Fun and Sunshine, There's Enough For Everyone.
Issue 194: Club Con! Part 1. 26th November 1988.
Ah—I see Ramjet arrives with a fresh litter of loathsome fleshlings for me to greet. Sometimes my job can be so distasteful.
Though it won’t be immediately apparent to British readers as the title has been edited to remove the fact this was originally promoted as a four part story (understandably of course, as well as being now spread over more issues there’s going to be a gap in the middle), after three Uncle Bob stories that were light and frothy, this is where things start to kick into gear again. In its American printing this was the start of the build up to issue 50, a conscious effort to do a big multi-part story (albeit with each part still containing a beginning, middle and end of its own, the format isn’t being shaken up that much) on a scale the US hasn’t attempted since the Return to Cybertron story. As we’ve discussed, Bob likely intended this to be his final run of issues and is going to pull out all the stops to try and make it a worthy sign-off as well as a celebration.
This opening story is the most light hearted and fun of the four, and as such is the most typical of the sort of thing we’d expect from Budiansky. There’s also one thing that immediately stands out in relation to the previous story that makes you wonder if Uncle Bob is paying enough attention to make a lengthy Epic work.
Right of the bat the issue opens with a TV advert for “Club Con”—a Decepticon run tropical holiday resort (based upon their grounded SPACE island) which is doing a roaring trade in human tourism. There’s no attempt to hide the Transformer involvement as Starscream will come to your house and fly you and your family to the island, where whatever random Decepticons Delbo decides to draw will serve on you throughout your stay. There’s no crafty trick to this part of the plan and the island is a huge success.
I wonder if the whole thing is a SWINDLE.
Now, cast your mind back to the last two weeks. Where Americans are being whipped up into a frenzy of anti-Transformers hatred by Lord Zarak, with mass demonstrations and fun family themed events devoted to sharing the loathing of robots. Then in the story before that we see Circuit Breaker is still tracking down any and all Transformers sightings no matter how tenuous they are.
So the idea that whilst all this is going on (and Ratbat’s operation here has obviously been running for some time) any humans would chose to go to a Decepticon holiday resort or that Josie would somehow miss the mass TV advertising campaign and not get involved are both very unlikely and create the felling that this week was written by a different author to the previous four who hadn’t properly coordinated with them on continuity.
However, when you get past this, the spoof advert is rather fun and well thought out, complete with Starscream quoting the old National Airlines slogan “Fly me” (it does make you wonder which agency the Decepticons hired to make this advert, and why they weren’t sued for nicking this catchphrase). This sight of happy tourists being greeted by cheerful Stunticons and a Battlecharger (block coloured, so good look guessing which one) is genuinely quite funny. Starscream is reintroduced here because he’s about to become a major player—for the first time under Uncle Bob—but the choice of him as the face of the advert is inspired, his smarm and two faced nature fitting the role perfectly.
So the idea that whilst all this is going on (and Ratbat’s operation here has obviously been running for some time) any humans would chose to go to a Decepticon holiday resort or that Josie would somehow miss the mass TV advertising campaign and not get involved are both very unlikely and create the felling that this week was written by a different author to the previous four who hadn’t properly coordinated with them on continuity.
However, when you get past this, the spoof advert is rather fun and well thought out, complete with Starscream quoting the old National Airlines slogan “Fly me” (it does make you wonder which agency the Decepticons hired to make this advert, and why they weren’t sued for nicking this catchphrase). This sight of happy tourists being greeted by cheerful Stunticons and a Battlecharger (block coloured, so good look guessing which one) is genuinely quite funny. Starscream is reintroduced here because he’s about to become a major player—for the first time under Uncle Bob—but the choice of him as the face of the advert is inspired, his smarm and two faced nature fitting the role perfectly.
This is a full half page. Nel must have knocked off early for lunch.
The advert itself is being watched by the Autobots in the repaired Ark in Earth orbit. Yes, we’re finally doing the follow up to Totalled! And by “Follow up” I mean “Let’s just skip all the fallout and go right back to Optimus being in charge”. The main amusement here is from seeing former rivals Fort Max and Grimlock standing around Prime in a slightly awkward “I still hate you” way.
We also touch upon the Buster plot for the first time in a good long while as well, with the revelation the Decepticons have made him king of the island for publicity reasons. Which is lucky as it gives Prime an idea...
Here Budiansky makes smart use of the shrinking hand held alt mode of one of his favourites, as Blaster becomes the smart choice to sneak onto the island as hand luggage. We’re reintroduced to the cassette player in a training sequence down in the bowls of the Ark against other Autobots (and, err...a Battlecharger. Block coloured so who knows which one. Outback being there isn’t a mistake as far as the American series is concerned of course, from that perspective he might be another Steelhaven guy) that shows he’s still as much of a git as ever he was. Look at just how smug he is as he runs rings around the others (“You tin-heads aren’t sending me anywhere I don’t want to go!”), he’d only need to mention his Dead Best Friend to be most deserving of a slap.
