Question on IDW's reprints (Dreamwave, Marvel UK etC)

wolfbolt86 · Post by **wolfbolt86** » Fri Aug 03, 2012 5:43 am

A quick question to those that have both IDW's and Titans' collections: does IDW's have the colors blurry or out out of the lines like the Titans? I have most of the Titans collection and noticed that some of the pages are real hard to look at due to the colors either just splashed or cover teh details. I am up to the The Last Stand, but do not know if I should finish getting the Titans collection or grab the IDW reprints.

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Fri Aug 03, 2012 8:46 am

The Titan trades don't look especially more blurry than the original issues do now (be that because of ageing; the limits of the technology of the time or Nel having trouble staying within the lines).

The current IDW books are completely recoloured and so should avoid this problem but, if you're as far as Last Stand I'd suggest either sticking with Titan or waiting till IDW reach that point and carrying on from there.

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Tue Aug 07, 2012 12:09 am

Though my copy hasn't arrived yet, according to the Wiki Ancient Relics isn't in volume 3 of the UK books after all, yay for more sensible ordering even if it is likely a space issue! It does mean the cover in now hugely misleading though. Oddly the Wiki specifically mentions Flint and Scarlett in the distant background as an error but not the big honking Megatron fighting Centurion that takes up half the cover...

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Sat Jan 10, 2015 11:49 am

NECRO BUMP.

This felt like the best place to share this (though I may put it in the AA thread as well when I get a second): All round nice Scotsman Andrew Turnbull has shared a PDF of the convention fanzine for Auto Assembly 2014 that includes, amongst other nice gubbins, a chat with James Roberts on the Classics UK series that even addresses the main issue most of us have with the books, the size of the reproduction. This will be in the top two interviews with James Roberts you will read on this subject this year (well, all being well):

http://tmukhub.proboards.com/thread/803 ... times-2014

AndrewDTurnbull · Post by **AndrewDTurnbull** » Sat Jan 10, 2015 2:32 pm

Cheers! You beat me to the punch as I was just about to whore, I mean share that with everyone here.

Andy

Post by **Denyer** » Sat Jan 10, 2015 3:01 pm

Nifty. Hope this doesn't sound too nitpicky, but the G1 font is a bit uncomfortable to read for anything smaller than titles.

Time And Time Again -- now there's an interesting concept!

Will have to find time to read the rest at some point.

&quot wrote:I think IDW just lets me get on with it!

Yeah, it's both one of their biggest strengths and something that that doesn't work particularly well with some other creators.

I'm glad it's a project he's enjoying and doesn't feel short-changed by, and it's great to be getting these to put back in circulation stuff that's only existed as scans for most people. Me included for a lot of it -- the comic wasn't exactly printed on best stock, and big stacks of mouldering paper are somewhat depressing as well as taking up lots of space.

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Sat Jan 10, 2015 3:26 pm

*HUGS HIS BIG STACKS OF MOULDERING PAPER*

I like the insanely OCD idea of printing both B&W and colour versions of the the stories that have both. Hopefully that extra page in The Flames of Botax will be included as well, that's not just messing about with speech bubbles as with most of the UK edits but imaginative recycling to create new a chunk of new content.

And as I don't think I shared this here at the time, my video thoughts on book 5:

AndrewDTurnbull · Post by **AndrewDTurnbull** » Sat Jan 10, 2015 5:47 pm

Denyer wrote:Nifty. Hope this doesn't sound too nitpicky, but the G1 font is a bit uncomfortable to read for anything smaller than titles.

Time And Time Again -- now there's an interesting concept!

Will have to find time to read the rest at some point.

Yeah, it's both one of their biggest strengths and something that that doesn't work particularly well with some other creators.

I'm glad it's a project he's enjoying and doesn't feel short-changed by, and it's great to be getting these to put back in circulation stuff that's only existed as scans for most people. Me included for a lot of it -- the comic wasn't exactly printed on best stock, and big stacks of mouldering paper are somewhat depressing as well as taking up lots of space.

No, not at all. All feedback gladly received.

Re: Time and Time Again glad you liked it. The idea came around a few years ago when myself and Karl were blethering about the Time Travel stories as it just seemed a bit too easy that Rodimus and co. end up back home at the end of Time Wars with very little having changed as a result. I know Furman did it that Galvatron survived and was on top but that wasn't enough and given that everything had been destroyed according to Time Wars it made sense to try something different.

As to whether Rodimus actually knows that he has stolen another's place well, Unicron taints the Matrix anyway so he could be hiding it from him, or it could be something deliberate.

I do have a few ideas as to where things could be taken for both sets of characters and will hopefully revisit them at some point.

