Heute können wir Euch die Cover zu den kommenden Comics im März / April 2013 zeigen.

Dabei handelt es sich um Robots in Disguise Volume 3, Classics Volume 5, ReGeneration One Volume 2, TF Prime: Rage of the Dinobots.

Diskussion hier

Wir habern hier ein Interview gefunden, indem John Barber über das IDW Comic Transformers: Robots in Disguise spricht.

Q: Hi John. Robots in Disguise is almost a year old now. Has everything panned out as smoothly as you had hoped in the story you are telling?
JOHN BARBER: Hi! Well, we’ve stuck pretty close to the original ideas. New things have definitely cropped up, new ideas pop in all the time, but the essential story Andrew Griffith and I set out to tell over the first year or so has gone according to plan. Along the way there’ve been some nice synchronicities, some characters have asserted themselves in ways that either made them bigger characters or that changed the way the story unfolded, but overall, yeah.

Q: You’ve been trying to make sense of some continuity issues that have cropped up. Is this something you really wanted to try in fix from past TF comics?
JOHN BARBER: It’s not really that I set out to fix things as much as sometimes little continuity things suggest interesting stories or directions. Like, with Metalhawk—when More Than Meets The Eye writer James Roberts and I were working on The Death of Optimus Prime, James had come up with the notion of having a character be the de facto leader of the neutral Cybertronians who were returning home. I thought it’d be cool to use an existing Transformers character that we hadn’t seen yet—somebody that would have resonance with some fans, but it wouldn’t be essential that anybody know who he is.
We bounced some ideas between us and Andy Schmidt, who was the editor then, and to Michael Kelly at Hasbro. Eventually, James suggested Metalhawk. A quick internet search showed that Metalhawk had appeared in one panel in the Drift limited series. Or, anyway, somebody that looked an awful lot like Metalhawk was there. Alex Milne had drawn him in as, basically, a random ’bot. Nobody called him Metalhawk, he didn’t do anything particularly important. And it would have been pretty easy to just ignore that. And, honestly—and I know some fans vehemently disagree with what I’m about to say—I think it would have been fair to just write that off as “somebody that looks like Metalhawk” if it got in the way of the story. But it got me thinking, and I thought it could be kind of cool if that were Metalhawk, and even though he’s only got that one panel in the Drift comic, that battle had actually been a key part of Metalhawk’s life. And that created an opportunity to bring Turmoil (who I think is an awesome character who deserved more of an on-panel life) back and have it mean something personal to somebody that Turmoil was around. So that panel just suggested some depth to the then-just-being-developed-in-current-continuity Metalhawk. Hopefully, in practice, it doesn’t matter to the RID reader if they ever see that panel, but I think it’s fun that that panel is there. It creates a wider, more coherent tapestry of stories, without being obtrusive or stopping us from moving forward.

Q: After seeing all of the previous TF work, how hard did you find it get into the characters heads and come up with their voices and point of views?
JOHN BARBER: Well, over my life I’ve spent a fair amount of time with these characters—reading the comics, watching the cartoons and movies, playing with the toys when I was young—so I had some thoughts about the characters. There were some that, over the years, had been portrayed in ways that didn’t exactly match up all the way, which is just the reality of what happens when you have an ongoing comic book universe with different writers and artists playing in the same sandbox.
But, again, that was an opportunity. Real people do contradictory things, real people change their approaches over the years. We react differently to different situations. So I tried to use those different reactions and figure out what might make these particular iterations of these guys tick. I tried to give the characters distinct points of view and voices based on what we’d seen them do over the course of all the IDW-published comics, and also what the sort-of “classic” versions of the characters are. I like using the big characters, and some of them have developed really interesting backstories, but that’s mostly how I view the previous stories, in practical storytelling terms. I mean, not that my stories are better, I just mean that as a writer, you have to focus on the story you’re telling, not a previous story. As a reader, you shouldn’t need to know the details of the character’s lives to follow what they’re doing now, or to enjoy them as characters… but if you do want to know about their life stories—a lot of it’s been published!

Q: Can you say much about your grand plan when you started writing RID? Did you have this time of peace on the re-born Cybertron well plotted out?
JOHN BARBER: Yeah, the big arc of the first year or so, definitely. It’s really about 16 issues that will get you a big climax to the story begun in issue 1. But not an end to the RID saga, I should add. That definitely keeps going! Like I said, some of it changed a little, but the broad strokes are the same.
There were certain stories I wanted to hit—RID was never meant to be only about the political struggle. I wanted to have a story about somebody coming home trying to fit in on this world; a wilderness story; a story about the city surviving the changed environment of the planet. I feel like we did pretty well hitting those stories and still moving forward with a big, macro story about the power struggle in Iacon.

