Transformation Specials

23/2/2013

Two entries to round off 1985 before we hit the first issue of the year of the film.

So, in a delicious combination, the Insecticons make their continuity busting first appearance; Megatron has a bridge fall on him; Hoist just sort of wanders in and the Jumpstarters are as exciting as you'd expect, all in:

The 1985 Annual.

Plus, the very first stories get reprinted for the children of 1985 who think 1984 was ancient history in:

the 1985 Collected Comics.

9 Comments

Tom link

23/2/2013 01:56:06 pm

Prowl's splinter bomb death in the first annual horrified me as a nipper; Plague isn't solidly contradicted until later (best part of six months later if I recall; plus I got the annual post-Dinobot Hunt) so seeing him bite the bullet like that was a Hell of a shock.

Tim Roll-Pickering link

23/2/2013 02:30:10 pm

The use of card for the specials seems to have been something Marvel UK were trying in 1984/5 but generally abandoned afterwards except for a brief revisitation for winter 1986. I either have or had in my collection other 1984/5 specials for Star Wars, the A-Team, Doctor Who (a weird one being a UK printing of the US coloured versions of UK strips - imagine a UK Transformers special reprinting the Marvel US version of Man of Iron) and the Get Along Gang (that was a present at the time). All are squarebound with cardboard covers, and priced firmly for the present market rather than the pocket money one. I don't think the TF reprint specials broke the £1 barrier again until late 1992. Doctor Who Collected Comics had only one issue in winter 1986 and like the Movie special it's also card covered at a higher price - I wonder if there was a brief attempted revival with the format but would have to see other specials from the time to be sure.

As for the "correct" years for TF annuals I did some digging a while back and this is a right ****** mess because Marvel UK seem to have changed positions midway through the run. Basically adverts and text in the comics tended to call the 1985, 1986 & 1987 output as that year's annual and this includes some of the other Marvel UK books. The 1988 published Transformes book sidestepped the issue in adverts with "this year's" or "the [Transformer]s annual". The 1989-1991 releases were generally described with the following year's date. Within the annuals themselves only the 1991 release identifies itself in the copyright info as being the "1992" annual. It's notable that the 1988 release doesn't give a year when the contemporary Action Force, Thundercats and Visionaries annuals all identify themselves as the 1989 annual.

Oh and the name "Woolworths" was in use in American retail at the time; it's not a British-ism error. Though trying to explain the history of Woolworths splits, mergers, sell-offs and reaquisitions makes trying to place the Annual stories in continuity simple by comparison!

Stuart

23/2/2013 11:57:35 pm

@Tom: Oddly I never really took Prowl's death as a "Death" when I read (the paperback IIRC, but as said in the feature charity shop raids blurred my memories somewhat, we certainly had the 87 Annual more than once over the years) it as a kid. Even though in hindsight it's a really obvious interpretation. Indeed, the story as a whole was much more bloodthirsty than I remembered.

I'm not sure why I took what happened to Ravage much more seriously, maybe I just liked Ravage more at the time? This would have been before the great Prowl reinvention of Earthforce.

@Tim, once again your own research pwns my own. That's really interesting about the Annual naming (well, at least to someone as anal as me about titles). I wonder if Marvel having an American parent company that didn't really know the "Form" was a factor? I've certainly never seen an annual with a date on the front that didn't do the next year thing.

Obviously it'll be a few years before I need to make a decision, but I can see myself using the names Marvel themselves used for each book, even with the discontinuity and that one book will just be "The Annual". Just to be contrary.

I'd also had no idea the Movie book wasn't just a one off return to spines. I'd assumed it was because as the equivalent of six UK issues it was too thick for the normal style (which rarely, if ever, did more than four 11 pages issues). Orr, if I were cynical, that they wanted to charge more for a book that wasn't reprints and tied into what was expected to be a popular film.

Auntie Slag

5/3/2013 09:39:22 am

I'm in the same boat as Stuart; and never took it as Prowl dying. Agree with the change in tone with this story too, and of course the artist took me right back to 'The Enemy Within' making me instantly acclimated to the 'seriousness' of this story.

What also stuck out was rendering a mini-autobot bigger than a deluxe car like Prowl. I don't think that had been done up to this point, and it was a bit perplexing, but also really cool too. I also love solid colour, rather that the 'dot' art colouring you'd see in the Budiansky stories. Solid colour was always guaranteed with a Geoff Senior issue. When you got a week that was a senior issue, that was special!

Regarding the first two 'carded' collected comics; I absolutely loved them. Spot on summer holiday reading to couple with the Beano summer special (even Tom & Jerry had summer specials at that point). I love the colours of the first carded 'Collected Comics', just screams 80's Transformers, and the art on the front, I'd like to blow that up to a poster.

And Tim, I haven't thought about 'The Get Along Gang' for years, now you've mentioned them I've got the theme song playing perfectly in my head!

Stuart

5/3/2013 12:52:28 pm

I don't remember the Get Along Gang at all. You're all so old compared to my young and pretty self.

Having just been looking at his first issue I was surprised to see Senior didn't do interior art on the book after those two parts of Crisis until Target: 2006 (though there are covers, and presumably Victory! was done between the two as well). I'd have chained him to the desk even if he wasn't that keen.

Dave

28/12/2018 10:38:41 pm

Having only started buying the comic with 'Man of Iron', I got the Summer Special for the origin story...then swapped it for something like one of the Autobot minicars. Meaning I still don't have those first 2 US issues in print (though I have the 2nd 'Complete Works' for the next issues).

Stuart

28/12/2018 10:50:47 pm

A comic for two toys sounds a good deal though.

Felicity link

29/10/2019 02:53:52 am

That “Machine Man” art looks like it’s by Barry Windsor Smith. I never knew he had done any “Machine Man”! I have the Jack Kirby issues (partly in reprints). Word has it that Kirby first used Machine Man in Marvel’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” series but spun him off into his own title. I have most of Kirby’s “2001” but not that issue unfortunately. I have the first issue of “Machine Man” in its original edition and two separate reprints but it always starts in the middle of the story, with Machine Man having been a failed experiment and being on the run from the army. The preceding events, if they were ever explicitly shown, must have been in “2001” or some other comic I can’t find.

Stuart

29/10/2019 07:34:22 am

Yeah, I have the more recent omnibus now and reading the full series added a lot of context.

Sadly the 2001 stuff apparently is in legal limbo.

Transformation Specials

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