Oh come on!!! Why’d you have to give the TF’s flak? Couldn’t you have used something else?

Now, if you want to see something get REALLY made fun of, this week’s issue of Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters made fun of Jersey Shore, and the cast members of the parody (“Jerseylicious”) bought the farm at the end of the issue!

The problem with that joke is that there really is a real life popular reality show called Jerseylicious:

http://www.hulu.com/jerseylicious

josh is right transformers did get its first start here in the u.s from the marvel comic. so Marisia looks like she is smart to not try to argue about if the transfomers had a mthos.

Lots of defensive fanboys comin to TF’s rescue. This ought to provide a few laughs.

Okay, not lots, but I’m not surprised that two of the three comments before hand were.

Jim Shooter recently wrote about the origin of the Transformers:

http://www.jimshooter.com/2011/06/secret-origin-of-transformers-part-1.html

Great last panel.

What’s this do? It keeps stuff fresh. Well, that’s a fresher. I’m goin’ on break!

(apologies to the late great Mitch Hedberg)

Nice strip, though. I like Marissa knowing that Josh forgot Dylan Dog.

Even though I tend to think of the earlier Marvel TF stuff to be kind of crappy, Transformers does have a rich mythos. Well, to be honest, TF has like 72 different ones, but still.

I’m not getting riled up here or anything, but I do get annoyed when one kind of “fanboy” decides his favorite things are so superior to other people’s. The fact that G.I. Joe was created essentially the same way as the Transformers — back story written for toy designs — doesn’t change the great work Larry Hama did with them. Sometimes.

Transformers have a rich mythos? I’m all into Playmobil, which REALLY has a rich mythos. Even richer than, let’s say, Lego. But I stop now. My daughter starts arguing with me, that nothing surpasses the world of Barbie and Ken.

I just hope they give Major Matt Mason and Sgt. Storm the same treatment. Mythos!

I think I owned a Gunosaurus back in the day.

This isn’t entirely true. Having worked on the original Transformers in the 1980′s I can assure you that much of the mythos and names of the characters also came from the designers & copywriters at Hasbro. It’s a fallacy to believe that all the background and characterizations of the Transformers came strictly from Marvel.

Although Richard, you must admit that Michael Bay has gone a long way to discourage new fans that are interesting from looking into that history…

American and British….

My Josh Rant: I mean he misused Shockwave, Soundwave, Laserbeak, Ravage, and made Optimus Prime sound like the Punisher…. How do TF fanboys/gals keep lining his pockets with money?!?!?!?

LMAO I personally tried to explain transformers to a kid…and gave up because she had been “Bay-washed”. A generation lost…*sniff*

My problem with this cartoon doesn’t stem from the belief that the Transformers were conceived in a particularly deep way, but from the belief that most other things are conceived in any way that’s any more deep.

I mean, for example, Superman. “He can do all these awesome things kids wish they could do, a giant power wish fulfillment fantasy. What should be call him? Well he’s super and he’s a man, why not Superman?” I’m sure it wasn’t much deeper than the thought process that went into Gunosaurus up there. I’m sure it’s even more true for the superheroes who came after. They may be well respected now, but at the time of their conception they were just cash grabs to capitalize on Superman.

By the way, I’m not a TF fanboy, or have any incredible love for the franchise. I just think most things tend to build up their mythos retroactively, after the properties become extremely popular. The amount of properties that arrive fully formed with truly fleshed out worlds and backstories are very rare.

My buddy obsessively collects Transformers. Sending him this strip was a great joy for me. Heh heh heh heh heh.

People tend to be rather liberal with the word “mythos” these days. In terms of back story and a history of media, even My Little Pony has a “mythos.” Though usually I see people use it in an ironic context personally.

First My Little Pony comment goes to me!

Side note: Part of what this comic seems to touch on is that comics are more about a larger “comic con” culture involving books, movies, tv and games than the medium of the comic book. “Comic fans” by and large care more about Conan and Transformers than Dylan Dog.

Transformers does have a mythos, but Marissa’s comment is still funny. Just because Transformers are cool doesn’t mean we fans have to take them so seriously.

I wonder if “mythos,” like the word “epic,” has been devalued by overstatement and use over the past ten years or so, thanks to the internet.

@T: I think the name Superman was intentionally likening back to the Ubermench concept. And the two creators had used the story of Moses and Samson to draw inspiration from. So. At least slightly more thought out than ‘Gunasuarus.’

Not to say that Superman and other character concepts don’t have a degree of simplicity (elegance?) to them… Just that Superman was probably not the best example. I’m thinking you want a more sophomoric example to make the analogy work.

Like the Flash. He’s, uh, really fast. That’s his superpower. And he’s called the flash. There we go.

“Part of what this comic seems to touch on is that comics are more about a larger “comic con” culture involving books, movies, tv and games than the medium of the comic book. “Comic fans” by and large care more about Conan and Transformers than Dylan Dog.”

I think it’s more of a nostalgia thing, in that we care most about the things we liked at age fourteen. Or in comics, this has expanded over the years to “we care most about the things we’ve seen and things we might have seen at age fourteen, but didn’t get around to at the time, plus things that we’d see if we were fourteen now.” And there’s nothing wrong with that, since it’s a hobby and all about having fun.

There’s a Dylan Dog movie?

There’s a Dylan Dog movie?

Ostensibly. In the same sense that there’s a Hellblazer movie, if y’know what I mean.

I liked the Hellblazer movie.

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