Bridge Over Troubled Waters.
The 1985 Annual.
Comics:
Plague of the Insecticons!
Tales of Cybertron: And There Shall Come... A Leader!
Text Stories:
Missing In Action.
Hunted!
The two Autobots wonder if they will survive this night. But such thoughts are quickly quashed. For they are warriors. They are heroes.
A quick word on procedure here, for those not in the know the form for UK Annuals is for them to be named for the year after publication, so that, say, the Doctor Who book published in 2012 is the 2013 Annual. This is due to them being intended as Christmas presents at the very end of the year.
Now, in and of itself this seems simple, but the fact that the Transformers books, unusually, don't have the year on the front coupled with American fandom being unfamiliar with the British Annual format has seen what would traditionally be the "wrong" year used interchangeably with the more formal one.
Previously I'd have gone with the standard naming style, but an advert reprinted in the second of IDW's UK Classics books actually calls this first Annual the 1985 book, so (unless future references contradict this as I go along) I'll be using the year of publication as the "Name" of each book. Why Marvel (or perhaps co-publisher on the first two, Grandreams) decided to break with the conventions of Annual publishing in this way I've no idea, nor if they did it with any of their other books. Perhaps they were trying to create a revolution in Annual naming. But if they did, it failed.
After that exciting bit of scene setting, lets talk about Annuals in general. There's a perception that modern Annuals have really decreased in quality compared to their heyday decades (running roughly from the first Beano and Dandy books through to the end of the 80's), now being hollow shadows of their former selves.
This is only partly true. There were in fact a lot of crap Annuals during the golden era, usually TV and film tie-ins, and usually from publishers World Distributors. The likes of The Fall Guy, Doctor Who, Buck Rogers and Return of the Saint are as poor as anything your own son or daughter might have gotten this Christmas just gone.
The advantage Annuals used to have though, is there actually was a proper British comics industry that could support their own seasonal books. Annuals tying into a current ongoing comic tended to be of a better quality, being able to tap into the creative teams making the regular series for a more consistent tone and the actual feeling of effort being put in. Transformers was lucky enough to fall into this category.
So, rather than half arsed comics that only barely resemble the source material and random "Factual" pages comparing the size of planets to oranges (the two Gobots Annuals are great examples of this) we get stories that feel like they're in the same world as the weekly- even if the continuity is somewhat skiffy- from the same creative teams. Of the people behind the stories in this Annual, only James Hill hadn't worked on the regular title prior to being commissioned, and he'd quickly be added to the team there, as we saw in the last article.
One final thing to note before we get into the contents, is how ubiquitous these Annuals are. Being proper books they survived better than many issues of the parent comic and as Christmas presents people tended to hang onto them for longer. They were also published in such quantities- at least for the first four books- that every charity shop in the country had at least one on the shelf well into the 90's.
Certainly I've the feeling that none of the ones I actually owned were Christmas presents but all from Oxfam. Today thousands of copies clog up Ebay like a blocked drain, selling for basically nothing. This means they're not only especially well remembered even by more casual fans, but they were often the first port of call for grown ups looking to revisit their youth.
So it's lucky they're of a generally high standard or we'd all be clogging up the Centurions fan forums instead.
Comics:
Plague of the Insecticons!
Tales of Cybertron: And There Shall Come... A Leader!
Text Stories:
Missing In Action.
Hunted!
The two Autobots wonder if they will survive this night. But such thoughts are quickly quashed. For they are warriors. They are heroes.
A quick word on procedure here, for those not in the know the form for UK Annuals is for them to be named for the year after publication, so that, say, the Doctor Who book published in 2012 is the 2013 Annual. This is due to them being intended as Christmas presents at the very end of the year.
Now, in and of itself this seems simple, but the fact that the Transformers books, unusually, don't have the year on the front coupled with American fandom being unfamiliar with the British Annual format has seen what would traditionally be the "wrong" year used interchangeably with the more formal one.
