Mike Costa Interview at CBR

Post by **Best First** » Sat Sep 19, 2009 9:32 am

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page ... e&id=22988

Still not a fan of the the new faces - IDW don't seem to be able to do a reboot without an accompanying unneccessary visual change - last time they ditched half the fabulous EJ modes, this time we get movieface(TM - Best First 2009).

On the plus side Ratchet seems to be kicking TC in the nuts.

And now having made superficial reactions to the art i shall read the interview.

Mr_Tigg · Post by **Mr_Tigg** » Sat Sep 19, 2009 5:39 pm

I'm not sure what to make of the new style. You can see the movie-verse influence, and IMO maybe it's what the TFs in the movies should have looked like. Having said that I don't think it will work for the comics - the audience is smaller and not many TF comic collectors seem to like the movie aesthetic.

Is it another daft IDW creative decision? Does IDW stand for 'Idiotic Decisions Weekly'? Or is it Hasbro's influence?

The thing is I didn't like the animated aesthetic either at first, but it grew on me with time, and now I love it, so maybe Don's new style will grow on me as well? I'm glad they changed the Seeker designs at least - couldn't stand them all looking like toys in AHM.

On Costa, I'm not sold - didn't think much of his Starscream story, but it was only a few pages, so maybe he'll do better on bigger issues. However I think he deserves at least 3-6 issues to see if he's up to the job. If not then, please IDW, hand the batton to Roche or back to Furman...

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Sat Sep 19, 2009 10:29 pm

If Costa doesn't work out, Roche is the guy.

He's proved it in both the art and story departments.

But I have a good feeling about Costa.

bumblemusprime · Post by **bumblemusprime** » Sun Sep 20, 2009 3:07 am

See, most people don't care to differentiate between 'good giant robots' and 'bad giant robots.' All they saw were giant robots that almost totally destroyed the planet.

Bob Budiansky? Is that you?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Sep 20, 2009 12:44 pm

Costa was coy about revealing further details of the ongoing's first arc. “I don't want to give too much away, but I will say that the situation the Autobots find themselves in is one they've never experienced before,” the writer teased. "They really don't know how to handle it and morale is at an all-time low, which leads to some serious conflicts, really bad decisions, and one of them doing something that nobody, fellow Autobots and readers included, is going to believe."

Isn't this the sort of thing McCarthy said about AHM?

Sunyavadin · Post by **Sunyavadin** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 1:06 am

Eh. Almost certain I'm ditching this and sticking to Roche's story instead...

Post by **Best First** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 7:51 am

Rebis wrote:
Costa was coy about revealing further details of the ongoing's first arc. “I don't want to give too much away, but I will say that the situation the Autobots find themselves in is one they've never experienced before,” the writer teased. "They really don't know how to handle it and morale is at an all-time low, which leads to some serious conflicts, really bad decisions, and one of them doing something that nobody, fellow Autobots and readers included, is going to believe."
Isn't this the sort of thing McCarthy said about AHM?

I can't stand this kind of hyperbole - really, no one will believe it? no one? at all? ever?

Doesn't sound like the grounds for a very convincing story does it?

Plus now the expectations are set that someone has to do something so far out that it is unlikley to live up to the above statement.

Stoopid.

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 2:13 pm

Best First wrote:
Rebis wrote:
Costa was coy about revealing further details of the ongoing's first arc. “I don't want to give too much away, but I will say that the situation the Autobots find themselves in is one they've never experienced before,” the writer teased. "They really don't know how to handle it and morale is at an all-time low, which leads to some serious conflicts, really bad decisions, and one of them doing something that nobody, fellow Autobots and readers included, is going to believe."
Isn't this the sort of thing McCarthy said about AHM?
I can't stand this kind of hyperbole - really, no one will believe it? no one? at all? ever?

Doesn't sound like the grounds for a very convincing story does it?

Plus now the expectations are set that someone has to do something so far out that it is unlikley to live up to the above statement.

Stoopid.

Agree. Do they really think fans will fall for that, after M:O? After AHM?

I'm still stoked though, not because of this interview, but because I was impressed with Costa's Starscream story (and the success of G.I.Joe Cobra). Seems like he's got the goods. He's a fan with a plan. With Shane, there was just no telling.

But you know the saying. As George Bush so eloquently put it "Fool me once, shame on...you....fool me twice.....ya fool me, ya can't fool me again"

Post by **Best First** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 7:09 pm

Unless Optimus Prime bums Megatron, in which case they have a point

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 1:35 am

Yep, here it is, my response to IDW:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKgPY1ad ... re=related

Scraplet · Post by **Scraplet** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 11:11 pm

I can't think of any credible reason why the Prime and the core Autobots would be sculking around earth three years later. A few years previous it was an insignificant nowhere, one of countless similar battle fronts. The only thing that made it significant was that Megatron turned up. A prison raid was enough for the Autobots to abandon it before!

And why are the Decepticons gone? I thought they had just about conquored the galaxy. Their leader is incapacitated, that does not make them all vanish, or undo their success!

This is gonna be pants, isn't it? The three year gap will just open up more AHM-style plot holes and dangling threads.

On the positive, I like the artwork, and the new-style Don faces. It's like he has tried to keep their classic facial characteristics, while illustrating how a metallic face could actually be animated. I think that's neat!

Jack Cade · Post by **Jack Cade** » Mon Oct 12, 2009 6:10 pm

I'm getting an increasingly bad feeling about this, most of which I can pin on the apparent decision to let the artists draw the characters completely differently in every series. In response to the various negative responses to Don's faces - which have been mostly perfectly reasonable, with the odd bout of hysteria - someone (can't recall if Schmidt or Ryall or whoever) has come out and said that they're adopting a policy of letting the artists draw the Transformers in their own style, essentially not interfering or guiding them.

Now, the way the word 'style' is brandished there leads me to think that IDW genuinely can't tell the difference between style and design. Either that, or they do and they're just saying, "F*ck it. Artistic license."

Then, of course, there's all this over-familiar hype, which to me, overall, just feels lazy, autopilot. I understand that they can't reveal much now, but that doesn't stop it all having the 'band say their new album is best yet' feel.

I have no idea what's going on in their offices, but the thought is dawning on me that even if IDW do accept that AHM was a bit of a debacle, someone is taking all the wrong lessons from it.

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Mon Oct 12, 2009 7:27 pm

Go with Roche. Simply strategy is all else fails.

This is it, though.

If they don't deliver here, then it's going to flatline. Resusitation won't an option.

Post by **Best First** » Mon Oct 12, 2009 8:12 pm

Yaya wrote:Resusitation won't an option.

Aw man, that's the 5th part in Furman's saga sunk.

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Mon Oct 12, 2009 9:39 pm

And the 6th part, Masturbation, won't see the light of day either.

Though maybe that's not such a bad thing.