Schmidt gone from IDW?

DJ_Convoy · Post by **DJ_Convoy** » Mon May 16, 2011 3:45 pm

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/05/16/ ... dw-editor/

Bleeding Cool reports that Andy Schmidt is leaving IDW to work with Hasbro directly. IDW is reportedly looking for a new editor to fill his shoes.

Good news? Maybe, maybe not. It looks like Schmidt could still be involved with the property somehow. I think that Andy does like/have good ideas for TFs, but, ultimately, he just wasn't the guy to handle the comics. But no one else IDW has fielded so far has been the right guy, either, from an editorial standpoint.

I'm worried that, on the one hand, Schmidt might have been the closest thing to an actual TF fan we'll get in an editorial capacity. One the other hand, his sheparding of the property wasn't particularly good.

One possibly bright note - Maybe this finally means no Costa, as he was Andy's hand-picked guy.

Post by **Best First** » Tue May 17, 2011 7:00 am

...not sure, he seems like a stand up guy, but at the same time has presided over stuff like the contiuum book and the ambitous but oh wait ambition doesn't actually excuse it being crap G1.

BUUUT - he has engaged with fans better than anyone else, and has even doe this to the point of being canny about which mods to appoint, which is a lot mreo than anyone else has ever done.

Plus we got LSOTW and James was coming into G1 which may also now be at risk (or may not, total speculation).

I suspect overall it may be a bit of a loss.

DJ_Convoy · Post by **DJ_Convoy** » Tue May 17, 2011 3:25 pm

Yeah- he's a nice guy, but we've had two years of mediocre books. Time for some new blood... but I feel trepidacious as it could somehow get worse...

I had a thought... what if Hasbro is looking to get into publishing? With Andy at the helm? Hmmmmmmm...

I despair at the state of TF comics right now (and laugh at how, now that some things are "coming together" and fans are "getting it," that many sins have been forgiven in some circles). And I despair at things to come.

Can we please just get some comics that are good?

Legion · Post by **Legion** » Tue May 17, 2011 5:56 pm

DJ_Convoy wrote:Time for some new blood... but I feel trepidacious as it could somehow get worse...

It could? Really?! Holy **** I didn't think it could get worse... right now cancellation would be a plus for me.

DJ_Convoy · Post by **DJ_Convoy** » Tue May 17, 2011 6:15 pm

Brother, it could get MUCH worse.

I get the feeling that Andy tries, at least. I (and prolly most of us here, I'd wager) just haven't much liked the results. It could be worse if the guy who said that fans were too obsessed with canon came back on board, or some other gleep who didn't really understand the property came in and mucked stuff up.

TFs as a comic property had a long rest. We got a glimmer of hope with Dreamwave... and we kept holding on... hoping for someone to understand the property and give us the great stories that we deserved. By the end, were they figuring it out? I'll leave that to debate, but we all know what ultimately happened there...

And then IDW came in, getting us off to a slow, if promising, start. Then they decided that things weren't moving quickly enough or they weren't reaching all of the readers that they could, and they started tripping over themselves with a series of books that were contradictory and sometimes, flat out incompetant, seemingly sure that we'd buy anything with "TRANSFORMERS" stamped across the cover. Turns out that we wouldn't and that many of us have been burned once too many times. We can be told that "course changes take time" a million times... but it doesn't matter once you've lost someone. "Come back now, the book's good again!"

I don't know about you, but I'm not willing to sit here for another two years while some guy tries to figure out why we as a fandom are so difficult to please as opposed to simply putting out good stories involving cool characters. It's not as difficult as the current regime (writer and editor) has made it out to be.

I really don't know what would even get me back on board at this point... save Simon returning on #81... or Roberts/Roche taking over full time... even then, in either case, I'd worry that IDW would find a way to louse either of them up.

TL;DR- Of COURSE it can get worse.

Sunyavadin · Post by **Sunyavadin** » Tue May 17, 2011 6:51 pm

It's not rocket science. Rotate Furman and Roche. That's it. simple.

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Tue May 17, 2011 8:57 pm

Best First wrote: BUUUT - he has engaged with fans better than anyone else, and has even doe this to the point of being canny about which mods to appoint, which is a lot mreo than anyone else has ever done.

Plus we got LSOTW and James was coming into G1 which may also now be at risk (or may not, total speculation).

I suspect overall it may be a bit of a loss.

Yeah. That's how I see it too.

