You Saw the Whole of the Moon.
Issue 175: Totalled! Part 2. 16th July 1988.
What a banner day this will become in the annals of Decepticon fuel accounting!
One thing I wasn't quiet expecting with last week's issue is how much reaction both Jose Delbo's art and my thoughts on it provoked. I have a feeling it's now the most commented upon entry in the entire four year history of this website as people shared their own thoughts on both Delbo and his colouring partner in crime Nel Yomtov, positive and negative in pretty much equal measure. If you haven't read the comments for issue 174 it's well worth a look as there's all sorts of interesting stuff about the history of comic art in general as well argued different viewpoints to my own.
Therefore it feels somewhat appropriate to grab the coat tails of this unexpected passion by starting with the art of the second part of this story. Beginning with a Lee Sullivan cover that, though not his best work (what is Octane doing?) is a rare example of a British artist drawing Blaster with his American visor.
Inside, Delbo mostly continues on from last week in much the same manner, though as he's now largely forced to abandon the characters standing in their Universe profile poses due to the action kicking off the deficiencies are rather more apparent. Characters have a tendency to feel like their posing at one another rather than fighting and they’re usually rather awkward poses, as if he's not entirely sure how the bodies of these robots should move (possibly another result of his seeming to only have Universe for reference rather than the full model sheets), resulting in some panels that in theory should be dynamic and exciting falling flat.
A fine example of this is Blitzwing being carved in half by Grimlock, that should be one of the greatest panels in the history of the comic, but instead it looks as if Blitzwing's top half has just neatly fallen off his waist due to the elastic band holding him together having snapped rather than him having had a sword burn through him. The panel of Jetfire being attacked whilst half-transformed, despite the joy of seeing Laserbeak taking him out in what will be the first of many insanely mismatched cassette fights during the Delbo era, is also a confused mess.
He's half the man he used to be.
Delbo does however have one outstanding moment during the big battle; the splash page of the Decepticons beginning their attack is well worth the price of admission and feels as if Delbo blew his complete wad upon it, leaving him with nothing else to spend on the rest of the Luna battle. I'm not sure why he decided to make an epic Rampage Vs. Cosmos fight the focus of this page, but the world is a better place for it.
I wonder if the Marvel US style scriptwriting--where descriptions of each page are given and the dialogue is added after the art is done-- may have been a hindrance here, with this many characters running about a fully detailed script (and after all, Budiansky is really the only person in the American office who has a handle on who and where everyone is) would have likely resulted in much more solid work. Instead you get the impression Bob only clarified the speaking characters in each panel and the far less experienced with the franchise Delbo had to muddy on through with what else was happening in The Bloody Big Fight.
Once again Delbo actually seems much happier with the Grimlock side of the plot, the fight between Blaster and Grimlock is a lot more solid--if still stagey--and generally feels as if he's having more fun with it.
In terms of colouring... Well there were some arguments made last week that his work is just typical of the time and only really hampered by the difficulty in keeping track of everyone. However, the equivalent page to the Autobots leaving the Ark in the first half showing the Decepticons leaving their SPACE tropical island (now there's a mad sentence) shows him at his worst. Huge swathes of it aren't so much block coloured as completely uncoloured. Poor show old chap.
I do feel quite bad about being so critical of Delbo after he was such a lovable Santa Clause of a man when I met him. They say never meet your heroes, but never meet people you've been mildly disdainful of on the internet either or you'll feel a right git.
The final thing to mention about the art is the changes made by the UK team. These are actually much less severe than I was expecting, even including last week's Not-Skids there's only three alterations. The first is that Broadside is recoloured and has his head changed so as to create a new character. Whilst there's no firm reason in the US continuity that he couldn't have come to Earth at some point (he could even have been on the Steelhaven!) his appearance, along with what looks like an uncoloured Tailgate, adds to the impression Delbo wasn't given very much guidance as to who to include in the fight.
