ZeroWolf wrote:So what happened with Dreamwave? I wasn't collecting during that period.
Also you felt cheated at IDW first issue because they went somewhere new and not carry on the already silly old G1 universe (I'm talking cartoon here, still working through the marvel comics) I mean how dare IDW do something new with the property they fought hard for and has done wonders, like autobot Megatron for instance. They've also made mistakes like the all hail Megatron fiasco. But every company does that, DW obviously did and paid for it.
Actually, that's not quite the reason for DW's collapse. As far as I can tell, they were doing very well from Transformers, & their other, independent creations were selling satisfactorily. They should not have been in any financial difficulty... But all evidence I've seen seems to point the finger of blame solely on President/"Artist" Pat Lee. While he did do the hard work to get Transformers restarted as a comic, reigniting people's interests, his subsequently unscrupulous business practices gradually drove the company to bankruptcy.
To illustrate, Mr. Lee himself was driving around in an expensive sports car while artists & writers like Guido Guidi & Simon Furman were simply not being paid for the work they were producing. One thing that stood out in particular for me: I went to my local comic shop to purchase a new issue of DW's TF, only to be told that it was no longer available for distribution in my country (Australia). Apparently, DW (read: Pat Lee) had not paid Hasbro (or whoever) for the rights to sell this comic internationally - all the comics I had previously purchased were technically being sold illegally. See his TF Wiki entry for more examples of doucheness (
http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Pat_Lee).
Aside from that, the story itself was not as bad as you might think. It kinda
was and wasn't a continuation of the G1 TV series, set sometime between season 2 & the movie, ignoring the movie itself & seasons 3 & 4 (though season 3 & 4 characters were still present). Instead, it subtly
"ignored-but-didn't" the events of the cartoon that had led up to that point while leading the story in a different direction from that point on, similar to a "What-If" scenario e.g. asking "What would have happened if X didn't (or did) happen?"
"Megatron is the proof that tyranny is the finest form of government, under the right tyrant."