Iván's Gallery: Super Megatron

After a week off due to computer problems, Iván is back with a new gallery entry. This one is actually fairly near to my heart - it was part of a proposal for a cover to The Complete Ark. Alas, it didn't work out that way, but I still think it's a neat drawing. Presenting for the first time: Super Megatron! Here's what the artist has to say about it:

The illustration was divided into four squares, this was the first of four, but is incomplete.

Lack all the background and the picture I thought painting with oils, such as illustrations of the eighties, also had effects of explosions, lightning, fire, all very realistic.

So this drawing in ink does not have much to do with what would be the end result.

In it we can see Super megatron, the Japanese character which is not much used...

The AllSpark Almanac foreshadowing, part deux

8 more days! Exciting stuff! I figured I'd upload a few more of the sketches behind some of the new artwork specifically created for this book.

I'm also including an actual page from the book, so you can see what some of the finished products will look like. For those of you who attended the IDW Panel at BotCon, this is old news, but I can't give away TOO much.

I'll also take the opportunity to announce a book signing / launch party on Saturday, August 22nd at 2:00 pm at the Emerald Knight comic book shop in Burbank, California. [They're located at 4116 W. Burbank Blvd. Burbank, CA 91505. (818) 588-3631.] It'll be me, Bill and Derrick Wyatt, so I hope to see lots of LA based Transfans there.

Next week I'll do the third and final teaser segment. If there's anything in particular you'd like to see teased, let me know.

The Allspark Almanac  goes on sale on Wednesday, 8/19 at fine bookstores everywhere, though your LCS may be your best bet to get it on that day. It's also available for preorder on Amazon.com.

Review: War of the Worlds, the series ep 4

Episode 4 of War of the Worlds, the series is titled A Multitude of Idols. In it, the aliens attempt to secure what they need to revive massive numbers of their sleeping brethren; radioactive waste to keep the bacteria at bay, a secure location, and many human bodies. They largely succeed at all three aspects.

The episode opens with a reporter, clandestinely filming at a toxic waste producing plant of some sort. Trucks, loaded with radioactive waste that will be hot for a thousand centuries, are rolling over 800 miles to a storage facility. She sees them as accidents waiting to happen, and follows two of the trucks to a rest stop, where she surreptitiously interviews the drivers. After she leaves them, she just barely observes them getting absorbed by aliens. Her camera catches just enough, from between two trucks, to convince her that SOMETHING strange has happened.

Our team, meanwhile, has been alerted to possible alien activities thanks to the mutilated body of a federal employee. They know that the aliens have access to a list of radioactive waste hauling, which along with some intercepted transmissions between the reporter and her editor lets them put two and two together. There's a very silly bit where Blackwood and Ironhorse, who are rapidly emerging as the real stars of the show, pretend to be interested in hiring her to do a government documentary of some sort. She hands over her tape as an audition, and they drive off. Naturally, this arouses her suspicion even more.

Reporter and Blackwood Team both hit on the idea of locating the trucks by using the numbers painted on the roofs of the trailers. (Small problem with that - we see a clear shot of the trucks from above and there are no numbers. Oops.) The reporter uses her network contacts, the Blackwood Team hacks into government databases for satellite imagery, much to Ironhorse's chagrin. This leads both to Beeton.

Beeton - a town abandoned in the 60's when improperly stored nuclear waste seeped into the water supply. It's the perfect breeding ground for aliens - off the beaten path (yuk yuk), abandoned, and with high levels of ambient radiation. The aliens hijack a few church picnics and get plenty of bodies, so by the time the reporter and the Blackwood team independently arrive, there are aliens (looking like suburbanites) everywhere. The reporter soon falls prey to the sickly looking truckers she interviewed before, but Harrison and Suzanne manage to avoid detection ... somehow. They actually buy ice cream from an alien vendor, which should have been a big tip off right there. Then, despite the super-high levels of radiation everywhere, Suzanne actually eats the cone. "I really shouldn't," she says, presumably referring to the calories and not the toxic levels of radiation all about them.

Blackwood, eventually, realizes that a town that's supposed to be abandoned plus high rads everywhere equals an alien town. His insight is confirmed when a preacher walks around to everyone intoning, "to life immortal," though he has to elbow Dr. McCullough to get her to say it back. Again, the aliens don't realize humans are among them quite yet. Ironhorse arrives in his civvies, chucks a tomahawk (yes, you read me right, he chucks a tomahawk) into the forehead of an alien guard. The team then sneaks in and observes aliens liberating their slumbering comrades from barrels, shocking innocent people into submission and then feeding them to the newly revived sidereal monsters. They duck out in horror and debate the best course of action for a moment until they get chased by an angry mob of aliens. Off they drive.

