IDW's Drift: the Novel

[i_amtrunks]

An Amazon listing (http://www.amazon.com/Transformers-Drift-Shane-McCarthy/dp/1600107680/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268016721&sr=1-6) has been posted, giving us these details:

What was it that caused one of the Decepticon's most ruthless soldiers to turn his back on the Decepticon army and what is the ancient secret that lies hidden deep within an alien planet? All this and more as the origin of the newest Autobot, Drift, is finally revealed!

It's a 104 page paperback, set for a November 2010 release.

3 guesses as to who is the author.
If you guessed Furman, Roche, Zander Cannon, or even Budiansky, you guessed wrong, it's none other than celebrated author Shane "I don't read other writers work" McCarthy!

Other than because they like flogging a dead horse, I'd like to know why bother?

[fatbot]

why not? There's enough Drift fan boys out there who would buy the book, hell others would get the book as well. Trust me, it'll sell like hot cakes.

[Gutsman Heavy]

I wouldn't mind it if Drift was a good character as opposed to a 10 year olds' Mary Sue. He just reeks fluffed bad-ass-ism.

'When ever drift isn't in panel, everyone should ask "Where's Drift?"'
- Shane McCarthy (probably)

[SMHFConvoy]

No such thing as a bad character. Just bad writers. I only read the first four issues of AHM and my only other exposure to Drift was in the Roche issue of AHM. He's just a big ol' cliche created by McCarthy to leave his (tiny) mark on the TF universe.

[Sky Shadow]

The most appalling thing about this is that we could have had an 104-page novella about any character from the past 25 years of Transformers.

And we got Drift.

(And surely if anyone wanted to read Gary-Stu fanfic, they could do it for free rather than buy this.)

[kup]

I don't understand why such a character is being given so much attention by Hasbro and why IDW thinks he is so hot - not just McCarthy.

[Lord_Zed]

Kup, you should change your sig, to "Drift it not in Last Stand of The Wreckers because if he was it would be over in 2 pages"

While I enjoy the idea of a Drift toy, because he is for the most part the first new g1 styled character for ages, I wish he was written as something other than "another" ultimate fighter cliche.

We should combine our efforts and conceive our own new TF character to fight Drift, Chuck Norritron. :D


I wouldn't mind it if Drift was a good character as opposed to a 10 year olds' Mary Sue. He just reeks fluffed bad-ass-ism.

'When ever drift isn't in panel, everyone should ask "Where's Drift?"'
- Shane McCarthy (probably)

I'm pretty sure they did ask that question in AHM.

[GoktimusPrime]

ROFL @ Chuck Norritron! :D Nice. :)

Man I can't wait to skip this book.

[kup]

The thing is that the character is not beyond rescue but they keep injecting him full of Poochy cliches making him annoying.

I do agree on the first new G1 character in ages aspect. It's good to see that the universe is still very much alive and going with new characters but Drift...

At least he seems to be getting a decent toy :rolleyes:

[Paulbot]

It's not a "novel", but the trade paperback version of a new Drift miniseries.

http://ryalltime.blogspot.com/2010/03/transformational-drift.html

[Sky Shadow]

It's not a "novel", but the trade paperback version of a new Drift miniseries.

http://ryalltime.blogspot.com/2010/03/transformational-drift.html

I thought that might be the case - I originally thought it might have been Spotlight: Drift plus some of his other appearances put into a TPB, but couldn't work out why Alex Milne was involved. I don't think it changes my reaction though:

"The most appalling thing about this is that we could have had an 104-page novella trade paperback about any character from the past 25 years of Transformers.

And we got Drift."

[i_amtrunks]

What I dont get is that we already have had a spotlight issue for Drift, what else really needs to be said?

[Gutsman Heavy]

what else really needs to be said?

"I have to go now. My planet needs me." Note: Drift died on the way back to his home planet

[Lord_Zed]

Don't forget the signed affidavit confirming he will never return.

