Transformers Comic Book News on Seibertron.com

Upcoming IDW Publishing Windblade Cover

Date: Wednesday, January 15th 2014 6:47pm CST
Category: Comic Book News
Posted by: El Duque | Credit(s): IDW Publishing

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Views: 16,127

Courtesy of IDW Publishing's Twitter feed we have an upcoming post Dark Cybertron cover featuring Hasbro's Fan Built Bot winner Windblade! Check out the art below by Casey Collier and Joana Lafuente.

IDW Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye #25 (DC6) Review

Date: Wednesday, January 15th 2014 2:22am CST
Categories: Comic Book News, Reviews, Site Articles
Posted by: Va'al | Credit(s): IDW Publishing, Va'al

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Views: 49,197

Synopsis

A HERO FALLS—AND ONE RETURNS! The struggle in the DEAD UNIVERSE heats up as ORION PAX—the ’bot who was once OPTIMUS PRIME—and RODIMUS struggle with the legacy of PRIMES! Meanwhile, the Lost Light is under attack in deep space—and SHOCKWAVE and the terrifying NECROTITAN threaten CYBERTRON!



Story

And here we are, halfway through the BIGGEST EVENT OF THE EVER HISTORY OF EVERYTHING, according to the solicits since at least two years ago. And I feel like we've hit a bit of a lull, though not an unwelcome one in the issue itself, rather in the plot - unevitable? Maybe. Let's read on.



We're back to the three storylines, following the Lost Light crew inside Metroplex, the boxed lot in the Dead Universe and Starscream's (barely) Cybertron. While the first two actually advance a little, the latter in particular seems to not do much other than re-establish the threat of the Necrotitan and Starscream's connection to it. And a little bit on the 'outcast' faction, I suppose.



The other two plotlines, on the other hand, do a little more, with the biggest parts played out in the Dead Universe, especially towards the end of the section. We get some interesting goings-on with the otherwise static situation of the trapped characters, and exchanges are made between Nova Prime and his (ex?) heir Orion - and other things happen.



The final page brings us a fairly big revelation about one of the other players in the story, though see below for more on this. The lull is expected, at this point in the series, and it realy could be worse, and there are still some good moments of characterisation if not plot advancement. I did like the snuck-in addition on Slug's name-change, too.

Art

We're back to three separate art styles, with James Raiz on the Lost Light/in Metroplex' body, Livio Ramondelli in the Dead Universe and Atilio Rojo on Cybertron. And I have to say, I have no major complaints this time round (bar one)! Raiz in particular really shines in this issue, with thinner inks and some crazy panel work; Rojo's lines are a lot nicer too, and really work with the setting; Ramondelli is suited to the DU, until the last page reveal - it took me a while to figure out what was going on, and it detracted from the reveal itself.



Josh Perez does is still doing some pretty amazing work, blending into both Raiz' and Rojo's style, and still keeping in tone with the er.. tone of the story being told. Some of the nuances are really cool, especially tha dark/light fade-ins. Ramondelli's colours are also good, as I've said many times before, really suit the Dead Universe - even with the proviso above.



Gilbert Lazcano appears to be the regular letterer for now, and I really like some of his more creative moments, like the issue's title page and the Dinobots' speech. All in all, the issue looks good, but that final page really did not do it for me I'm afraid. The two covers by Phil Jimenez and Brendan Cahill are great though, especially the latter!

Thoughts
Spoilerish ahead

As I've been saying throughout, we've hit the plateau, and it was to be expected, really. Some of the characters (Getaway, Astrotrain, Dinobots, Flatline) get more of an occasion to take the spotlight, even if just for a little while, but the introduction of Tankor so suddenly does feel a bit odd, and blatantly a toy advertising device.



I wasn't as bothered with the three different styles this time either, except for that final page (OH I was very annoyed for a bit), and the Escher style scenes are excellent, as are some of the bigger splashes and spreads, with the added bonus of really good, mood-setting colouring too. Next?




