Sneak Peek - Dawn Of The Predacus Megatron via Corin Howell

PLEASE let this relate to the rubber ducky in some way.

Just... WTeverlovingF is that? Are you kidding?

Flux Convoy wrote:Just... WTeverlovingF is that? Are you kidding?

Well, at least this time we can't blame Fun Pub for this since this is all IDW's handiwork.

Those are digital pencils.

Artists who work in the digital medium tend to have much looser pencils since it's that much easier to move onto inks by simply creating another layer. The looser pencils also allow for a greater sense of fluidity and motion as the lines are cleaned and tightened in subsequent layers.

If you want to check out something a little more representative of Corin Howell's final work, you can check out her pages for IDW's Windblade and Jem and the Holograms comics, or go to her site.

I was referring to the ridiculous face. I'm familiar enough with the finished work. I'd hardly call it better. At least for Transformers. For humor books,man, knock yourself out! Seems completely out of the blue to have her do this comic when current IDW Beast Wars is so radically different than what this ties into. I WANT to be pleasantly surprised. I don't think there's been a Botcon comic I don't like. I'd like to think that something I'm this interested in WON'T be the letdown I'm imagining. I want to be wrong.

Her work on the Windblade comics was awesome. Hopefully I will get a change to check out the Botcon comic.

As we get closer to BotCon 2016, and with the IDW/FunPub collaboration on this year's comic - Dawn of the Predacus - recently confirmed, we thought we'd reach out to one of the creators behind it, to get a little further into the process and the story: colourist turned writer, and fellow partial Italian, John-Paul Bove!

--

Va'al - Hi John-Paul! It's great to hear you'll be working on the insides of another Transformers comic, though this time you're actually at a keyboard rather than with a palette! How did you get the gig?

JP - The short answer? Lots and LOTS of death threats.



The longer answer is that outside of Transformers and IDW I had been writing for some time on creator owned stories and writing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles here in the UK. I had been pitching some ideas for Transformers stories for some years, but with the amazing IDWverse books they're planned a long way in advance so there's not much space for any additional tales in there. I'd nailed my colours to the mast regarding working on a G1 cartoon continuation comic and I'd also approached IDW with an idea for a Beast Wars book to celebrate the 20th anniversary. Interestingly these two ideas had the potential to dovetail together and connect if necessary. When FunPub looked to partner with IDW to produce the comic, John approached me to pitch and the rest is (future) history!

Va'al - Perseverance seems to be the way to go, then - a tip to keep in mind. So when Barber approached you, did you get a guideline or directive, or were you given free rein as to what the story might do (other than include this year's toys, of course)?

JP - My main guideline was that it had to be in continuity (which any BW fan will know is an interesting and muddy one) and it had to feature the toys. I had already pitched a mini series that would bridge the gap between G1 and Beast Wars so the story was always going to live in that time frame. A lot of the characters that the toys represent were already baked into the story so the main challenge or restriction was getting as much of what I planned into just one issue. I had to take my original outline and focus in on a very specific part and specific time and place from it.

It is a very full issue and the goals I set myself were that it should be a Beast Wars and G1 story that matters, with moments that shape and add to your understanding of the mythology in ways that are both inevitable AND surprising. I really wanted to see what some G1 characters had become and what some Beast Wars characters were like before they had become the characters we knew.



If I ever get the chance to expand on this it has been built in such a way that it is the middle part of a trilogy. The first part would be very G1 centric and the third part more BW centric with this issue functioning as a bridge. There's a really, really incredible moment, a scene between two important characters that I would love to one day tell. What starts Dawn of the Predacus off is the consequences of an act of sacrifice that make the Great War anyone's to win or lose.

DotP is a complete one shot but we know it isn't the end, we know some of these characters continue into BW and we know that some G1 characters don't make it through the Great War. There's still a lot of time between here and the Beast Wars (and here and The Rebirth) that I had planned out and hope to one day tell you all about.

Va'al - That sounds like you really planned the events out quite a lot already before getting the brief, definitely! You mention a number of characters that you wanted to include: was anyone forcibly or inevitably left out?



