March Competition - Shane McCarthy Q&A

[griffin]

With the recently released Drift TPB, and the upcoming All Hail Megatron Complete Edition, I've asked writer Shane McCarthy if he'd be interested in answering a few questions from the fans about either of his Transformers stories. He said yes (to be emailed to him) at least at this time... and to make it a bit more fun (and to get fans more involved in an Australian's achievements in Transformers in an official capacity), I suggested that he could select the best question - the person who submitted that question would win a copy of the AHM Complete Edition when it is released. (I will even see if I can get it autographed - but no promises)

So before the end of this month (which gives you almost 2 whole weeks), post here your question about Drift and/or AHM that you want Shane to answer (like plot queries, inspirations, unused/original ideas, etc). Criticism disguised as a question will not be included, and any suspicious questions will be put to the staff to decide if it is valid.

Answers will be posted, if and when they are received after that date. He is too busy to have time to interact on fan forums, so it might take a while to get the answers back from him. (and depending on the number of Qs submitted to him, he may only have time to answer a selection)

(note - this is not a discussion topic about him, his stories or his characters)

[i_amtrunks]

Everyone knows I'm not a massive fan of McCarthy's writing, but there are a few things I'd like to know about:

1: Where did he get the inspiration for the third faction in the Drift miniseries?
2: Did he have any input on the visual designs of the third faction characters, or was it purely the artists choice?
3: Was the Drift miniseries ever originally planned (by him or IDW) to be longer than 4 issues? If so, how many issues was he originally looking at to tell the story?
4: Does McCarthy keep any rights for the Drift character (since he was used in the IDW kids picture book) or when it was created did he have to hand everything over to Hasbro/IDW?
5: What next for McCarthy? Transformers or otherwise.

[UltraMarginal]

Of late we have seen a lot of G1 characters recieve a modern vehicle update to their designs, of particular note to me is the seekers being to my eye an approximation of the F-22 Raptor. I find this particularly cool. Given that you were involved in the design/creation of Drift.

*In your work are you often involved in any way with the final on page appearance of a character?

* While I really like some of the modernisations of the characters especially the Seekers as F-22 Raptors, do you plan to or are you aware of any plans to use the F-35 Lightening II for a character model in the future. I ask this purely because I did some design work on the aircraft and am dying to see it realised as a transformer, especially if it is engineered as well as Drift was in Toy form.

[GoktimusPrime]

Hmmm... I think I already asked all the burning questions I had for him at SupaNova last year (all pertaining to his stories and characters).

Oh, here's one:
Please tell us about your exposure to Transformers prior to working on the comic series.

[Autocon]

so he did ahm?

looking back, would there be any changes he would make to the stories?

Do u have any other character desgins/ideas? If u do could u tell us about them

If u could transform into anything what would it be?

Have u ever thought about beast wars stories and what are your views on this part of the tf universe? Any character ideas for a bw?

If u get tired/bored with a story waht are the ways u remotiveate yourself to complete taht story. Make it less tedesum.

Where do u see drift in 1000 years?


you can reword these better if you like

[Firestorm]

hmmm,

off the top of my head

*do you have any advice for people who want to become comic book writers/artists (yeah i wanna write Transformers comics)

*Before Drift was created did you have a differant idea for the character? (Eg differant name, differant altmode, differant backstory, differant everything)

*Are there any Characters that you'd like to "expand upon" in future series

... yeah that's all i've got

[Sky Shadow]

With the recently released Drift TPB, and the upcoming All Hail Megatron Complete Edition, I've asked writer Shane McCarthy if he'd be interested in answering a few questions from the fans about either of his Transformers stories.

Awesome! I have heaps of questions!

1. Who is your favourite Transformer, and why?
2. If Drift was a style of dance, what would he be?
3. Has your friend 'Hutch' tried his hand at interior comic art? His covers are so amazing that I'd love to see what he can do with a full comic.
4. Could Drift make an energon cube so big that even he couldn't drink it?
5. If you were Megatron, what steps would you take to invade Australia?
6. If Chuck Norris fought Drift, who would win?
7. If you could kill off a Transformer permanently, who would you choose?
8. How much driftwood would Drift drift if Drift could drift driftwood?

Thanks!

[Sky Shadow]

9. I read that you "grew up reading Simon's books and still have those big format TF comics in my back room". What was your favourite Transformers story from Marvel UK?

[SkyWarp91]

10. Would you create a TF character related to your swing dancing school?

[kaiden]

Questions:
1. What do you think about the similarites between TFs Prime's Wheeljack and Drift?

2. What do you think of his nickname Driftjack?

3. Who would win between them?

4. Did you have anything to do with the episode 'Con Job'? or was someone inspired by you?

5. Do you prefer the original mad inventor or this new samurai version?

6. What do you think of Generations Drift? Is there anyone in Hasbro you could 'convince' to mass release Cybertronian Drift?