I could steal every word of this and publish it on my own newsletter and it would still be entirely accurate. :) I wonder how many of us were influenced by Furman's work? The Transformers comic was the first time I was introduced to long-form serial storytelling, my first proper encounter with science fiction, my first experience of characters dying in stories.
There's absolutely a quiet sub-generation who kept on reading the UK comic long after basically every other kid had moved on from Transformers generally. Our proto-2000AD.
Yup. And while the toys were what grabbed me when I was 6 years old, and then the cartoon, it's specifically the comic that embedded this stuff in my brain. I suspect I wouldn't still be spending a ridiculous amount of time thinking about robots who turn into things if the comic hadn't existed (and Furman's stuff, specifically). I think I read the comic up until I was ten or 11, when the comic ended, which is long after I'd stopped playing with the toys.
All the other things I loved as a child remain fixed as things I enjoyed as a child. Thundercats, MASK, Real Ghostbusters etc. The Transformers comic felt like it was doing something risky and slightly dangerous, and I've never really forgotten that sensation while reading it of teetering on the edge of something both magical and terrifying.
Golly this brings back memories! I had that same notebook/exercise book combo, along with a very random assortment of Transformers including Jazz, who I always had to get my dad to help me transform.
I only got the odd issue of the comics, but I had one of the first Annuals, which featured a rather disturbing story which ended with Prowl (I think?) dead and Ravage mind wiped… and it has a Ronald Reagan cameo. Bizarre.
The image on that notebook seemed to be everywhere (in the UK at least) in 84-85 - even though it's for a version of the toy that wasn't actually available. The primary character is Bluestreak, whose released toy was actually... silver. A whole other story I may cover some time....
I remember looking at the pic so many times and thinking how cool it was, even though (silver) Bluestreak is in a really weird pose and also appears to be completing missing an immobile Skywarp at point-blank range...
Big fan of A is Apple T is for Transformers 😄
I could steal every word of this and publish it on my own newsletter and it would still be entirely accurate. :) I wonder how many of us were influenced by Furman's work? The Transformers comic was the first time I was introduced to long-form serial storytelling, my first proper encounter with science fiction, my first experience of characters dying in stories.
Absolutely formative stuff.
There's absolutely a quiet sub-generation who kept on reading the UK comic long after basically every other kid had moved on from Transformers generally. Our proto-2000AD.
Yup. And while the toys were what grabbed me when I was 6 years old, and then the cartoon, it's specifically the comic that embedded this stuff in my brain. I suspect I wouldn't still be spending a ridiculous amount of time thinking about robots who turn into things if the comic hadn't existed (and Furman's stuff, specifically). I think I read the comic up until I was ten or 11, when the comic ended, which is long after I'd stopped playing with the toys.
All the other things I loved as a child remain fixed as things I enjoyed as a child. Thundercats, MASK, Real Ghostbusters etc. The Transformers comic felt like it was doing something risky and slightly dangerous, and I've never really forgotten that sensation while reading it of teetering on the edge of something both magical and terrifying.
Golly this brings back memories! I had that same notebook/exercise book combo, along with a very random assortment of Transformers including Jazz, who I always had to get my dad to help me transform.
I only got the odd issue of the comics, but I had one of the first Annuals, which featured a rather disturbing story which ended with Prowl (I think?) dead and Ravage mind wiped… and it has a Ronald Reagan cameo. Bizarre.
The image on that notebook seemed to be everywhere (in the UK at least) in 84-85 - even though it's for a version of the toy that wasn't actually available. The primary character is Bluestreak, whose released toy was actually... silver. A whole other story I may cover some time....
I remember looking at the pic so many times and thinking how cool it was, even though (silver) Bluestreak is in a really weird pose and also appears to be completing missing an immobile Skywarp at point-blank range...