Interview with James Roberts about Transformers: Lost Light

"[Anode] was going to cross paths with the crew of the Lost Light under the mutineer Getaway’s command, as opposed to being rescued by the time-traveling Necrobot. I was in a bit of a bind when MTMTE ended, because it ended on the mother of all cliffhangers: the main cast, and the planet on which they’d been left stranded by Getaway, had apparently blown up. So, they were dead, their ship had been stolen, they were falling behind on their quest … I had an obligation with Lost Light to pick up where I’d left off, but it was far from a neat jumping on point for new readers. Anode, being a totally new character – and someone who was unfamiliar with our regulars and their backstory – was my way of re-introducing all the series’ key concepts without it being too clunky."

This is very interesting. I just knew Revolution and the title change had fucked up things somehow and this demonstrates exactly how.


"After the Dissolution arc we’re following a smaller group of characters to a place we’ve mentioned more than once but never actually visited,” according to Roberts. “After that, we catch up with Getaway and his fellow mutineers – the titular Lost Light finally makes an appearance."

Hey D-max~

About damn time too.

Though I don't have any idea what he means by "place we've mentioned multiple times before" at the moment.

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:About damn time too.

Though I don't have any idea what he means by "place we've mentioned multiple times before" at the moment.

It's totally gonna be the Scavengers and Fort Max's crew teaming up to find and destroy the Nightmare Engine. Calling it

Kurona wrote:

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:About damn time too.

Though I don't have any idea what he means by "place we've mentioned multiple times before" at the moment.

It's totally gonna be the Scavengers and Fort Max's crew teaming up to find and destroy the Nightmare Engine. Calling it

Hydrus V gets my vote. Did Brainstorm really take out a star with his briefcase? Probably not.

ScottyP wrote:

Kurona wrote:

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:About damn time too.

Though I don't have any idea what he means by "place we've mentioned multiple times before" at the moment.

It's totally gonna be the Scavengers and Fort Max's crew teaming up to find and destroy the Nightmare Engine. Calling it

Hydrus V gets my vote. Did Brainstorm really take out a star with his briefcase? Probably not.

Very true... heck, there's a lot of places we've heard of a ton of times. This comic is the perfect setting to be vague about this.

Via PreviewsWorld, we have some nice art to tide over the (delayed) wait for the next issue of Transformers: Lost Light #5 - now due on 10th May - in the form of variant covers! Mirrored below, you can find the Nick Roche / Josh Burcham Anode centric cover, and the Alex Milne / Josh Perez Functionist Dredd-esque enforcers. Check them out, along with clean line art from Milne, too!

It's TEAM RODIMUS versus a universe gone wrong! An alternate Cybertron is being torn apart as the malevolent Functionist Council implement a plan that's been millions of years in the making. But with victory within their reach, they find themselves up against someone who really shouldn't exist: MEGATRON.

We have another variant cover for IDW Publishing's Transformers: Lost Light #5, in addition to the Milne/Perez and Roche/Burcham ones, thanks again to PreviewsWorld - take a look below at the Jin Kim art featuring Ultra Magnus, Nautica and Drift, with a floating Rodimus head in the background!

Speaking of comics, I just found combiner wars revised wave 6 on the pegs in Norway with the Idw comics. Last time I looked in the store there was almost no figures left but now there was a ton all on sale with comics

I want to frame this and hang it up somewhere. Beautiful art featuring some of the best characters

Straight from his Twitter account, comic writer James Roberts has tweeted a couple of panels featuring Nightbeat and Rung from the fifth issue of Lost Light, due for release next month. Check out the little snippet of character development below and tell us what you think in the forums!

As it turns out, not long after James Roberts tweeted two panels of the comic, the preview of Lost Light's fifth issue has been put up on itunes! Have a look below and tell us what you think in the forums.

I hate to say it but I've lost so much interest in this series. Mtmte is a series I've always had a love/hate relationship with but with where it's gone and where it's going with this story I've just become "oh yeah we haven't gotten an issue this month" or "well there's an issue coming out. I grab it when I'm free" I wish I could be more excited but I'm just not anymore.