JP - Oh yeah, I'd been planning these stories out a long time before the opportunity came up. I can't say too much as there are still other characters getting toys to be revealed, but there's a lot of G1 characters I wanted to touch on. Again, if the book does well maybe we will see them yet! Mainly there are characters I'd like to have had more time to play with, especially Tarantulas.

Va'al - We are seeing a very different Tarantulas in IDW's version of events, of course, but that's another story... So we are to find something bridging a gap, which feeds from established work and feeding into other established work - what was the hardest part to tweak to make it all work, in your opinion?

JP - I'm a continuity junkie so finding the connections between various points on the timeline was something that came quite naturally. The hardest part was deciding what to leave out as the space I had was limited. I wanted to avoid multiple timelines and realities, and have what happens here to inform and have impact on the stories we're already familiar with. Just because we know the war ends doesn't mean we know HOW the war ends.



Though the big challenge was that the Beast Wars show referenced points from various continuities that contradict each other. Making sure that that this story was in continuity with as much of those other stories as possible was tricky, but hopefully rewarding for most fans.

Va'al - I do not envy you that task, at all. Was there anything you were particularly pleased to have been able to work in, either as an in-joke, a reference, or just a personal itch scratched?

JP - There is a Transformers the Movie nod which was so satisfying... I think, beyond getting to give characters I adore new words to say and new characters some life, my main satisfaction comes from setting the foundation for things in Beast Wars that were perhaps not best explained and seeing how their origins stem from G1 events... It adds another layer to stories we already know.

Va'al - I'm sure we'll be seeing it for ourselves very shortly, at this stage! Before we round this off, how was collaborating with someone else on the visuals, this time round? How was the experience of working with Corin Howell?



JP - I'd worked with Corin before on a couple of pages but I'd also had the good fortune to meet her at last year's San Diego Comic Con. Her style is very different from what I'd worked with in the past, a more expressive, more animated look which in a way captures two aspects of both G1 and Beast Wars. As a colourist it gives you a lot to play with as well. Of course she has the misfortune to deal with me as a writer and a colourist! Who can she complain to about the demanding writer or the unreliable colourist!?

Va'al - She'll be up to the challenge, I'm sure. JP, it's been great to have you have this chat with us to build up some extra hype for the comic and BotCon - thank you for joining us! Are there any last words you want to throw out to readers and fans?

JP - Only that I hope everyone has a great BotCon, the guests are amazing, the artists are amazing and the toys (some still very secret) are going to knock your socks off! I hope people enjoy the book too, naturally! And if you do please spread the word, there's so much more story to tell! Thanks to everyone that has supported me and the books I've coloured and really pushed to have me write something in the Transformers universe, it's a dream come true.

Oh, and don't forget to sign the petition for a G1 Cartoon universe comic!

--

BotCon 2016 will take place in Louisville, Kentucky, on April 7-10th. You can check out news and coverage of the event, as things happen, right here on Seibertron.com, and join in the discussion in the Energon Pub boards!

Ah... This is what I've been waiting for since 1996! The story at least, the exclusive figures are going to be slightly out of my price range unfortunately.

There's still a lot of time between here and the Beast Wars (and here and The Rebirth)

Would you like some preview pages??

https://www.facebook.com/BotConOfficial/posts/1152485964791861

Once again via BotCon correspondent on Seibertron.com TF_JW, we have two unlettered preview pages from the event's comic, as written and coloured by JP Bove and drawn by Corin Howell - check them out mirrored below!

Here is your first look at the finished colored pages 1 and 2 from next month's BotCon comic "Transformers: Dawn of the Predacus" published by IDW. This fantastic Beast Wars 20th anniversary story was written by John-Paul Bove with art by the very talented Corin Howell. Get the limited edition convention edition next month at BotCon 2016 in Louisville, Ky April 7-10. See you there!

I'm sure everyone noticed that the Autobots are Silverbolt, Prowl, & Ironhide (a nice reference to Magnaboss). But can anyone make out who are in the pods? I just can't quite make them out.

So those 3 together eh? Interesting...

