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Our Australian friends at Madman Entertainment have let us know about a new video they uploaded to their YouTube channel, featuring an interview with G1 voice actor Gregg Berger, the man behind Grimlock, Skyfire, Long Haul and Outback. Check out his replies to both the company's and fans' questions below, and if you're in the Melbourne area this weekend, make sure you attend Armaggedon Expo for a chance to chat to him in person!
Seibertron.com friend and IDW artist Andrew Griffith has dropped by to let us know about an interview he, Mairghread Scott and Livio Ramondelli did with comics news site Newsarama during NYCC. Take a look at the full thing below!
Comics news and feature website Graphic Policy has posted an interview with IDW's senior editor and co-author of the upcoming Dark Cybertron event John Barber. The piece touches upon the in-pack comics/toy marketing, the crossover plans, the collaboration with Hasbro, readership gender divide and the appeal of the Transformers franchise - you can read it here, and take a look at some snippets below!
Graphic Policy: You recently announced a cross-promotion that’ll see the first issue of IDW’s upcoming comic event Transformers: Dark Cybertron included in select Generations action figure releases from Hasbro. How did this promotion come about?
John Barber: We’ve already done a round of in-pack comics with Transformers—they’re in stores right now. The Dark Cybertron stuff will hit the toy shelves a little later. This program—getting the comics in with the toys—has been a goal of ours for a while. We really want to get comics into the hands of Transformers fans who might not be aware of the comics.
I know it’s something that IDW CEO Ted Adams has been very interested in. We’re all proud of the Transformers comics we do—and the interesting thing about Transformers is that, as popular as our comics are with Transformers fans, there are a TON of Transformers fans—more every day. Many of them just haven’t been exposed to comics—any comics—before.
So it seems ideal to get the comics in with the figures. The fans get a bonus with the toy; we get a chance to show the fans what our medium can do.
[...]
GP: From your experience do you think it’s difficult to get people who consume a brand one way to try another? For example someone who really likes a video game, is it difficult to get them to read a comic of that based in the world of that game?
JB: It depends on the property. There are some movies that are fun to watch, that the mainstream public goes and sees or plays or whatever, but don’t really encourage you to immerse yourself in the mythology the way something like Transformers, or Star Trek, or the Avengers, do.
Transformers is interesting because it’s consistently been picking up new fans for the past 30 years. Depending on your age, you might have an iteration of Transformers that’s “yours,” that you grew up with—like, I picked up issue #1 of the original comic from a 7-11. But people younger than me grew up with Beast Wars or with Armada or Animated or the movies or Prime. I think Transformers as a brand isn’t really locked into one medium in people’s minds… it’s toys, movies, cartoons, comics, video games, costumes, you name it.
That kind of thing, where there’s a big fandom of the brand, that’s where I think there’s the best opportunity to introduce someone to a different medium. Does that make sense?
Somebody might be a big video game player, and might love playing a particular game, but not have any interest past the actual gameplay. Not every game (or movie or TV show or toy) inherently draws people into the world.
Transformers demonstrably DOES pull people into its world. There’s a lot of richness and variety to the Transformers universe, relative to… well, to everything else that exists. I mean, there are other properties as rich, but I think Transformers is on a really high tier. And new fans are drawn into the world by whatever connects with them—maybe if that video game fan gets into a Transformers game, he or she gets pulled into the world, into the mythology, and wants to check out the comics, the cartoons, the books.
I think the answer to your question is that it’s really specific to what brand you’re talking about.
[...]
GP: Any hints as to what we can expect from the Transformer brand in the future?
JB: Well, hey, I just work on the comics. I don’t know any big secrets. I hear there’s a new movie coming…
In the comics, we’ve Dark Cybertron is a big story that intertwines More Than Meets the Eye and Robots in Disguise. It’s going to shake things up, and tell a big, big story—but without losing the focus on the characters that’s driven the books for the past few years. Dark Cybertron is going to shake up the status quo and lead both of these ongoings into some exciting directions. Dark Cybertron is a great place to jump on and see what the hype is about, but for longtime readers it’s going to pay off some bits that have been around for a long time.