I must admit - and since this is my favourite series and it's had such a big impact on my life, this is hard to admit - the current arc has been a bit weak, unfocused and all over the place imo. Things seem to happen without any lead-in, we jump from point to point without any time devoted to a subject and it's been a little hard to follow. It's not terrible per se, it's still a fine plot and certain things like Anode and the geo-bomb (and Brainstorm squealing!!) shine through to me, but it's not quite up to par as MTMTE was.

However... that said, while this doesn't excuse everything, I'm kinda putting this down to forced editorial mandates. It just so happens that a plot that's... well, as I just described; arguably a drop in quality, happens right when they're forced to restart the numbering, essentially tasked with bringing in new readership and the creative team is reshuffled? I'm not familiar with how everything works, but I don't think this was a good thing for the comic and I think if we'd gotten MTMTE #58 instead of LL #1, things would have been different. That's why I've been a bit easier on this than I really should be; maybe it's me being a bit too optimistic or biased, but I can't look at the negatives of the comic recently, compare it to how incredible MTMTE was and not look towards the editorial mandates.

Also, Nightbeat and Rung. That's reeling me back in as that little talk between them is looking very interesting and Nightbeat's showing his nicer side.

The renumbering and renaming doesn't bother me. I've been reading comics since I was 6 and it's something you have to just get adjusted to. This wasnt batman or Spider-Man getting in the 700s and 800s and going back it issue one, it was issue 56 and then changing. Wasn't that big of a deal.

My biggest issue has always been and will always be unless it changes is that Roberts writes this like a television show and not a comic book and those are two very different medias. The structure is an utter mess at times. The ideas and characterization have always been its strengths where as it's structure has always been something to be desired. I'm not going to go as far as some and accuse James of writing knock off red dwarf fan fiction but it's hard not to see it. I've talked to James, he's a great guy but I wish he'd work on his storytelling and grow from it instead of making tongue and cheek remarks from characters in the book like hes done a bit whenever "community" was referenced.

I used to get furious for so long at this series because it never does anything with the quest and I finally gave up by season 2 because there wasn't a single issue in those 2 and half years that actually had any form of progress with the quest. They got a map halfway but we had to have more deviations. James said with lost light he's making the quest priority. Now we know for the next few months thanks to solicits and probably for the rest of the year we will be in functionalist universe and all I can do is toss my hands in the air and ask "well why did you even say that James?"

He said it a few times in interviews and podcasts by the way.

Primus bless, this fandom turned on this book faster than it took to type this sentence.

I loved everything in those three pages and just cannot wait for more. Y'all go have your 'We want Milne and plot resolution' pity party, I'll be over here with my robot pals enjoying the ride

I miss Milne's art, no doubt, but I'm also enjoying the ride! I'm sure Roddy will get his ship back and they'll be back on track....eventually.

I actually really like the art myself. I still prefer Milne and think he's a better fit, but it's not like Lawrence is a slouch or anything; he's a fantastic artist and in my opinion he works well for the comic.

I too like jacks art. It's very Early 2000s Nick Roche meets Guido Guidi. It's got that classic looks with a little exaggerated proportions.

ScottyP wrote:I loved everything in those three pages and just cannot wait for more. Y'all go have your 'We want Milne and plot resolution' pity party, I'll be over here with my robot pals enjoying the ride

I'm with you Scotty. I'm having a blast with Lost Light and will continue to enjoy it.

Kurona wrote:I actually really like the art myself. I still prefer Milne and think he's a better fit, but it's not like Lawrence is a slouch or anything; he's a fantastic artist and in my opinion he works well for the comic.

Pretty much exactly how I feel too. Lawrence is doing a great job in my opinion.

Is Alex not returning at all? I know he's doing that miniseries with John and Josh Perez but wasn't Alex suppose to return for the next arc and then Jack would do the one after?

Randomhero wrote:Is Alex not returning at all? I know he's doing that miniseries with John and Josh Perez but wasn't Alex suppose to return for the next arc and then Jack would do the one after?

