Transformation 213: Three, it's the Magic Number?

10/6/2016

As the book teeters on the edge of cancellation it takes the first of several drastic steps to save itself. With very mixed results.

Yes, it's our first three strip issue and on the one hand you have Cloudburst and Landmine being quite dull, whilst on the other Megatron is pure awesome. And on the third on Visionaries actually appear this week.

It's lucky Octus has so many hands.

It's all in my look at issue 213!

Plus, are you Euan Peters?

22 Comments

Tim Roll-Pickering link

10/6/2016 07:47:15 pm

Although my first regular issue is still a few months away, this is the era when I came onboard and I know I'm not the only fan who arrived during this time. So my views were more mixed as the shift had already happened. Interesting to see an explicit acknowledgement that the UK strip is treated as the main one - a lot of guides seem to go for the first one in page order rather than which normally got the cover, the lead text in Transformation and even, when it returns, prominence in the Next Week box.

"the release schedule not briefly shifting to bimonthly for logistical reasons"

I can't think of when this happened. You may be confused by the use of the term "biweekly" for what the UK normally calls "fortnightly" (in fact "biweekly" and "bimonthly" are such confusing terms that organisations are sometimes explicitly advised to avoid at all costs in rules and meeting notices). There was a period towards the end of 1989 when all the monthly Marvel titles appear to have had two extra issues but this was a product of moving the cover dates closer to publication by having "Mid Month" issues to absorb the gap (DC handled this more elegantly with "Winter Special" and "Holiday Special" issues with the regular numbering). The real problems at this stage are that four part stories last 48 weeks not 52 and Marvel US may still be sending the masters en bloc.

Interesting to see Budiansky finally finding a way to make the Pretender shells work as disguises and now it's the humans and Nebulons who have problems of scale. I think from this point onwards all the aliens we see are Transformer sized. (/awaits someone pointing out the obvious overlooked stories.)

Megatron's restoration continues afoot and I wonder where Furman would have taken him had not the US adventures inadvertantly derailed things - by the time of Earthforce (whenever that's set) Megatron has fallen back to the old stereotypes, sadly another sign of Furman phoning in some of the last UK adventures.

The Visionaries origin again... Well it would make sense if they were going to hang around permanently - their previous arrival (and to some extent Action Force's) didn't come with a great deal of background material and so this is a better introduction. But as a one-off final outing from Marvel UK? It's a very odd choice. I suspect running Visionaries as the B feature may have come from a higher level than Peters - was Paul Neary editor in chief by this point? Indeed have the later EiCs ever been interviewed about Transformers?

And yes, the letterspage is a mess. Clearly it's not being written by anyone working on the strips who can answer a lot of the questions (see also some of the poor sub-editing of US footnotes and AtoZ first appearances) and it won't be a good place for explaining the company line. One could almost use it as a case study in what not to do.

Stuart

10/6/2016 09:24:46 pm

Good catch on the four parts not splitting neatly into a year anyway, I knew that and had meant to mention it and plain forgot.

And yes, I had misunderstood the cover dates for the early Furman US issues.

I wonder who actually wrote the letters page after Furman left? Ian Rimmer was happy to leave it to his editorial assistant and certainly shifting through the mail feels more like a subordinates job. Furman presumably did it himself for fun.

Tetsuro

11/6/2016 09:05:10 am

Considering the US adventure that derailed things for Megatron was also written by Furman, he'd been in the perfect position to try and amend the obvious gap between the UK and US stories - something that'd made sense regardless which comic you'd been following - but chose not to.

I mean I guess "Two Megatrons" is technically it, but it felt kind of like a slap in the face after all the effort into developing what turned out to be a Straxus clone.

And yet, Deathbringer gets brought up in the US comic.

Tim Roll-Pickering link

11/6/2016 10:33:51 am

Actually I'd guess that early US Furman is his most restrained period since the early days with Ian Rimmer. Bear in mind that from Marvel US's perspective Furman was an unknown writer from abroad, even if he did have a good grasp of the property and characters. So he wouldn't have had the clout to easily structure the plot and script in a way that a bit of relettering could cover over the differences. Instead he had a long standing editor only focused on the US stories who may have wanted to up the whole "Megatron is BACK!!!" angle. Later on when he had more clout he could give Shockwave a "I am very hard to kill" speech that cuts both ways.

Ryan F

10/6/2016 10:48:55 pm

I always assumed it was Peters who wrote Dread Tidings; certainly the writing style in both the letters pages and the Transformation editorial 'feel' like they're from the same writer. The 'bad answers' section is going to be compulsive reading: don't want to spoil it for people but there are are some brilliant answers coming up about the Jumpstarters, Five Faces of Darkness, and the mythical Powermaster Prime VHS...