And when Dark Cybertron ends… well, I think our plans are going to generate a lot of discussion among fans!
Comics news site Multiversity Comics has uploaded an episode from the Robots from Tomorrow podcast in which the hosts interview Tom Scioli after NYCC, talking about the upcoming IDW Transformers/G.I. Joe crossover comic. You can also directly download the podcast here.
It’s just been announced that IDW Publishing has brought in Tom Scioli to create a brand new Transformers/G.I. Joe comic. We talk about what it’s like to be handed the reigns to such iconic licences, as well as what he plans to bring to the title in terms of art and narrative. With the long-running Godland coming to a close, and Transformers/G.I. Joe on the horizon, we also take the time to talk about Tom’s career as a whole. He’s an artist who seems to always push his art in new directions, experimenting with line and color to deliver different types of stories in different ways. We’re excited for What he’s got in store for the Joes and the Autobots, and after this talk, you will be too!
Seibertron.com user, podcaster, YouTuber and voice actor jON3.0 brings us lucky lucky fans an interview with one of the big names in the industry: the voice of G1 Cosmos and Tracks and many many more, Michael McConnohie! Check out the embedded video below, and make sure you take a look at Michael's website and his fundaraising page for the LA County Walk to Defeat ALS.
jON3.0 wrote:On this (very late) Microphone Monday, I interview another legend - Michael McConnohie (voices of G1 Tracks, Cosmos, GI Joe Cross Country, RiD Hot Shot, Iron Hide and many other series' such as Big O, Power Rangers, Digimon, Naruto, Mortal Kombat, World of Warcraft, etc.)
Celebrating the release of Transformers Prime Beast Hunters Predacons Rising today, comicbook.com has an exclusive interview with Will Friedle talking about what it was like being the voice of Bumblebee late into the series. Here are a few snippets from the interview, you can check out the rest here.
ComicBook.com: What was it like coming on late and joining the show’s ensemble as it was a moving bus?
Will Friedle: It was incredible. It was one of those things where I joined in the last episode of the entire series and then did the movie afterwards. But I was a fan of not only the show but of the ensemble cast of actors for a long time. So being able to join playing anybody would have been amazing but getting to go and play Bumblebee was pretty incredible.
Being a fan of the show and a fan of the actors, I didn’t want to go in and screw it up. The last thing you want to do is go in and be the weak link on this fantastic show. Hopefully I did the character justice, and the movie–which comes out Tuesday on Blu-ray–is amazing. Just absolutely gorgeous if you’re an animation fan at all. It’s all state-of-the-art and it’s just beautiful from start to finish.
I started watching the original Transformers when I was a kid. It came out in ’84 and I was eight years old so I was watching every day, running home from school. So to be able to be involved was pretty incredible.
ComicBook.com: And joining any show late in the run, you’ll have that concern you were talking about, being the weak link, but you get guys here who have been playing the parts for thirty years and who have seen Bumblebees come and go.
Friedle: Oh, yeah, of course. When you’ve got Peter Cullen and Frank Welker, you’ve got to those guys that started back in the day, you certainly don’t want to make a fool of yourself when you walk into the room.
And you’re right–they have seen the Bumblebees come and go so you want to go in there and make the best impression that you can, not just from an acting standpoint and a professional standpoint but from the standpoint of a fan, where you have been listening to them your whole life.
It was difficult to come in starting at the last episode but it was written so well that–that’s when Bumblebee had to speak. You had to wait ’til the very end because it had to be a big deal and a big reveal. They absolutely did it right; I just hope I didn’t screw it up.
Courtesy of Newsarama, we have a lenghty and juicy interview about the upcoming IDW Transformers crossover event: Dark Cybertron! The website has interviewed the two wordsmiths behind the creation, James Roberts (MTMTE) and John Barber (RID), as well as showing some artwork from covers and interior pages of what's to come. Read some snippets below, and check out the whole interview here!