That may indeed have been the initial plan (or it was smoke and mirrors for PR reasons, who knows) but with Milne on ROM vs TF it's a safe bet this plan has changed. Until further notice I'm operating under the assumption that Lawrence is to Lost Light as Pitre-Durocher is to TAAO and as Zama is to OP.

Randomhero wrote:The renumbering and renaming doesn't bother me. I've been reading comics since I was 6 and it's something you have to just get adjusted to. This wasnt batman or Spider-Man getting in the 700s and 800s and going back it issue one, it was issue 56 and then changing. Wasn't that big of a deal.

My biggest issue has always been and will always be unless it changes is that Roberts writes this like a television show and not a comic book and those are two very different medias. The structure is an utter mess at times. The ideas and characterization have always been its strengths where as it's structure has always been something to be desired. I'm not going to go as far as some and accuse James of writing knock off red dwarf fan fiction but it's hard not to see it. I've talked to James, he's a great guy but I wish he'd work on his storytelling and grow from it instead of making tongue and cheek remarks from characters in the book like hes done a bit whenever "community" was referenced.

I used to get furious for so long at this series because it never does anything with the quest and I finally gave up by season 2 because there wasn't a single issue in those 2 and half years that actually had any form of progress with the quest. They got a map halfway but we had to have more deviations. James said with lost light he's making the quest priority. Now we know for the next few months thanks to solicits and probably for the rest of the year we will be in functionalist universe and all I can do is toss my hands in the air and ask "well why did you even say that James?"

He said it a few times in interviews and podcasts by the way.

That's interesting because I seems to me he has started writing things more like a comic, just not in a good way. One of the best things about Roberts' writing in the early MTMTE was that it was episodic, so we would get a more or less complete mini story in one or two issues, unlike other modern series where every single issue would end on a vital to the current plot cliffhanger. At the same time, each episode would lead into the next more or less, like when the fall out from Fort Max's therapy session lead into the next issue or the lead into the spark eater story.

It was annoying that the whole quest thing was a loose framework to hang the story on, but as long as the individual episodes were decent I could deal with it. Ever since season 1 ended, however, plots have gradually gotten more drawn out in some areas and severely truncated in others, and in some cases the payoff for the episodic stories don't have immediate consequences until a few issues later. For instance, the way I saw it, the episode with Froid and Sunder's main point was Skids' memories which doesn't come into play until the ending bits of Dying int the Light. This makes the lack of quest progress even more noticeable in the grand scheme of the series.

Now, as of LL, we're in full comic mode. Where the Functionist universe plot seems to be going on for 6 issues, and has almost nothing to do with the main threads introduced in the last series. Meanwhile, in just these 4 issues of LL, we've gotten so many new plot points to deal with, and it's infuriating that none of them are related to the quest or the Lost Light Mutiny, imo one of the most interesting things that happened in the last season.

To count every new thing that's been introduced, trapped in the Functionist universe, embroiled in the conflict of said universe, possible addiction to mood altering drugs for several characters, tailgate going nuts, whatever is going on with Anode, swerve and ten displaced to somewhere else entirely, future visions of pharma doing something. It's super exhausting.

In what is a rather strange turn of events, the preview pages of Lost Light #5 posted before were not pages 1 through 3; but in fact pages 2 through 4. For reasons not quite clear - possibly an uploading error on iTunes' part - only pages 2 through 4 appear on iTunes' website without Page 1. However, Twitter user Lucrecia Souviron reports that when she downloaded the preview to her iPod, page 1 showed up. While we'll try to get a clearer image later, enjoy Lucrecia's screenshot of the true Lost Light #5 Page 1 below - which notably includes the two panels James Roberts had previously tweeted - along with the three pages previously newsed and tell us what you think of this strange turn of events in the forums.

So, uh, yeah; this is weird.

I did kind of have my doubts before - Nightbeat and Rung's conversation having no lead-in especially with James Roberts' tweet; Rodimus being electrocuted seeming an odd way to start the issue for reasons I can't quite explain - but I didn't quite expect this. Mistakes happen I suppose; nice to see that the issue is built much more competently than I previously thought. All my previous criticisms - at least in regards to this particular issue - go out the window

When is Lost Light actually going to go back to the Lost Light?

