Hasbro checks all artwork done under the official Transformers banner. This stylistic change would unlikely have been approved if it were something the artist cooked up on his own (even somebody as favoured with Hasbro as Don). As I understand, Hasbro has a significant say in the visual style of the comic.

Besides, look at the evidence thus far:

- The vehicle modes of the Autobots (who had a counterpart in the live-action movies) in the G1 Robot Heroes childrens book "I Am Optimus Prime" feature movie-influenced vehicle modes: Bumblebee is a Camaro, Ratchet is not a Japanese minivan ambulance, Prime is an extended-hood truck.

- Episode 2 of Hasbro's flash-animated Universe cartoon features versions of G1 Optimus Prime, Bumblebee and Megatron heavily-influenced by the movie in style and depiction.

- Animated got the arse. Animated was largely created by Hasbro as a sort of backup plan on the off-chance the 2007 movie bombed, hence the polar-opposite style. However, since the 2007 movie was very successful and at the time ROTF was expected to repeat that success (and it has), Animated was no longer compatible with Hasbro's current vision and plans for the franchise.