I'm just saying, if they had a 2 Pack of Torca (Maybe from the Rook mold) and Air Hammer (An Aerilbot mold) with red colored Combiner limbs at Botcon, they could EASILY give people a Magnaboss/Maximal High Council combiner using CW Silverbolt, Ironhide, and Prowl with them.

You'd use Prowl and Air Hammer as the arms with the new red combiner kibble for the hands, and Torca and Ironhide for the legs with the Silver Combiner kibble (From CW Prowl and Ironhide) for the feet.

They could even go the (unlikely) extra mile and make a new head to swap out Superion's with that was vaguely Magnaboss-y, but that isn't completely necessary.

Gearslide wrote:I'm just saying, if they have a 2 Pack of

Three of the four souvenir sets this year are singular figures. Only the troop builder set is a multi-pack.

And only one of them is a CW Deluxe mold. The other three are a non-CW Deluxe mold (who is a Maximal), the centerpiece Transmetal 3 Megatron, and the troop builder set consisting of a CW Legends mold.

Sabrblade wrote:

Gearslide wrote:I'm just saying, if they have a 2 Pack of

Three of the four souvenir sets this year are singular figures. Only the troop builder set is a multi-pack.

And only one of them is a CW Deluxe mold. The other three are a non-CW Deluxe mold (who is a Maximal), the centerpiece Transmetal 3 Megatron, and the troop builder set consisting of a CW Legends mold.

Yeah, I meant that as a hypothetical/wasted opportunity. I meant to say "if they had" not "have".

Well color me a bit impressed. Howell's art has improved greatly from the Windblade mini. Better proportions, stronger lines. Almost makes me overlook the fact that she still draws every single bot like they're constantly pulling goofy faces.

Is that waspinator I see in that stasis pod? The one next to him is harder to make out but looks like scorpoknoc?

Noooo! It hurts! I can't take any more teasing!

With under a week left to BotCon 2016, the official event comic - Dawn of the Predacus - writer John-Paul Bove has tweeted another teaser for what the story will be doing to the current established continuity and its narrative. You can check it out mirrored below, featuring art by Corin Howell!

To find out more about the comic, why not check out the interview we did with JP here on Seibertron.com too?

And here's the question: do the images shown in that third panel hint at what the souvenirs might be..?

You thinking rhinox and primal? I hard a time of spotting ravage at first.

Dr Va'al wrote:And here's the question: do the images shown in that third panel hint at what the souvenirs might be..?

Not necessarily: Primal and Rhinox seem to be based on their Dawn of Future's Past bodies, heavily stylised. The exhausts on the sides of Rhinox' head (C-Landmine) and the wheels on Primal's arms (C-Crumplezone) have me thinking that.

If anything, the souvenirs may be based on FubPub's rendition of Transformers: The Movie... Shattered Glass style (Out of the One, Many...), with:

Checkpoint, the Guardian out of Trailbreaker (formerly SG Prowl)
... and his huntsmen, The Autotroopers out of Trailbreaker (formerly SG Inferno and SG Ratchet)
X-Brawn, the Champion out of Rook (formerly SG Brawn)

New or unused pretooled heads of course.

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

Dr Va'al wrote:And here's the question: do the images shown in that third panel hint at what the souvenirs might be..?

Not necessarily: Primal and Rhinox seem to be based on their Dawn of Future's Past bodies.

Ah, yes, of course! My bad.

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:If anything, the souvenirs may be based on FubPub's rendition of Transformers: The Movie... Shattered Glass style (Out of the One, Many...), with:

Checkpoint, the Guardian out of Trailbreaker (formerly SG Prowl)
... and his huntsmen, The Autotroopers out of Trailbreaker (formerly SG Inferno and SG Ratchet)
X-Brawn, the Champion out of Rook (formerly SG Brawn)

New or unused pretooled heads of course.

But none of those match what we know about the souvenirs, especially that none of them are Shattered Glass characters.

Sabrblade wrote:

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:If anything, the souvenirs may be based on FubPub's rendition of Transformers: The Movie... Shattered Glass style (Out of the One, Many...), with:

Checkpoint, the Guardian out of Trailbreaker (formerly SG Prowl)
... and his huntsmen, The Autotroopers out of Trailbreaker (formerly SG Inferno and SG Ratchet)
X-Brawn, the Champion out of Rook (formerly SG Brawn)

New or unused pretooled heads of course.

