You Could Sit Around the House Watching Leave it to Beaver.
Issue 180: Prologue/The Big Broadcast of 2006 Part 1. 20th August 1988.
Where's my lunchbox?
We are now into uncharted territory. At this point I've past the last weekly British story (and though this is technically an American reprint it is deeply intertwined with the immediate fate of the British series) covered by the Classics UK series of books that have been published to date. As I've been cheerfully using these books as reference material/shamelessly stealing from them for more than three years that means the amount of behind the scenes information I have access to is about to decrease rapidly. I've always tried my best to signpost when I'm using hard facts and when I'm speculating, but expect my speculations to be even more speculative from here on in.
This is a pity as there are some very interesting choices being made here, and not always the ones that would seem the obvious to make in this situation. As the British printing of Broadcast is usually treated as an odd footnote to the following story and doesn't get talked about very much in interviews with people like Furman, it's is a bit of a shame we don't have much hard information beyond "We had a story that didn't fit and worked around it".
So here's what we do know: At some point the American editorial team commissioned at least two fill-in issues to be held in reserve should they be needed. It's a reasonable supposition this was done after the use of Man of Iron under similar circumstances as simply using one of them then would have been easier than getting the UK team to send something over the Atlantic, especially as it was needed in a hurry.
For reasons best know to the American editor, rather than commissioning two new stories he decided to adapt episodes of the TV series. Not only that, but episodes from the third season of the cartoon, or the one that would be hardest to present as part of the narrative (as opposed to, say, something from the first two seasons which could easily be treated as "This happened ages ago" as Man of Iron was), though it’s possible that when Sunbow were approached for permission/reference material they only had the more recent scripts hanging about the office.
Where's my lunchbox?
We are now into uncharted territory. At this point I've past the last weekly British story (and though this is technically an American reprint it is deeply intertwined with the immediate fate of the British series) covered by the Classics UK series of books that have been published to date. As I've been cheerfully using these books as reference material/shamelessly stealing from them for more than three years that means the amount of behind the scenes information I have access to is about to decrease rapidly. I've always tried my best to signpost when I'm using hard facts and when I'm speculating, but expect my speculations to be even more speculative from here on in.
This is a pity as there are some very interesting choices being made here, and not always the ones that would seem the obvious to make in this situation. As the British printing of Broadcast is usually treated as an odd footnote to the following story and doesn't get talked about very much in interviews with people like Furman, it's is a bit of a shame we don't have much hard information beyond "We had a story that didn't fit and worked around it".
So here's what we do know: At some point the American editorial team commissioned at least two fill-in issues to be held in reserve should they be needed. It's a reasonable supposition this was done after the use of Man of Iron under similar circumstances as simply using one of them then would have been easier than getting the UK team to send something over the Atlantic, especially as it was needed in a hurry.
For reasons best know to the American editor, rather than commissioning two new stories he decided to adapt episodes of the TV series. Not only that, but episodes from the third season of the cartoon, or the one that would be hardest to present as part of the narrative (as opposed to, say, something from the first two seasons which could easily be treated as "This happened ages ago" as Man of Iron was), though it’s possible that when Sunbow were approached for permission/reference material they only had the more recent scripts hanging about the office.
Shut it you slag.
The episodes in question were The Big Broadcast of 2006 (I bet that surprised you. I keep wanting to write it as The Big Broadcast of Target: 2006) and The Dweller in the Depths, with the latter not being needed in the end and being unknown to fandom until Dave Hunt, who drew it with Ian Akin, was discovered to have been selling the original art at a convention (it was probably adapted by Ralph Macchio as well).
As an aside, it's tremendously lucky for the UK that only the one of these stories needed to be pressed into service, it would have been difficult to come up with a rationale for a second out of continuity future story six months later. As to how the UK would have handled Dweller if it had been used instead... Probably in exactly the same way as Quintessons are still involved and the framing device only needs to establish it's a nonsense story about them. Only the useful lose end of the canister would have been lost, so it all depends on how much that actually inspired the story that followed rather than just being made to fit what was already planned.