[Oilspill]

Geez, lolz at the Drift hate. Really, he was far from overused in AHM so I don't get what all the fuss was about. It's not like he went all Underbase-powered Starscream or anything, I hardly think he's a MarySue nothing-can-stop-him type character.

It seems more like Shane McCarthy hate is channeled at Drift, which I don't think should be the case. I'm definitely looking forward to the toy, and I'll get the TPB too.

Come on, you know you're all gonna buy it as well :D If only to complain about him some more :p

Bring on the flames! heehee

[Gutsman Heavy]

Have you read his spotlight? Its like all the bad fanfics had an orgy and then all got pregnant, and they took the most retarded result, beat it about the head and then released it as Spotlight: Drift

[Oilspill]

Haha, I don't remember it being that bad, but I'm going to have to go re-read it now.

I'm sure there were worse stories in Coda. The Spike one was terrible. Sunstreaker and Bumblebee ones weren't much good either.

[GoktimusPrime]

If there were a TF dictionary and I looked up the word "munchkin," there would be an illustration of Drift there. :p


Come on, you know you're all gonna buy it as well If only to complain about him some more
I would get him, but if he's a cool toy I can overlook the munchkiny character. Or just invent my own version of him when I play with it. ;)

Also, I should say that it _might_ be possible to salvage the Drift character by making him quite different from his IDW comic counterpart. But even if this happens, I think Drift has already created a widespread perception of being an Uber-Munchkin... much like how Wheelie has a perception of being a useless irritation because of the way he was portrayed in the G1 cartoon, despite the fact that he wasn't quite so annoying in the G1 comics, and other sources have portrayed him as being a much cooler lone survivor (e.g.: G1 toy bio, "Wheelie Wild Boy of Quintessa," Spotlight: Wheelie etc.)

Perhaps this Drift novel might try to do this... but I'm not gonna buy it to find out. If I started hearing positive reviews then I'll reconsider.

[griffin]

With the upcoming Drift toy, it's quite possible Hasbro asked IDW to release more stories on the character, but probably didn't realise a Spotlight had already been done.
Comments from writer Shane McCarthy.
http://www.seibertron.com/transformers/news/transformers-writer-shane-mccarthy-blogs-about-idws-next-seriesdrift/18055/

[i_amtrunks]

With the upcoming Drift toy, it's quite possible Hasbro asked IDW to release more stories on the character, but probably didn't realise a Spotlight had already been done.
Comments from writer Shane McCarthy.
http://www.seibertron.com/transformers/news/transformers-writer-shane-mccarthy-blogs-about-idws-next-seriesdrift/18055/

You'd think IDW would be sending their stuff to Hasbro for clearance first or even sending them the final product. Surely Hasbro would have to know Drift already had an issue devoted to himself....

But I do think you are right that Hasbro probably wanted more media with Drift in it.

[griffin]

Hasbro is big enough to not know what each department is doing at any one time. The impression that I get is that IDW deals with the Licensing division to get their approvals, and it would be the marketting department that would have later approached them about promoting Drift once they knew it was coming out as a product (which would have been after the Drift Spotlight was released).

[kup]

http://shortpacked.com/d/20100323.html

[SharkyMcShark]

Never realised that Shane McCarthy was from Perth - my dad saved the article from the paper to show me last night and I looked at the picture and said oh he's the guy that invented Drift, a completely new character they're making a toy out of. To which my pa replied "oh so you've read it then"

[Oilspill]

Yeah, so is Trevor Hutchinson, the guy who does the amazing propaganda-poster-style covers.

I think a few of the Perth Ozformers met the two of them and got stuff signed a few months back.

[Oilspill]

http://shortpacked.com/d/20100323.html

Haha!

[SharkyMcShark]

There are a few good graphic artists from Perth then - the guy that did the original 30 days of night is from here too.

[Oilspill]

Yeah, that's Ben Templesmith, my best mate's brother in law. He's mostly living in the US these days though.