PS: What is going on with the Dinobots' names..? Isn't the big one Sludge? Why is he called Snarl? Just bad speech-bubbles? Halp.

IDW The X-Files: Conspiracy #1 Review

Date: Wednesday, January 15th 2014 2:20am CST
Categories: Comic Book News, Reviews, Site Articles
Posted by: Va'al | Credit(s): IDW Publishing, Burn

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Views: 32,329

Coming in to have a say on the new IDW Publishing inter-franchise event, a fan of the X-Files Season 10 comics series so far, and fellow staff member: Burn!

(Beware, some spoilers below.)

----

As someone who was a fan of The X-Files from the first episode, I was a little wary of the new comic series from IDW. What with the mess of The X-Files: I Want To Believe movie, and the fact as a staunch "Noromo" I had to accept that the "Shippers" had gotten their way and Mulder and Scully were an item.

Oh and The Lone Gunmen were dead, assassinated by Fox.

But that was then, and this is now. Seven issues in and IDW have acknowledged and moved on from the blunder of I Want To Believe, The Lone Gunmen are now working out of a cemetery, and overall they've crafted a series continuation that carries on the core principles of the TV series. Monsters, and of course, conspiracies.

Which brings us to "The X-Files: Conspiracy", the first part in IDW Publishing's latest company-wide crossover. I'm not a fan of crossovers, more-so when it comes to IDW after the Infestation mess. But this issue sets the series up well.

While Mulder and Scully are off investigating their latest X-File, the Gunmen are continuing their mission of uncovering secrets and devising ways to open the eyes of the masses. A mysterious heavily encrypted file lands in their inbox which sets off the conspiracy. As they slowly decrypt the file they soon discover it to be a series of news reports... from the future! News reports which include references to man-sized amphibians, ghost catchers, and of course, alien robots that are apparently hiding in plain sight as every day objects.



Eager to pass the information onto Mulder and Scully, the Gunmen meet up with them at their latest crime scene involving a number of deaths from a strange virus. The very same crime scene that the Gunmen have just decrypted from their mystery file.

Mulder and Scully have a new case that intersects with The Lone Gunmen's newest conspiracy, and in typical X-Files fashion, there's someone out to make sure the secrets stay secret as The Lone Gunmen set off to New York to meet up with the resident Ghostbusters.



It's a classic X-Files story and a great introduction to the latest IDW company cross-over. Here's hoping the standard continues, if it does, it will be a mini-series well worth picking up.

IDW Transformers: Dawn of the Autobots Teaser Image

Date: Tuesday, January 14th 2014 3:51pm CST
Category: Comic Book News
Posted by: Va'al | Credit(s): IDW Publishing

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Views: 20,969

Thanks to the IDW Publishing Twitter account, we have a teaser image of what will potentially be the aftermath of the Dark Cybertron event. We see a Casey W. Coller Orion Pax (or Optimus Prime?) standing under the banner 'After the Dark' with a moon shining in the back and a new dawn rising over an Earth-like planet - could this be the Dawn of the Autobots monicker we've seen before? Discuss in the Energon Pub, and check out the latest preview of Dark Cybertron #6!

IDW The X-Files: Conspiracy #1 Preview

Date: Tuesday, January 14th 2014 2:33am CST
Category: Comic Book News
Posted by: Va'al | Credit(s): IDW Publishing

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Views: 16,225

The new year also brings us something different, courtesy of IDW Publishing. You may remember the 2013 Infestation storyline, in which all the licensed franchises crossed over - this year, The Lone Gunmen and FBI agents Mulder and Scully take on mutant turtles, ghost-hunters and.. shape-shifting robots! Check out below the preview for The X-Files: Conspiracy #1!

The X-Files: Conspiracy #1 (of 2)—GEM OF THE MONTH

Paul Crilley (w) • John Stanisci (a) • Miran Kim (c)

The event of the year begins here! When The Lone Gunmen discover Internet files from the future, they learn that a plague will soon wipe out most of humanity. With Agents Mulder and Scully working one lead, the Gunmen must spring into action and investigate several urban legends: a group of ghost-hunters, mutant turtles that live in the sewers, shape-changing alien robots, and a vengeful spirit from beyond the grave!