As to Visionaries, like Action Force it always felt to me like a Hasbro mandate. Too low-key to support a UK comic of their own, how else can Hasbro sell these toys to kids? The answer: stick them in Transformers and put the logo on the front cover. At least then you get some brand awareness out there. Sadly for Hasbro, the Visionaries cartoon was stuck on Sunday mornings on Channel 4, so most kids (who would have been tuned into BBC1 or ITV) probably missed it. Had they put it on a more mainstream channel (and the toys not been completely overshadowed by the much bigger Supernaturals), it might have gained more than just a cult following in the UK.

Tim Roll-Pickering link

10/6/2016 11:15:53 pm

Radio Times disagrees with you a bit - it was a Sunday morning show but on BBC2. And notably it didn't start until October 1989. http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/bbctwo/england/1989-10-08#at-9.30

Children's BBC Sunday morning offerings then were generally second screenings of stuff from that week or old repeats. Great for catching up in the days when VCR timers were near impossible to understand and tapes extremely expensive for kids. Visionaries having a single screening then seems odd. It's also a good eighteen months later than the comic, and presumably toyline, launch (shades of Transformers) but it may have been the intention of Hasbro and/or Marvel UK to tie in with the screenings - perhaps the BBC had picked up the show much earlier but failed to find a slot for it?

Stuart

11/6/2016 12:10:59 am

Action Force doesn't seem to have had a terrestial screening, so Visionaries may have just been lucky to get picked up as filler. The beeb didn't usually go for the toy based stuff for obvious reasons (the big exception that springs to mind is Turtles, which may have slipped through due to it being a comic first. Was Thundercats beeb as well? That's the other notable one of the period that was created as something before the toys), so the toyline having come died and gone may have helped it there.

Ryan F

11/6/2016 09:13:31 am

Cheers Tim - you learn something new every day! Could have sworn it was C4... guess the memory cheats! Still, BBC2 and C4 were about on a par in terms of 'channels not watched by kids on Sunday mornings'.

Lee Gannon

11/6/2016 01:15:05 am

I once won the complete Visionaries series DVD (along with season 2 of Transformers) in a competion.

Ryan F

11/6/2016 09:25:01 am

In reply to Stuart's musings on toy shows on the Beeb, the only other ones I can think of off the top of my head are Bravestarr and The Wuzzles (my sister was a big fan of the latter).

Simon Hall

11/6/2016 03:33:07 pm

Thundercats was indeed shown on the BBC, it was broken up and shown in two parts during Going Live! More recently, the BBC screened The Batman, although the comic book providence, rather than the tie-in toyline, may have got this through the various hoops at the BBC.

As for Paul Neary, he doesn't become EIC until about 1991, IIRC. I have an article from Comic Collector magazine that gives some good info on the state of Marvel UK at the time he became EIC and the changes he instigated (essentially, a new Death's Head limited series was in the works - eventually scrapped in favour of DHII, Knights Of Pendragon was still doing well, Strip and foundered and he was looking into trialling a new UK originated adventure title that ultimately became Overkill).

Tim Roll-Pickering link

11/6/2016 06:11:53 pm

Thundercats seems to have wandered between weekday afternoons and Saturday mornings (and I seem to recall it even achieved the Holy Grail of daily screenings on weekday holiday mornings) over a period of several years starting in January 1987 and even had a period as an early weekday morning show in 1994 - I have no idea if this link will work but try: http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/search/0/20?adv=0&q=thundercats&media=all&yf=1923&yt=2009&mf=1&mt=12&tf=00%3A00&tt=00%3A00#search

Looking through it seems the series was picked up by both Going Live and the preceding summer shows (anyone remember "UP2U" or "On the Waterfront"?) in the summer 1988 to spring 1989 seasons, but otherwise was broadcast as a standalone element that's easier to find in listings.

If Neary only became EiC in 1991 was he responsible for ditching Lew Stringer's cartoons?

Stuart

12/6/2016 10:39:53 pm

Indeed, I can't recall if he named him, but Stringers standard story (which I believe was recorded for prosperity in one of the Brickman Books) is Richard Starkings told him that a Marvel UK comic wouldn't be a Marvel UK comic without a Lew Stringer strip, then a week later he left the company and the new big boss didn't agree (comically exagerated and with some compression of time for effect no doubt).

Simon Hall

13/6/2016 08:23:12 pm

I remember 'On The Waterfront' (attempts theme tune) 'the party starts right here/ on the waterfront' ...it was pretty awful. Kate Capstick did a sort of 'Through The Keyhole' in minor pop celebrities cars and Andrew O'Connor was on as well, for unfathomable reasons. The other presenter was that fella who ended up doing a lot of daytime telly shows...can't remember his name.