Andy

Post by **Denyer** » Sat Jan 10, 2015 5:49 pm

inflatable dalek wrote:*HUGS HIS BIG STACKS OF MOULDERING PAPER*

Yeah, not the most tactful view, sorry. Stuff that sticks around is what's reprinted relatively frequently and distributed as widely as possible, which is why I'm hugely in favour of curatorial projects irrespective of the stance of any particular copyright holder.

And not just paper. We're getting towards being able to scan 3D objects well enough and for that tech to become cheap and easy to use.

Post by **Denyer** » Sat Jan 10, 2015 6:00 pm

AndrewDTurnbull wrote:No, not at all. All feedback gladly received.

Re: Time and Time Again glad you liked it. The idea came around a few years ago when myself and Karl were blethering about the Time Travel stories as it just seemed a bit too easy that Rodimus and co. end up back home at the end of Time Wars with very little having changed as a result. I know Furman did it that Galvatron survived and was on top but that wasn't enough and given that everything had been destroyed according to Time Wars it made sense to try something different.

As to whether Rodimus actually knows that he has stolen another's place well, Unicron taints the Matrix anyway so he could be hiding it from him, or it could be something deliberate.

I do have a few ideas as to where things could be taken for both sets of characters and will hopefully revisit them at some point.

Andy

Just spotted the "best of" ad -- cool.

I think the best possible route is some sort of fittingly heroic death for various characters, knowing that others will be restored from limbo. Not necessarily on a direct replacement basis.

Christ, Furman was rather grim with his concepts at times, wasn't he... the Aspects future, demon leeches in limbo...

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Sat Jan 10, 2015 6:06 pm

If the best of is in a book format (akin to what Kris Carter did with his collected fan comics perhaps?) that'll be a purchase here, the MTMTE/RID stories from two or three years ago were good enough on their own to justify the double did for a more durable package.

AndrewDTurnbull · Post by **AndrewDTurnbull** » Sat Jan 10, 2015 7:00 pm

Denyer wrote:Just spotted the "best of" ad -- cool.

I think the best possible route is some sort of fittingly heroic death for various characters, knowing that others will be restored from limbo. Not necessarily on a direct replacement basis.

Christ, Furman was rather grim with his concepts at times, wasn't he... the Aspects future, demon leeches in limbo...

Oh yes, there was a sense that there was no great and glorious future. Look at what he did when he got the US book and gave them a glimpse into the future.

Andy

AndrewDTurnbull · Post by **AndrewDTurnbull** » Sat Jan 10, 2015 7:01 pm

inflatable dalek wrote:If the best of is in a book format (akin to what Kris Carter did with his collected fan comics perhaps?) that'll be a purchase here, the MTMTE/RID stories from two or three years ago were good enough on their own to justify the double did for a more durable package.

The idea is to have it in a book format, exactly what size is being determined. For preference I'd have it the size of the UK Titan comics with a similar dress, but all of that is being looked into.

Andy

AndrewDTurnbull · Post by **AndrewDTurnbull** » Sat Jan 10, 2015 7:06 pm

Denyer wrote:Just spotted the "best of" ad -- cool.

I think the best possible route is some sort of fittingly heroic death for various characters, knowing that others will be restored from limbo. Not necessarily on a direct replacement basis.

The original intention was the six from Time Wars displaced their six analogues in the parallel timeline they find themselves in. There is scope to tweak it slightly as you only see Kup's hand in the reveal on Page 4. I took my cue from the way the devastation ramped up when both Optimus and Rodimus were in the same space and time. (Although it always bothered me that surely the same held true because we already had Hot Rod, Kup, Blurr, Ultra Magnus and Red Alert active in that time) I thought the universe would try and protect itself somehow and thus ensuring it was a straight swap.

Although it does raise questions as to what happened to the skeleton of Galvatron, the corpse of Cyclonus and the very much active Scourge. Where did they go?

Post by **Denyer** » Sat Jan 10, 2015 7:55 pm

Other than a simple just being wiped out, the limbo concept bears further investigation and could generate all sorts of storylines. It can't just be a straight matter displacement swap.... something that ties into the fabric of reality being information and/or driven by consciousness, or with a kludge similar to artron energy...

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Sat Jan 10, 2015 8:43 pm

Time Wars screwed limbo for me a bit I'm afraid as they just seemed to be making it up. Why does Prime and Rodimus being in the same place cause all sorts of problems when Hot Rod's presumably around somewhere (and isn't it lucky that this is about the only time ever PM Prime doesn't have Kup and Hot Rod hanging off his comically oversized trailer tails?).