Previously I'd have gone with the standard naming style, but an advert reprinted in the second of IDW's UK Classics books actually calls this first Annual the 1985 book, so (unless future references contradict this as I go along) I'll be using the year of publication as the "Name" of each book. Why Marvel (or perhaps co-publisher on the first two, Grandreams) decided to break with the conventions of Annual publishing in this way I've no idea, nor if they did it with any of their other books. Perhaps they were trying to create a revolution in Annual naming. But if they did, it failed.
After that exciting bit of scene setting, lets talk about Annuals in general. There's a perception that modern Annuals have really decreased in quality compared to their heyday decades (running roughly from the first Beano and Dandy books through to the end of the 80's), now being hollow shadows of their former selves.
This is only partly true. There were in fact a lot of crap Annuals during the golden era, usually TV and film tie-ins, and usually from publishers World Distributors. The likes of The Fall Guy, Doctor Who, Buck Rogers and Return of the Saint are as poor as anything your own son or daughter might have gotten this Christmas just gone.
The advantage Annuals used to have though, is there actually was a proper British comics industry that could support their own seasonal books. Annuals tying into a current ongoing comic tended to be of a better quality, being able to tap into the creative teams making the regular series for a more consistent tone and the actual feeling of effort being put in. Transformers was lucky enough to fall into this category.
So, rather than half arsed comics that only barely resemble the source material and random "Factual" pages comparing the size of planets to oranges (the two Gobots Annuals are great examples of this) we get stories that feel like they're in the same world as the weekly- even if the continuity is somewhat skiffy- from the same creative teams. Of the people behind the stories in this Annual, only James Hill hadn't worked on the regular title prior to being commissioned, and he'd quickly be added to the team there, as we saw in the last article.
One final thing to note before we get into the contents, is how ubiquitous these Annuals are. Being proper books they survived better than many issues of the parent comic and as Christmas presents people tended to hang onto them for longer. They were also published in such quantities- at least for the first four books- that every charity shop in the country had at least one on the shelf well into the 90's.
Certainly I've the feeling that none of the ones I actually owned were Christmas presents but all from Oxfam. Today thousands of copies clog up Ebay like a blocked drain, selling for basically nothing. This means they're not only especially well remembered even by more casual fans, but they were often the first port of call for grown ups looking to revisit their youth.
So it's lucky they're of a generally high standard or we'd all be clogging up the Centurions fan forums instead.
My Hero.
Perhaps I'm strange, but the text stories never really interested me as a kid. So the stand-out for me was the comic stories, and they're both extremely good here.
Furman writes both- ironically published alongside a run of issues he's absent from- and they contain one designed to promote some of the toys young readers might have gotten on Christmas day alongside the book and another that lays the foundation for the "History of the war" style stories we'll be getting in some form or another right up to the present day.
First up is Plague of the Insecticons!, which as you can guess from the title is the one to promote toys that hadn't been in the comic yet (Warpath also features, but no one cares). This means it doesn't fit in with their eventual début in the book, something that I used to get very tied up in knots about but these days am generally much cooler with if the end result is good enough.
The plot is really slight considering this is the longest single British Transformers story so far at 20 pages. The Autobots and the American President (unnamed, but Ronald Reagan) have secretly arranged a meeting to discuss peace and an alliance. But the news leaks, Megatron "Awakens" the Insecticons to go attack the White House and destroy Washington, whilst claiming to be doing it for the Autobots.
Prime works out they're being controlled by Ravage, and splits himself in two so he can go investigate whilst helping Prowl and Warpath fight the Insecticons. He finds Ravage, who tries to get Bombshell to implant a cerebro shell in him, but at the same time Roller is destroyed causing Prime to double over in pain, meaning Bombshell misses him and injects Ravage instead. This leaves both mindless as Ravage was controlling Bombshell who is now controlling Ravage. The Autobots then sulk off assuming the President would never believe them,whilst the President assumes they must have been working with the Insecticons because they sulked off...