Q: Have you had to change or adapt how you write the stories, maybe based on something you’ve seen coming up in maybe an issue of More Than Meets the Eye (RID’s sister title)?
JOHN BARBER: We toss ideas back and forth all the time, James and I. So yeah, we’re constantly affecting what each other are doing. We’ve managed to not screw each other up, though, with our stories. If that’s what you mean.

Q: Have you found it difficult to keep a track of events in RID, especially with issues such as the time travelling space ship causing chaos (at least for the characters)?
JOHN BARBER: Yeah… it’s funny. I really intentionally focused in on five key players—Bumblebee, Ironhide, Prowl, Wheeljack, and Starscream—with Metalhawk playing a huge outsider role for most of the series. But as the series went on, a lot of other characters became important, too. So keeping track of where everybody is and where they wind up by issue 16 has been constantly on my mind.
Issue 10, with the time-traveling space-ship… that was it’s own beast. That was hard to keep track of on a totally different level. And I’m happy people came along for that ride.

Q: Is there any one stand-out moment from the first year of RID that you are most proud of over the others?
JOHN BARBER: Yes, but I can’t say what it is yet without giving things away.

Q: A certain character re-appears in issue 11 of RID. Had the return of this character been in your mind right from the very start?
JOHN BARBER: Yes, absolutely. Don’t miss today’s issue! Everything changes here.

Q: Between writing RID and editing the books across the TF license, would you say its one of the most challenging jobs you’ve done in comics?
JOHN BARBER: Sure, yeah. I mean, I edit more than just the Transformers comics, too—I work on G.I. Joe with Carlos Guzman, and on Dungeons & Dragons, and on a few other comics, too. So it’s a lot of good stuff to get to do. There’s definitely a lot of Transformers comics across a lot of timelines, but it’s a good challenge.

Q: Anything you can say about season 2 of RID? Can you say about possible happenings or characters that may reappear?
JOHN BARBER: Two words: purple reign.

Quelle: Transformers auf Facebook

Diskussion: hier!

Auf MTV.com kann man sich nun die ersten Seiten zum kommenden IDW Transformers Comic More than Meets the Eye Heft 11 anschauen.

Diskussion: hier!

Heute können wir euch die IDW Comic Ankündigungen für den Monat Februar geben:

TRANSFORMERS ROBOTS IN DISGUISE ONGOING #14
TRANSFORMERS MORE THAN MEETS EYE ONGOING #14
TRANSFORMERS SPOTLIGHT MEGATRON ONE SHOT
TRANSFORMERS REGENERATION ONE #88
TRANSFORMERS PRIME RAGE O/T DINOBOTS #4

TRANSFORMERS ROBOTS IN DISGUISE ONGOING #14
MEGATRON IS BACK! The day the AUTOBOTS hoped would never arrive… is here. CYBERTRON is burning, BUMBLEBEE’s government is crumbling, and MEGATRON is here. Sides are chosen… and heroes fall.

TRANSFORMERS MORE THAN MEETS EYE ONGOING #14
THE RETURN OF OVERLORD! Locked in a secret cell underneath the Lost Light, hidden from the crew, a DECEPTICON psychopath is talking without opening his mouth… and an AUTOBOT with needles for fingers is about to make the biggest mistake of his life.

TRANSFORMERS SPOTLIGHT MEGATRON ONE SHOT
MEGATRON IS BACK! Writer/artist Nick Roche (Last Stand of the Wreckers) takes us back to the last time MEGATRON returned-when he found his DECEPTICON forces in tatters under the control of STARSCREAM. In this never-before-revealed tale, we learn exactly how Megatron reacted… and how Starscream survived!

TRANSFORMERS REGENERATION ONE #88
WAR IN THE CITY! Anarchy reigns on the streets of Iacon as SCORPONOK’s grip tightens further, and those AUTOBOTS still willing and able to resist look to their absent leader-who is on an endangered list all of his own. Beneath the surface of CYBERTRON, HOT ROD runs for his life, locked on a collision course with his maker, PRIMUS!