John Barber: The setup has been that Rodimus has been leading a group of Autobots (well, mostly Autobots) on a starship, the Lost Light, in search of the legendary Knights of Cybertron. Meanwhile Bumblebee tried to forge a new government on Cybertron, but failed, letting Starscream take over the planet. While that was going on, Optimus Prime—now calling himself Orion Pax—has gone off into space and hooked up with a couple other Autobots.
So, yeah—they are pretty spread out, and Dark Cybertron will start to draw them together. Shockwave’s got a plan, and it’s a big plan, and it encompasses a lot of the universe. The Lost Light gets drawn into one part of the plan, and everybody on Cybertron gets pulled another way… right away, Orion Pax hooks up with the Lost Light crew and he and Rodimus team up to go into a dark dimension called the Dead Universe that’s as horrifying as it sounds.
James Roberts: In the nigh-on 30 years since Transformers began, there have never been two ongoing Transformers comic books running side by side, focusing on different sets of characters in different parts of the same universe. And so this is our first opportunity to indulge in some proper crossover action.
In the past, with big Transformers stories, the sense of occasion has come exclusively from the size of the threat. In the case of Dark Cybertron, yes, the threat is big—the threat is massive, in fact—but in addition to that, you get the thrill of seeing characters from separate storylines mix it up with each other. In a way, it's the Transformers version of the Avengers movie after 50 issues spent building up our respective casts.
[...]
Roberts: As I’ve said before, the story is also fun because you get to mix-and-match the characters: Character A from Robots In Disguise, might share a scene or a subplot—or maybe, in some cases, just a single panel—with Character B from More Than Meets The Eye. As the story builds and the various threads start converging, you get more and more of these team-ups, and I hope readers get as much of a thrill out of the combined cast as I did. Hey, I’m a Transformers fan of old, and Dark Cybertron makes me feel like I did when I used to read the weekly Transformers comic in the UK and they’d have multi-part epics where all the big name characters from different timelines—Optimus, Galvatron, Ultra Magnus, etc.—were on the same page.
Barber: And if you’re coming at this from the other side—if you’re a fan of big-scale action with real characters that have real feelings—I think this comic will show you that the Transformers comics might be for you.
I’m excited to get to do a story this big, this far reaching, that pulls as much together as this does—while still reaching for the future. I think where we leave the characters at the end of this is really, really exciting.
With the animated series of Prime: Beast Hunters now behind us, and Predacons Rising almost here, we are very happy to welcome show and comics writer Mairghread Scott for another interview with the minds and hands behind IDW!
Va'al - Thank you for agreeing to do this, Mairghread - you have the honour if being our first writer! My first question, before we jump into your work, is about origins: How did you first become a fan of Transformers?
Mairghread - I actually grew up on Beast Wars, which makes me a bit odd because I never really saw Optimus turn into a truck (although I knew he did) until the Michael Bay films. But in some way, I think Beast Wars really was the best place to start when I worked on Prime. The idea of being outmatched and outnumbered, the shifting alliances; these are all important elements of both shows. Plus, even though our CG technology has come a long way, we still face a lot of the same challenges in terms of characters and sets.
Va'al - At last, someone else who grew up in the Beast era! I thought I was the only one, by now. How involved were you with the franchise back then? Did you collect the toys as well as watch the show, or branch out into other aspects of the Transformers like comics or other cartoons?
Mairghread - Neither. Comic books and action figures were 'boy things' and as a little girl I just sort of knew (and I'm sure my friends re-enforced) that I wasn't supposed to have either. I remember I looked for Airrazor a few times, but I could never find her on the shelf. On the bright side, it meant I got to play Beast Wars a lot with just my sister. I was an Osprey (until Jurassic Park, then I was a 'raptor for a while). I upgraded to puma-osprey with rocket launcher wings when everyone went all Fuzor/Transmetal. I feel like my sister was an orca because she was really into whales and I was always harrassing her about how she couldn't do anything in Beast-mode then. I wasn't the best sister.