The team comes back with a full compliment of soldiers. Tanks, jeeps, troop transports, and armed men storm the town, but it's abandoned. The aliens have moved on. It's a major defeat for the team, and they can't afford many more of those. The now alien reporter, meanwhile, comments on rumors of 'alien activity' by informing the public that it was just military manoevers, mockingly noting that no aliens have come forward to comment.

The good: One of the Advocacy, while debating, expresses a longing to see their homeworld one last time, prompting a sharp rejoinder that Earth is their new home and that their homeworld is even now entering its death rattle. It then apologies for its lapse. I like this level of characterization.

The tanks! It makes sense that, in a conflict like this, there would be the occasional military strike. Glad to see it.

The tuning fork. Harrison Blackwood, for the very first time, employs a tuning fork memory recall technique. It's a good visual and fits with his quirky nature, and we'll see it again.

The ending. A nice, dark, down ending. The humans got away with their lives ... but that's about it. The aliens revived over a thousand of their species and sent them out into the world in new bodies.

The bad: McCullough's subplot about not adapting well to Blackwood's freakish working style doesn't work. She just comes across as petulant, which is impressive because HE'S the one being unreasonable.

Trucks with no numbers on the trailers. If you're gonna make a big deal out of something, it should actually be there. Or, at the very least, don't show the trucks from above.

An advocate, a member of the super-intelligent alien leadership, says "nuke-u-lar" ... grrrrrr.

Hacking into the federal databases. Why bother if the team is working for the government. The reasons why the team didn't get access in the first place were not compelling, so this bit felt tacked on.

Aliens not realizing that there are humans among them. Aliens selling ice cream. Humans eating irradiated ice cream. I can go on. Long complaint short, the humans should have been instantly recognized and assimilated. The actions of the humans once they figure it out weren't much smarter. All told, smacked of bad writing.

The ugly: Let's go with the mutilated federal employee. Though, he was so annoying in his 45 or so seconds on screen that it's hard to be sympathetic for him.

Overall, a relatively weak episode. Not a very smart plot; at least, not once the team gets to Beeton. Less gore than usual, probably saving money for the army to show up. A good ending, but it doesn't salvage a bad lead-up.  War of the Worlds - The Complete First Season remains available for order on DVD.

Review: Marvel G1 #28: Mechanical Difficulties!

Mechanical Difficulties! is the twenty-eighth issue of the US G1 Marvel Transformers comic. The creative lineup is largely unchanged from the prior issues; script by Bob Budiansky, pencils by Don Perlin, inks by Akin and Garvey, colors by Nel Yomtov and letters by Janice Chiang. The cover was by one of the inkers, Ian Akin.

The cover is quite nice. The Mechanic uses his power booster rod to slam a tree into Blaster and Goldbug, knocking them off their feet. There is a lot of action in the postures of the Autobots, though the anatomy is a bit off. It's worth it for the sense of motion that he imparts, though. You can really feel the Autobots getting slammed here. "The Mechanic strikes again ... and the Autobots strike out!" it promises us, which, as it turns out, is more or less what happens. Kudos for accuracy here.

The issue opens with a splash page of the Portland International Airport. The Mechanic is using the stolen power booster rod to literally walk off with their radar. The inking and coloring are used to great effect, with a plane landing in the distance and everything in shadows. The control tower and the moon are two spots of light against the blue sky and black foreground. Chiang has fun with the sound effect as he RRRIPPs off the radar. Naturally, the good folks of airport security aren't too happy about someone absconding with a big piece of their hardware, though they prove helpless against his Cybertronian weaponry.

Miles away, Goldbug and Blaster are just entering their third day of a stakeout of the Mechanic's garage. Grimlock wants all Autobot hardware returned, though Blaster doesn't think highly of their new leader's leadership ability. Of course, Blaster voted for Grimlock, but maybe he's starting to regret that decision. Some human punks hear Blaster and decide that he's too good a boombox for the heap o' junk he's inside. Goldbug drives off, rather than take a rock through the window, prompting the punks to run off ... straight into the arms of the Portland P.D. Blaster predicts an angry reaction from their commander, and he's right. Grimlock gets so furious that he crushes two of the prospective crowns he's been trying out. "WHY YOU NOT DESTROY HUMANS?!" he asks when he found out why they abandoned their mission. Still, Wheeljack is working on a high-tech solution to their missing gear, so he tells them to await new orders. Our first hint of Grimlock's command style seems to have backtracked from the lessons the Dinobot learned (or claimed to have learned) at the end of the last issue. His crown is a quick visual shorthand that the Democratic consensus-building days of Optimus Prime are well and truly over. His willingness to 'destroy' humans who get in his way is a huge departure to Optimus Prime's bizarrely pathological need to protect them at all costs. I can't help but feel that there should be a happy medium in there somewhere.