TRANSFORMERS PRIME RAGE O/T DINOBOTS #4
DINOBOT WAR! GRIMLOCK leads the DINOBOTS against SHOCKWAVE’s troops-and the results won’t be pretty! With SWOOP under SER-KET’s control, it’s an all-or-nothing battle of DINOBOT versus PREDACON-with the fate of CYBERTRON hanging on every punch, blast, jab, and bite! Don’t miss the senses-shattering conclusion to this mind-blowing miniseries!

Diskussion: hier!

Von IDW gibt es eine neue Edition. Es handelt sich hierbei um die Limited Comics und dazu haben wir heute das erste Cover für euch. Es ist G1 Megatron. Verpackt ist das in einer Hülle mit dem Autobot Logo.

Quelle: idwlimited.com

Diskussion: hier!

Es gibt ein Interview mit dem Hasbro Director of Global Publishing Michael Kelly, indem er die Perspektive von Hasbro zu den IDW Transformers Comics erklärt.

Q: Hi Michael! How is going there at Hasbro?
MICHAEL KELLY: Hello! Things are really busy here at Hasbro: lots of interesting things going on in our publishing department!

Q: The Transformers brand has been going from strength to strength these last few years. How much are you enjoying the comics that IDW are making?
MICHAEL KELLY: I think they are brilliant, and only getting better. The current series written by John Barber and James Roberts, Robots In Disguise and More Than Meets The Eye, are really breaking new ground. And not just in the dramatic aspects of the return to Cybertron and the political maneuvering, but also in the humor. I don’t recall laughing out loud as often as I do now when reviewing manuscripts. Both writers have really unlocked the inherent “humanity” of these characters, and I find it extremely entertaining. And that’s just the writing. Artists Andrew Griffith and Alex Milne complete the storytelling with their work, each providing the perfect characterizations, mood, and environment for their respective books. This team delivers.

Q: When you started out in your position as Director of Global Publishing, are any plans you made where you thought they would be now or have they been exceeded?
MICHAEL KELLY: Ha! Well, if you’ll allow me to paraphrase an old military saying, no plan survives contact with a bunch of creative people. What was important to me when I started managing Hasbro’s publishing business was to ensure that we were maximizing the talents of the creative people our publishers bring to the table. I made it clear to IDW from the start that I wanted them to push the envelope, to shove me out of my comfort zone. If you start with a plan that takes you from point A to point B, and stick to it no matter what, you may never realize that a side trip to C is really worthwhile. Mind you, that doesn’t mean I haven’t had to reel them back in from time to time: the integrity of the brand is always first and foremost. But you can’t stifle creativity from the outset; sometimes you have to let the story take you where it wants to go.

Q: You oversee the comics that IDW make for Transformers. Are you constantly surprised by what the material you are reading?
MICHAEL KELLY: Well, “surprised” probably isn’t the right word exactly, because I’m involved in development from the concept right through to production, so I always know where we are going. I would say that I’m constantly impressed by the ability of our creative teams: the editors, the writers, inkers, and colorists, who manage to tell new and compelling stories month in and month out. After 30 years of TRANSFORMERS stories, there’s always a risk of repetition. But these talented people keep finding new and unique situations for our characters to confront, and that makes for seriously engaging reading.

Q: Is there any IDW book that has been made that you feel stands head and shoulders above all of the others?
MICHAEL KELLY: I added our comics business to my overall publishing responsibilities about one third of the way into the All Hail Megatron run, so that series will always have a place on my list. Honestly, though, it isn’t an easy question to answer, because there’s such diversity in what IDW has done, and so much of it is interesting and entertaining for various reasons. But certainly Last Stand of the Wreckers looms large, and I enjoyed the digital project Autocracy for its unique view of Optimus before his ascension to Prime as well as its remarkable artwork by Livio Ramondelli. And I can’t say enough about how much I’m enjoying the current run of Robots In Disguise and More Than Meets The Eye. Those are both just plain fun.

Q: Have there been many instances where you’ve had to veto a story that IDW wanted to make?
MICHAEL KELLY: In all honesty, no. First of all, IDW has been a fantastic steward for our brands. I can rely on John Barber (and Andy Schmidt before him) and all the guys on the team to present stories that are meaningful and faithful to the tenants of our characters, and to always have imaginative and innovative ideas. So much fun working with everyone at IDW.
Second, I don’t view it as my job to respond to an idea with a simple “yes” or “no.” Instead, if there is something that doesn’t quite fit, or maybe takes the story in a direction that may not work over the long run, I look at it as the starting point of collaboration with IDW and the creators. We develop what works, and we discard what doesn’t. In the end, I like to think we come up with a better result that drives the story forward. I’d be disappointed in myself if I just rejected something outright.