Va'al - At least you played with her, though! I have to ask - were you ever able to track down an Airrazor figure later on in life? A lot of Transformer fans have their personal 'holy grail' toy, or so I'm told; would you say that was, or still is, yours? Or did you just outgrow the toy stage, and never really bothered?
Mairghread - No, although I would take one if I came across it. I tend to collect characters I've written for, so my Holy Grail is a modified Rip Claw made to look like Ser-ket. I just picked up a G1 Sludge at BotCon and would love to give him a sister to play with.
Va'al - You heard that, customisers. Be ready to be inundated by offers now! Speaking of writing characters - you're a writer for essentially two parallel stories, one told in the animated series, one in the comics. How do you juggle the different approaches, if they are different? Are there similar challenges in the two media? Do you have a preference between the two?
Mairghread - Well it does help that we have two different casts in each book and that they are both tailored to their medium. The Dinobots aren't nearly as talkative as, say, Optimus, and that works much better when you have the ultra-limited space of a comic. Since the Dinos don't do well in close-up or just talking, I try to think of the comics almost as an 80ish panel haiku instead of a TV script. I'm trying to pick out the best possible moments to suggest the movement, drama and staging that make Prime what it is instead of just transcribing an episode onto the page. When it comes to which I like more, I think I'd have to say comics, if only because I get to really interact with the fans in a way I never could if I just wrote TV. Talking to people who are passionate and nerdy about what you're passionate and nerdy about...it's the best.
Va'al - Communities of fans like the one for Transformers are indeed a gathering of multiple backgrounds and views with an extremely passionate dedication to the common interest! You're obviously welcome to join us on Seibertron any time, I know you write on other fansites at the moment. Speaking of fandoms, I was wondering about something. You've always been pretty determined and vocal about the female presence among the Transformers fans, but there are only a few named women creators in your position (alongside colourists Priscilla Tramontano and Joana Lafuente) - do you think the franchise is still a bit of a boys' club, or is that a misperception? Have you ever received criticism, from fans or peer creators, which was more about you as a woman than your work?
Mairghread - It's funny, I used to be really worried about the role my gender played when it came to my writing and how others saw it. So much so that once I was brought in on a non-TF show to write an episode that had a lot of female characters in it and I actually asked point-blank if they'd picked me because I'm a woman. The response was they'd seen Hurt and they picked me because I could write revenge. So 'no' I've never felt that people see my gender as anything other than another aspect of who I am.
That said, Transformers is still thought of by the public, the media and the industry at large as being a male-oriented brand. It's not surprising: the industry category for Prime is called 'boys action,' the toys for Transformers are in the blue-colored section at toy stores and in several TF comic books there are no female characters at all. This obviously makes it harder for women to feel like we want them to be involved in our brand and I want to change that. Everyone should feel allowed to like Transformers. If seeing my name on a comic makes a woman in the store give it a try, that's great. If writing Firestar means someone's daughter will read his Beast Hunter's issue with him -- awesome! But most importantly, if some little girl out there wants an Arcee as badly as I wanted an Airazor toy, I want her to know that she's not weird, or silly, or alone and if my work does that for her, that's the best thing of all.
Va'al - That's a great goal, and I agree wholeheartedly with your mission. It's also nice to read that the industry is changing its attitude towards pre-existing ideas, even if slowly. This is a franchise that, as you said, starts by being aimed at a young male audience, even though, in fact, there is a fairly big adult reception already - showing how there is also a good female reception should be next! You mentioned Firestar, a character who for now only shows up in a couple of issues of Beast Hunters - was that entirely your idea (with Mike Johnson), or was it suggested by IDW/Hasbro? How did she come about? And for that matter, how was Zoom introduced too?
Mairghread - Bringing back Firestar was my idea. As soon as we got picked up I decided to start adding female characters until someone told me to stop (and, actually, a lot of the background characters are also female, even though it's not obvious). So far, Mike, IDW and Hasbro have all been fine with it, so I press onward. I'd love to bring back all the pre-existing TF ladies, but we'll see how many I can squeeze in before the end.