It all sounds fairly straightforward when reduced to two paragraphs doesn't it? But God is in the details and this basic plot is rammed full of great moments. From the nice and tense description of the ultra-secret measures taken to arrange the meeting (and what makes them fail), through the stoic heroism of Prowl and Warpath taking on impossible odds ending with a frankly horrific depiction of the mindless Ravage there's much that will stick with the reader long after they've finished the story.
Mike Collins, in his last art contribution, also shines with some beautiful moments, especially the full page spread of the Insecticons wrecking havoc on Washington (which includes our first real in-jokes as Ian Rimmer and Furman have shops named after them).
If there is a flaw, it's the depiction of Prime's relationship with Roller. Everyone reacts to the little drone as if they think it actually is Optimus, and Ravage can't get his head around him being in two places at once. Assuming no one present knew about how Prime can split his mind into three (which is fair enough as this is basically the only time he makes any play of it) it's almost nonsensical they'd mistake this little bleeping drone for the mighty Autobot. It's as if Furman was working from the tech spechs when writing the story without any idea of what Roller looked like. Very odd.
But I'll forgive anything in a story that also writes Prowl in a sensible manner rather than the stuck-up Grimlock's biatch he'll become.
Furman writes both- ironically published alongside a run of issues he's absent from- and they contain one designed to promote some of the toys young readers might have gotten on Christmas day alongside the book and another that lays the foundation for the "History of the war" style stories we'll be getting in some form or another right up to the present day.
First up is Plague of the Insecticons!, which as you can guess from the title is the one to promote toys that hadn't been in the comic yet (Warpath also features, but no one cares). This means it doesn't fit in with their eventual début in the book, something that I used to get very tied up in knots about but these days am generally much cooler with if the end result is good enough.
The plot is really slight considering this is the longest single British Transformers story so far at 20 pages. The Autobots and the American President (unnamed, but Ronald Reagan) have secretly arranged a meeting to discuss peace and an alliance. But the news leaks, Megatron "Awakens" the Insecticons to go attack the White House and destroy Washington, whilst claiming to be doing it for the Autobots.
Prime works out they're being controlled by Ravage, and splits himself in two so he can go investigate whilst helping Prowl and Warpath fight the Insecticons. He finds Ravage, who tries to get Bombshell to implant a cerebro shell in him, but at the same time Roller is destroyed causing Prime to double over in pain, meaning Bombshell misses him and injects Ravage instead. This leaves both mindless as Ravage was controlling Bombshell who is now controlling Ravage. The Autobots then sulk off assuming the President would never believe them,whilst the President assumes they must have been working with the Insecticons because they sulked off...
It all sounds fairly straightforward when reduced to two paragraphs doesn't it? But God is in the details and this basic plot is rammed full of great moments. From the nice and tense description of the ultra-secret measures taken to arrange the meeting (and what makes them fail), through the stoic heroism of Prowl and Warpath taking on impossible odds ending with a frankly horrific depiction of the mindless Ravage there's much that will stick with the reader long after they've finished the story.
Mike Collins, in his last art contribution, also shines with some beautiful moments, especially the full page spread of the Insecticons wrecking havoc on Washington (which includes our first real in-jokes as Ian Rimmer and Furman have shops named after them).
If there is a flaw, it's the depiction of Prime's relationship with Roller. Everyone reacts to the little drone as if they think it actually is Optimus, and Ravage can't get his head around him being in two places at once. Assuming no one present knew about how Prime can split his mind into three (which is fair enough as this is basically the only time he makes any play of it) it's almost nonsensical they'd mistake this little bleeping drone for the mighty Autobot. It's as if Furman was working from the tech spechs when writing the story without any idea of what Roller looked like. Very odd.