But none of those match what we know about the souvenirs, especially that none of them are Shattered Glass characters.

Well, their role in the whole seems to be as protagonists, considering a good SG Unicron created them. So they're no longer SG Autobots, so SG no longer applies to them, right? But that's a debate for a different thread.

I really don't know what to make of it other than the fact that it looks really cool

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:If anything, the souvenirs may be based on FubPub's rendition of Transformers: The Movie... Shattered Glass style (Out of the One, Many...), with:

Checkpoint, the Guardian out of Trailbreaker (formerly SG Prowl)
... and his huntsmen, The Autotroopers out of Trailbreaker (formerly SG Inferno and SG Ratchet)
X-Brawn, the Champion out of Rook (formerly SG Brawn)

New or unused pretooled heads of course.

But none of those match what we know about the souvenirs, especially that none of them are Shattered Glass characters.

Well, their role in the whole seems to be as protagonists, considering a good SG Unicron created them. So they're no longer SG Autobots, so SG no longer applies to them, right? But that's a debate for a different thread.

We already know the factions and descriptions of most of the souvenirs and none of them fit those guys.

Souvenir centerpiece figure - TM3 Megatron

CW Legends Souvenir troop builder 3-pack - faction unknown but maybe Maximals (same CW Legends mold as the Golden Ticket figure, who is a non-BW character related to a familiar G1 character)

Non-CW Deluxe souvenir - A Maximal

CW Deluxe souvenir - most likely a Maximal

Other single souvenir - both mold and faction are unknown but it might also be a CW Deluxe Maximal.

And one of the latter three above features a headsculpt not found at U.S. retail (this is suspected to be the non-CW Deluxe souvenir). And an announcement mentioned there being CW Maximals for sale at BotCon, which is the source for the CW Deluxe souvenir, the unknown souvenir and the troop builder 3-pack possibly all being Maximals.

Whats with Prowl on the left there?

If this takes place after the cartoon would he not be dead or is it just Prowl 2 from the Headmasters?

Deadput wrote:Whats with Prowl on the left there?

If this takes place after the cartoon would he not be dead or is it just Prowl 2 from the Headmasters?

The Beast Wars cartoon is not solely tied to the G1 cartoon. It drew from multiple sources when it was made, treating the events of its history's Generation 1 as the stuff of legend and myth. All that happened in the G1 cartoon is not necessarily all that happened in the Beast Wars cartoon's version of G1.

Prowl's being alive here is not an inherent contradiction since we do not know if he ever died in the Beast Wars cartoon's version of G1. If he did, then he must have been resurrected as some point. If he didn't, then he's still alive. Or some dimension-hopping could have happened with this Prowl not being native to the BW cartoon's G1. Or some time travel could be at work with this Prowl being from another time when he was alive. There's several options here.

I was thinking the same thing, but then I remembered that the original Prowl, Ironhide and Silverbolt became the Maximal High Council and combine into Magnaboss.

Nemesis Maximo wrote:I was thinking the same thing, but then I remembered that the original Prowl, Ironhide and Silverbolt became the Maximal High Council and combine into Magnaboss.

Yeah, and two out of three are right there in the picture. It doesn't fit the ratios we were given, but repaints of CW Ironhide and Prowl in their Magnaboss colors could be interesting.

But more likely it's purely for the story since they were used pretty heavily in the club comics. Plus G1 Ironhide is right there fighting TM3 Megatron (who isn't looking so impressive, pretty small and weak looking).

Emerje

If a pre-Beast Magnaboss is in the story, I'd imagine it would just use the existing retail Ironhide, Prowl and Silverbolt. Doing repaints of those three wouldn't really fit what we know about the remaining exclusives.

Maybe 5-bot Magnaboss would just feature two more '84/'85 'bots who die within the story? If it's bridging G1 and BW, there's room for G1 characters to bite the dust (would also explain why Silverbolt is slumming it with Prowl and Ironhide rather than forming Superion).