Probably going to take 10 years to finally reach the knights at this pace.

Will Rodimus actually grow up and will we get character's who don't joke in every other line?

Are we getting Milne back you know an actually good artist?

Deadput wrote:When is Lost Light actually going to go back to the Lost Light?

Probably going to take 10 years to finally reach the knights at this pace.

Will Rodimus actually grow up and will we get character's who don't joke in every other line?

Are we getting Milne back you know an actually good artist?

We're going back to look at the Lost Light in a few issues as confirmed by Roberts, Rodimus' character is actually growing and Lawrence is a fine artist. I can understand why many feel his art style doesn't fit the book (a lot of people have said it's a bit too cartoony for the tone of the comic; I disagree with it myself but the criticism does make sense) and I can certainly understand preferring Milne for the comic, but in what way is Lawrence's art bad? Because personally I'm seeing some gorgeous lineart. Well, gorgeous lineart a little obscured by the image quality because iTunes previews do that for some reason; but gorgeous lineart nonetheless.

Kurona wrote:

Deadput wrote:When is Lost Light actually going to go back to the Lost Light?

Probably going to take 10 years to finally reach the knights at this pace.

Will Rodimus actually grow up and will we get character's who don't joke in every other line?

Are we getting Milne back you know an actually good artist?

We're going back to look at the Lost Light in a few issues as confirmed by Roberts, Rodimus' character is actually growing and Lawrence is a fine artist. I can understand why many feel his art style doesn't fit the book (a lot of people have said it's a bit too cartoony for the tone of the comic; I disagree with it myself but the criticism does make sense) and I can certainly understand preferring Milne for the comic, but in what way is Lawrence's art bad? Because personally I'm seeing some gorgeous lineart. Well, gorgeous lineart a little obscured by the image quality because iTunes previews do that for some reason; but gorgeous lineart nonetheless.

could be worse, idw could be letting Livio Ramondelli ruin this book, the way he's ruined so many others.

I'll admit something has felt off to me but I figured it was just that this is the first arc I've read issue by issue and not in a set of 5 books in a volume. I still really enjoy LL and Issue 3 was excellent in particular.

I'd argue that Lawrence is a little too cartoony for the tone of the book but he still has really good art. It took some getting used to but I like it.

Should they get back to the LL ,deal with the mutineers, and continue the quest? Absolutely but I've always seen MTMTE/LL as a book mostly for the characters and exRID/TAAO/OP as the plot based books. And besides, if they finished the quest where would my favorite TF fiction be?

They have thrown a lot at us since the re numbering but in due time all of the loose ends will be tied up. I can wait a while for that too, keeps continuity and shows that there are plans in place for the future.

We'll all know whether this arc has been useless or not in due time. And I'd bet it won't be useless at all. Some consider Swearth to be the bottom of the barrel and I actually like it but I also read it in the volume format.

Kurona wrote:We're going back to look at the Lost Light in a few issues as confirmed by Roberts, Rodimus' character is actually growing and Lawrence is a fine artist. I can understand why many feel his art style doesn't fit the book (a lot of people have said it's a bit too cartoony for the tone of the comic; I disagree with it myself but the criticism does make sense) and I can certainly understand preferring Milne for the comic, but in what way is Lawrence's art bad? Because personally I'm seeing some gorgeous lineart. Well, gorgeous lineart a little obscured by the image quality because iTunes previews do that for some reason; but gorgeous lineart nonetheless.

I was exaggerating about going back to the lost light but I'm still annoyed that apparently confirming Rodimus and Co being obviously not dead and introducing more pointless oc's like Anode cluttering up the story is more important then Getaway and the Lost Light.

Roberts can't write character progression without resetting it most of the time like bringing Rewind back from the dead or copping out on death for important characters, Rodimus reverting to spoiled child every time he does something responsible and leader like.

Lawrence is a good artist himself it's that that his art would be more suited to more light hearted stories that's what I mean.