I wonder if the Marvel US style scriptwriting--where descriptions of each page are given and the dialogue is added after the art is done-- may have been a hindrance here, with this many characters running about a fully detailed script (and after all, Budiansky is really the only person in the American office who has a handle on who and where everyone is) would have likely resulted in much more solid work. Instead you get the impression Bob only clarified the speaking characters in each panel and the far less experienced with the franchise Delbo had to muddy on through with what else was happening in The Bloody Big Fight.
Once again Delbo actually seems much happier with the Grimlock side of the plot, the fight between Blaster and Grimlock is a lot more solid--if still stagey--and generally feels as if he's having more fun with it.
In terms of colouring... Well there were some arguments made last week that his work is just typical of the time and only really hampered by the difficulty in keeping track of everyone. However, the equivalent page to the Autobots leaving the Ark in the first half showing the Decepticons leaving their SPACE tropical island (now there's a mad sentence) shows him at his worst. Huge swathes of it aren't so much block coloured as completely uncoloured. Poor show old chap.
I do feel quite bad about being so critical of Delbo after he was such a lovable Santa Clause of a man when I met him. They say never meet your heroes, but never meet people you've been mildly disdainful of on the internet either or you'll feel a right git.
The final thing to mention about the art is the changes made by the UK team. These are actually much less severe than I was expecting, even including last week's Not-Skids there's only three alterations. The first is that Broadside is recoloured and has his head changed so as to create a new character. Whilst there's no firm reason in the US continuity that he couldn't have come to Earth at some point (he could even have been on the Steelhaven!) his appearance, along with what looks like an uncoloured Tailgate, adds to the impression Delbo wasn't given very much guidance as to who to include in the fight.
This is the tyrant the Autobots couldn't overthrow.
The second change is for continuity reasons that go back two years. In the original comic the Constructicons break into the Ark to rescue the Decepticons captured way back in Command Performances!, presumably because Uncle Bob was already thinking of doing something with Starscream. For the Brits, the Constructicons dialogue is changed (as is the contents of a "see issue" box, though sloppily the * leading to it has been removed) and names on the capsules they're removing have been deleted and changed so that Rumble and Buzzsaw are the only ones definitely rescued. This ties in neatly with the fact just about everyone else had already escaped during Target: 2006 as far as we were concerned. No doubt Furman was hoping Bob wouldn't be doing anything with Skywarp so as not to undo his "death" in the same story, though sadly this is not to be.
Amusingly this is one area where Yomtov's half arsed approach to colouring helps, as he's made a chunk of the cases the same white colour as the Ark behind them the names are both easy to take out with tipex and the boxes themselves now just look like part of the ship.
So with the art out of the way, what's the story like? There's not actually a huge amount to say here as the bulk of the issue is the massive fight. It does flow a bit better than the first half thanks to being balls to the wall action, but it also depends on continuing the trend of Grimlock's Autobots being a bunch of idiots, leaving the Ark unguarded and being taken completely by surprise by the Decepticon attack. Tellingly Fort Max's crew (with the possible exception of green Broadside. I shall call him Greenside!) are completely absent from the battle. Presumably Bob wasn't allowed to show the newer toys getting so thoroughly humiliated. Instead we get to see Brawn trying to attack Swindle in car mode and getting blown up for his troubles.
There is some fun to be had from seeing Sunstreaker and Prowl back--just imagining what the former, who was knocked out before even the Dinobots had shown up, must make of all the gimmick guys--and talking even if they don't really contribute much. In theory a lot of the damage dished out should be quite shocking as well, though in practice this is hurt retroactively by knowing there will be no long lasting consequences of this as virtually everyone will be showing up again fairly soon, if only to die again in The Underbase Saga. This is where keeping track of which characters are and aren't online starts to become a real problem for the book that will last till the very final story.
Amusingly this is one area where Yomtov's half arsed approach to colouring helps, as he's made a chunk of the cases the same white colour as the Ark behind them the names are both easy to take out with tipex and the boxes themselves now just look like part of the ship.
