quote:Originally posted by Peregrinus: Early '80s. 1983, I think. When he was creating all the character studies for G.I. Joe for Marvel/Hasbro, Marvel/Hasbro was also developing the Transformers from the original Japanese properties, and tapped him to -- as I said -- humanize some of the more bizarre TFs. I think he did a pass at all of the first-year TFs. Essentially 25 characters, as the humanoid cassettes and the Decepticon jets share basic body styles. After that, the regular artist(s) on the comic were able to follow his lead for later additions.
--Jonah
Cool. Romita did just about EVERYTHING for Marvel. I dont suppose you have a scan of any of those sketches by any chance? I'd love to see them.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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Go to your local kickass mega comic book shoppe and look for the four-issue "Transformers Universe" miniseries. All of the first-year TFs' drawings are distinctive due to the heavier line style (possibly blown up from the originals). Those are Romita's.
--Jonah
-------------------- "That's what I like about these high school girls, I keep getting older, they stay the same age."
--David "Woody" Wooderson, Dazed and Confused
Registered: Feb 2001
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keen-o. INcidentlly, Dreamwave is doing a "Transformers Universe" with the new art: it's called "More than meets the eye". Purdy kool.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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Just a pity that almost all of the Dreamwave comics rank as "really quite shockingly shite" on the story-meter. And the art isn't all that, either. Sure, Pat Lee is good at robots standing around, but when he attempts any sort of composition of depth, or dynamic movement, things fall appart horrible. And 4 page sequences of robots standing up does not make for a good comic.
Haven't read Furman's new stuff yet though.
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
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Furman's got a little bit of Braga's Syndrome. He's a good storyteller, but hasn't much head for some of the finer technical points and his dialogue sounds "off" compared to both the original comic and the cartoon.
Up until Hasbro announced the new live-action TF movie, I was working on a script updating and expanding "More Than Meets the Eye" -- the original three-part cartoon premiere. Fully half of what I was doing was tightening up the dialogue to make the characters sound a bit more like themselves (using the rest of the animated series as reference), so I got to have a pretty good sense of how most of them spoke. I'm still poking along at it, partly just to see it finished, and also partly in case Tom DeSanto starts having script problems with his movie. *heh*
--Jonah
-------------------- "That's what I like about these high school girls, I keep getting older, they stay the same age."
--David "Woody" Wooderson, Dazed and Confused
Registered: Feb 2001
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"More Than Meets The Eye" is pretty good though. The animation is better than almost every other episode (bar "Call of the Primitives", obviously), and as a series premier, it's certainly much better than the first couple of issues of the cartoon, which are awful. At least, that's what Liam Kavanagh says, and with my British wit and ability to insult people with ease, I certainly have the credentials to back it up.
Registered: Mar 1999
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*shudder* Don't remind me. Some of that stuff was gawdawful, I admit. For the most part, I mean characters who didn't have much screen time in the cartoon.
--Jonah
-------------------- "That's what I like about these high school girls, I keep getting older, they stay the same age."
--David "Woody" Wooderson, Dazed and Confused
Registered: Feb 2001
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Some of the Dreamwave dialogue is pretty bad though. I mean, can you see either the Cartoon, Furman, or even Budiansky versions of Prime saying "Welcome back, boys"?
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
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I dunno. At least the X-Men thought about the situation when they were bringing everyone up to speed. They didn't annouce it, along with their C.V.s.
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
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"Your armor's nothin' to my adamantium claws!" "Your hollow bones will help you ride these winds." "You know I can't touch my skin to yours without absorbing your psyche and powers." "I just have to fine-tune my optic blast enough to snap your shackles without hitting your arms."
I know they tended toward heavy exposition during the Claremont and Lee eras. But they lost me about three, four years ago between the new art styles and the near-doubling of titles. I had no problem when there were just four good X-books (Uncanny X-Men, X-Factor, New Mutants, and Excalibur). I had no problem when they added the second X-Men title. But somewhere in 1999, it just got too damned unwieldy.
--Jonah
--Jonah
-------------------- "That's what I like about these high school girls, I keep getting older, they stay the same age."
--David "Woody" Wooderson, Dazed and Confused
Registered: Feb 2001
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