That and the Autobots are stupid beyond words - Ironhide's explicitly brought back for no reason whatsoever, witnesses exactly the same thing he witnessed in Target 2006 and opts to help beat everyone up. For God's sake, even if we pretend Rodimus looks nothing like Hot Rod and assume Red Alert's debut was an error they all work with bloody Kup and Blurr and really should know what Magnus looks like at least. This is why Fort Max sucks.

Still convinced the thing was truncated at short notice and possibly while running.

AndrewDTurnbull · Post by **AndrewDTurnbull** » Sat Jan 10, 2015 9:37 pm

Ironhide having first hand experience of the time travel shenanigans is incredibly stupid in this. As for the way Fortress Maximus and the others react when the time jumpers appear - yes it is inexplicable.

Not sure if the story was cut short deliberately as this point, but the way the next two UK stories were repurposed to the 5/6 page mark suggests that might be true. After all going to 5 pages a week meant there was always US material for at least 48 weeks so would save some money.

Shame it was handled so badly if this was the case, and we were cheated out of our proper final Ultra Magnus/Galvatron showdown.

Still annoys me that after Deadly Games he just vanished.

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Sat Jan 10, 2015 9:46 pm

The thing that really bothered me is that the odd Delbo crowd scene aside Ironhide probably hadn't been in the book since Prey, or at best the proper Prime funeral. So why bring him back when if, I dunno, Joyride had been there it at least wouldn't be so obvious. It also might have been smarter to send Rodimus back with some newer toys or Red Alert/Wrecker-style misfits, especially as there would have been plenty for Kup & co to still do in 2009.

It's the sort of thing that would benefit from being turned into a novella or an outright remake. There's no much potential in there - stacks of old characters to kill off (the various Autobot cars that don't get Underbased such as Wheeljack and Ironhide; present Magnus, the Sparklers), good fights versus Galvatron for Magnus and both Primes (the three of them all on him at the same time with Mags sacrificing himself to get an opening for the Matrix boys would really work), a general tidy-up of the present day forces, some sort of explanation for why the Autobots are acting so stupidly (maybe some weird effect of the rift?).

AndrewDTurnbull · Post by **AndrewDTurnbull** » Sat Jan 10, 2015 10:53 pm

The simple choice of having Rodimus come back with Arcee and four other random Autobots would have been much simpler and cleared up most of the issues, aside from the whole cheating us of the Ultra Magnus/Galvatron showdown.

A retelling wouldn't be a bad idea all in.

I like the idea of Ultra Magnus being the one to actually defeat Galvatron though, it someone feels right that Rodimus isn't quite up to the task. In the same way that in the comics Optimus and Megatron seldom squared off one on one and even when they did it wasn't a conclusive victory it would be thematically nice to keep that with the next generation.

Because the rift was only going one way, back from the future to the past there was no easy way to explain away the Autobots being idiots. Had time been consumed from both ends you could easily write it off as these characters not having existed for some reason or another.

Andy

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Sat Jan 10, 2015 11:42 pm

Yeh, there was always that sense in the comics (and TBH the cartoon too, where they're again kept away from each other) that Rodimus defeating Galvatron inside Unicron was a bit of a fluke; in the first DH story Rodimus doesn't come close even with an all-star back-up team.

I always liked the way Galvatron was just miles off the scale in terms of power in the comic; TBH I wouldn't fancy Marvel Optimus against him either, so a three-way pile-on with Magnus doing the bulk of the work (maybe pinning Galvatron while the others opened fire, dying in the process?) would probably be fitting. As someone who never really rated Fort Max or Scorponok seeing those two put in their place within a couple of frames was something of a joy, though again where do they go? Where does Grimlock go? Grimlock's another one really who should perhaps do more considering his history with both Megatron and Galvatron and that power-level wise he's a big hitter but he's just sort-of there in the same way as Hoist or Snapdragon are.

Regarding Rodimus's future team it is a bit frustrating when you consider the likes of Punch, Fastlane, Cloudraker, Blaster's tapes (IIRC yet to be seen in the 'present'; only Steeljaw in the later Joe story contradicts the idea that they were built in something like 1996), Wreck-Gar and probably a couple of others were sitting around unused. Especially as Red Alert seems to be intentionally used for pretty much that reason (wonder if Furman remembered using him in Enemy Within).

Whenever I read it I just feel it's such a shame that what's basically the climax of hundreds of issues of the comic gets so sloppy and rushed when there's so much potential and it gets off to such a good start. There's some really, really smart use of continuity (Ravage coming back, for example - who expected that at the time?) in some places and in others it's idiotic.