SureShot18 wrote:I'll admit something has felt off to me but I figured it was just that this is the first arc I've read issue by issue and not in a set of 5 books in a volume. I still really enjoy LL and Issue 3 was excellent in particular.

I'd argue that Lawrence is a little too cartoony for the tone of the book but he still has really good art. It took some getting used to but I like it.

Should they get back to the LL ,deal with the mutineers, and continue the quest? Absolutely but I've always seen MTMTE/LL as a book mostly for the characters and exRID/TAAO/OP as the plot based books. And besides, if they finished the quest where would my favorite TF fiction be?

They have thrown a lot at us since the re numbering but in due time all of the loose ends will be tied up. I can wait a while for that too, keeps continuity and shows that there are plans in place for the future.

We'll all know whether this arc has been useless or not in due time. And I'd bet it won't be useless at all. Some consider Swearth to be the bottom of the barrel and I actually like it but I also read it in the volume format.

Another fan of Swearth! I thought I was the only one; and that all others existed only in myths and legends of the old world lost to time.

Kurona wrote:Another fan of Swearth! I thought I was the only one; and that all others existed only in myths and legends of the old world lost to time.

Swearth was self-indulgent, incredibly silly, and arguably didn't add a great deal to the overall story, and I won't have a bad word said against it
Personally I love that MTMTE/LL can have that kind of farsical fun whilst driving home some really solid emotional character points. Swearth fans unite!

Regarding the art I definitely prefer Milne's but Lawrence has done a fantastic job overall, in fact in this preview I feel it's easily as strong as Milne. The "cartoonish" idea is thrown around a lot and I see where people are coming from but I think I have however figured out where my (minor) personal issues lie: its the big boys. Most small or regular-sized bots I've no trouble at all with, but to my eye Lawrence seems to draw bigger bots- Megs, Magnus, and their ilk- in a slightly squatter, softer, less imposing way (the panel in issue 1 of Magnus on stage boring the newbies to death springs to mind). Particularly considering many of these can be the more stoic bots among the cast, this can feel a little jarring.
I'm no artist so I couldnt tell you whether this is down to a stylistic choice, having space in the panels, or even just perspective messing with my perception of them, but I think that's personally what's throwing me off slightly.

Also to quell some fears, Roberts mentioned recently in a podcast (Soun.wav cast I believe?) that after this arc wraps up, we're going to have a brief story on Troja Major, which has been name-dropped a few times in the comic but never significantly, and then back to the Lost Light by I think Autumn/Winter time this year.

I don't read the comics, but this looks good, like, really good. Time to actually read something and not refresh the same page over and over again.

I have actually been enjoying Lost Light more than some of the issues of MTMTE. I feel like they have improved by using a smoother writing style that is easier to follow than some of MTMTE was. I always got lost with those time tavel arcs and sometimes when they did several arcs an issue it messed with my brain. I keep saying I should re-read the older issues now that I am not under a time crunch to do so but I sometimes don't feel like boggling my mind over again. I am probably just being lazy because I do enjoy the characters and I know once I get started I will enjoy it.

ricemazter wrote:Meanwhile, in just these 4 issues of LL, we've gotten so many new plot points to deal with, and it's infuriating that none of them are related to the quest or the Lost Light Mutiny.

None of it is related that we know of. If there's one thing Roberts has been good at, it's laying down little pieces of information that become relevant at a later point.

SG Roadbuster wrote:could be worse, idw could be letting Livio Ramondelli ruin this book, the way he's ruined so many others.

Harsh. I personally believe Ramondelli has come on leaps and bounds since his early work.

SureShot18 wrote:Some consider Swearth to be the bottom of the barrel and I actually like it but I also read it in the volume format.

I like Swearth for what it was. It was interesting and led somewhere. It was quirky, which is something I love about MTMTE and now LL. And gave us so many awesome holo-matter avatars. (Megatron and Rodimus in particular!)

SG Roadbuster wrote:could be worse, idw could be letting Livio Ramondelli ruin this book, the way he's ruined so many others.

