Comments on: Nostalgia November Day 19 — Transformers #64

By: Fury

Fury — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 21:06:06 +0000

no, you’re not. early issues had several characters, among them Brawn, Ironhide, Ratchet and Megatron looking like their toy counterparts before they switched to looking more like the cartoon versions. this also happened with Galvatron in particular in Target 2006 as at the time the artist only had the toy to work from, before they got stills and a model sheet from the movie animation.

For some peculiar reason, Sideswipe was also drawn with a weird face in one story where his entire head was grey and he had a Y shaped slit in the front. no eyes, nose or mouth, just this Y.

By: Gavin Bell

Gavin Bell — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:09:33 +0000

this might have been just in the UK comics, but does anyone else remember when they used to draw the robots exactly like the toy (as opposed to the cartoon)? and then for a while afterwards they’d be drawn like the toy in their first appearance and then the cartoon version thereafter? the example I can remember is galvatron, cyclonus and scourge look like the toys on the last page of Target 2006 part 1, and then like the cartoons thereafter.

Am I just imagining this???

By: Ritchard

Ritchard — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:00:45 +0000

Ah, it’s been a while since I re-read Matrix Quest. Maybe I remember thinking it should’ve been a matter of years for Longtooth’s story to work properly, at least for me. I should revisit those sometime soon.

Delbo was also known for tracing or copying the character model drawings that came from Hasbro, or going totally off on weird tangents with overly humanizing them. (Soundwave never had his face mask when he was drawn by Delbo.) Like I said, I don’t think it’s so much a lack of talent as laziness, or maybe even lack of interest, on this title for whatever reason; I’ve seen his work in other books and, while I wouldn’t call him great, his work on those titles was much better than almost anything I saw by him in Transformers. #67 is probably his best Transformers work (or maybe I was too excited by that incredible Galvatron cover by Jim Lee when I got it and didn’t notice), but it’s also his last issue.

By: Chad Nevett

Chad Nevett — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:40:31 +0000

The comic said a few weeks, I think… I got the impression that the events here were taking place at the same time as previous Autobot-centred stories with Thunderwing’s appearances showing the closer continuity.

My biggest problem with Delbo is that his robots look so short and compressed. Their legs are far, far too short.

By: Ritchard

Ritchard — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:27:52 +0000

In an earlier issue, the Autobots learned that Primus had slumbered within Cybertron for millions of years, because Unicron would be able to sense him. During a firefight between Autobots and Decepticons in the core of the planet, a stray laser blast ricocheted off Grimlock’s armor and struck Primus, awakening him; since he’d been violently awakened after such a long slumber, he screamed, and Unicron sensed him. Unicron is (in this issue) on his way to Cybertron, which is why it’s so critical for the Autobots to find the Matrix, as the only other thing that can stop Unicron is a united Transformers race (which seems unlikely).

I too found Delbo’s artwork to be pretty bad in this issue. He’s not the worst artist ever employed by Marvel by a long shot, but he’s not the best, either. And I always got the impression he was being lazy on Transformers, thinking it was only a kids’ comic that didn’t really matter. I usually like Furman’s work, and I know what he was going for in Matrix Quest with the genre homages, but this issue bothered me. Mainly, it was the timeline. In trying for a Moby-Dick homage, he throws us in mid-story, and doesn’t do it as well as he’s done at other times. Also, if I remember properly, Longtooth is supposed to have been chasing this Klud for a long time, maybe several years, which didn’t fit well into the sense of urgency Matrix Quest was supposed to have.

Overall, Matrix Quest was a good story, though probably the weak point of Furman’s 24 issues (which I still feel are hugely underrated, especially once Andrew Wildman took over on pencils). My only problem with it is that it alludes heavily to several earlier stories by Furman when he was on the UK Transformers book, which were unavailable in the US until the last few years.