permanently
he does the covers for collected comics 8 9 and 10 but i have no idea if those were done before or after wreaking havoc

hitch returned in 2001 to do a cover for the hardcover version of end of the road http://tfwiki.net/wiki/File:Titan-EndOfTheRoadHC.jpg
the result is...ehh

he also seems to like to pretend that he didnt work on transformers uk or deaths head http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Bryan_Hitch

speaking of covers the cover for this issue is another bland affair ruined by annoying out of place speech bubbles

Simon Hall

8/9/2015 10:09:08 pm

I'm another who's not mad keen on Bryan's work here. The claustrophobic nature of the battle does come off well, but I dunno, maybe its that his ink work isn't as refined that's the problem. Its good solid stuff, but I'm struggling to see the dynamism that Stuart is here.

I can understand that Bryan is perhaps somehow ashamed or embarrassed by his early work on a children's comic, but there's no shame in it and his work on Death's Head still holds up well after all these years. The difference between his Transformers work and DH is quite startling too.

I was reading some old Marvel Comics the other day and current Spider-scribe Dan Slott (who has generally done some very fine work with the mess Marvel made of Spidey in the last 25 years) paid his dues writing Ren & Stimpy and the Phantom Rider back up in Original Ghost Rider, so Mr. Hitch isn't alone. I wonder if Grant Morrison gets asked about his Zoids work ...?

Does annoy me when artists are dismissive of their early work ... especially when its something I've enjoyed! Like with Bullet For My Valentine, I really liked Temper Temper, but now they've dismissed it as a big mis-step as (horror of horrors) it has a little more mass appeal than their other stuff (although the circumstances in which they made that album probably have more to do with this than any other considerations). It makes me feel like a fool for investing in something that I'm now being told is rubbish and that makes me sad :(

I OWN THE BOOK!

Simon Hall

8/9/2015 10:13:57 pm

Also!

@Mr Ralph - that Springer cover you're thinking of was by Simon Coleby an artist whose odd, blocky style I could never get into, although a lot of folk seemed to think was ace. Different strokes, I suppose...

Ralph Burns

10/9/2015 06:44:47 pm

I stand corrected!

SPECIAL TEAMS!

Chris Chapman

9/9/2015 08:14:20 pm

I love the art! Always have. Cyclonus ripping the wall off the building and then getting whacked by the cars is great - and it's one of the few issues that really sells the scale of the Transformers.

Next week's art will be... not as good.

snowkatt

9/9/2015 09:58:02 pm

i would disagree there
delbo produces solid workman like art that stil has a sense of fludity and he has to draw well over 120 characters in totalled in both their robot mods altmodes and in between mods with nary a mistake

and most mistakes can be laid at yomtov's door not many artists can boast that
if this was frank springer the character models would be all over the place

so not as good huh what ?

Alex

10/9/2015 05:59:15 pm

I have to disagree about Delbo's fluidity - on the contrary, I find it extremely stiff. For me that's the appeal of his work, though - these characters seem like vast, statue-like machines. There's something almost iconic about his representations (helped in no small part by swiping from the character models!).

His Fort Max is my second fave after Wildman/Baskerville's and I always enjoyed his crowd scenes.

Stuart

9/9/2015 08:47:55 pm

It just goes to show how everyone has a different take on things.

As for Hitch denying his early work... well, either he's mellowed, was joking (as he does think it shows it was early work) or whoever heard him say that caught him on a bad day. After all, he retweeted and replied to my piece on his first Transformers issue, not to mention his "How to draw" book from a few years ago opened with some info about his Action Force work suggesting he's not a man for old shames. Also his Titan cover was basically done as a favour to Furman IIRC.

That tfwiki page actually sounds a little grumpy, "He sure as hell didn't when drawing giant robots".... wow, that's a bit confrontational for a wiki page. How dare the man not drawn Transformers in the style he hadn't yet developed (even if I'd argue this issue in particular does).

snowkatt

9/9/2015 10:02:33 pm

different strokes for different people i suppose
but where you see dynamicism i just see awkward stilted poses and a lack of fluidity and motion
that galvatron kneeling panel is particularly stilted
it doesnt even look like he is making any sort of effort to avoid racknruins attack he just kneels

as for the tf wiki page its 2 and half years old by now so things might have changed

Alex

10/9/2015 05:54:13 pm

Transformers fans being absurdly literal? Never!