FC • 32 pages • $3.99

Bullet points:
• Ask your retailer about the Joe Corroney “tabloid” variant covers for each issue of the event!
• Each issue has a special subscription variant that depicts famous conspiracies with a new twist!

IDW Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye #25 (DC6) Preview

Date: Tuesday, January 14th 2014 2:30am CST
Category: Comic Book News
Posted by: Va'al | Credit(s): IDW Publishing

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Thanks to our friends over at IDW, we have the first full preview of the year! Take a look below at the first pages of More than Meets the Eye #25, the sixth chapter in the Dark Cybertron event. And make sure you come back tomorrow for the Seibertron.com review!

Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye #25: Dark Cybertron Part 6 (of 12)
James Roberts & John Barber (w) • Atilio Rojo, James Raiz, Livio Ramondelli (a) • Casey W. Coller (c)

A HERO FALLS—AND ONE RETURNS! The struggle in the DEAD UNIVERSE heats up as ORION PAX—the ’bot who was once OPTIMUS PRIME—and RODIMUS struggle with the legacy of PRIMES! Meanwhile, the Lost Light is under attack in deep space—and SHOCKWAVE and the terrifying NECROTITAN threatens CYBERTRON!
FC • 32 pages • $3.99

Bullet points:
• The biggest Transformers event in comic book history hits the mid point!
• Variant Cover by Brendan Cahill!

Robert Atkins Reveals Special Transformers / G.I. Joe Crossover Cover for Transformers: Regeneration One #100 and G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #200

Date: Monday, January 13th 2014 8:14pm CST
Category: Comic Book News
Posted by: El Duque | Credit(s): Robert Atkins

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Artist Robert Atkins has revealed his special Transformers/G.I. Joe crossover covers for Transformers: Regeneration One #100 and G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #200! The covers combine to form an awesome image celebrating the two landmark issues. He believes these will be limited run retailer incentive covers. Check out the images mirrored from Robert Atkin's Blog below:

Robert Atkins wrote:This was a recent double page cover I did for IDW's Transformers: Regeneration One #100 and GI Joe: A Real American Hero #200. I think these are retailer incentive covers and are pretty limited.

First I was just given a list of characters they wanted me to try and fit in. I did my best to try and squeeze them in. I labelled who all was in it for my editor Carlos. I was just told to switch out Destro for Cobra Commander on the right hand side.

Robert Atkins wrote:I did that, but also decided I could squeeze in a few more characters. I got Star Scream in just behind Snake Eyes and Optimus on the left hand side. I also changed BumbleBee so he was protecting Flint, and put the Baroness in the lower half of the right hand side. I still wanted Destro in there, so I put him in a Flight Pod "Trouble Bubble" in the center of the cover. It probably ended up too dense, but for me it was more about who I could fit in.

Tom Scioli Interview - Transformers / G.I. Joe Crossover

Date: Thursday, January 9th 2014 1:50pm CST
Categories: Comic Book News, People News, Interviews
Posted by: Va'al | Credit(s): Newsarama

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Entertainent news website Newsarama has posted an interview with Tom Scioli, the author and artist of the upcoming Transformers/G.I. Joe crossover. Not much is said about the story itself, but we do get an insight into its conception and Scioli's take on the franchises. Read the whole interview here, and take a look at some preliminary artwork and snippets below!

Details on the book are hush-hush and Scioli is finalizing the artwork on everything, but we got him on the line to talk about his love of these characters, from the classic toys to the classic cartoons to the classic comics.

Here now are excerpts from our long, long geek-out session with Scioli on these great characters and how they warped our childhoods, and a look at some of the behind-the-scenes drawing for the upcoming series. If anything, we did learn this: Scioli is bringing a real passion and love for the characters to this book, and you can get a glimpse of it here.