RevTibe wrote:If a pre-Beast Magnaboss is in the story, I'd imagine it would just use the existing retail Ironhide, Prowl and Silverbolt. Doing repaints of those three wouldn't really fit what we know about the remaining exclusives.

Maybe 5-bot Magnaboss would just feature two more '84/'85 'bots who die within the story? If it's bridging G1 and BW, there's room for G1 characters to bite the dust (would also explain why Silverbolt is slumming it with Prowl and Ironhide rather than forming Superion).

I could see that happening. Hopefully we'll get an offical configuration for Magnaboss in the comic. It might just be the Optimus Maximus limbs on Silverbolt though.

The comic preview on Page 1 of this topic has Silverbolt in his CW toy body, so if there's any combining done between the three in this comic, it'll probably just have the three in their regular retail CW toy bodies.

Live from a hotel room in Louisville, Kentucky, this slightly jetlagged reviewer brings you a fresh update frome the 2016 BotCon event, in addition to the stellar work the news crew are doing in updating on the ground situation: a review of the event exclusive 'Dawn of the Predacus' comic - read on below!




Synopsis
In the last 48 hours of the Great War between Decepticons and Autobots, new measures are taken, paths chosen, fates decided, and acts of sacrifice kickstart a whole new saga...



Story

A comic which is clearly, undoubtedly, obviously, a pack-in story with a set of toys. A big toy advert. A narrative tying together toys that share a theme. Easy to get wrong. And yet, John-Paul Bove in his first official IDW Transformers writing gig, delivers a story that works on a number of levels.



Much as anticipated in the interview we conducted with him, the comic contains a very good balance of fictional universes, setting up threads between G1 and Beast Wars which we both know the developments of, and others that could still yield something very very different - time will tell if we'll get an exploration of the latter, I suppose.



What works particularly well is the blend of lighter-hearted humour to what is, effectively, a fairly dark chapter in the history of the two narratives, and the end of a war in general - once again as a testimony to the two universes, with the G1 gravitas (resulting silly at times) and the BW intentional silliness.

Art

Corin Howell fits this melange excellently, too, with artwork focusing on the fraught, tired, elated - and wonderfully skeptical and sarcastic - emotions that are running amok across the different factions, not just two as we might think. The simpler, cartoony style fits the tone set by the script, and still delivers some great pages with a grim undercurrent.



Both of which are undoubtedly helped by Bove returning in his role as colourist on the book, injecting his own authorial perspective of tonalities and emotive hues to the visual side of things, helped out by letterer Chris Mowry from the IDW stables. The lighting definitely heightens that contrast pointed out above, with contrasting, but not jarring, results.



Visual and verbal together, you might ask? Read some thoughts below, and make sure to look closer at the two covers available for the comic at the event, variant by Sara Pitre Durocher and string pulling, and 'regular' cover with all the souvenir characters by Robby Musso (both in thumbnail).

Thoughts
Spoilerish ahead

Having read this in-hand, on-site, as soon as I possibly could, I feel odd giving a review and a mark to the book but you know what? It's good, and not just as a 'let's featured all the new toys and some old ones and sorta mash them together' way. Compared to previous releases from the BotCon team, we are several notches higher here, even with the full reveal of the souvenir figures in its pages - and even the main cover.



That may very well be Bove's writing, and the control he has over the art with colouring Howell's work, but the synergy between the two is palpable, as the overall tone of the book is set well by mixing light and heavy, positives and negatives, humour and gravitas, past and future. If you get a chance to read the issue, please do. It's truly enjoyable.. in fact, it's just Prime.

Dr Va'al wrote:
[center]

This. This just drove me insane. that is awesome and I love it

That revelation about a certain Inferno though man it was just you know.


I won't say anything else but those who read it will know what I'm talking about.

I'll look forward to reading it in December when diamond releases it...if i remember. Totally spaced off last years which I was surprised about but then again Botcon comics are never a seek to get comic.

*Some people* (Which I Kannot Identify) are being arses about the comic.
JP has some answers.

http://wordmongerer.tumblr.com/post/142 ... mers-story

Dr Va'al wrote:*Some people* (Which I Kannot Identify) are being arses about the comic.
JP has some answers.

http://wordmongerer.tumblr.com/post/142 ... mers-story

In response to this, I've gone and made corrections to some of the complaints that those "some people" were making, but a lot of their points are still pretty valid, as some of JP's arguments really do conflict with what was depicted in the BW cartoon.