In keeping with the return of things we’ve not seen in a while, we then cut to Earth and not just Sparkplug, but also Jesse! There’s a nice touch of pathos in Sparkplug fixing up an old car just to keep his hand in since the destruction of his garage, but most of his dialogue with Jesse is just recapping the Buster story in an awkward way that makes it seem like she hasn’t bothered to come and ask after Buster in close to a year. Indeed, it’s not even clear if the two teens are still dating, as Sparkplug just describes them as “Good friends”, though he may be in denial.
We also touch upon the Buster plot for the first time in a good long while as well, with the revelation the Decepticons have made him king of the island for publicity reasons. Which is lucky as it gives Prime an idea...
Here Budiansky makes smart use of the shrinking hand held alt mode of one of his favourites, as Blaster becomes the smart choice to sneak onto the island as hand luggage. We’re reintroduced to the cassette player in a training sequence down in the bowls of the Ark against other Autobots (and, err...a Battlecharger. Block coloured so who knows which one. Outback being there isn’t a mistake as far as the American series is concerned of course, from that perspective he might be another Steelhaven guy) that shows he’s still as much of a git as ever he was. Look at just how smug he is as he runs rings around the others (“You tin-heads aren’t sending me anywhere I don’t want to go!”), he’d only need to mention his Dead Best Friend to be most deserving of a slap.
In keeping with the return of things we’ve not seen in a while, we then cut to Earth and not just Sparkplug, but also Jesse! There’s a nice touch of pathos in Sparkplug fixing up an old car just to keep his hand in since the destruction of his garage, but most of his dialogue with Jesse is just recapping the Buster story in an awkward way that makes it seem like she hasn’t bothered to come and ask after Buster in close to a year. Indeed, it’s not even clear if the two teens are still dating, as Sparkplug just describes them as “Good friends”, though he may be in denial.
Looks like the person changing the dialogue knocked off early for lunch as well.
The exposition is interrupted by Blaster coming to Earth in a flying Kinder Egg capsule and asking for help from Sparkplug to infiltrate the island. Today Sparkplug *Rolls Dice* hates all Transformers, but he’ll crawl through hell to get his son back. Jesse on the other hand points out it’s a resort for younger people (which seems at odds with the family holiday suggested by the advert, but advertising lies) and she should go instead.
After the treatment of female characters we’ve had recently this is something of a relief. Yes, it’s largely an excuse to get her into a bikini (what a shame we miss the chance to have Sparkplug in Speedos), but the story treats her as a smart, capable character and Blaster’s protective attitude to her in insisting she’s only there to get him on the island doesn’t feel born out of sexism, because what we know of his character means we can be sure he would have behaved in the same way towards Sparkplug.
At the Decepticon base we start to get a good idea of Starscream’s role in Ratbat’s forces. As far as the Americans were concerned this was the first time he’d been seen since Omega Supreme curb stomped him, so the dialogue is once again edited (again, rather poorly) so that rather than having had him just come back, he puts his cheekiness towards Ratbat down to his long spell in the Autobot pod; though crucially with no indication of when he got out of it. We could actually assume he’s been part of Ratbat’s troops since flying off at the end of the last Christmas story, as at least some length of service would make more sense of him being first officer to Ratbat. It’s very clear here that for all he claims to serve Ratbat, Starscream is very confident in himself and has some plan going on, though far more subtly played than those only familiar with his cartoon persona would expect.
What’s also interesting is Ratbat refers to getting orders from “Decepticon Imperial Headquarters”. It seems he’s no longer the Cybertronian Decepticon leader, which neatly ties in to Zarak getting Autobot let out of prison in the last story without having to interact with his counterpart. It seems spending so much time on Earth and various failures mean he has been dethroned and is—ironically—in a similarly precarious position to these mysterious superiors that Shockwave was in with relation to him at the start of 1988. The British stories will put some more meat on what exactly is happening on Cybertron in the new year (and presumably the Triumvirate was directly inspired by this line and the Roman feeling it has), but as far as the American go this is the only reference to this mysterious higher body. Exactly what these orders are, or why they need to play up to the humans (I genuinely can’t remember the reason for the latter) remain mysterious for the moment however.
After the treatment of female characters we’ve had recently this is something of a relief. Yes, it’s largely an excuse to get her into a bikini (what a shame we miss the chance to have Sparkplug in Speedos), but the story treats her as a smart, capable character and Blaster’s protective attitude to her in insisting she’s only there to get him on the island doesn’t feel born out of sexism, because what we know of his character means we can be sure he would have behaved in the same way towards Sparkplug.