Newsarama Note: The art shown here is not final, and only represents Scioli’s initial doodles and experiments with the characters’ looks. It does not represent what will appear in the actual series.

Newsarama: Tom, how did this come about?

Tom Scioli: Pretty organically – I sent some samples of my work to IDW, and then I was contacted by John Barber about doing a cover for Black Dynamite, and then I started pitching ideas around the image I’d come up with, and it was a bit too much all at once, but after a while he contacted me with an idea for a Transformers/G.I. Joe comic, this one-sentence pitch. So those were all the steps.

Nrama: This can get confusing, but what continuity does this take place in?

Scioli: My thoughts are that this is its own continuity – they can be similar to other books except for how these worlds interact, or they can be completely different, I hate to change anything without a good reason, but I do like to feel like everything is up for grabs.

There’s no unified continuity for either of these properties – they’ve both existed for a long time, and had their own worlds, but there is no one “right” version.

[...]

Nrama: To kind of give this reminiscing a point – these were characters explicitly designed to sell toys. And yet here you and I are, nearly three decades later, we’re talking about them, fans are still going to see the movies, watching the cartoons, buying the toys – why are they so powerful?

Scioli: I think the designs are really strong, that whatever the initial impetus for creating these things was, people still invested the full weight of their imaginations and creativity on them, and so they transcended whatever initial decision-making brought them into being.

Someone like Larry Hama offered whatever he had in terms of life experience and imagination into G.I. Joe, and it’s something that transcends generations, something kids and adults can enjoy years later. Comics are something designed to sell themselves, and I’ve spent might adult life reading and making comics.

The commercial aspect is almost invisible. I think it’s almost beside the point.

Transformers: Robots in Disguise and More Than Meets the Eye Volume One Reprints with New Cover Art

Date: Thursday, January 9th 2014 10:45am CST
Category: Comic Book News
Posted by: El Duque | Credit(s): Amazon

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Views: 20,034

IDW Publishing will be reprinting Transformers: Robots in Disguise Volume 1 and Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye Volume 1 with new cover art by Livio Ramondelli. Both are scheduled to be released in May. Check out the details and new cover art below courtesy of Amazon.com.

UPDATE: IDW confirmed these are indeed reprints and had the following to add:

The two books are reprints of the first volumes of RID and MTMTE with new covers. Creating a unified look for these editions is part of our continuing efforts to get Transformers comics into the hands of new fans by using different designs and cover treatments to attract new eyes on our comics.

More Than Meets The Eye reunites the fan-favorite creative team behind Last Stand of the Wreckers and sends the Transformers on an epic quest to the farthest reaches of the Transformers Universe and beyond! Also includes the one-shot Death of Optimus Prime.

Product Details
Series: Transformers
Paperback: 124 pages
Publisher: IDW Publishing (May 20, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1613779658
ISBN-13: 978-1613779651

The war for Cybertron is over - now the hard part begins! Bumblebee and his fellow Autobots struggle to maintain control of a world without Optimus Prime! Bumblebee's provisional government is struggling and Prowl defends it against the Decepticons, but how far will he go - and who will chose to stand by his side?

Product Details
Series: Transformers
Paperback: 136 pages
Publisher: IDW Publishing (May 20, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 161377964X
ISBN-13: 978-1613779644

Sneak Peek - Transformers: Robots in Disguise #25 (DC7)

Date: Thursday, January 9th 2014 6:16am CST
Category: Comic Book News
Posted by: Va'al | Credit(s): iTunes

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Views: 17,654

Thanks again to digital assistant Mariel Romero over at IDW, we have a brief iTunes preview of the upcoming part 7 in the Dark Cybertron event: Robots in Disguise 25. Check out the images mirrored below!

Description
WHAT LIES BENEATH! ULTRA MAGNUS leads what's left of the Lost Light crew deep into the last place they ever thought they'd be-and they find they last CYBERTRONIANS they ever expected to find! Meanwhile: MEGATRON versus GALVATRON: Round One!