Q: Any favourite character arcs that have leapt out for you from the last 7 years worth of IDW stories?
MICHAEL KELLY: One of the challenges about writing for TRANSFORMERS, in my opinion, is that it can be easy to slip into simple character types. The nature of the underlying story lends itself to black & white comparisons, good vs. evil, honorable vs. deceitful, etc. What I enjoy most is when creators give genuine depth to the characters. Nothing is all good or all evil; everything has elements of both. So my favorite character arcs have always been the ones that show that inner conflict. I love what IDW and the creators have done with Thundercracker’s reflection and self-doubt, Bumblebee’s reluctant leadership, and even the inner struggles of both Optimus and Megatron. These are 3-dimensional characters, and I’m really pleased that the creative team embraces that, because the characters are at their most compelling when they are relatable.

Q: Are there any other Hasbro brands that IDW do comics of that really stand out for you?
MICHAEL KELLY: The first project that I managed from the very beginning was the re-launch of G.I. JOE back in 2008. That series, and in particular the COBRA books, have my fingerprints all over them. I’m immensely proud of what we did together on those books.
And just wait until you see the new My Little Pony comics. Sheer awesome.
I can’t comment on the Dungeons & Dragons and MAGIC The Gathering comics IDW produces, because the creative process for those is managed by my colleagues at Wizards of the Coast. But I hear great things, which doesn’t surprise me given the people involved.

Q: In overseeing all of the comic’s material that you do, what is greatest challenge is making sure everything is right for the different brands?
MICHAEL KELLY: The real challenge comes in keeping the various continuities within each brand straight. At any given time, I’m reviewing as many as 4 different TRANSFORMERS continuities and 3 separate G.I. JOE continuities. So it takes a lot of attention to detail to ensure that I’m not carrying one storyline over into another. It isn’t hard to fall into the trap of “hey, didn’t that guy die in issue 7?” Keeping all of that in line takes a lot of real estate in my brain. But so far I haven’t had the problem of wondering why Pinkie Pie isn’t planning Bumblebee’s birthday party. Though come to think of it, that would be an epic party.

Q: Where do you see things with the Transformers brand a few years down the road?
MICHAEL KELLY: There are so many stories still to tell in this franchise; I mean it when I say we are just getting started. We’ve got a great thing going on in IDW’s interpretation of our Generations line, and of course we’ve got a ways to go before Regeneration One wraps up. I expect a lot of twists and turns there. And remember, we’ve only scratched the surface of the PRIME continuity, which has a lot of rich storytelling still waiting to be discovered. We’ll start to see a lot more from that storyline in 2013 and onward.

Q: Michael, thanks for taking the time to do this Q&A. The last thing I wanted to ask was, out of all the Hasbro properties, which one would you personally like to bring into comics, which currently aren’t being published?
MICHAEL KELLY: Well, I’d be tipping my hand if I gave a direct answer to that question. Let’s just say that we’ve got a lot of things in the works right now, at various stages of development. Keep an eye out; you never know when we’ll be announcing the next big thing from Hasbro publishing.

Quelle: Transformers auf Facebook

Diskussion: hier!

Heute können wir euch fünf Seiten aus dem IDW Comic Transformers Regeneration One Heft 85 zeigen, zu denen Andrew Wildman seine Kommentare abgegeben hat.

PAGE 4: We’re starting a little late in the issue with this commentary, so as not to spoil a shocker earlier on… we get to Optimus Prime and Megatron fighting it out, just as they’ve always done. Did you find it hard to get back into drawing the classic characters like them again? Did you have to re-teach yourself how to do it?
ANDREW WILDMAN: No. I have been drawing these two guys a lot over the years in the form of sketches at conventions so they still feel very familiar. Cool bit about this scene is that I had the opportunity to start knocking chunks off of them

PAGE 5: How much free reign are you given to draw a particular panel? Do you always follow what is specified in the script or break away from that if you feel it would look better?
ANDREW WILDMAN Simon and myself have had a long creative relationship and we understand each other’s way of working. It is always clear to me that Simon has this all very well worked out in his head. It is rare that anything is not clear in the script. That said, occasionally I feel that something needs to be staged slightly differently. We discuss it and just work out what is the best solution. Our experience in TV is showing up a lot as well. Simon’s scripts often read more like a TV script and my art is looking more and more like a series of storyboards. But I like all that. I think it is giving it a more cinematic feel.