But I'll forgive anything in a story that also writes Prowl in a sensible manner rather than the stuck-up Grimlock's biatch he'll become.
And so it begins.
The second comic proclaims itself a Tale of Cybertron, and should in theory be quite an important one as it depicts Prime's rise to power and his first meeting with Megatron.
However, And There Shall Come... A Leader! Is actually surprisingly irrelevant in terms of long term consequences. Later stories will show Optimus and Megatron had met each other prior to this, and the idea of Prime just being a military commander who got promoted to overall leader by the actual government due to the dire situation would slowly be replaced by the idea that "Prime" as a title has always meant the Autobot/Cybertronian leader.
Effectively it's main lasting contribution to the lore in introducing Emirate Xaaron. He'll go onto be the longest surviving comic created character (a group generally created to die) by a considerable margin and even here this political animal is interesting because we've not really had a Transformer like him before. He'd probably be played by Ian Richardson, he's that sort of robot.
Again though, it's the little details that make it. And though the specifics will rarely be mentioned again, the idea of Optimus working carefully behind the scenes to put a team together outside of the inept government was clearly an influence on some of James Roberts' IDW work (though Xaaron got off lightly as Prime's man on the inside compared to poor old Senator Shockwave).
My favourite part of the story is actually Bluestreak and Fusion running from some Decepticon jets as they try and bring the bombs in for Prime's plan. It's tense and exciting and even manages to be a bit sad as Fusion suffers the more usual fate of comic created characters.
And though it will turn out not to be the case, the first meeting between Prime and Megatron is suitably iconic. I especially love Prime's quite confidence in the face of Megatron's overriding smugness as the Decepticon thinks he's won, just before the bridge they're both on explodes.
And hey, it's Windcharger! Using his powers to save Optimus from the explosion. Why isn't this guy in charge again? Now, if only the Autobots had thought to make absolutely sure Megatron was actually dead.
John Stokes does some fine work on art, that mixes up elements from the first issue alongside depictions of Cybertron from the cartoon (which we'll see take an increased influence on the comic in early 1986) and seemingly random oddness like the use of the one time only Gears character design seen in the Autobot roll call in the first issue and nowhere else. He also gives us the first real sustained efforts at Cybertonian designs the best part of two decades before The War Within. It makes for an entertaining mixture, even if I've still no idea what is going on with Soundwave.
However, And There Shall Come... A Leader! Is actually surprisingly irrelevant in terms of long term consequences. Later stories will show Optimus and Megatron had met each other prior to this, and the idea of Prime just being a military commander who got promoted to overall leader by the actual government due to the dire situation would slowly be replaced by the idea that "Prime" as a title has always meant the Autobot/Cybertronian leader.
Effectively it's main lasting contribution to the lore in introducing Emirate Xaaron. He'll go onto be the longest surviving comic created character (a group generally created to die) by a considerable margin and even here this political animal is interesting because we've not really had a Transformer like him before. He'd probably be played by Ian Richardson, he's that sort of robot.
Again though, it's the little details that make it. And though the specifics will rarely be mentioned again, the idea of Optimus working carefully behind the scenes to put a team together outside of the inept government was clearly an influence on some of James Roberts' IDW work (though Xaaron got off lightly as Prime's man on the inside compared to poor old Senator Shockwave).
My favourite part of the story is actually Bluestreak and Fusion running from some Decepticon jets as they try and bring the bombs in for Prime's plan. It's tense and exciting and even manages to be a bit sad as Fusion suffers the more usual fate of comic created characters.
And though it will turn out not to be the case, the first meeting between Prime and Megatron is suitably iconic. I especially love Prime's quite confidence in the face of Megatron's overriding smugness as the Decepticon thinks he's won, just before the bridge they're both on explodes.
And hey, it's Windcharger! Using his powers to save Optimus from the explosion. Why isn't this guy in charge again? Now, if only the Autobots had thought to make absolutely sure Megatron was actually dead.