Post by **Best First** » Tue May 17, 2011 11:55 pm

yay a and i are agreeing way too much these days

*sulks*

Legion · Post by **Legion** » Wed May 18, 2011 9:55 am

DJ_Convoy wrote:And then IDW came in, getting us off to a slow, if promising, start. Then they decided that things weren't moving quickly enough or they weren't reaching all of the readers that they could, and they started tripping over themselves with a series of books that were contradictory and sometimes, flat out incompetant, seemingly sure that we'd buy anything with "TRANSFORMERS" stamped across the cover. Turns out that we wouldn't and that many of us have been burned once too many times. We can be told that "course changes take time" a million times... but it doesn't matter once you've lost someone. "Come back now, the book's good again!"

This is EXACTLY why I don't think it can get worse.

At the moment we've got a poorly written, half-arsed comic that doesn't pay any respect to it's own continuity/canon. Worse than that, we've got a writer who's admitted to randomly assigned characters to the dialogue he's written, that really shows his level of commitment if you ask me. We've got editorial teams that are seemingly doing nothing about this.

And even worse than that, we've got a Transformers comic that I won't buy. And I've been buying Transformers comics for more than twenty years, so I'll generally buy any old ****...

But not this ****.

New leadership is very urgently required IMHO.

bumblemusprime · Post by **bumblemusprime** » Wed May 18, 2011 3:15 pm

I dunno if I think worse or better. Andy is a classy guy. He respects his creators and backs them. This is bad business but good creativity.

So if we get more of a shark, someone with the Joe Quesada mindset, we'd be better off. We need someone to look at the TF book cynically and and hit all the major selling points - 1) the longtime fans who like Furman 2) the new fans attracted by movies and cartoons 3) the fans who are more into the toys and 4) comic fans looking for good stories.

Basically, we need Furman back in some capacity, either on the main title or on a TF: Prime title. We need more media tie-ins. It was really stupid to not do a War For Cybertron mini. We need good, respectable art that isn't so stylized that it would turn the casual fans off, but is dynamite enough that it will attract real comic fans. EJ's new style, methinks, but scaling back the Mignola feel just a bit. We need, as much as I hate to admit it, to adopt more of the Dreamwave mindset that **** IS GONNA BLOW UP N' ****, YO! Characters need to die more often than every twenty issues (and then come back anyway). Stakes have to be high.

Lastly, we need to have the artists draw the characters as some incarnation of the toy. I mean, "Reveal The Shield" is a **** idea, but Simon has done great things with **** ideas before. Tie it in to the Universe Classics line. Right now if a toy fan picks up the book, they won't be able to get a toy of black-jet Megatron. They won't recognize Don's designs as the toys at all. Why is G1, horned-head Bumblebee a Camaro and not a VW Bug or BMW Mini?

One of the benefits of DW's approach was that they focused on toy characters--the Insecticons storyline was ****, but there are a lot of guys out there who might have bought it because they had Insecticons when they were kids.

I could go on.

Post by **Best First** » Wed May 18, 2011 8:50 pm

ew - don't.

I'd rather have no comic that more DW type bull****.

inflatable dalek · Post by **inflatable dalek** » Fri May 20, 2011 2:48 pm

Good riddance. Though it would have been fun if the announcement of his departure had followed his editorial style and gotten his name wrong, had a "I still function!" quote, and been full of basic spelling errors before the entire official history of IDW was changed so that his replacement had always had the job so as to avoid confusing the empty headed mooks still buying.

Legion · Post by **Legion** » Fri May 20, 2011 4:38 pm

Sunyavadin · Post by **Sunyavadin** » Fri May 20, 2011 5:58 pm

Winnage.

bumblemusprime · Post by **bumblemusprime** » Fri May 27, 2011 3:42 pm

Best First wrote:ew - don't.

I'd rather have no comic that more DW type bull****.

Only the sense of excitement--Dreamwave was good at that. I'm not talking blurry manga art, ****** cartoon ripoff stories, etc.

Marvel had the same thing. Every issue promised some sort of nice action sequence and provided some kind of mind-blowing stuff. Marvel was better at story than Dreamwave, in the same way that eagles are better at flying than slugs, but Dreamwave was good at the hype. Hype sells comics. Hype sold a [composite word including 'f*ck']-ton of Secret Invasion comics and Blackest Night comics and etc.

Post by **Best First** » Fri May 27, 2011 4:39 pm

Secret Invasion is 8,372,958 times better than DW. FACT

And that is not neccessarily a compliment to Skrullfest 2009.

Seriously tho my recollection differs. Unless by excitement you mean creeping dread, which you may well do given the only way you can arouse yourself these days is by running naked through the forest, imaging you are being chased by nightmare cyber monkeys