The Autobots aren't the only ones getting new orders about the Mechanic. Detective Greco was also on the trail of this newly minted supervillain. Though he's dismissive of the punk's claims of cars driving off themselves, his boss puts two and two together and deduces that the new transforming robots may be working with the Mechanic. Greco is ordered to bring in the robots if they show up, even before the Mechanic is apprehended. It's actually a clever deduction, and not far from the truth.

After a quick peek at Mechanic's operation, the Autobot's desire to capture the Mechanic('s implements) intersects with a P.P.D. plan to bring the criminal in. The P.P.D. has let it be known that a supercomputer is being shipped near the Mechanic's know areas of operation, even as the Autobots track the power booster rod to an isolated bit of Oregonian highway. When they see him ambush the truck, they move to apprehend him, but the police show up and start to fire ... on the Autobots. The Mechanic wastes no time in getting away as human and robot law enforcement get in each others way.

The Autobots and the P.P.D. independently track the Mechanic back to his lair, and each side gets ready to storm in. Goldbug, though, has discovered that the Mechanic has modified the cars of many local mobsters into remote-controlled supercars, complete with lasers and other heavy artillery. Blaster realizes that the humans are going to get slaughtered, and so reveals himself to them. Despite orders for both sides to destroy the other, they decide to work together for their common goal. This is, of course, the true theme of the issue; putting aside differences despite what those above you are telling you about who is and isn't your enemy.

Unfortunately for us, the readers, the 'plan' that they come up with apparently involves Greco walking in the front door, holding a radio and dancing, then pulling a badge. I have no idea what this was intended to accomplish, but when he turns off the music, the police swarm in. Blaster uses his electro-scrambler gun to make sure the supercars are ineffectual in battle, which results in them firing at random. This seems like a pretty terrible plan, but apparently nobody gets seriously hurt. Blaster saves some cops from the Mechanic, who takes advantage of the confusion to flee (with all his special gear.) Goldbug gets caught by an electro-magnet, but Greco saves him and captures the Mechanic's #2 man, Juan. Perlin does a good job with his humans - doesn't Greco look tough here?

And so, the P.P.D. has managed to capture some of the most wanted criminals in the country and shut down the Mechanic's operation. Unfortunately, the big man himself got away. This is especially bad news for Goldbug and Blaster, who face the prospect of 'punishment' from Grimlock for their failure. Blaster asks which way back to the Ark, and Goldbug replies that it's to the east. His response is short, but telling. "Let's go west."

It's a solid issue, well constructed. Greco's situation parallels that of Blaster, with an intransigent boss who's orders are getting in the way of getting the job done. We learn a lot about Grimlock's leadership, both from his words and from the visuals. In addition to things like the crown, his physically and verbally violent outbursts are setting the tone of his reign. Perlin's art shows off Grimlock's body language nicely here. It's also telling that his first mission has nothing to do with the Decepticons, but with a human who's humiliated the Autobots in the past. One gets the sense that he's putting his house in order before moving on to bigger stuff. This sense will be reinforced as time goes on.

This is the second and final appearance of the Mechanic. In a way it's a shame, it would have made a good trilogy for him to show up later. I suppose he's still out there, somewhere, planning human crimes and not winding up on the Autobot's radar. His crippling fear of the police is less evident here, though he does quickly flee in both instances once they show up.

Next issue, we're promised the Triple Changers, though they're infected with the deadly Scraplets! Since this is 1986, the Triple Changers could be Autobots, Decepticons, or both, so we don't know how to feel about them being infected. In any event, it doesn't sound like it'll be a typical Autobot vs Decepticon slugfest if there is a disease involved. Intriguing. Mechanical Difficulties! is available for sale from IDW Publishing as part of  Classic Transformers Volume 2.

Review: Green Lantern - First Flight

I got my copy of Green Lantern - First Flight today and I'm fairly impressed. I'm going to give a brief review. Don't worry too much about spoilers - I won't give away anything that anyone familiar with the basic Green Lantern story won't already know.

