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Your Future Nostalgia. Today. | ||
| www.asmzine.com / www.alteredstatesmag.com | |||
| July 25, 2008 |
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Interview by Matthew Karpowich, Reporter, and
Andrew Sorohan Part 3: Transformers - Specific QuestionsAndrew Sorohan: "We are Primus. We are Prima. We are Prime Nova. We are Sentinel Prime. We are Optimus Prime. We are THUNDERWING!" Where does Primon (introduced in the BotCon "Omega Point" text story) fit in? Simon Furman: Umm... pass. The Matrix forgot? Andrew: Obscure characters, or rather those characters who were created specifically for the comics and who never had toys, are a particular preoccupation of ours. You've created quite a host of these: Flame, Horsepower, The Decepticon Triumverate, Nautilus, Chameleon, Fang, Emirate Xaaron, Impactor and many more - the last three featured in the Transformers: Target: 2006 collection. Do you have any fond memories of these characters? SF: Absolutely, especially Emirate Xaaron, who was a recurring character in both my UK and US runs. The question I always used to get was, what does Xaaron transform into? As we only ever saw him in his robot mode (and to be honest, originally I don't think he'd been drawn with a secondary mode in mind). In UK #168/169, Xaaron refers to a combat mode, but also that it's been 'hundreds of years' since he last attempted a transformation (and so doesn't). As far as Emirates go, there's an Emirate Xeon (briefly) in The War Within. My little tribute. Matthew Karpowich: The character of Impactor has intrigued Transformers fans since his debut in "Target: 2006" - not to mention his death! With the reprints of that story now available, do you think you could answer a few questions about Impactor? For instance, was it ever worked out what he transformed into? SF: Mm... another case of probably not. I always assumed some kind of tank or armoured vehicle. But nothing definite. We did play it fast and loose sometimes with these 'created' characters. Andrew: Impactor is also a favourite character of mine. His second death in the "City of Fear" storyline had a strong effect on me as a kid. When you wrote "Target: 2006" did you think you might be going to revive and kill Impactor again only a couple of years later? SF: No, but I was aware that Impactor was a character I liked, even though he'd been scheduled to die right from the start of "Target: 2006". The whole "City of Fear" set up gave me the chance to bring him back, and I was glad I did (if nothing else, for that superb Jerry Paris cover on UK #167). Andrew: Keeping on the topic of "Target: 2006", one of my favourite characters from it is the now legendary Autobot Leader Emirate Xaaron. When you first created him in "And There Shall Come a Leader" did you think he would stick around as long as he did? SF: See previous answer, but no - he really was only meant as a background character for that story. Matthew: Transformers didn't shy away from real world figures during your tenure as a writer. You wrote stories with cameos by Ronald Reagan and George Bush Sr. - but the most peculiar appearance was probably Richard Branson of the Virgin Group, whose guest-starring role was actually advertised on the inside cover flap of the comic he showed up in. Is there some story behind this? SF: Only that at the time, Branson was spearheading a "Keep Britain Tidy" campaign, and it fitted that he might be the one to raise Megatron/Centurion from the Thames. It was an indulgence, and a challenge artist Lee Sullivan rose admirably to, but it did get us some mainstream press coverage in the likes of Time Out and even the N.M.E. Matthew: Semi-recurring throughout your Cybertron-based stories were "the Demons" - gaunt, ravenous monstrosities from beneath Cybertron who "fed" on Transformers. What were they, really? A species trapped when Primus plunged into the metal asteroid that became Cybertron, or early attempts at creation by Primus himself? SF: It was one of those things I never really got to explore properly, but I was always leaning towards the botched creation angle, another way of painting Primus as not quite whiter than white. Matthew: The original black-and-white storyline that introduced the Demons also showcased a group of "Mutant" Transformers (Rotgut, Slayride, Jackhammer, Warhead, and Smeltdown). They lived in the Underworld of Cybertron before being slain by Tailgate the Autobot. Since the "bio-morphic" reproduction concept for Transformers wouldn't come into play until Transformers: Generation 2, can you remember in what sense these fellows were supposed to be "mutants"? By the way, I'd like to add that "Slayride" is the greatest Transformer name ever. SF: It's not that the bio-morphic only comes into play in Gen 2, the idea is it's been around since pre-history (Prime takes a look back into Cybertron's past in Gen 2 #4). So the mutants are a by-product of that process. Matthew: The Transformers ran up against a number of cosmic entities, including the Last Autobot and the Swarm. Their stories played out in the final issues of the original Transformers comic and Transformers: Generation 2, respectively. What happened to them afterwards? Did the Last Autobot, say, go back to his eternal slumber (as he wasn't featured in G2)? What of the "purified" Swarm? SF: I never got a chance to pursue those storylines, and never really had anything laid out. The Last Autobot storyline was supposed to be much longer, a real quest, and his presence/impact on the series would continue in some way, shape or form. But as it was, he just had to appear and be gone. As for the purified Swarm, well, I suppose it might have featured again, but that story at least was brought to a conclusion that I was happy with. Matthew: Issue 9 of Transformers: Generation 2 introduced a strange sub-plot that never got followed up on. When the "Cybertronian Decepticon" named Mindset was devoured by the Swarm, his death was "felt" by the Combaticon leader Onslaught. Do you recall where this was going? Were Onslaught and Mindset somehow related? SF: That was the idea, to show that some Transformers were 'related' through the bio-morphic process. Andrew: Another character you introduced in the Transformers: Generation 2 book was Rook, who acted as sort of an aide to Jhiaxus (he was last seen reporting to the Liege Maximo himself in issue 12). Had the Gen2 book continued, did you have any additional plans for Rook? SF: Like I say, I really didn't have grand plans beyond issue #12, because we knew reasonably early on that #12 would be the last issue. When I did the recent Gen 2 continuation, Alignment (a prose story, for UK TF convention, Transforce), Rook did not feature, so I guess that answers the question. 1 | 2 | 3 | 4: Current Projects
ASM would like to thank Simon Furman for taking the time to answer these
questions. We would also like to thank The Obscure Transformers Website
(http://www.obscuretf.tk)
for their help with this interview. And be sure to visit It's Walky!
(http://www.itswalky.com)
for daily fun and angst.
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