(*Cough* "Welcome to the dark side" *Cough*)

Ralph Burns

10/9/2015 06:46:05 pm

I have always bowed before Delbo!
(Also leaned backwards).

SPECIAL TEAMS!

Cradok

10/9/2015 10:55:41 am

Hitch was nice enough to me when I mentioned TFs at a signing he did, and that was probably ten years ago. I didn't actually get him to sign anything TF, because I didn't have anything with a cover, and I've got this weird thing about asking an artist to sign a cover they didn't do, even if they did the contents.

John D. link

11/9/2015 08:14:50 am

I remember being pretty impressed with Hitch's work, it certainly felt like something quite different at the time, a bit "gritty", perhaps that's because he was still learning?

John D. link

11/9/2015 08:17:59 am

Ps Ralp with "leaning backwards" are you joking about how Delbo characters always seem to lean back from the waist? Fort Max and Optimus always looked like they were trying to stick out a beer belly. Or maybe I am just imagining things. Lastly Stuart I insist those cars smashing Cyclonus are in scale. If Dan Reed had drawn them there would have been 2 amoeba-ish blobs...

Stuart

11/9/2015 02:17:30 pm

A quick Google for "Bryan Hitch didn't work on Transformers" didn't bring up any quotes to back up the TFwiki claim, but did reveal a sample of the book I mentioned (which must be about ten years old as well), which actually includes a page from part 1 of this story as well as the Action Force piece I remembered! I think at best the wiki piece misunderstood a joke (akin to me taking someone who worked on Dark Cybertron when they once said to me "I had nothing to do with it!" seriously) and at worst is just being twattish.

Stuart

11/9/2015 02:18:10 pm

...And sharing the link would help:

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=AACgSTuet3oC&pg=PA10&lpg=PA10&dq=Bryan+Hitch+didn%27t+work+on+transformers&source=bl&ots=nwY3s-IOs2&sig=SUekSsa0hZz_NtgAqB0f7C3t9Bo&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Bryan%20Hitch%20didn%27t%20work%20on%20transformers&f=false

snowkatt

11/9/2015 04:35:31 pm

link doesnt work

well it does work but i get an error stating that the book cant be found

Stuart

11/9/2015 04:40:53 pm

Odd, but Googling "Bryan Hitch didn't work on Transformers" should bring it up.

I started a thread at the archive looking to see what the source of the claims that he denied his work (if even in a joeky way) was. Nothing has come up so far, but a kind chap did find all sorts of tweets from the man talking about Death's Head (yes, in a "Not good is it?" way) and even correcting someone who thought She Hulk was his first work by mentioning Transformers and Action Force. Plus the reminder that, if Doctor Who hadn't come calling, he'd have been a guest at a Transformers convention ten years ago.

http://tfarchive.com/community/showthread.php?t=54463

It genuinely seems to be a totally made up lie. Why that is I've no idea, perhaps the person who made that page just has a beef?

snowkatt

11/9/2015 05:10:09 pm

that is off course entirely possible
or mis heard something said by hitch ?

who knows
but that page has been up there like that for 2 and a half years now

Felicity link

9/11/2019 09:49:48 pm

I have to agree with the above commenters in that I don’t see the appeal of Bryan Hitch’s art, at least in this issue (I think he did a cover that I found impressive a few entries ago).

I’m starting to think that if I had grown up in Britain I would have neglected to buy most of the issues of “Transformers” because I wouldn’t have liked the art enough, leading to me then having to shell out big bucks to collect them as an adult when they became nostalgic! :-)

Snowkatt

6/5/2024 06:08:24 pm

Nearly a full DECADE later.

I finally managed to get my hands on some actual TFUK comics, them being almost the entire 1988 run ( Space Pirates is missing 2 issues )

Seeing the art at its original published size does help a lot,I am used to the IDW reprints where its shrunk down.
But Hitch's efforts are still awkwardly and stiff here sadly.

The USA art does benefit from the enhanced size though.
Rarely seen it look this good.

Transformation 173: Cyclonus' New Hearing Aid.

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