John Stokes does some fine work on art, that mixes up elements from the first issue alongside depictions of Cybertron from the cartoon (which we'll see take an increased influence on the comic in early 1986) and seemingly random oddness like the use of the one time only Gears character design seen in the Autobot roll call in the first issue and nowhere else. He also gives us the first real sustained efforts at Cybertonian designs the best part of two decades before The War Within. It makes for an entertaining mixture, even if I've still no idea what is going on with Soundwave.
As well as the comics, we get two text stories written by James Hill and illustrated by John Ridgeway. As said, this wasn't the sort of thing that interested me as a kid, which was stupid of me as we'll get some great ones in future books, even if the two here don't show the format at its peak.
Missing In Action is the best of the two (and the only story of any type in the book not to have an exclamation mark!). It would even warrant a sequel in the second Annual, and is surprisingly dark for a kids book, covering a damaged Tracks being used as a getaway vehicle by two armed robbers.
Despite being introduced fairly late in the story it's small boy Danny Phillips who stands out. A rather lonely child he's become interested in the news stories of robot war, something that nearly gets him killed when recognising Track's Autobot symbol has him caught up in a bank robbery that ends with an explosion. Luckily Inferno and a team of Autobots looking for Tracks are on-hand to save the day, but this will leave scars that the sequel story will explore.
Despite the prose being well written, this story does feel more like a toy advert than the others in the book. Prime randomly asking Hoist for an opinion just to get him into the story is especially poor, but Grapple has nothing to contribute as well. Inferno and Tracks are at least essential to the story.
What I do find interesting is the idea of a damaged Tracks being stolen also featured in a second season cartoon episode. Though we know the comic was taking several cues from the series around this time, had the tapes the UK team were using as reference for things like Decepticon Dam-Busters! really gotten that far into the second season at the time this was being put together in mid-1985? Or is it an amazing coincidence?
As a final aside, there's a odd British-ism here with Track's being found behind a branch of the dear departed Woolworth's. Aww. Doesn't quite beat Ronald Regan calling Optimus a "Lorry" in the opening comic though. Overall though, this is a story more interesting for what it sets up next year rather than what it is in and of itself.
Missing In Action is the best of the two (and the only story of any type in the book not to have an exclamation mark!). It would even warrant a sequel in the second Annual, and is surprisingly dark for a kids book, covering a damaged Tracks being used as a getaway vehicle by two armed robbers.
Despite being introduced fairly late in the story it's small boy Danny Phillips who stands out. A rather lonely child he's become interested in the news stories of robot war, something that nearly gets him killed when recognising Track's Autobot symbol has him caught up in a bank robbery that ends with an explosion. Luckily Inferno and a team of Autobots looking for Tracks are on-hand to save the day, but this will leave scars that the sequel story will explore.
Despite the prose being well written, this story does feel more like a toy advert than the others in the book. Prime randomly asking Hoist for an opinion just to get him into the story is especially poor, but Grapple has nothing to contribute as well. Inferno and Tracks are at least essential to the story.
What I do find interesting is the idea of a damaged Tracks being stolen also featured in a second season cartoon episode. Though we know the comic was taking several cues from the series around this time, had the tapes the UK team were using as reference for things like Decepticon Dam-Busters! really gotten that far into the second season at the time this was being put together in mid-1985? Or is it an amazing coincidence?
As a final aside, there's a odd British-ism here with Track's being found behind a branch of the dear departed Woolworth's. Aww. Doesn't quite beat Ronald Regan calling Optimus a "Lorry" in the opening comic though. Overall though, this is a story more interesting for what it sets up next year rather than what it is in and of itself.
Hunted! is by far the weakest story in the book. You have the Jumpstarters making their first ever fictional appearance and that's about all there is on interest. Prowl finds out the Decepticons are mining for something never properly explained in South America, he leads a team to stop them, Megatron runs away The End.