At the Decepticon base we start to get a good idea of Starscream’s role in Ratbat’s forces. As far as the Americans were concerned this was the first time he’d been seen since Omega Supreme curb stomped him, so the dialogue is once again edited (again, rather poorly) so that rather than having had him just come back, he puts his cheekiness towards Ratbat down to his long spell in the Autobot pod; though crucially with no indication of when he got out of it. We could actually assume he’s been part of Ratbat’s troops since flying off at the end of the last Christmas story, as at least some length of service would make more sense of him being first officer to Ratbat. It’s very clear here that for all he claims to serve Ratbat, Starscream is very confident in himself and has some plan going on, though far more subtly played than those only familiar with his cartoon persona would expect.
What’s also interesting is Ratbat refers to getting orders from “Decepticon Imperial Headquarters”. It seems he’s no longer the Cybertronian Decepticon leader, which neatly ties in to Zarak getting Autobot let out of prison in the last story without having to interact with his counterpart. It seems spending so much time on Earth and various failures mean he has been dethroned and is—ironically—in a similarly precarious position to these mysterious superiors that Shockwave was in with relation to him at the start of 1988. The British stories will put some more meat on what exactly is happening on Cybertron in the new year (and presumably the Triumvirate was directly inspired by this line and the Roman feeling it has), but as far as the American go this is the only reference to this mysterious higher body. Exactly what these orders are, or why they need to play up to the humans (I genuinely can’t remember the reason for the latter) remain mysterious for the moment however.
Jesse continues to be the single most 1980's person of all time.
Meanwhile, Jesse and Blaster have arrived for their holiday. Pleasingly for a human associated with the Transformers, Jesse actually seems intent on working to Blaster’s plan and letting him do the spying whilst she plays the tourist part to the hilt. Sadly she decides to go for a snorkel, and the cunning Decepticon plan to stop humans swimming out and seeing things they shouldn’t (have Wildrider stand ankle deep and go “Please don’t go any further”) amazingly fails and she sees the Seacons. It’s odd it’s taken them so long to show up in an American story, almost a year since their first English showing, but it makes for a nice cliff-hanger and a good—albeit surprise draining—cover.
Though perhaps not what you’d expect from the start of a story that is going to turn into a bloodbath, this is all good fun and probably benefits from the UK downplaying the scale that the American “Part 1 of 4” titling suggests. There’s an awful lot of old, half forgotten baggage here, but it’s mostly handled well for once and—fittingly for a story approaching a milestone—helps to emphasise that this is a book with a sense of history.
On art, the main highlights involve Starscream; with Delbo getting some great poses out of him that perfectly convey what a smug snake he is. The other characters are very stilted though, especially with the tendency to just copy Transformers Universe poses. The colouring from Nel Yomtov is unusually poor this week as well, with the Ark scenes especially suffering from a lot of lovely urine block colouring. However, for an issue with more Transformers in it than the last month, the team actually do better than you’d expect.
It is also worth noting that the cover—though flipped cropped and re-coloured—is by Bob Budiansky and is the first American cover we’ve had in close to two years. In keeping with what he regards as his art skills (he’s rather gallantly refused to say anything negative about any of his artists as he admits drawing robots is not his own strong suit) it firmly focuses on Jesse and her toned bikini body.
Though perhaps not what you’d expect from the start of a story that is going to turn into a bloodbath, this is all good fun and probably benefits from the UK downplaying the scale that the American “Part 1 of 4” titling suggests. There’s an awful lot of old, half forgotten baggage here, but it’s mostly handled well for once and—fittingly for a story approaching a milestone—helps to emphasise that this is a book with a sense of history.
On art, the main highlights involve Starscream; with Delbo getting some great poses out of him that perfectly convey what a smug snake he is. The other characters are very stilted though, especially with the tendency to just copy Transformers Universe poses. The colouring from Nel Yomtov is unusually poor this week as well, with the Ark scenes especially suffering from a lot of lovely urine block colouring. However, for an issue with more Transformers in it than the last month, the team actually do better than you’d expect.
It is also worth noting that the cover—though flipped cropped and re-coloured—is by Bob Budiansky and is the first American cover we’ve had in close to two years. In keeping with what he regards as his art skills (he’s rather gallantly refused to say anything negative about any of his artists as he admits drawing robots is not his own strong suit) it firmly focuses on Jesse and her toned bikini body.
I'm not sure owning this will stop Cobra getting me Flint.
Transformation very much downplays the holiday camp setting and mainly promotes the issue on the presence of the Seacons, with the build up to issue 200 also gaining momentum as it encourages readers to reserve their copy now. The Death’s Head tour continues with Furman and Hitch (joined by local boy Geoff Senior) reaches the land of kilts on the third of December at a signing in Glasgow.
