Thursday, October 03, 2013

I'd probably read the Walking Dead vs. Trypticon. It'd only be a one-shot, sure...


As is often the case, if I can get a trade for the price of the average single issue these days; I sure as hell am going with the trade. And if it's surprisingly enjoyable, so much the better. Like today's book! From IDW, the Transformers: Best of UK: City of Fear, written by Simon Furman, with art by Dan Reed, Jeff Anderson, Robin Smith, and others.

These are reprints of Marvel UK's Transformer serials, and the bulk of this one is really one story, with Ultra Magnus and the Autobots trying to stop a mad scientist from trying to activate Megatron's ancient engines for moving the planet Cybertron, which would in all likelihood blow it up instead. Also, Transformer zombies. Well, reanimated bodies, at any rate. It's not as big a deal as all that, since the massive Decepticon Trypticon is called in for backup.

There's also a two-parter with Galvatron versus the Seacons, as part of a feint for leadership of the Decepticons; and another two-parter with Ultra Magnus in a gladitorial arena. The latter is pretty standard, sure; but Furman always did a pretty good job with elevating a tie-in commercial for action figures into readable adventure tales. I may be wrong, though, but I think the UK artists always took a little more leeway in the facial expressions of the robotic characters, making them emote a little more than either the animated series or the American books.

2 comments:

Mr. Morbid's House Of Fun said...

Yes, yes they did! I grew up on Transformers and GI Joe, and especially living in Europe at the time, I got to see their(specifically the German and UK versions of Transformers stories)

I can attest that the artists tended to draw the robots as more humanoid than I was used to with the US Marvel versions, until Andrew Wildman joined up with the book towards the end of its run. He drew his robots with human teeth, and eyes/pupils, and fingers with knuckles. Very un-robot like but still cool.

googum said...

Y'know, now that you mention it, I'm 90% sure I've seen Galvatron drawn, possibly by Wildman, as foaming at the mouth. That's one crazy robot...