'UP2U' I can only remember because Jenny Powell was on it.

Both of these pale into the horror that was 'Parallel 9' - a p*ss poor magazine shown with vague sci-fi trappings that saw guests beamed from Melanie off of Neighbours motorhome in a desert to a poorly lit studio in which a corpse in gold robes spoke baffling nonsense.

Tim Roll-Pickering link

13/6/2016 09:42:47 pm

Lucinda Cowden was on the second series of Parallel 9. I enjoyed the first series - it dared to be different and higher concept than the average magazine show. Then they totally revamped it and turned it into trash.

bouncelot

14/6/2016 09:25:47 pm

Have to agree with you about Parallel 9. The first series was unusual and innovative, and the revamped second series was completely rubbish by comparison. I enjoyed the first, but not the second.

Ralph Burns

14/6/2016 06:41:33 pm

It's worth nothing that despite the traumatic changes for the comic that start here they did work: a third of its lifespan still lies ahead of us, we're now into the longest continuous run of UK material and at the end we have arguably the second great imperial phase. Also DARN N' BLAST but let's not try to think of that too much right now.

SPECIAL TEAMS!

John D. link

15/6/2016 11:14:23 pm

Am pretty sure I remember leaping about the couches in the living room during the opening credits of Thundercats on weekday afternoons, possibly spring or summer 1987? I loved it, the animation felt very high quality indeed. I can't really recall the details of this megatron story - is it set in the present? Did he head there after time wars? Is this the "clone" megatron then? The Pretenders story was yet more horrible driven from Budiansky. Has anybody seriously discussed that the reason the US comic sales were tanking was because 3/4 of the stories were absolutely horrible? Look at the upturn in story quality and maturity after Furman takes charge. I usually hated the US stories in comparison to the UK ones and I can hardly be alone in that. Robot Master, all the Curcuit Breaker stuff, the Mechanic (you know what really really annoyed me - Ratchet searching for radiators in a car junk yard to repair Prowl). Micro masters as wrestlers. Pretenders as movie stars. Optimus Prime blowing himself up after losing a video game. Optimus Prime returning at a "cosmic carnival" (I know you liked those issues Stu, but - nah). The car wash of doom. If you write this stuff down it's totally damning. The Smelting Pool and the Grimlock leadership nonsense are the only decent stretches.

Ryan F

15/6/2016 11:49:40 pm

The UK and US TF comic sales figures follow a broadly consistent trend: steep upwards curves to about late-85-ish, followed by a steady decline. There's nothing to suggest that the quality of writing was a deciding factor; On the Edge of Extinction sold far fewer copies than Shooting Star, for example.

Indeed, it could be argued that by aiming the later issues of the comic at a slightly older demographic (kids who had grown up with the franchise, so 10-13 year olds), Furman was neglecting the new generation of fans.

Silly though it may be, Cosmic Carnival could have been read and enjoyed by the average eight-year-old, whereas the more complex and metatextual stuff (like the Moby-Dick pastiche that I forget the name of right now) would likely have daunted all but the older and avid readers.

The Generation 2 comic was like "hey potential new kid fans, we don't want you here, but for the 10 thousand hardcore fanboys still reading, here's some high-concept sf with a huge body count".

Obviously there are other factors which caused the TF comic to tank in its later years (lack of a cartoon tie-in post-Rebirth, rise of decent alternatives like Ninja Turtles, rise of video games, general slump in comic sales across the board etc.), but I don't think Uncle Bob's crazy concepts were a deciding factor.

Stuart

16/6/2016 12:29:49 am

I think James Roberts has said on twitter (presumably as a result of his research. Though if your reading this Euan Peters and know better...) this revamp marks a point where the comic is actively trying to skewer younger to bring in new readers. Which might explain the odd attempts at slang in the editorial stuff. When this doesn't halt the decline the ontent was to go in the complete opposite direction and stop the shrinkage by aiming right at the older die hard fans.

It'll be interesting to see how well those goals come across.

Ryan F

16/6/2016 06:46:38 am

While there are some pretty frothy UK b/w stories, especially during Earthforce (Snow Fun, Mystery, Bugged, Living Nightlights), some of the others (Demons, Shadow of Evil, Aspects of Evil) are quite dark in tone - so if there was a conscious decision to dumb down the BW stories it doesn't seemed to have kicked in for a while? Maybe this was the reason why the whole future Rodimus / corrupted Matrix / post Time Wars Galvatron arc was so swiftly abandoned?

Snowkatt link

14/4/2017 10:40:30 am

This was actually the second TF UK issue I read.
Yes, I really do know how to pick them.

Transformation 213: Three, it's the Magic Number?

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