Sabrblade wrote:

Dr Va'al wrote:*Some people* (Which I Kannot Identify) are being arses about the comic.
JP has some answers.

http://wordmongerer.tumblr.com/post/142 ... mers-story

In response to this, I've gone and made corrections to some of the complaints that those "some people" were making, but a lot of their points are still pretty valid, as some of JP's arguments really do conflict with what was depicted in the BW cartoon.

Valid point does not warrant being an arse about it, though.

"Some people"? Am I missing something here?

ZeroWolf wrote:"Some people"? Am I missing something here?

Some of the TFWiki editors/contributors were pretty mean about the write-up.

Dr Va'al wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:"Some people"? Am I missing something here?

Some of the TFWiki editors/contributors were pretty mean about the write-up.

I see, just because they had issues with it? Doesn't seem very professional of them since they should be doing the wiki neutral

ZeroWolf wrote:

Dr Va'al wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:"Some people"? Am I missing something here?

Some of the TFWiki editors/contributors were pretty mean about the write-up.

I see, just because they had issues with it? Doesn't seem very professional of them since they should be doing the wiki neutral

Frankly, the people behind the wiki are not necessarily known for being professional. It's a clique. If you aren't on the inside, you essentially don't count.

That's not to say that it isn't a great source of information. It's just stereotypical caustic academic types.

Counterpunch wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:

Dr Va'al wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:"Some people"? Am I missing something here?

Some of the TFWiki editors/contributors were pretty mean about the write-up.

I see, just because they had issues with it? Doesn't seem very professional of them since they should be doing the wiki neutral

Frankly, the people behind the wiki are not necessarily known for being professional. It's a clique. If you aren't on the inside, you essentially don't count.

That's not to say that it isn't a great source of information. It's just stereotypical caustic academic types.

Eh, really? I do some editing on there occasionally, fix up typos, correct things, remove a bit of naff humor, make a few small articles etc. and I haven't encountered any such cliquishness (what a messy word) or causticity. Not familiar with the stereotypes, but experience in other communities tells me to never trust what one fansite says about another fansite.

I haven't done anything with the Dawn of Predacus article (haven't had the chance to read the comic), but most of the complaints on that list seemed to revolve around a face-value reading of the comic, since a lot of the author's response focuses on the ideal interpretation of these points. This seems fair enough, since the meat of an article should usually focus on a literal reading of the work, avoiding excessive interpretation, but now the site does have a source of authorial intent when filling out the later subsections of the article.

Edit: (The "me-too!" mentality of a lot of social media can definitely lead to excesses in the wiki's irreverent tone, but these usually seem to be stomped out fairly quickly. I can't draw any concrete conclusions on Dawn of Predacus's article with the information I have available to me. Makes me wonder if this has been a problem with other pieces of low-distribution material.)

In defense of the points argued by the Wiki (but NOT in defense of its hostility), a lot of the insight provided by JPB's responses was not present in the comic. Without already knowing what he personally had in mind and/or planned for both this comic and the yet-to-be-told stories surrounding its events, one would not get this all this insight from just reading the comic alone.

Some of this insight was even only provided by the script reading that took place at BotCon on Friday, and not everyone who attended BotCon (let alone everyone in this fandom) attended the script reading. And even those who did attend (myself included) found its story rather difficult to follow. It wasn't until Jesse Wittenrich graciously posted some clarifying info about it on another board yesterday (five days after the script reading took place) that some sense was made out of its story.

But even taking the script reading into account, my original point still stands that not everything JPB revealed about the comic's story in his response to the Wiki was evident in the comic on its own.

I've said it in other threads but I'd love it if we could stop talking/gossiping about TF Wiki so much. I'm guilty of having done this maybe once in the past, yes, I know. Would just like to see it stop going forward without going and lobbying Burn about implementing actual rules about it.

On comics in particular, trying very hard to get our own resources improved - was very close to completion before the site data problems last month :/