PAGE 6: With Kup struggling as the battle continues—how long would this page have taken you to draw? And did you go through many revisions on it before you came to how it looks now?
ANDREW WILDMAN: Very few revisions. Don’t have time for that. As soon as I read it I get an image in my mind as to what the page will look like. I then do a quick thumbnail on the script itself and then just draw it up full size. The majority of these pages take the same amount of time i.e. two pages a day. I often find that if you ponder a page for too long it loses life. trust your instincts and get it down quick. That way it retains more life and vibrancy

PAGE 5: Prime and Megatron continue their battle while Auntie poses a bigger threat... Did you go back and look at all of their previous fights to get an idea of how to approach this one?
ANDREW WILDMAN: Nope. Just piled in.

PAGE 6: At this stage, can you see yourself penciling every issue in Regeneration One or having some other input if another artist should come in?
ANDREW WILDMAN: I have been asked that a lot. Will have to see. Couldn’t possibly say

Quelle: Transformers auf Facebook

Diskussion: hier!

Hier zeigen wir euch die ersten Seiten zum IDW Comic Transformers Regeneration One Heft 85.

Diskussion: hier!

Auf seinem Blog hat Simon Furman Kommentare niedergeschrieben, in denen es um das IDW Comic Transformers Regeneration 1 Heft 85 geht. Er Spricht über den Showdown zwischen Optimus Prime und Megatron und den Folgen, die daraus entstehen. Aber es wird gewarnt: Spoiler!!!

Diskussion: hier!

Wir haben hier die ersten 5 Seiten zum IDW Comic Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye Ongoing Heft 10 und dazu die Komentare von James Roberts.

PAGE 1: We’re getting more into the politics of Cybertron with Senator Proteus, the rise of the Decepticons and how to deal with them. How far in advance did you have these kinds of political games worked out, and who would benefit from them?
JAMES ROBERTS: With “Shadowplay”—particularly Part 2—I’m trying to move MTMTE into “political thriller” territory. Well, a political thriller with some old-fashioned conspiracy tropes thrown in. This isn’t the first time I’ve explored the socio-political infrastructure of pre-war Cybertron—“Chaos Theory” (which can be found in the trade paperback of the same name), laid a lot of the groundwork upon which the plot of “Shadowplay” rests.
Structurally and hierarchically, ancient Cybertronian society has parallels with our own—there’s apartheid, civil rights, democracy (of a sort), classism, etc; to counterbalance that I wanted to bring something uniquely Cybertronian to the fore—namely the fact that these creatures are blessed (or cursed) with a second shape that determines their lot in life.
As for how far in advance I had these political games mapped out… far enough. Far enough to extend beyond this particular story.

PAGE 2: Chromedome gives chase to the bot who threw the body in front of him and Prowl from the last issue. Did you give specific designs on the sky bike and the craft he is pursuing as well as the Translucentica Heights?
JAMES ROBERTS: I certainly wanted Prowl and Chromedome’s sky bikes to be reminiscent of Action Master Prowl’s motorcycle. Just because.
The key thing about Translucentica—as the name (from “translucent”) suggests—was to make it look like it was entirely made of glass. Issue 9’s script said, “Translucentica is visible in the distance, a cluster of shimmering glass skyscrapers, sculptures, monorails, all of it tinted blue.” That was easy for me to write—the ever-talented duo of Alex Milne and Josh Burcham—had the difficult task of bringing that sentence to life.

PAGE 3: Chromedome loses his quarry and meets up with Prowl. Why put these two characters together for this story and not another pair?
JAMES ROBERTS: The simple answer is: I love Prowl and I wanted him in MTMTE.
Way, way back I pitched a story to IDW—a Prowl Spotlight set on pre-war Cybertron which had him tracking down a Transformation-Cog-stealing serial killer against a background of Decepticon rioting. Obviously that story was never written, but I was attracted to the idea of Prowl working for this CSI-type unit called the Mechaforensics Division.

PAGE 4 and 5: Prowl and Chromedome meet Red Alert and find the ’bot they are looking for. As all three of these characters have quite a bit of history to them, will we be seeing some of their actions catching up to them in future issues? Maybe across Robots in Disguise with Prowl as well?
JAMES ROBERTS: Your question reveals a universal truth about MTMTE: every character has a past, and everyone’s past will catch up with them. We’re not jumping back to pre-war Cybertron at random: events that take place during the run-up to war will have lasting repercussions on our present day crew.

Quelle: Transformers auf Facebook

Diskussion: hier!