Phew, that's a lot of speculation already and we've barely touched upon the decisions made by the UK team when the day came (presumably because Delbo was still burnt out by Totalled!) that the American team pressed it into service for their issue 43. Unlike Man of Iron this was decided far enough in advance to make the "Next issue" caption at the end of 42, which would have been confusing to people who read the US Titan trades as Broadcast wasn't included, officially because it "Didn't fit" (you'd almost think Furman, as editor on that series, still bore a grudge) with no explanation within the book itself. How many readers must have been left wondering "What happened with that great sounding story about Galvatron and Rodimus?" (the Titan trade of Space Pirates! only included the two new pages and a recap of the middle).
*Takes a Pez for energy*
For the American comic a one off 2006 story that at that point could just about be the actual future for the series isn't going to be a problem. For the UK though, where the movie characters have been a constant presence with a storyline impossible to reconcile was going to create issues, especially when they were refused permission to skip it by the higher ups at Marvel. From now on every American issue must be used no matter what.
At least that's what Furman claims when he talks about this story. But the new Annual has a future story set outside of regular continuity that's presented without explanation (albeit one that will confuse many readers, but Furman wouldn't have known that at this point), and way back in issue 153 Transformation said this would simply be a "Special Promotion" for the satellite broadcast of the third season of the show. So why the change from an approach that would have gotten this out of the way quickly and with a minimum of fuss rather than devoting two months to dealing with it and its fallout?
As an aside, it's tremendously lucky for the UK that only the one of these stories needed to be pressed into service, it would have been difficult to come up with a rationale for a second out of continuity future story six months later. As to how the UK would have handled Dweller if it had been used instead... Probably in exactly the same way as Quintessons are still involved and the framing device only needs to establish it's a nonsense story about them. Only the useful lose end of the canister would have been lost, so it all depends on how much that actually inspired the story that followed rather than just being made to fit what was already planned.
Phew, that's a lot of speculation already and we've barely touched upon the decisions made by the UK team when the day came (presumably because Delbo was still burnt out by Totalled!) that the American team pressed it into service for their issue 43. Unlike Man of Iron this was decided far enough in advance to make the "Next issue" caption at the end of 42, which would have been confusing to people who read the US Titan trades as Broadcast wasn't included, officially because it "Didn't fit" (you'd almost think Furman, as editor on that series, still bore a grudge) with no explanation within the book itself. How many readers must have been left wondering "What happened with that great sounding story about Galvatron and Rodimus?" (the Titan trade of Space Pirates! only included the two new pages and a recap of the middle).
*Takes a Pez for energy*
For the American comic a one off 2006 story that at that point could just about be the actual future for the series isn't going to be a problem. For the UK though, where the movie characters have been a constant presence with a storyline impossible to reconcile was going to create issues, especially when they were refused permission to skip it by the higher ups at Marvel. From now on every American issue must be used no matter what.
At least that's what Furman claims when he talks about this story. But the new Annual has a future story set outside of regular continuity that's presented without explanation (albeit one that will confuse many readers, but Furman wouldn't have known that at this point), and way back in issue 153 Transformation said this would simply be a "Special Promotion" for the satellite broadcast of the third season of the show. So why the change from an approach that would have gotten this out of the way quickly and with a minimum of fuss rather than devoting two months to dealing with it and its fallout?
Transformers fandom in a nutshell.
On a basic level, it's now probably a bit too late to promote this as a Decepticon Dam-Busters! style tie-in to the cartoon. But with Sky still being very much a niche market in this country at the time, doing it as a one-off would at least have still had the advantage of most readers being unfamiliar with the story.
I suspect the real deciding factor is Furman's ego. He's always had a healthy one (as any freelance writer must) and for two years the future stories have been his personal domain; bringing him great success both creatively and in terms of reader feedback. Now some quickly thrown together quite bad (I hate to show my hand early) upstart wants to intrude on his sandbox? A response of "Jog on" is probably the one I'd have had myself, and explains why he doesn't just make this story fit, but completely subjugates it to the next UK epic.
Phew. And we haven't even reached the actual contents yet. I'm going to need another Pez.
I'll talk in the coming weeks about how Space Pirates! is atypical of the future stories, likely as a result of this. But for now let's just focus on the fact this issue has a created by the UK team new opening page, establishing that all which follows is just a bonkers story told by Wreck-Gar to a cocky interrogator working on behalf of mysterious employers.
