Interviews (2004-2007)

Marcelo Matere

Brazilian artist Marcelo Matere has a bright future ahead of him. He has a plethora of Transformers box art and profile books on his resume but he's also notching up some essential work on IDW's ever-popular Spotlight series. You can also check out some of his artwork here from the unreleased War Within: Age of Wrath... | Full interview

Geoff Senior

Call us old fashioned at TransFans.co.uk but Geoff Senior remains our favourite Transformers artist. He made his debut back in January 1986 on issue 42 of the UK comic and instantly revolutionised Transformers storytelling. He went on to contribute iconic visuals in some of the comic's finest ever epics, including Target 2006, The Legacy of Unicron, Matrix Quest, On the Edge of Extinction and the G2 comic. He also co-created Death's Head, drew all 10 issues of Dragon's Claws and recently returned to the Transformers fold with artwork for the first issue of the new UK comic from Titan. He gives us a rare interview on his life and times with our favourite warring mechanoids... | Full interview

Stewart "Staz" Johnson

Stewart "Staz" Johnson was a late addition to the legendary Transformers UK art team. Joining not longer after the controversial switch to black and white strips, his debut was in issue 236's Matrix Quest prequel 'Deathbringer Part 2'. Staz went on to be one of the comic's most prolific interior artists, his work extending to a string of memorable covers that did much to forge the visual identity of Transformers UK in its latter years. Afterwards he had much success with The Big Two, drawing some of the most recognised comic characters in the world, but he's still found time to reminisce with us about his days with the robots in disguise... | Full interview

Steve White

Things are coming full circle... the UK once more is getting comics with material original for its market, courtesy of Titan Magazines. Heading up efforts is Steve White, who brings a Marvel UK connection and has been instrumental in getting other creators adult fans will recognise on-board! | Full interview

 

Eric Holmes

Eric Holmes describes himself as "a furious game designer, designing — furiously — at Radical Entertainment." Various nextgen console projects are in the works, but on the Transformers front there's the matter of a four issue miniseries for IDW, showcasing the rise of ol' bucket-head himself: Megatron! | Full interview

 

James Roberts

Many Transformers fans have written fiction; not so many got 550+ page books printed up or so much appreciation from their peers. James Roberts was active with Brit group TransMasters UK long before this newfangled intarweb thing, and is herein interrogated on such subjects as the history of Transformers fandom over this way, his novel Eugenesis, and fellow TMUK bod Nick Roche landing an art and writing gig with IDW.
Full interview

 

2006 Round-up

Since we had some seasonal fun with this last time, we though we'd do it again. A bunch of people involved with Transformers as professionals or fans fill us in on their picks from 2006. (If you didn't have time to submit or your filters ate the mail, drop by the forum and we'll add you in!) Happy new year! | Full answers

 

Rob Ruffolo

Rob Ruffolo had highs and lows during the Dreamwave era, colouring the now classic first volume of War Within, but also illustrating the widely rather less well-regarded Micromasters. The former Art Director of the Canadian company has now transferred his talents to IDW, and he makes his debut there on the Sixshot issue of the Spotlight series. | Full interview

 

Bob Budiansky

It's likely none of us would be here if it hadn't been for Bob Budiansky. Responsible for so many Transformers names and profiles from the outset, he had an influential hand in the Marvel US comics over the huge span of its first 55 issues. His influence lasts to this day, as evident in the back-to-basics approach of the recent Infiltration series, and he's back by public demand, adapting the original Transformers movie in a new comic for IDW.
Full interview

 

Nick Roche

Nick Roche grew up watching the Transformers cartoon on television and reading the comics written by Simon Furman. Over 20 years on and Nick is living the dream, providing artwork for Furman on the new Transformers Spotlight series. In fact, he has been onboard IDW's Transformers bandwagon from the very start, illustrating ChrisCharger in their first issue. | Full interview

 

Chuck Dixon

He's written for some of the most iconic characters in comics, including Batman, Conan and The Punisher, but now Chuck Dixon comes to the world of the Transformers with Hearts of Steel, the Industrial Revolution first out-of-time tale in IDW's Transformers: Evolutions series. | Full interview

 

Lee Sullivan

When it comes to Transformers art, Lee Sullivan is a legend. He began his stint at Marvel UK on issue 92 with the first of many memorable covers, and soon went on to create iconic work in the likes of Salvage and Time Wars. Over the years he's worked on many other titles, including Thundercats, Doctor Who, Robocop and William Shatner's TekWorld to name but a few, and has a noisy fetish for the saxophone. | Full interview

