Friday, June 29, 2007

Transmasters Comic Issue 4 posted, finally!

OK, I'm using an account on Freeservers, so if you have difficulties please let me know. I've run out of room on the Geocities account and this one still had room. So here we go:

http://merwin.freeservers.com/tmcomic4/index.html

It's scary to realize that it's been almost a year since I posted issue 3. The files were dated August 2006, bot what have I been doing? Not going to make any promises, but I'd hope to at least put together a small issue every 3 months again, sheesh!

Well, like I say in the last page, I want to get the next Magazine issue out sometime mid-July or begining of August. It may be a bit short, but I hope to have a Transmasters Cybertron: Epilogue (to wrap up a couple of questions readers may have), at least a Prologue to my Classics story, a KO Korner (cheapy OP KOs), and something related to the Movie toys/merchandise. (heck maybe even a what I thought of the movie since I'll probably see it by then and I'm hoping to pick up the PS2 version of the video game.)

Thanks for hanging in with me.

Monday, June 25, 2007

a little update

Hello,
It seems I finally found the account data for this blog after it got lost on my harddrive/brain and thought i'd give a little update on things johan/TF/Warlog.

as I'm sure everyone has read by now, we had a Transformers convention in Holland on the 10th of June. the news was on Seibertron.com
ofcourse I attended, be it a little later on the day due to a baptism in a church which I had to attend also.

Fan made photos of the convention can be found here:
http://www.transfanclub.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2986&sid=46febb6e7e3f046ab17f9bcc56db2f1e

http://s44.photobucket.com/albums/f20/Sun78/Transformations%202007%20IJsselstein/

and raymond T 's official seibertron photos:
http://www.seibertronianspacestation.com/index.php?option=com_rsgallery2&Itemid=42&catid=1

ofcourse i'm not on these photo's, wasn't even there yet ;(
I did however participate in the Art contest they had but didn't win,
the competition was very talented !
I had "Primus" ready for some time, just promo art really and the "Ready for Battle scene" was one I made just one week before. the winning drawing of the 2 contenders was.....
"Ready for Battle"
....both drawings are shown below....

oh and I should mention that the Warlog site has gotten an overhaul since there will be 'exciting' new content on it in a couple of weeks !
Greetings Johan


Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Comic Review: Transformers: Megatron Origin


Transformers: Megatron Origin #1

Writer: Eric Holmes
Artist: Alex Milne

(Covers by Alex Milne and Marcelo Matere)

Synopsis: A Cybertronian Senator travels to a remote mining colony to shut it down, placing its work force out of jobs so they can be replaced by automation. When a dissenting worker is put down, another miner (Megatron) objects and kills a guard. The miners are then "pacified" (read: shot) and the survivors placed aboard a prison ship. However, they quickly break free and take control of the ship then go to hide out in a seedy part of Cybertron.

Comments: I had some reservations going into a mini-series about Megatron's origin--namely because I've read at least a couple of his origins in the past and some were less then stellar. If I don't like this one, well, its official, so too damn bad for me.
Anyway...
I do wonder about the title. "Megatron Origin" is the best thing the marketing wizards at IDW could come up with? A story proposal called "Megatron Origin" I can understand but an actual finished, published comic? Not very imaginative, imo.
Apparently, this writer, Eric Holmes is a long time fan. This can either be a blessing or a curse, depending on his story telling ability (I did enjoy Nick Roche's recent Kup Spotlight issue, to be fair). On the other hand, I've read some genuinely bad fanfic in my time too...
Issue one's story is decent but short. Megatron is apparently an Energon miner but when he and his fellow miners are going to be replaced by automation, takes matters into his own hands (how can robots be replaced by machines? The idea seems ludicrous! I mean, I get it but it's sort of silly when you think about it). We don't get much of a sense of who Megatron is in this first segment--apparently he has a sense of justice (he rebels when another miner is put down for being a dissenter). Yet he seems confused about his own motivations later on--I'm not sure what they're going for here. Is he supposed to be shocked or prone to some sort of psychosis? Beyond his limited actions, we don't seem to know much about who he is or what he's about (and this story is supposed to focus on him so that's bad). And if he's the one planning in the end of the story, presumably, he seemed to get over his confusion quite quickly.
The art is confusing in places. Generally, it's good but there are panels where it's hard to figure out what the hell is going on--this is due, in part, to Milne's using generic drone style robots as security. When they're fighting off the miners, it's hard to tell who's who.
I also wonder about using established characters so quickly, like Rumble/Frenzy and Prowl. Why do the established characters already have to be around so early on in Megatron's own origin? It seems needlessly convenient... Also, while I like Sentinal Prime's look, I think he resembles Optimus Prime far too much--Rodimus, Ultra Magnus and Fortress Maximus look nothing like Optimus Prime so why would one assume his predecessor would resemble him either? (Yes, this is nitpicking but still a fair question).
I also wonder why a Megatron origin story is truly necessary (beyond being a cheap excuse to sell another comic to the masses). At this point in the main story, all Megatron's even done is help Prime stop Thunderwing by nuking Cybertron then later on, come to Earth to conquer it. We've seen little of his personality/motivations in the IDW universe in the present. So little, in fact, it seems pointless to try and explain his past motivations at this point in time...
And, on a personal note, I really hate stories where Megatron is a victim of circumstances beyond his control. Raksha's Megatron origin fanfic years ago was beautifully written but made Megatron out to be a pawn of fate--and this IDW series seems to take a similar approach thus far. Why can't Megatron simply emerge out of the chaos of pre-war Cybertron and become a charismatic symbol because he wants to? Why must he have a defining, traumatic event to explain away his evilness? He's not Darth Vader, for cryin' out loud! He could simply be a politician that saw an opportunity or a "hero" of the down trodden that fought for a change he saw was needed among his people. Whatever the take, I want him to have pursued his course because he chose to, not because fate conspired against him!