What's interesting here is that there's no attempt to pretend this Prologue is just the normal opening page of the issue. It's presented as its own separate unit, complete with its own credits (I'm going to be charitable and just assume it's a fluke of how the art is laid out that these are considerably larger than the American credits over on the next page), it's almost as if Furman wants to keep as much distance between his own work and what follows as possible.
The page itself is perfunctory, only establishing that what follows isn't real and providing the set up for the Prisoner gag that will close next week. Beyond throwing some British cultural references in (The Sweeney) the only real amusement to be had is from Lee Sullivan completely failing to hide the fact that the mysterious employer floating in the shadows is a Quintesson.
I suspect the real deciding factor is Furman's ego. He's always had a healthy one (as any freelance writer must) and for two years the future stories have been his personal domain; bringing him great success both creatively and in terms of reader feedback. Now some quickly thrown together quite bad (I hate to show my hand early) upstart wants to intrude on his sandbox? A response of "Jog on" is probably the one I'd have had myself, and explains why he doesn't just make this story fit, but completely subjugates it to the next UK epic.
Phew. And we haven't even reached the actual contents yet. I'm going to need another Pez.
I'll talk in the coming weeks about how Space Pirates! is atypical of the future stories, likely as a result of this. But for now let's just focus on the fact this issue has a created by the UK team new opening page, establishing that all which follows is just a bonkers story told by Wreck-Gar to a cocky interrogator working on behalf of mysterious employers.
What's interesting here is that there's no attempt to pretend this Prologue is just the normal opening page of the issue. It's presented as its own separate unit, complete with its own credits (I'm going to be charitable and just assume it's a fluke of how the art is laid out that these are considerably larger than the American credits over on the next page), it's almost as if Furman wants to keep as much distance between his own work and what follows as possible.
The page itself is perfunctory, only establishing that what follows isn't real and providing the set up for the Prisoner gag that will close next week. Beyond throwing some British cultural references in (The Sweeney) the only real amusement to be had is from Lee Sullivan completely failing to hide the fact that the mysterious employer floating in the shadows is a Quintesson.
Jesus, Wreck-Gar has dead empty eyes.
It has to be said the framing device just doesn't work in terms of what follows. Though the rest of the issue does have more narration boxes than usual--I suspect stage directions from the TV script have been copied wholesale--it's an omnipresent third person narration that never convinces as being Wreck-Gar talking. To sell this idea Furman really needed to have mucked about more with the body of the issue, changing the narration to the first person and filling it with the TV references and idiosyncrasies that typify Wreck-Gar's speech. But it's very clear no one cares enough about the actual contents to go to this effort (though to be fair, paying for relettering may have been beyond the budget as well).
This apathy is at least understandable considering what follows is a strong contender for the worst American issue. Taking an episode that already seems to have been edited in a slightly nonsensical way and then editing it further to try and fit into 22 pages was never going to work well, and the first half of this story is an almost random feeling collection of scenes that never quite connect as the Junkions are brainwashed into hating everyone by evil TV signals.
I'm not going to go into huge depth here as the only thing that matters in the real world is the mysterious canister the Quintessons are looking for. Suffice to say that Macchio's script is as disjointed as the one he produced for the Movie adaptation and Alan Kupperberg's art is rushed and very static during the action. This is an issue where the behind the scenes story is much more interesting than the final result.
Speaking of which, both Transformation and the Next Week box are deeply keen to reassure readers that this story totally, honestly fits and drawing special attention to the new opening and closing. More worthily the sidebar on Transformation is all about encouraging cyclists to practice road safety as we move into the end of summer and the nights starting to draw in.
Blimey, this is exhausting work. Best have another Pez.
This apathy is at least understandable considering what follows is a strong contender for the worst American issue. Taking an episode that already seems to have been edited in a slightly nonsensical way and then editing it further to try and fit into 22 pages was never going to work well, and the first half of this story is an almost random feeling collection of scenes that never quite connect as the Junkions are brainwashed into hating everyone by evil TV signals.
I'm not going to go into huge depth here as the only thing that matters in the real world is the mysterious canister the Quintessons are looking for. Suffice to say that Macchio's script is as disjointed as the one he produced for the Movie adaptation and Alan Kupperberg's art is rushed and very static during the action. This is an issue where the behind the scenes story is much more interesting than the final result.
