Grammar. |
ARTISTS: ROBIN SMITH, MANNY GALAN, DEREK YANIGER
1994 and Transformers was back for Generation 2. Except in the UK, where it had never gone away. While the last of the various Micromasters and Actionmasters that made up the final underwhelming American series of what is now known as Generation 1 was being clearanced across the Atlantic European toystores were stiĺl receiving fresh product, ranging from new moulds to botched Japanese imports to unused prototypes, most of which have cropped up in James Roberts' work since. It was an odd period with Europe getting cool stuff like Overlord, the Turbomasters and two thirds of Breastforce without Breastmasters or even names.
The 1994 Marvel Transformers Winter Special, which probably came out right before G2 #1. |
The first issue of Marvel USA's G2 comic. |
Title just rolls off your tongue. |
The end of Marvel UK's efforts to push G.I.Joe - The Action Force. |
Hot Spot versus Cobra in the American material. |
Regardless, Fleetway decided to launch with some original material to lead into the reprints which were planned to make up the bulk of the title. The 24-page large format comic was priced at £1.50, with between half and two-thirds of the issue being strip and the rest made up of profiles, feature pages and the odd advert here and there, meaning that in theory there was the best part of two years' worth of material from the US book. However, to smooth the launch the first two issues contained new strips intended to dovetail into the reprints while working around the G.I.Joe crossover.
UK G2 #1 splash page. |
Optimus moping. |
Tornado displaying deep complex Decepticon characterisation. |
Watch out Prime, he's got a new toy! |
G2 #2 splash page. |
G2 #3 poster. |
G2 #4 cover. |
Apart from it being the end. |
Issue #1 freebie stickers. |
Sideswipe profile from #4. |
Naturally this doesn't lend itself to the book being much more than a curio for those whose interests in Transformers comics' history is as high as that in the stories themselves. The original issues are rare but not quite as expensive and collectible as you'd think as fans are largely unwilling to spend much on such slipshod material, though the first two issues are one of the few vintage Transformers strips not to be reprinted anywhere else.
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Nice to see you back!
ReplyDeleteThe current plan is to reprint the original content alongside the end of the Marvel run as a curio in Classics UK 8. Considering the behind the scenes stuff that gets included in those it might clear up some of the mysteries.
For what it's worth I think Furman did write it but simply didn't remember having done so the first time he was asked and possibly didn't until he looked into what Hasbro's license gave them when it came to reprint USG2. Or he was doing a Bryan Hitch style "That awful stuff wasn't me!" joke that got taken seriously by joyless fandom.
I was the one who asked Furman about the UK G2 strips, at Botcon Europe in...'99, I think. My question was about how, in his mind, the UK stories fitted in with the US stuff - so young and naive as to believe he'd care about such stuff after Earthforce! He didn't seem like he was joking when he replied that he couldn't remember writing it - he seemed genuinely unsure.
ReplyDeleteHi there.
ReplyDeleteThe link for the comic download doesn't work. Any chance you could fix that, please?
Thanks for all the great work you do, especially the Gobots stuff.