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Underground > Comic Books >

Transformers

The Natural Way

14:02 / 22.12.01

Just found this at Newsarama:

It's for "mature readers" this time round. Don't really know what to think about that, but it all looks very nice.

There's more info at Newsarama.

09:41 / 23.12.01

I am so very very happy!!

Matthew Fluxington

09:47 / 23.12.01

That top image is a pin-up by Pat Lee from Wizard Magazine.

09:47 / 23.12.01

Transformers.

For "mature readers."

Jesus fuck.

Matthew Fluxington

09:47 / 23.12.01

That's what I thought too... I mean, wasn't Transformers DESIGNED to entertainment for small children (well, that and being a glorified advertisement for a toy line...)?

It's creepy, cos the market for that is mainly the kids who played with those toys and watched the tv show as little kids, and have grown up to expect to have grown up with them... I mean, move on. Why does every children's property have to get 'grim and gritty'? And how is Transformers going to be a mature book...I'm guessing sexuality won't be an issue, so it'll just be lots of extreme violence and swearing, right? And why? I just don't get that.

Some things should remain meant for children...

13:28 / 23.12.01

I get the feeling it'll be for mature readers the same way that the new GI Joe book is. Mature Readers as in modernized. I'm really looking forward to this.

Zoom.

13:57 / 23.12.01

>>>Mature Readers as in modernized<<<
Oh, come off it, that's not what it means. "Mature readers" means "not written for children."

But both GI Joe and Transformers *ARE* FOR CHILDREN. No two ways about it. The thought that someone would try and make a "deeper, more mature" vision of a bunch of cunting robots that turn into cars, and more frighteningly, that there's an audience for it, makes me want to puke blood.

Anyone over the age of 13 who'd even want to read this deserves to be exterminated immediately.

(Channeling Warren Ellis today, it seems...)

[ 23-12-2001: Message edited by: CameronStewart ]

15:09 / 23.12.01

If Simon Furman were writing it, without any editorial interference, I wouldn't even consider not reading it.

Robots that turn into cars? Jesus, next thing you know they'll be writing stories about characters who can shoot laser beams out of their eyes, hairy blue people and spaceships that can travel through different dimensions.

15:14 / 23.12.01

On further reading, it seems that Furman is going to be writing some of it.

Oooo.

15:35 / 23.12.01

cameron = ellis
K+1 = gareb shamus.

Are there any other secrets out there that we ought to know?

Zoom.

p.s. Oi Cameron, touchy touchy.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

18:32 / 23.12.01

quote:Originally posted by CameronStewart:
The thought that someone would try and make a "deeper, more mature" vision of a bunch of cunting robots that turn into cars, and more frighteningly, that there's an audience for it, makes me want to puke blood.

And this is why I love Cameron, though I think he should be practicing his Rodimus Primes tho'...

09:10 / 24.12.01

Cameron, relax, babe!
This book is for people like me who loved the Transformers as a kid and want to read a few new stories and relive the past a little.

We know it's not going to be the next
Watchmen but it's not trying to be. The creators know their audience and I for one am happy to be their nostalgia-bitch!

01

09:10 / 24.12.01

quote:Transformers.

For "mature readers."

Jesus Fuck.

Holy fuck this was one of the funniest things I've heard in a long time.

[ 24-12-2001: Message edited by: zerone ]

01

09:10 / 24.12.01

"Cunting robots?"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA

Oh my....

The Natural Way

09:10 / 24.12.01

Anyone over the age of 13 who'd even want to read this deserves to be exterminated immediately.

And this is why we love Cameron and want to grab and shake his cheeks and make cooing sounds....

09:33 / 29.12.01

The pencils for the first cover:

Matthew Fluxington

09:33 / 29.12.01

I always hate it when skilled draftsmen have zero sense of composition. That image is so poorly composed that you have to wonder what the hell the guy was thinking when he drew it other than "robots are fun to draw! must pack in as much detail as humanly possible!"

09:33 / 29.12.01

Nice drawing, I'll admit - if a bit masturbatory - but again I utterly fail to see the enduring appeal these fucking things have for people.

When I was a kid I had all the Transformers toys, the whole lot. None could match my collection.

But now, as an adult, I have zero interest in them. Zero. They're toys, for Christ's sake,the depth of which is no more than "now it's a robot, now it's a truck" and the cartoons and comic books of the day were nothing more than glorified advertisements for them. Any attempt to imbue these things with "sophistication" is futile.

I'm the first to admit I like a lot of silly kids stuff, but for whatever reason I find adults who still have interest in Transformers unbearably tragic...

In a few months' time, look for my new mature-readers Vertigo revamp of LEGO...

[ 29-12-2001: Message edited by: CameronStewart ]

Matthew Fluxington

09:33 / 29.12.01

I'm more excited about the MAX version of the Fischer-Price weebles.

I've got similar hang-ups about toys too, Cameron...I was really into toys as a little boy, but around 11 or 12, I lost it completely. The idea of adults hoarding toys for collector and nostalgia reasons really freaks me out, because I don't think toys have any real intrinsic value other than being props for children to create their own little stories and narratives... That's why I always hated the Transformer and GI Joe tv shows and whatnot, as a kid I really resented having been told how the characters should act in my little stories.

09:33 / 29.12.01

>>>I don't think toys have any real intrinsic value other than being props for children to create their own little stories and narratives... <<<

EX.

ACT.

LY.

I admit I do have a display case full of toys in my office (no Transformers), but every day that goes by I find myself wondering more and more about why I even have them...

[ 29-12-2001: Message edited by: CameronStewart ]

Haus about we all give each other a big lovely huggle?

09:33 / 29.12.01

Well, better not make any sudden moves on that, Cameron. There is nothing so terrible as the sight of a high-flying creative sobbing like a baby at the foolish mid-life crisis-inspired smelting of their mint condition Robot Anti Terror Squad collections. Or, you know, comics.

Which is not intended to be a slight or an attack, merely perhaps a suggestion that the personal and aesthetic compass of the Barbegestalt is somewhat skewed already, and allowances may have to be made. Flux wants Transformers enthusiasts to grow up, while elsewhere expounding at length his ideas for revitalising "X-Treme X-Men". "Watchmen" is propounded as the greatest comic ever by people who probably haven't even read the verdammpt "Desert Peach". Signs and portents, signs and portents.

Personally, the idea of "Mature Readers Sci-Fi Comics" seems forever spoiled by Evan Dorkin's paradigmatic line of such a thing:

"Fuck! Vulpina's got Space AIDS! And I'M GAY!"

[ 29-12-2001: Message edited by: The Halfway Haus ]

Regrettable Juvenilia

09:33 / 29.12.01

I hope this 'mature readers' format enables Optimus Prime to come to terms with the obvious homosexual feelings he had for Sporponok.

That is all.

13:13 / 29.12.01

Having said that, I'm still quite a big fan of Lego. Their new Bionicle line is excellent. It also gives my son and I something that we both enjoy doing a lot. I have to admit I'm not a big fan of playing Bob The Builder with him (in that i don't like the toys, not the playing with him), but when he wants to build the lego it's doubly fun. Perhaps the function of toys to an adult is all a matter of perspective, whether it be from a parent's, a collector's or what-have-you.

Zoom.