Zoom is Mike's creation and another good example of IDW and Hasbro giving us a fairly free hand. I'm sure if we tried to remake the book as the Firestar/Zoom show, they'd say something, but when it comes to adding more minor characters, we get a lot of control.
Va'al - I did notice some of the remains in Last Spark were mentioned as being female, actually, yes. You don't seem to have been told to stop bringing in characters so far! Are we to expect any other ones before the series ends? I realise we're only half-way through, and that leaves us with two story-arcs worth of potential new faces.
Mairghread - Well, we just got preview images from Issue 5 and, I don't know if anyone's picked up on it, but they reveal Chromia, the blue Autobot next to Grimlock telling everyone to get under their beds (for protection in an earthquake). But don't worry, she does a lot more than that, but it's been fun to see her sneak into the sneak peek.
Va'al - Yes, I did spot Chromia, and I mentioned her (and Scrounge) in the review for issue 5. And speaking of issue 5, we now have the announced point of contact between the animated series and the comics, and we're very close in its placement with the end of the TV series. Will the comics cross-over or spill into the upcoming Predacons Rising epilogue?
Mairghread - While the two lines will merge in 7 and 8, the timeline between TV and comics means that we are following the show and not the other way around. That said, I've very excited at what Mike's cooking up, so you'll have to wait and see.
Va'al - Really not letting anything out of the bag, huh? Well, I think that moment of suspense is actually a good place to stop this time round. Mairghread, it's been an absolute pleasure talking to you, thanks again for doing this! Do you have any last words for the readers on Seibertron.com?
Mairghread - Only to thank them for the chance to play with characters they know and love. Hopefully, we can bring more fans to planet Cybertron. And if anyone has any more burning questions, you can reach me on Twitter at @MairghreadScott or Tumblr at mscottwrites.tumblr.com.
You heard her, readers - head over to the social media to ask your questions, or post them along with your comments in this thread! Stay tuned for another interview soon, we have some really interesting guests coming up.
CTV Atlantic has published an article, including video, about the Giant Robot store (Dartmouth) exclusive cover of ReGeneration One #0, with artwork by Casey Coller and colours by JP Bove! You can read the whole article here, and check out the cover art below.
The latest issue was released Wednesday. Its cover was inspired by an idea from comic book store owner Darrell Wall and completed by renowned IDW comic book artist Casey Coller.
“It is mind boggling,” says Wall. “I never thought when I opened this store three years ago that I would have a comic that’s exclusive to me.”
The past couple of days have been as eventful as ever in terms of news from the shooting of Transformers: Age of Extinction. To conclude the weekend, here's a roundup of some of the news pieces we found around the net!
From Reuters we have a piece about a new Chinese car to star in the film. Check out an extract below, and the whole article here.
Neither source wanted to be named due to confidentiality agreements they signed in connection with the upcoming film. A spokesperson for Paramount Pictures, the movie's distributor, said the company wouldn't confirm specific brands until nearer the release date. Paramount's local partner, China Movie Channel, declined to comment.
The new movie is being filmed in both the United States and China, with Chinese singer/actor Han Geng making his English-language debut, according to a blog posted on Paramount Pictures' Facebook page.
The film's producer, Lorenzo di Bonaventura, told the Beijing News earlier this month the movie would feature locally-made cars. "The world's coolest, most exciting cars will appear in the film, including Chinese vehicles, so whether you're a car enthusiast or not, it will be a feast for the eyes," he said.
In related vehicle news, a white Camaro has been spotted on the set, along with the already revealed vehicles and the Camaro from the 2007 movie. Check it out below, with more images here.
Completely unrelated, a very brief mention of the shooting was made in an interview with Canadian comedian/actor TJ Miller on Breakfast Television. Check out the video here!
And finally, three YouTube videos by user Mech100 featuring, respectively, Stanley Tucci, an alien weapon arriving on set and a Texas scene. Videos are embedded below for your viewing.
Goto Page: <<1, 2, 3, 4, 5>> 47 total news articles in this section, 10 per page.
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