The Solar Pool
Follow Me For Updates On:
  • Blog
  • Revisitation
  • Transformation
  • Book Shop
    • Heart of the Pool
    • Disclaimer
    • Links

Transformation 306: Stormy Weather.

23/3/2018

6 Comments

 
Picture
This week, Andrew Wildman arrives on art and Furman pauses to take stock before we kick off on the final great story arc of the series.

Plus, Optimus has had enough of people being happy, Grimlock loses his rag and Waverider makes his great contribution to the series.

All in my look at The Eye of the Storm Part 1!


6 Comments
Tim Roll-Pickering link
23/3/2018 04:45:21 pm

An incredible cover and as someone who had Latin lessons at the time it did help make the comic feel mature, even though I was unfamiliar with the statue.

It's around this time that Marvel US made the decision to axe the series. There also seems to have been a mini collapse in the boys' adventure comics market around this time - in the space of just a few months Transformers went fortnightly and Thundercats ended, while over at London Editions Magazines Superman & the Justice League went bimonthly and an attempt at a weekly DC title called Heroes bombed and was cancelled after just eight issues. All this could have been behind the confusion over format changes, page extensions, multiple back-up strips and so forth in this period as the title doesn't quite know what it's doing for the long run.

Although Transformers ultimately didn't make the switch, it was around this time that the switch was made by LEM for their Batman and Superman titles (although a few others would use glossier for a little longer). Maybe LEM beat Marvel UK for the Kympress contract? (Kympress paper is a term that Google can't produce much on.)

Reply
Ryan F
23/3/2018 08:09:05 pm

Yeah, comic sales figures were down across the board around this point in time. Although not as steep a decline, 2000 AD also lost a lot of readers around this time, too. My pet theory is that the explosion of the video games market meant that boys were spending less on comics, but I don’t know for sure.

Also, any industry-wide sales slumps will obviously hit smaller titles the hardest. It’s recently come to my attention that - even at its peak - TFUK was being outsold by “girly” comics like My Little Pony. It seems that girls made up a huge percentage of the comic-buying public in the UK, so maybe it stands to reason that boys’ titles would be more vulnerable to market instability.

Reply
Simon Hall
25/3/2018 01:31:18 pm

The Titan trades from 2000 (wow) were my first exposure to this story line and it is excellent and does work well as stand alone story. It's still one of my favourite Transformers stories ever and I like that it nicely builds to the arrival of Unicron. Wildman's art always looks 'wrong' to me when he inks it himself (sorry Andrew). As with Jeff Anderson, you forget how much Steven Baskerville brings to the table on inks. Up there with Mark Farmer as one of the best inkers I've ever seen.

Generally, this was an interesting period for UK comics and probably the last time you could comfortably say we had an industry. Whilst boys adventure titles aimed at 7-11 year olds were foundering, there did seem to be something of an outlet for more mature fare aimed at the teen and up market developing over the late '80s / early '90s. It won't last, sadly, leaving 2000AD the last man standing by the close of the decade.

Reply
Simon Hall
25/3/2018 01:35:15 pm

I forgot to mention, is that this story-arc - like that of Generation 2 - shows what Furman is capable of when he's got a clearly mapped out design of what he wants to do. Good stuff.

Reply
Tetsuryu
29/3/2018 03:10:43 pm

You mean like pushing the introduction of Action Masters as long as possible, hoping the comic would get cancelled before he had to actually write any stories heavily featuring them?

Reply
Felicity
25/12/2019 07:37:08 am

I liked the “They were the dream” intro at the top of the page.

I had to look at that cover twice because at first glance the shading looked like the Photoshop style that’s become standard in the last 20 years—but that wouldn’t have been likely in 1991; it was probably hand-painted.

Ah, it was Chromedome who had the joke about the “leg quest.” It would have made sense if it had been Longtooth, though! I’m not sure if I like the way the Hot Rod’s “Ha ha” has no punctuation or not. Let’s say that I like it. I need to balance out all the things I don’t like with some positivity.

Grimlock continues to just be the worst character of the series. The scene might have been more flattering to Waverider if he had been drawn without his helmet, as José Delbo drew Landmine and Cloudburst a few years before. Instead he looks awkward and uncool, like he’s half-suffocating.

I have to agree with Don Daley. I am not a fan of Andrew Wildman’s “Transformers” work (though his “GI Joe” work did grow on me!) and anything that can be done to make it more “on-model” is certainly appreciated. Perhaps Wildman made the Transformers stand and move in ways that were *too* natural and un-Transformer-like. It is definitely not an improvement on Dwayne Turner, IMHO.

Spike’s hair was best in “Trial by Fire,” when it was spiky, like his name. His subsequent hairstyles, like the Caesar cut in “Slaughter on the Slopes,” the ’fro in “Rhythms of Darkness,” and the generic hair he will have in “The Last Autobot,” are not as great.

Better than recycled paper: recycled stories! ☺

And just to end on something positive, I like the Autobots having some fun in their time off and Fixit looks cute in that shot of him working on Chromedome’s leg.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Stuart Webb. Who knows everything about nothing and not a lot about that.

    Archives

    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    March 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011

    Categories

    All
    Action Force/G.I. Joe
    Animated
    Announcement
    Armada
    Audio
    Avengers
    Baker
    Bay
    Beast Wars
    Big Finish
    Brosnan
    Capaldi
    Carpenter
    Carte Blanche
    Cartoon
    Combat Colin
    Comedy
    Comics
    Computer Games
    Costa
    Cullen
    Davison
    Death
    Discworld
    Doctor Who
    Dragon's Claws
    Dreamwave
    Dynamite
    Eccleston
    Ellis
    Fantasy
    Film
    Fleetway
    Frost
    Furman
    Generation 2
    Generation One
    Generation One
    Holmes
    Horror
    IDW
    James Bond
    James Roberts
    Jeffrey Deaver
    Ladybird
    Machine Man
    Marvel
    McCarthy
    Mccoy
    Mcgann
    Mosaic
    Nick Roche
    Nimoy
    Nintendo
    Panini
    Pegg
    Pratchett
    Prime
    Rescue Bots
    Revisitation
    RID
    Rincewind
    Science Fiction
    Science Fiction
    Shatner
    Signature
    Smith
    Sponsored
    Spy
    Star Trek
    Su
    Tennant
    Tipton
    Titan
    Torchwood
    Transformation
    Transformers
    Tv
    Visionaries
    Weatherwax
    Witches
    Wizards
    YouTube

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.