Speaking of which, both Transformation and the Next Week box are deeply keen to reassure readers that this story totally, honestly fits and drawing special attention to the new opening and closing. More worthily the sidebar on Transformation is all about encouraging cyclists to practice road safety as we move into the end of summer and the nights starting to draw in.
Blimey, this is exhausting work. Best have another Pez.
Huzzah for Peter Pez Clown Policeman IN SPACE.
On the letters page, Jason Hotchkin from Peterborough writes in to talk about an article on racism in The Sun that held up Transformers (alongside Masters of the Universe and Gobots, so the journalist may not have had their finger on the pulse of current popular culture) as an example of “White male domination”. It’s bizarre to see The Sun of all papers covering this (especially as the week I’m writing this sees them very angry about refugees. That’ll probably apply equally to the week those of you in the future are reading this as well), but it does show very much that this debate is not nearly as new as “Social justice warriors are loons/political correctness gone mad!” right wingers would like you to think.
Though Jason does make the good point that Transformers aren’t Caucasian (though it has to be said that their entire human supporting cast bar Barnett in both comic and cartoon are. Not to mention Carbombya), but unfortunately tries to hold up Arcee as an example of the franchise not being sexist. Not only does “We have one girl!” not really qualify as equality, little Jason is likely to be eating his words very soon.
In Action Force “Flint” bails out of the jet and is captured by the Crimson Twins who set about him in revenge for wrongs done to them in the past. Remember, if they knew it was Snake Eyes they’d be crying in a corner like big girls because Snake Eyes is da bomb.
Combat Colin ends his adventure with the Bigfoots after he and Steve are saved by one of the children thinking the later is cute. This story lost its steam a bit as it went on, but the loveliness of Mrs. Bigfoot helped save the day.
After assuming his thrilling adventures had ended two weeks ago, we get one final Peter Pez Clown Policeman IN SPACE adventure. Pez is understandably tired after his mass murder spree and almost doesn’t make it home, but luckily by eating some Pez he gets enough energy to save his planet. God bless you Peter Pez Clown Policeman IN SPACE. Though obviously this long running advertising campaign has not had an effect on me.
*Eats the Pez dispenser*
Next week, who is the interrogators mystery employer?
(It’s the Quintessons).
What might also be of note is this week has seen the launch of a new British Transformers comic based on the current version of Robots in Disguise. The first issue has a new British strip and an IDW reprint, though as the IDW comic has been cancelled the same week this will need a serious rethink very soon.
ISSUE 179
1988
COMMENT
Though Jason does make the good point that Transformers aren’t Caucasian (though it has to be said that their entire human supporting cast bar Barnett in both comic and cartoon are. Not to mention Carbombya), but unfortunately tries to hold up Arcee as an example of the franchise not being sexist. Not only does “We have one girl!” not really qualify as equality, little Jason is likely to be eating his words very soon.
In Action Force “Flint” bails out of the jet and is captured by the Crimson Twins who set about him in revenge for wrongs done to them in the past. Remember, if they knew it was Snake Eyes they’d be crying in a corner like big girls because Snake Eyes is da bomb.
Combat Colin ends his adventure with the Bigfoots after he and Steve are saved by one of the children thinking the later is cute. This story lost its steam a bit as it went on, but the loveliness of Mrs. Bigfoot helped save the day.
After assuming his thrilling adventures had ended two weeks ago, we get one final Peter Pez Clown Policeman IN SPACE adventure. Pez is understandably tired after his mass murder spree and almost doesn’t make it home, but luckily by eating some Pez he gets enough energy to save his planet. God bless you Peter Pez Clown Policeman IN SPACE. Though obviously this long running advertising campaign has not had an effect on me.
*Eats the Pez dispenser*
Next week, who is the interrogators mystery employer?
(It’s the Quintessons).
What might also be of note is this week has seen the launch of a new British Transformers comic based on the current version of Robots in Disguise. The first issue has a new British strip and an IDW reprint, though as the IDW comic has been cancelled the same week this will need a serious rethink very soon.
ISSUE 179
1988
COMMENT
