Transformation 298: My Kind of Town.

25/1/2018

New York, New York. So good they wrecked it twice. This week, we visit a dark future where Galvatron rules the Earth and ask: Is Simon Furman a 9/11 predicting prophet? Or just a guy that knows a good visual image?

Plus: The Pretender Monsters!

All in my look at ISSUE 298.

5 Comments

Simon Hall

28/1/2018 12:27:42 pm

Galvatron calling the Pretenders "Less Than Nothing" is a fair point. They are crappy toys. I don't think they turned up in the UK either, difd they?

This is a nice opening part of this issue. It's all the stuff with the remaining resistance coming next that I don't like. Delbo's art is nice - I forget who inks him this issue, but it looks a lot rougher and rawer which really helps.

I've just noticed I own all the trades and GNs listed in the sidebar! At the time, there was a clear distinction between what was a Graphic Novel and what was a trade.

A Trade Paperback collected a series of issues from the regular run of a particular comic. A Graphic Novel was a self-contained story specifically in the 'book' format. That most of these tended to feature painted artwork is what leant them the 'Graphic' moniker. That and being presented in some kind of oversized format.

You also had later 'Bookshelf' formats, which were basically 64 page card covered specials the size of a normal US comic that were a self-contained story but produced using regular comic book colouring techniques and / or colour washes and less fancy paper stock.

IIRC, The misuse of the Graphic Novel/ Trade Paperback forms came from mainstream media and retailers such as Waterstones and Borders (who they), as they began to market and sell comics to the regular book-buying public. This of course, all coming off the back of Watchmen and The Dark Knight returns, where a lot of people used the term Graphic Novel to make comics seem somehow more valid and important or grown up as a medium. And so they didn't feel silly reading stories ostensibly about people in tights with silly names punching each other.

Tim Roll-Pickering link

30/1/2018 11:58:08 am

I also can't remember the Pretender Monsters. It's telling that this story doesn't even bother to show their particular second gimmick (combining) - indeed for that matter the mega Pretenders don't show theirs either. I guess even Hasbro US didn't care much.

I disagree that the trade paperback/graphic novel distinction is entirely down to retailers. Marvel UK often seemed to use the terms a bit too interchangeably, most notably with some of the Doctor Who comic strip collected editions of the day. You're right that retailers have added to the mess, perhaps because a "trade paperback" is also the term for a softcover version of the hardcover release, mainly to create a lighter version for sending to reviewers and selling at airports. (And just to add to it all is the "album" format in France & Belgium that can be either a collection of existing pages or a straight-to-bookshop release.)

Anonymous X

12/2/2018 12:49:29 am

The Pretender Monsters were indeed available in UK toy shops. Roughly around the era of this issue too.

Felicity

23/12/2019 11:39:23 am

I like the moody lighting on the cover. Kudos to the colourist.

“Homotobot”?!

JeremiahEcks

5/3/2025 06:14:02 pm

The Pretender Monsters... not particularly interesting characters and even less so when IDW seemed to get fascinated with them and made Monstructor The First Combiner! and pimped him out as Omega Supreme's nemesis. Honestly, I didn't care then and I don't care now. They are less than nothing.

The only time the Pretender Monsters worked for me was when they were repurposed as the Dinocons for Victory and the only reason they worked there was because they were the only absolute comic relief on the Decepticon's side which was needed when the Destrons were so cool and deadly serious.

And nowadays some of the Pretender Monster's toys are secreting with a weird liquid so I have heard. Not nice.

In terms of Rhythms... Galvatron in the cartoon is my favourite Transformers character ever. So having a Galvatron who won who is, as Stuart said, out of his tree, is just down my alley.

Delbo is never better than here but I've always been a big fan of his since I saw some of his DC work, if I show my hand now. And aside from the usual Yomtov block colouring he even has some great moments here. Still, it's a shame the US comic never had a half competent colourist.

I've got more thoughts about Rhythms of Darkness but we'll cover those in future parts...

All in all I would say this issue was a win. A big win.

Transformation 298: My Kind of Town.

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