So with the art out of the way, what's the story like? There's not actually a huge amount to say here as the bulk of the issue is the massive fight. It does flow a bit better than the first half thanks to being balls to the wall action, but it also depends on continuing the trend of Grimlock's Autobots being a bunch of idiots, leaving the Ark unguarded and being taken completely by surprise by the Decepticon attack. Tellingly Fort Max's crew (with the possible exception of green Broadside. I shall call him Greenside!) are completely absent from the battle. Presumably Bob wasn't allowed to show the newer toys getting so thoroughly humiliated. Instead we get to see Brawn trying to attack Swindle in car mode and getting blown up for his troubles.
There is some fun to be had from seeing Sunstreaker and Prowl back--just imagining what the former, who was knocked out before even the Dinobots had shown up, must make of all the gimmick guys--and talking even if they don't really contribute much. In theory a lot of the damage dished out should be quite shocking as well, though in practice this is hurt retroactively by knowing there will be no long lasting consequences of this as virtually everyone will be showing up again fairly soon, if only to die again in The Underbase Saga. This is where keeping track of which characters are and aren't online starts to become a real problem for the book that will last till the very final story.
Is Colin about to shoot Snarf?
As with the art, the real fun is with the Grimlock stuff. The idea that he and Blaster would become so involved in their fight they don't notice the massive battle going on behind them (helped by Bob remembering there's no sound in space, even if there's a clunky bit of dialogue from Soundwave mangling his motto to tell the reader this) is actually genuinely funny. Grimlock being persuaded that Blaster is telling the truth about the Decepticon attack because Blaster points out he's the honest one and it would only be a trick if Grimlock was telling it is a fun little moment as well.
It is however a rather damning indictment on the rest of the Autobots that when the two of them decide to set aside their differences and team up, they turn the tide of the battle and are able to send the SPACE tropical island packing. Even if the conceit of it taking Blaster's eletcro-scrambler and Grimlock's sword working together to do it is a nice--if unsubtle--way of signifying the reunification of the Autobots.
Inside the ship Ratbat remains fantastic value, even if he does seem to give up too easily at the end. His gloating about this being a great day for Decepticon fuel accountants, and Buster's later smug "Bad day for fuel economy Ratbat", are both very well done moments. Frankly despite his defeat here he's still the most credible leader in the book by a considerable margin.
The issue then ends with the wrapping up of the Grimlock/Blaster arc, more than a year after King of the Hill! started it all. Sadly Budiansky turns it into a shaggy dog story as Fortress Maximus declares they're all too useless to be Autobot leader and he's sent Goldbug off in the Steelhaven (alongside Getaway, Slapdash and Joyride. I wonder if anything interesting will happen to them?) to go to Nebulos and sort out a new body for Optimus Prime on the grounds that even an Autobot who thinks he's living a computer game would make a better leader than any of them.
Though Grimlock calling Fortress Maximus by his proper name for the first time as he now respects him is an excellent payoff to that joke, this is rather an underwhelming conclusion to such a long running storyline. It doesn't help that a lot of the fallout won't be dealt with at all. We won't see the rescue of the trapped on the moon Autobots, nor Grimlock having to deal with being returned to a lower rank (indeed, he's going to be reduced to not much more than an extra until Furman gets his hands on the American book), or even the moment when Optimus Prime is first reunited with his troops. The overall feeling is that, having dragged the entire story out well beyond its natural endpoint Bob has now had to rush to wrap things up.
All in all, despite some nice moments, this has not been a great return to the American stories and perhaps shows more than anything else how much Budiansky was running out of steam at this point. Adequate art and poor colouring makes for a distinctly average issue when, considering the sheer scale of the battle, it should have been grandstanding.