Final Verdict: mildly recommended.

Monday, June 18, 2007

BOP #30... at long last...


BOP #30 is done (it's been delayed for months thanks to family problems and other jazz) and now available for ordering! It costs $3/US issue for those who want the whole thing (that is, the physical issue). Email me at tkphoton@hotmail.com to get a copy!



Also, the stories from BOP #29 are now up and readable at www.karmicsalt.com/boparchive.html


In regards to the future issues, BOP #31 is 95% ready to go (just add art!) while BOP #32 and #33 are done in rough draft. BOP #34-35 are plotted but not yet written... so expect a fairly regular schedule for BOP for the next couple of months anyway.

- Thunder

Monday, June 11, 2007

Sorry for the extremely long absense

I hope to do better from now on. I've given the blog a bit of an updated look. Hope you like the new Movie-esque logo. I'm still trying to get a few little quirks corrected.

Basically I ended up just getting so frustrated with my job as the Security Training Supervisor for McKesson that I quit. (Gave my notice and they talked me into staying an extra two weeks, I'm just a sucker for punishment right.) So now I'm probably going to be taking a couple of months off. (If you can call working on all my parent's projects time off...not to mention my own fix up projects at the place I rent...)

I should be able to knock out the next issue of the TransMasters Comic before the end of the month and quickly follow up with an issue of the Magazine (short but sweet). Mostly the movie stuff you've probably begun to get sick of and a bit of KO Korner. Anyone else here think it sucks that Hasbro let the Official Club do Classics characters? I like the work they've put into them, just don't like the high prices and possibility these characters won't be made for the mass market. Ah well, Hasbro's tossing all it's eggs at the Movie stuff right now and I hope they don't throw away the basket too. Anyone notice how the new movie toys do not have the Takara name on them, just the Tomy one? I was sort of saddened to see this.

Siebertron.com had an article recently about the two different versions of the Speaking Optimus Prime helmet. Make sure you get the one that says "Try Me! Featuring Real Movie Voice." If you want to hear the lines done by Peter Cullen. I'm actually amazed at the quality that went into this helmet, it actually fits me and I even have enough room to put my glasses on too. 8-)

I'm hoping to finish up my Cybertron story and begin a new one with the Classics line. I ran my thesis by another fan in my area. He didn't like it, but perhaps he just doesn't see the potential. Yes, it'd be another new begining for the TFs story. (Like we need another, but to do the story the way I want it has to be done.) Short of it is in this version the Autobots are the ones that kicked *ss on Cybertron, mostly because with the Matrix and Vector Sigma under Autobot control they were able to beat back the Decepticons through sheer numbers (For every Auto that fell 10 were built). Shockwave of course was able to predict the extinction of Decepticons without an outside source for new sparks centuries ago. He implements a plan to search out and find "compatible" sparks. (Only about 10% of the human population are acceptable and they die during spark extraction.) Circa today: He's suceeded and the Decepticons have launced the Nemisis in a last ditch move to use humans as their raw material for more warriors. Warned by the Matrix, Optimus Prime takes a small group of Autobots to Earth to stop the Decepticons from possibly creating a dark matrix. For the sake of the story all G1 characters will have to still be in play, though they may look different. I'd better not say more right now, since I'm still toying with a couple of ideas with just the characters released into the toy line so far. Wonder if the Official club'd get upset if I used their botcon characters? *snicker*