Chris Ryall (Publisher & Editor-in-Chief of IDW) radio interview

[bassbot]

Hey there gang,
just noticed on the IDW forums that Chris Ryall recently did an interview on a US radio station which has some tidbits of info for us on Transformers: courtesy of "Commander Shockwav"

News from the interview:

1. Chris met with Hasbro recently, and informs us the next three years of story has been plotted out, and he's more excited by what's in store for the Transformers than he was when IDW acquired the license.

2. IDW possible looking into reprinting TF manga.

3. One of the reasons they went after E.J. was because of the desire to do something with a manga flavor.

4. The second half of AHM will tie in much more with Simon's story than the first half.

5. Couldn't understand the negativity about the Drift pic on his blog. Chalked it up to TF fans not liking change.

[GoktimusPrime]

1. Chris met with Hasbro recently, and informs us the next three years of story has been plotted out, and he's more excited by what's in store for the Transformers than he was when IDW acquired the license.

So there should be no excuse for AHM to have continuity conflicts with the rest of the IDW-verse then. (-_-) I'm not judging AHM one way or the other until it's finished and the rest of the IDW-verse "catches up" with events in AHM... time will tell.

2. IDW possible looking into reprinting TF manga.

I got excited for a moment in thinking that actual Japanese TF manga would be translated into English and printed for the Anglophone market... but they're talking about regular TF comics reprinted in the smaller "manga" TPB format, aren't they?

3. One of the reasons they went after E.J. was because of the desire to do something with a manga flavour.

It was a good choice. Su's art is the closest of all the recent Canadian and American artists since 2002 who can do manga-style art. Guidi comes close too. The others don't... I've always believed that artists should always stick with whatever style of art best suits their own style - if they're more familiar drawing Western style comics, then stick with that style. That's one thing I didn't like with Dreamwave... too many Westerners trying too hard to make their art look Japanese and not quite succeeding. :/

*shudder*

4. The second half of AHM will tie in much more with Simon's story than the first half.

I hope this will be true.

5. Couldn't understand the negativity about the Drift pic on his blog. Chalked it up to TF fans not liking change.

Yeah, I would agree with that sentiment. Although most TFs who appear in cartoons and comics are based on action figures, we've had a long history of TFs who appeared in the cartoon and comics and never received action figures for them.
e.g.:
+ The Man of Iron
+ Xaaron
+ Alpha Trion*
+ Arcee (G1)
+ Elita-One (G1)
+ Moonracer (G1)
+ Firestar (G1)
+ Chromia (G1)
+ Beta
+ Clipper
+ Devcon
+ Hauler*
+ Dion*
+ Straxus
+ Trannis
+ Borebit
+ Corkscrew
+ The Last Autobot (Vector Prime is a good homage though)
+ Prima
+ Prime Nova
+ Sentinel Prime (G1)
+ Crosscut (Decepticon)
+ Ferak
+ Wipe-Out
+ Boltax
+ Rotorbolt
+ Telus
+ Spanner (that would be one cool toy )
+ Wheezel
+ Scrounge
+ Chameleon
+ Flattop (Autobot)
+ Fusion
+ Horsepower
+ Impactor
+ Nautilus
+ Navigator
+ Nightstalker
+ Overlord (Autobot)
+ Playback
+ Rack 'N' Ruin
+ Flame (G1 Autobot; this one, not this one)
+ The Student
+ Subsea
+ Tomaandi
+ Traachon
+ Warmonger
+ Earthquake
+ Fang
+ High Council
+ Macabre
+ Tornado (G1 Decepticon; this one, not this one ("G1.5"))
+ Trannis
+ Triton
+ Octus
+ Legonis
+ Seizer
+ Maccadam
+ Jhiaxus**
+ Liege Maximo
+ Mindset
+ Rook
+ Death Cobra
+ Jack
+ Abel
+ Great Convoy (Convoy Council)
+ Star Upper
+ Signal Lancer
+ Mixmaster (Animated)
+ Scrapper (Animated)
...etc. etc.

So given this extensive history, I don't see why IDW should cop all this flak for introducing yet another character who's appearing in the comics that we don't have a toy for (yet).

-----------------
*Although they did receive toys approx. twenty years later, at the time they appeared there were no toys for these characters
**The RiD Jhiaxus toy looks nothing like the original G2 character.

[FFN]

Because Drift sounds like he has the potential to be kinda lame. Plus IDW seems to be insulated from the criticism AHM and McCarthy have received outside of their own forums.

People pretty much would have preferred it if AHM was released as an alternate universe tale as originally planned. Even if people weren't thrilled with the then-current story, they like it less when something they've been putting time and money into for the past 2 and a half years is jerked around by the publisher in a haphazard and slipshod fashion.

Not only is that disrespectful to your employees, that is disrespectful to your loyal customers. Yeah, I don't care if comic publishers do this all the time.

[GoktimusPrime]

Because Drift sounds like he has the potential to be kinda lame.

*shrug* I've only seen Drift on some cover shots and as a bystander in the last issue of AHM. He hasn't really done anything yet to make him cool or uncool... so far he's just another "red shirt." I've been avoiding spoilers about this character but considering that he has covers dedicated to him, one would expect something significant from him... covers shouldn't be dedicated to mooks. Here's hoping he won't be a mook.

Not only is that disrespectful to your employees, that is disrespectful to your loyal customers. Yeah, I don't care if comic publishers do this all the time.

I would agree with that sentiment.

[loophole]

I got excited for a moment in thinking that actual Japanese TF manga would be translated into English and printed for the Anglophone market...

that would be sweet if they did that!! otherwise i might actually have to learn another langauge just so i can read all of the TF verse

[FFN]

Aren't those mangas pretty kiddish and awful by our standards? Unintentional comedy, if you will.

[GoktimusPrime]

Pretty much. But they have some pretty wicked artwork.