Transformation is very excited by this being the 175th issue, even when admitting this is an odd anniversary to celebrate suggesting the UK team couldn't get that excited by the story either. The sidebar is given over to promoting the Marvel Bumper Comic, a summer special collecting stories from various Marvel comics. Oddly the sidebar claims Transformers is represented in there, but the cover shown on the advert later in the comic doesn't mention it. Though pleasingly Combat Colin gets to share cover space with Thundercats and The Real Ghostbusters. Perhaps the Transformers content was just the one page promotional comic? The equivalent for Death's Head would almost certainly have to be what gets him on the cover, indeed it's likely this was the case for Galaxy Rangers as well. If so, including what are effectively little more than glorified adverts on the cover is more than a bit cheeky, as if the fact there's no suggestion in either the sidebar or advert that the special is reprints.
It is however a rather damning indictment on the rest of the Autobots that when the two of them decide to set aside their differences and team up, they turn the tide of the battle and are able to send the SPACE tropical island packing. Even if the conceit of it taking Blaster's eletcro-scrambler and Grimlock's sword working together to do it is a nice--if unsubtle--way of signifying the reunification of the Autobots.
Inside the ship Ratbat remains fantastic value, even if he does seem to give up too easily at the end. His gloating about this being a great day for Decepticon fuel accountants, and Buster's later smug "Bad day for fuel economy Ratbat", are both very well done moments. Frankly despite his defeat here he's still the most credible leader in the book by a considerable margin.
The issue then ends with the wrapping up of the Grimlock/Blaster arc, more than a year after King of the Hill! started it all. Sadly Budiansky turns it into a shaggy dog story as Fortress Maximus declares they're all too useless to be Autobot leader and he's sent Goldbug off in the Steelhaven (alongside Getaway, Slapdash and Joyride. I wonder if anything interesting will happen to them?) to go to Nebulos and sort out a new body for Optimus Prime on the grounds that even an Autobot who thinks he's living a computer game would make a better leader than any of them.
Though Grimlock calling Fortress Maximus by his proper name for the first time as he now respects him is an excellent payoff to that joke, this is rather an underwhelming conclusion to such a long running storyline. It doesn't help that a lot of the fallout won't be dealt with at all. We won't see the rescue of the trapped on the moon Autobots, nor Grimlock having to deal with being returned to a lower rank (indeed, he's going to be reduced to not much more than an extra until Furman gets his hands on the American book), or even the moment when Optimus Prime is first reunited with his troops. The overall feeling is that, having dragged the entire story out well beyond its natural endpoint Bob has now had to rush to wrap things up.
All in all, despite some nice moments, this has not been a great return to the American stories and perhaps shows more than anything else how much Budiansky was running out of steam at this point. Adequate art and poor colouring makes for a distinctly average issue when, considering the sheer scale of the battle, it should have been grandstanding.
Transformation is very excited by this being the 175th issue, even when admitting this is an odd anniversary to celebrate suggesting the UK team couldn't get that excited by the story either. The sidebar is given over to promoting the Marvel Bumper Comic, a summer special collecting stories from various Marvel comics. Oddly the sidebar claims Transformers is represented in there, but the cover shown on the advert later in the comic doesn't mention it. Though pleasingly Combat Colin gets to share cover space with Thundercats and The Real Ghostbusters. Perhaps the Transformers content was just the one page promotional comic? The equivalent for Death's Head would almost certainly have to be what gets him on the cover, indeed it's likely this was the case for Galaxy Rangers as well. If so, including what are effectively little more than glorified adverts on the cover is more than a bit cheeky, as if the fact there's no suggestion in either the sidebar or advert that the special is reprints.
Seriously, I could write a book on Peter Pez.
Grimlock has a helpful week on the letters page, firstly telling an anonymous writer that the Autobot victim at the start of City of Fear! was called Chuffer. Meanwhile Aaron Power (great name) asks why the Nebulons are green in the cartoon, letting Grimlock wheel out his "The cartoon is shite" routine. This is amusing considering we're only a few weeks from the comic being forced to reprint a cartoon adaptation. Grimlock also implies we might be getting a new backup strip in the near future, suggesting the writing was already on the wall for the Visionaries comic.
