Top 10 Best Transformers Comic Book Covers of All Time

Every two weeks, Seibertron.com brings you a Top 5 list related to all things Transformers written by me, your fellow editor. These are our opinions so what matters most is what you guys think of the topic or list, and I hope to see your own lists or comments on omissions and ranking. Let's have fun! All previous lists can be found here.


Top 10 Best Transformers Comic Book Covers of All Time

The title says it all. In light of one of the most significant eras of Transformers comics ending last wednesday, I thought of concentrating on the comics side of the brand and looking at all the beauty that adorned them throughout the years.


10. Transformers UK 322 By Stewart Johnson



For those who do not know, issues in the US were split up in the UK. For instance, issue 75, which dealt with the autobots vs Unicron was split up into 4 issues. And all those issues get their own cover. the finale, issue 322, has this wonderful shot of us inside Unicron looking at Optimus about to enter it's mouth using the Matrix to light their darkest hour. It makes for a truly awesome shot that I find much more impressive and evoking than most of the more recent Unicron themed covers we have gotten.


9. The Transformers #60 by José Delbo and #67 by Jim Lee

When looking at classic Transformers covers, you will come across a lot from José Delbo, who I truly believe is on of the best of that era. And of course, there is Jim Lee, who I don't think needs an introduction. I had a hard time choosing between both these shots since I love them for the exact same reason: both use perspective to show the Decepticon threat. With Galvatron, you feel the hopelessness that all is lost while with Bludgeon you can feel the dread of the autobots where the fight seems already pretedermined even if they are higher in number (and include Grimlock!!).






8. Transformers vs G.I.Joe #2 By Jae Lee and June Chung



Jae Lee is an incredible artist and as someone who has seen him draw live, it is truly mind boggling that the lifelike quality he brings to drawings can be done with no reference and no digital effects. That's why even the smallest of Transformers (Ravage in this case) can look so nightmarish and immense. While he has drawn characters who may be more popular in higher profile books he is very proud of his work on this book to this day and it is hard not to see why.


7. Transformers: Till All Are One #10 by Sara Pitre Durocher



While Sara Pitre Durocher is a fine monthly artist, her cover work is just on another level as you can see above. She is like the Transformers' equivalent of Alex Ross and Marko Djurdjevic. While the cover above is my favourite of the lot, the whole arc run is a very good lesson in composition and the effect of symmetry.

6. Transformers: Unicron #3 by Nick Roche



We have the best Transformers artist we have ever had on the books right now. However when it comes to covers, many put just too much. While that amount of detail on any Alex Milne Unicron cover is astounding, a simpler composition can be more striking and eye catching, as we saw in the fist Unicron cover mentioned on this list. Nick Roche, another all star, defied the conventional standard by giving us as much if not more detail than any modern day cover artist but in a clean and smart composition, making this one of the most eye catching and awe inspiring covers of all time. It is a great companion piece to the Stewart Johnson shot from above by focusing on a different angle, making this as epic as possible.

5. The Transformers: Windblade #3 by Sarah Stone



This was one of the favourite covers of my mentor on this site and I will leave you with his succint review:
This one will always hold a place in my spark casing. - Va'al


4. Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye #28 by Alex Milne



Not only does this cover show us of Megatron's new allegiance (WHAAAAAAT????) it did it in the most playful and fun way. That cover is an homage to Roche homaging Maguire (DC's Justice League), as Milne signed it.





Which was then subsequently re-homaged by Roche (homaging Milne homaging Roche homaging Maguire) and then by Jack Lawrence.





Its a great cover layout too, giving you a sense of all the main players in the team.


3. All Hail Megatron #1 by Trevor Hutchison as well as Casey Coller and Josh Burcham.



This storyline has its fair share of dislike from the community, deserving so, but you have to give credit where credit's due, it had incredible covers. Two of the all time most eye catching covers in the history of the brand were used for the first issue. I adore the standard propaganda-esque poster which just sums up perfectly what the series aspired to be: the story where Megatron finally wins. Peace through Tyranny never looked so good.



For those not in the know, one of the greatest comic book covers of all time (if not THE best) is Brian Bolland's cover for Batman: The Killing Joke and it perfectly recreated with Megatron and Reflector. Both Brian Bolland and Casey Coller hold a very special place in my heart in terms of their art so seeing the product of both truly is a treat. It's crazy to think that both awesome Transformers covers described here happen to be for the same issue, that means I can cover two entries in one go!


2. The Transformers #80 by Andrew Wildman



Marvel US issue #80's Andrew Wildman cover is just about as perfect as it gets. It represents all the hopelessness of knowing it's the end, but despite another hero being in the foreground about to get cut down by Bludgeon, there's that shadow of Prime in the background that always feels like it arrived just at the right moment. To this day, this cover gives me chills. Circumstances have been just plain bad for months in the comic for the Autobots and our other heroes, including you because for the last year only very few shops were sporadically getting in new issues. Despite being a little bit lost about the totality of events, among all that darkness and ruin you see that shadow back there. In some form, in some way, Optimus Prime is going to show up and save the day. It all might be about to end, but the bad guys are finally going to get what's coming to them. - Scotty P


1. The Transformers #5 by Mark Bright

More than three decades later and this comic cover still stands unrivaled and has only kept growing more iconic. With only one character on the cover, we can gather what happened (or what will happen). Just the smoke coming from Shockwave's cannon tells us that all hope is lost. The fact that the artist replicates many mechanical details from the toy but in a pose impossible for said toy to be in adds a great sense of realism to this image which is enhanced by the textured feel of the cover thanks to the mixture of light and shadow. This gave us the best sense of what Shockwave would look like in the real world, where we would have no chance of defeating him. I can keep talking but I fail to see the point when all you need to do to see that this is the greatest cover of all time is just to give it a glance.