First Flight stars Christopher Meloni of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit fame as the eponymous character. He does a good job channeling the inner cop that is part and parcel with being in the Corps. Still, I kept hearing him as Detective Stabler, more my own problem than his. Little time is wasted on his origin - Abin Sur crashes within a few minutes of the start, and from there Hal Jordon is quickly pulled into the world of the Guardians and their chief agent, Sinestro.

Sinestro, glibly played by Victor Garber, does a passably good job of presenting his case. For those familiar with the Dungeons and Dragons alignment system, he's a classic Lawful Evil villain, with the emphasis more on the Lawful than the evil. He finds the Guardians methods ineffectual and short sighted, and longs to be in control of pretty much the entire universe. He initially advocates strongly for Hal's membership in the Corps because he's heard that humans are distrustful of authority.

Many other Lanterns make an appearance. Boodikka (Tricia Helfer, BSG's sexy Number Six) becomes Hal's confident on the team. Michael Madsen's Kilowog isn't quite as gruff as I'd like him, but gets the job done. We get to see Ch'p, Tomar Re, Arisa and lots more. The character designs tend towards the modern D.C. style, rather than the Bruce Timm style that JLU, Batman: TAS and Superman: TAS have employed. It gives the story a more serious tone, which is backed up by a surprisingly high level of violence. I guarantee you that the ultimate fate of quite a few characters will take you by surprise.

Green Lantern - First Flight is an exciting adventure with great pacing, strong performances, beautiful animation and some nice nods to longterm fans. Whether you're a super-hero expert or just a casual fan, you'll find plenty to enjoy. Highly recommended.

The AllSpark Almanac foreshadowing

It's almost time! The Allspark Almanac (preorder it today!)  comes out this month! It's my most ambitious work to date, so I'm quite excited to see it out.

Unlike my previous works, this one contains quite a bit of brand new artwork. Most of that is from my intrepid partner, Bill Forster. I thought I'd tease with a few pieces from the book each week until it comes out. (I'm still not quite sure when that will be, but hopefully I'll find out soon.)

There are three classes of images we'll be teasing with - early sketches and other non-finalized pieces; completed artwork; and finished excerpts from the book, but taken out of context so as to preserve a little mystery.

Let me know what you think! Transformers: The AllSpark Almanac is available for pre-order now, or at your local comic book shop on a Wednesday in the not-too-distant future!

(If you live in the LA region, I've got two extra pairs of tickets to a Thursday screening of the G.I. Joe movie. It's in Arcadia at 7:30, but it's first-come, first-serve so you'll need to get there early. If you're interested, send me an email.)

UPDATE: I've learned that the book will be coming out Wednesday, 8/19! That means two more sets of teaser images. I'll see if I can't get some more fun ones.

Review: War of the Worlds, the series ep 3

The third episode of War of the Worlds, the series is titled Thy Kingdom Come. It features an attempt by the aliens to secure more of their brethren and reinforce their numbers, as well as an awesome special guest star.

Four aliens (yes four, not three, which is unusual for them) have appropriated the bodies of hunters and are making their way through Montana. They stop to call home with a makeshift device connected to their car engine by jumper cables. By using a local satellite dish, they are able to contact the nuclear testing facility in Nevada which houses the Advocacy. After they receive a response, they jabber excitedly in their unsubtitled native tongue. All this activity seems to have repercussions though, when an aging redhead in a far away room starts to freak out and call for Harrison.

Harrison, meanwhile, is taking Ironhorse to meet his secret contact. Blackwood gently ribs Ironhorse, who mostly keeps his cool and agrees to keep the contact out of official reports. We arrive at a mental institution and find that the contact is none other than Sylvia van Buren! Ann Robinson reprises her role here, though she's a far cry from Dr. Forrester's love interest. Repeated exposure to alien tissue and electroshock therapy has driven her a little mad, but she has a connection to both the aliens and natural phenomena like earthquakes and volcanoes. Harrison is tender with her, while Ironhorse treats her as a wounded veteran of a prior war. She directs the team to Montana, which dovetails with transmissions that Norton has intercepted. Off they go to Wolf Jaw, Montana - Indian country. "Great," quips Ironhorse awkwardly, "first the white man, now aliens."

The aliens run into difficulty - their car has broken down, and their radiation burns are becoming quite noticeable. The advocacy directs them to find new bodies and a new mode of transportation. If the soldier aliens really needed to be told this, then it's no wonder the Advocacy is worried about what would happen without them. They eventually flag down a prison bus, improbably transporting prisoners to Canada for a hockey match. The guard decides to give them a ride, at least as far as the border.