Harsh. I personally believe Ramondelli has come on leaps and bounds since his early work.

that is true i suppose. it used to be runny diarrhea, now its a solid, healthy turd.
nothing destroys my enthusiasm for an issue of a Transformers comic than seeing Ramondelli's name in the art credits. IDW has a stable of amazing artists. Lawrence, Milne, Su, Burcham, Coller, Durocher, Stone, Griffin, Guidi, Sakamoto, Zama. and so on. I dont understand why they keep letting Ramondelli ruin books. at this point i'd rather see Pat Lee or Rob Liefeld doing art.

SG Roadbuster wrote:

SG Roadbuster wrote:could be worse, idw could be letting Livio Ramondelli ruin this book, the way he's ruined so many others.

Harsh. I personally believe Ramondelli has come on leaps and bounds since his early work.

that is true i suppose. it used to be runny diarrhea, now its a solid, healthy turd.
nothing destroys my enthusiasm for an issue of a Transformers comic than seeing Ramondelli's name in the art credits. IDW has a stable of amazing artists. Lawrence, Milne, Su, Burcham, Coller, Durocher, Stone, Griffin, Guidi, Sakamoto, Zama. and so on. I dont understand why they keep letting Ramondelli ruin books. at this point i'd rather see Pat Lee or Rob Liefeld doing art.

Honestly, thinking of Lee or Liefeld's art makes Ramondelli seem like heaven to me...

Kurona wrote:Honestly, thinking of Lee or Liefeld's art makes Ramondelli seem like heaven to me...

Agreed. Wholeheartedly.

The sheer volume of exposition is getting ridiculous. Poor writing. So often characters are standing around explaining the plot, and in this preview they're even doing it in a supposedly perilous situation.

Why couldn't we discover the key's obsolescence at the same time as the council?

Even if that revelation is a fake out, I'm sure that will probably unfold off panel too.

I'm actually at a point where I'm hate reading this comic.

Hey y'all, I apologize if this has been touched on already but I had a thought and decided to put it here. I accept boos and booze as payment for not reading through the thread entirely.

So, I agree with Scotty P's supposition that something will happen to Terminus (probably the only reason they brought him back, to be honest) which will cause Megatron to fly into a rage, probably killing most people sans the Rod Pals, and potentially bring him back to his old ways, thus complicating their inevitable return to the standard universe.

But what if Megatron decided to stay in the Functionist universe?

This is, of course, assuming he has some sort of psychotic and/or character break. But think about it: the Functionist doctrine is reigniting his original principles and philosophies. The populace is already in a subjugated mindset, making a transition to a new, "cleaner and freer" way of living an easy one. Megatron could easily justify it as needing to guide these people into a new way of living (after exterminating the Functionists, of course), seeing it as essentially a clean slate version of Cybertron. The war never happened here, and neither did the atrocities he committed. In this way, he would return to the despot he's classically been, but in his mind be completely justified in doing so. It's also a way for the writers to bring back "evil Megatron" without just saying "graaaggghhh he's evil now for some reason *coughcoughhasbrotoldustocoughcough* buy more toys plz" and potentially adds some interesting stories when Prime others find out.

If this is the wrong place for this kind of post, I apologize and would appreciate a redirection. If not, thoughts?

On his Twitter account, comic artist and More Than Meets The Eye regular Alex Milne has tweeted his cover for Lost Light #6, set to release next month as the conclusion to the Dissolution storyline. Check out the cover and the inked version below!

Whilst it's obviously a very busy (and gorgeously detailed) pile of gears, I don't count more than twelve of individual faces or pairs of hands.
...have we just had our first look at the (partially transformed) key to vector sigma?

That cover.

aside from the overly human looking face. this is a very awesome.

Can't wait to read this next week!! LOVE dat cover.

griftimus prime wrote:aside from the overly human looking face. this is a very awesome.

Lol, the only reason I came here was to say that Megatron and I have the same nose.

Iiiiit's coming~

Deheheheh Josh Perez goin G2.

*DIES FROM AWESOMENESS *

Needs more purple and rail gun

G2. Always a good decision.

So the 1st story arc of Lost Light is about to come to a close. Has it met your expectations?