James Hart from Desford points out the Chase/Searchlight mistake in Space Pirates!, prompting the Decepticon to reveal the VVH is still knocking about the building, this torture device will arguably become more of a signature for this letters page host than his predecessor. There is however some love for a stubbie as Adam Chatburn from Clitheroe writes to Hi-Test to tell him about the Lee Sullivan fan club he has started, which already has five members. We also get the first acknowledgement of what will become a recurring Andrew Wildman gag as Matthew Smallfield from Hull points out the milk bottle next to Metroplex’s fist on the cover of issue 186. These, what would now call “Easter Eggs”, are going to become something to look out for once he moves to interior art.
As well as stubbies, the other big theme of this Dread Tidings is unlikely toy purchases. Anon (catchy name) from Milton Keynes reveals s/he—and a friend in Oxon—have been able to buy Devastator in British shops for the unlikely—even in 1988—price of £10.99. Packaging included with the letter tells Dreadwind this is European stock, though still legitimate (presumably unsold team boxsets shipped at a cut down price in a desperate attempt to clear them). Even less likely is Lee Thomas of Abderdare being able to buy De-luxe Insecticons, as Dreadwind points out even Americans would have a hard time finding these guys now so how they crossed the Atlantic is a puzzle. At least it gives him the chance to pimp Venom and Chop Shop’s appearance in Time Wars though.
As Action Force flee the Terrordome Stalker gets shot and orders the others to leave him behind. Coming right after he’s told a “You never leave a wounded man behind” story his protestations as they ignore his order and Snake Eyes goes to his certain death to provide time for them to escape don’t really convince. More interesting is Cobra Commander’s awkward reunion with his comatose son, which ends the issue on a nice moment for Destro as he leaves the hospital with the advice than CC can’t affect the past and must focus on the future.
The really interesting thing though is the full page advert for the Action Force Collector Card Album, which is a fancy name for a sticker book you can...well stick the stickers than come with Action Force toys. There’s also a full page advert for “Gold Distribution Ltd”, offering Action Force, Transformers and Doctor Who videos via mail order (with The Brian of Morbius costing twice as much as any of the others at £19.96 for some reason).
Sadly there’s no Combat Colin this week, with his space being taken up by an advert for the Captain Britain trade and the Nostalgia and Comics signing for it on...well the day this issue went on sale. That may not have been the best use of space.
Next week, Jesse hits dark waters.
ISSUE 193
1988
COMMENT
James Hart from Desford points out the Chase/Searchlight mistake in Space Pirates!, prompting the Decepticon to reveal the VVH is still knocking about the building, this torture device will arguably become more of a signature for this letters page host than his predecessor. There is however some love for a stubbie as Adam Chatburn from Clitheroe writes to Hi-Test to tell him about the Lee Sullivan fan club he has started, which already has five members. We also get the first acknowledgement of what will become a recurring Andrew Wildman gag as Matthew Smallfield from Hull points out the milk bottle next to Metroplex’s fist on the cover of issue 186. These, what would now call “Easter Eggs”, are going to become something to look out for once he moves to interior art.
As well as stubbies, the other big theme of this Dread Tidings is unlikely toy purchases. Anon (catchy name) from Milton Keynes reveals s/he—and a friend in Oxon—have been able to buy Devastator in British shops for the unlikely—even in 1988—price of £10.99. Packaging included with the letter tells Dreadwind this is European stock, though still legitimate (presumably unsold team boxsets shipped at a cut down price in a desperate attempt to clear them). Even less likely is Lee Thomas of Abderdare being able to buy De-luxe Insecticons, as Dreadwind points out even Americans would have a hard time finding these guys now so how they crossed the Atlantic is a puzzle. At least it gives him the chance to pimp Venom and Chop Shop’s appearance in Time Wars though.
As Action Force flee the Terrordome Stalker gets shot and orders the others to leave him behind. Coming right after he’s told a “You never leave a wounded man behind” story his protestations as they ignore his order and Snake Eyes goes to his certain death to provide time for them to escape don’t really convince. More interesting is Cobra Commander’s awkward reunion with his comatose son, which ends the issue on a nice moment for Destro as he leaves the hospital with the advice than CC can’t affect the past and must focus on the future.
The really interesting thing though is the full page advert for the Action Force Collector Card Album, which is a fancy name for a sticker book you can...well stick the stickers than come with Action Force toys. There’s also a full page advert for “Gold Distribution Ltd”, offering Action Force, Transformers and Doctor Who videos via mail order (with The Brian of Morbius costing twice as much as any of the others at £19.96 for some reason).
Sadly there’s no Combat Colin this week, with his space being taken up by an advert for the Captain Britain trade and the Nostalgia and Comics signing for it on...well the day this issue went on sale. That may not have been the best use of space.
Next week, Jesse hits dark waters.
ISSUE 193
1988
COMMENT