Blackwood and Ironhorse speak to the authorities in Wolf Jaw. Though the local sherrif is skeptical about terrorists, when the team mentions radio transmissions he produces a video tape of the game from the night before. There is a strange pattern overlaying the images. Blackwood hops a flight back to Sylvia with the tape, this time bringing McCullough along. Unlike Ironhorse, she thinks Sylvia's mental state precludes usefulness, though she gives them the key to unlocking the transmission. It's a map of Canada, as seen from space.

The prison bus arrives at the border, and the guards inform the "hunters" that this is the end of the line for them. The aliens, apparently possessing almost no judgment, decide to appropriate the bodies of prisoners to proceed. As the prisoners are allowed to commingle freely and unsupervised with civilians in the bathroom, this proves easy. Soon a puddle of goo is all that's left of the hunters, as four prisoners (one with a large briefcase under his jacket - and since when do prisoner's have jackets?) board the bus. Terrible plan salvaged by bad writing. When they arrive at the site of the match, the aliens attempt to just walk away, though of course the prison guards won't let them. They're forced to play hockey, which in a confusing series of events winds up with one of the aliens ripping off the arms of one of the opposing team members. The guards shoot him dead as the other three aliens, um, skate off. News of the incident reaches the team, who are consistently one step behind their adversaries.


The aliens then appropriate the bodies of a nice family of American tourists. While little Bobby washes his hands in the bathroom, his mom, dad and grandma are all appropriated. "Do you take credit cards," asks Dad of an alien. "We take everything," he responds. When Bobby comes out, his family starts acting weird, speaking in tongues and saying things like, "to life immortal." Bobby realizes that something is very wrong, and after attracting the attention of some nuns in a passing car holds up a sign saying "help me," though the nuns seem more amused than concerned. One fun touch was seeing Bobby play with some Star Trek: The Next Generation action figures. It was a nice way for executive producer Greg Strangis to acknowledge his year with that program.

By nightfall, the aliens have reached the gates of the military complex holding the bodies of hibernating aliens. Playing the part of stupid tourists, they overwhelm the guards and drive on through. They wade into a lake, under which the barrels are stored. Bobby takes the chance to bolt and summon help. Our team, on the other hand, drives up the same road and gets taken into custody by the Canadian army. This is especially problematic as the soldiers that Bobby asked for help from start getting absorbed by newly awakened aliens. Fortunately, Blackwood manages to hypnotize a guard and the team heads down to the lake. Realizing what they're seeing, Ironhorse uses some explosives to drop some power lines into the lake, killing most of the newly revived aliens. Not all, though. Some have gotten away.

The Good: Holy crap! They got Ann Robinson back! This is utterly awesome. Martin does a good job playing her surrogate son, and Chaves' portrayal of Ironhorse's reverence for her is touching. I expected more from Dr. McCullough, though.

Mixed endings. Sure, the aliens were stopped, but a lot of them got away too. Neither side gets a free pass in this show.

Indifferent (or at least oblivious) nuns - very dark.

Alien technology. I love the idea of them using everyday items as parts of their bizarre contraptions, like the blender-keyboard that the mom/alien used.


The Bad: The whole prison hockey idea was fatally flawed from inception. It probably grew out of "hey, hockey is violent, let's make the aliens play hockey" but it's ludicrous to think that a prison bus would take on hitch hikers, that prisoners would be allowed to mingle about at the US / Canadian border unsupervised, or that the aliens would be daft enough to think that prisoners would make good host bodies.

Missed opportunities. Originally, little Bobby was to be a running gag in the series, showing up from time to time in the back seat of an alien-filled car. This would coincide with what would today be considered a viral marketing campaign, called "Save Little Bobby." Alas, Paramount objected, so this is the last time we'd see the little scamp. Obviously the idea of the aliens dragging along a little kid is pretty preposterous; why not kill him? Or at least abandon him? But I'm willing to overlook that because the image of some poor kid being shuttled as an unwilling passenger from alien mission to alien mission is pretty damn amusing.

Hypnosis. Ugh. I've studied hypnosis and while some parts of the induction were legit, when Blackwood started to coo about how the guard was "getting sleeeeeeeepy" it just became painful.

The Ugly: Gonna have to go with the whole arm-ripping scene.

Overall, a very typical War of the Worlds episode. Some gore, some bad writing, some clever ideas and some nicely dark humor.  War of the Worlds - The Complete First Season is readily available for sale on DVD.