In keeping with Hill's usual attention to details on this side of things there is some nice use of tech spechs to flesh out characters. This is especially good for Prowl as he uses his often forgotten logic and analytical abilities to detect and identify a piece of Ravage seen only in extremely small size on a TV monitor.
However, it's poor for Bumblebee as it means we get his usual lack of confidence routine that already feels somewhat tired. And of course, Hill's approach is completely undone with the Jumpstarters who had nothing in the way of character biographies.
Otherwise though, it's a rather routine and even boring end to the fictional content of the Annual.
In keeping with Hill's usual attention to details on this side of things there is some nice use of tech spechs to flesh out characters. This is especially good for Prowl as he uses his often forgotten logic and analytical abilities to detect and identify a piece of Ravage seen only in extremely small size on a TV monitor.
However, it's poor for Bumblebee as it means we get his usual lack of confidence routine that already feels somewhat tired. And of course, Hill's approach is completely undone with the Jumpstarters who had nothing in the way of character biographies.
Otherwise though, it's a rather routine and even boring end to the fictional content of the Annual.
Hound's puzzle page.
As well as stories, British Annuals are famous for their activity pages. The Transformers ones will be lucky in that they'll be pretty much all about the actual supposed subject of the book. However, the pickings are pretty slim this time around.
Most famously, the "Poster" created for issue 2 out of the "Meet the Autobots" spread is pressed into service once more. To counter this we get a newly created Decepticon equivalent using toy box art.
There's also the usual quizzes and puzzles you'd expect, join the Autobot's face to his vehicle mode; decipher the anagram to work out what Hound's gun does; word-searches and so on. All aimed at the younger end of the readership, and good luck finding a copy without them all filled in.
The two bookends do make me smile though. Rather than the full colour illustrations we'll get in subsequent years these are colouring drawings of Prime and Megatron will very brief character descriptions beneath. I adore the idea that Megatron is "Twice as mean" in gun mode. As if most of the time he's mildly cross and only really gets pissed when in his useless alternate mode.
In summation, the 1985 Annual is certainly better than just about any other licensed tie in Annual you'll find from the same year. On the other hand though, some of the rough edges mean it's the weakest of the first four hardbacks for the franchise. However that's more a comment on the high standards the other's will achieve though than a black mark against this one. Unless you're a mad completest like me the 1986 paperback reprinting with just the comics in it will more than suffice as a means of getting the good stuff in Marvel published form.
Without even a pause for breath, uploaded at the same time as this, my next, and final for 1985, write up covers the first two Collected Comics.
ISSUE 41
1985
COMMENT
Most famously, the "Poster" created for issue 2 out of the "Meet the Autobots" spread is pressed into service once more. To counter this we get a newly created Decepticon equivalent using toy box art.
There's also the usual quizzes and puzzles you'd expect, join the Autobot's face to his vehicle mode; decipher the anagram to work out what Hound's gun does; word-searches and so on. All aimed at the younger end of the readership, and good luck finding a copy without them all filled in.
The two bookends do make me smile though. Rather than the full colour illustrations we'll get in subsequent years these are colouring drawings of Prime and Megatron will very brief character descriptions beneath. I adore the idea that Megatron is "Twice as mean" in gun mode. As if most of the time he's mildly cross and only really gets pissed when in his useless alternate mode.
In summation, the 1985 Annual is certainly better than just about any other licensed tie in Annual you'll find from the same year. On the other hand though, some of the rough edges mean it's the weakest of the first four hardbacks for the franchise. However that's more a comment on the high standards the other's will achieve though than a black mark against this one. Unless you're a mad completest like me the 1986 paperback reprinting with just the comics in it will more than suffice as a means of getting the good stuff in Marvel published form.
Without even a pause for breath, uploaded at the same time as this, my next, and final for 1985, write up covers the first two Collected Comics.
ISSUE 41
1985
COMMENT