In our current backup, the second part of Pit-Fall sees Hawk and the three generals (though again, one might be an admiral, dialogue like "trying to repel boarders from an aircraft carrier" may imply this) manage to hold off a ridiculous amount of BAT's with little trouble, making you wonder why Action Force haven't cleaned up Cobra years ago. There is however one nice moment of Cobra Commander deciding to lead his troops into the Pit personally so as to regain some face in front of Serpentor, which impresses Destro enough to come with him.
Combat Colin, revelling in being considered equal to Inspector Gadget and Alf, decides to investigate Bigfoot (though he seems to think bigfoot and the yeti are the same), heading off to America in the Combat plane whilst Steve, upset that all their equipment is named after Colin, is dragged behind in the Semi-Automatic Cardboard Box.
It's a fun opening to the new story, though anyone who watches the Richard Herring Leicester Square Theatre Podcast will be making their own jokes from the mention of Bigfoot. Maybe the next part will see Colin put a Shrek in it?
Amazingly, there’s another Peter Pez: Clown Policeman in SPACE comic. I wonder if he has a SPACE tropical island as well? I also wonder how much LSD is in the average Pez?
Next week, who ate all the pies?
On a final note, if any editors of tfwiki are reading this, it'd be great if you could rework the Bryan Hitch page, which is both rather needlessly angry ("sure as hell...") and inaccurate in its claims Hitch has denied working on Transformers and Death's Head. THIS TFArchive thread contains all sort of direct evidence--including tweets, a decade old book and various personal recollections (including Hitch replying to my tweet about his Legacy work)--which show that, whilst he thinks his early work is unrefined, he's never tried to pass it off as not him. I think someone badly misunderstood a joke on his part.
I'd join up to edit it myself, but I'd totally go to town on adding my book to the Unofficial Transformers Books page instead.
ISSUE 174
1988
COMMENT
In our current backup, the second part of Pit-Fall sees Hawk and the three generals (though again, one might be an admiral, dialogue like "trying to repel boarders from an aircraft carrier" may imply this) manage to hold off a ridiculous amount of BAT's with little trouble, making you wonder why Action Force haven't cleaned up Cobra years ago. There is however one nice moment of Cobra Commander deciding to lead his troops into the Pit personally so as to regain some face in front of Serpentor, which impresses Destro enough to come with him.
Combat Colin, revelling in being considered equal to Inspector Gadget and Alf, decides to investigate Bigfoot (though he seems to think bigfoot and the yeti are the same), heading off to America in the Combat plane whilst Steve, upset that all their equipment is named after Colin, is dragged behind in the Semi-Automatic Cardboard Box.
It's a fun opening to the new story, though anyone who watches the Richard Herring Leicester Square Theatre Podcast will be making their own jokes from the mention of Bigfoot. Maybe the next part will see Colin put a Shrek in it?
Amazingly, there’s another Peter Pez: Clown Policeman in SPACE comic. I wonder if he has a SPACE tropical island as well? I also wonder how much LSD is in the average Pez?
Next week, who ate all the pies?
On a final note, if any editors of tfwiki are reading this, it'd be great if you could rework the Bryan Hitch page, which is both rather needlessly angry ("sure as hell...") and inaccurate in its claims Hitch has denied working on Transformers and Death's Head. THIS TFArchive thread contains all sort of direct evidence--including tweets, a decade old book and various personal recollections (including Hitch replying to my tweet about his Legacy work)--which show that, whilst he thinks his early work is unrefined, he's never tried to pass it off as not him. I think someone badly misunderstood a joke on his part.
I'd join up to edit it myself, but I'd totally go to town on adding my book to the Unofficial Transformers Books page instead.
ISSUE 174
1988
COMMENT