 

Tim Seeley

Tim Seeley is the writer and creator of horror comic Hack/Slash. He became regular artist on the G.I. Joe title of Devil's Due Publishing, before coming to the attention of Transformers fans as artist on their second volume of G.I. Joe vs The Transformers. With the third volume Tim takes over as writer. | Full interview

 

2005 Round-up

With this year having a particular resonance for almost any fan, thanks to Victor Caroli, and involving all sorts of Transformers news... we thought it would be nice to end it on a personal note. Though it was a busy holiday season, a range of creators and fans got back to us with what they felt were some highlights of 2005... so, our thanks to them all, and we wish all fans out there a prosperous 2006! | Full answers

 

Chris Ryall

Many Transformers fans were surprised earlier this year when IDW Publishing seemed to pop up out of nowhere to land the license ahead of its competitors. In fact the company has long experience of working with licensed properties, including CSI, 24, Angel, Shaun of the Dead and many more. Chris Ryall is Editor-In-Chief of the company and is playing a large role in bringing the Transformers up to date in the 21st century. He's also Editor-In-Chief of Kevin Smith's website, transforms into a nifty sports car and has red on him. | Full interview

 

James Raiz

James Raiz has been delighting us with his Transformers art ever since Dreamwave bagged the licence in 2002, drawing the first 5 issues of Armada. His Transformers work since has included MTMTE, G1 and Energon, and he's added a list of credits for Marvel, DC and Top Cow to his already impressive CV.
James has recently been announced as the artist for the third incarnation of everyone's favourite freelance peacekeeping agent, Death's Head. | Full interview

 

Simon Furman

What can you say about Simon Furman and Transformers? Well, lots of stuff, but unless you've been living under a Rock Lord™ since 1985 then you probably know most of it. After a brief hiatus from writing Transformers thanks to Pat Lee's financial brilliance, Simon is back where he belongs care of IDW Publishing and will be writing both their new G1 series (Transformers: Infiltration) and a Beast Wars series next year, as well as reviving his relationship with fan fave Death's Head in the very near future. Not bad, eh? | Full interview

 

EJ Su

EJ Su's early work on Transformers included contributions to the Transformers Ultimate Guide and the second Transformers/Gi-Joe crossover from Devil's Due. With the announcement that IDW will now be publishing Transformers comics, EJ was revealed as the regular artist for the new G1 title. | Full interview

 

Guido Guidi

Guido Guidi started with Dreamwave in 2001, where his first Transformers work was the swanky Predaking Lithograph. Soon after he began regular strip work with Transformers Armada issue 8. Guido stayed with the title as it morphed into Energon up until Issue 23. | Full interview

 

Don Figueroa

Don Figueroa originally came to the attention of Transformers fans with his awesome online comic Macromasters. Unsurprisingly Don was recruited by Dreamwave when they got the Transformers licence and, after drawing several posters, had his first official Transformers work published in The War Within, where he got the opportunity to show us how the Transformers looked before they left Cybertron. | Full interview

 

Jeff Anderson

Jeff Anderson inked and coloured a number of issues for Marvel's Transformers UK before his pencilling debut with Issue 65. After that Jeff was a mainstay of the comic, contributing to such classics as Target:2006 and pencilling the first telling of the Transformers' origin in The Legacy of Unicron. Jeff's other comic work includes Judge Dredd and Captain Britain. | Full interview


Joe Ng

Joe Ng started work at Dreamwave drawing characters for the MTMTE series. From there Joe progressed to being the regular penciler on Transformers Energon. Most recently Joe has become the third artist to work on the fan favourite series The War Within. | Full interview

 

Simon Furman - Part 2 'The Present'

Simon Furman began his association with the Transformers in 1985 when he wrote his first issue for Marvel Comics. You can read more about Simon's time with Marvel here. More recently Simon has worked with Dreamwave comics to produce the acclaimed War Within, the third volume of which debuts this month, and the ongoing Energon series (previously Armada) for Dreamwave. | Full interview

 

Simon Furman - Part 1 'The Past'

Simon Furman began his association with the Transformers when he wrote his first issue of the UK comic, issue 13, in 1985, and he has maintained his connection with the Robots in Disguise ever since. Simon continued to work for Marvel until the end of the Generation 2 series and thereafter maintained his ties by writing the occasional Beast Wars episodes and convention comics. | Full interview

 

Paul Cannon

Paul Cannon is the organiser and owner of the popular UK convention Transforce, which has been running (with a break in 2003) since 1999. Paul also invented the Space Shuttle and vegetables... | Full interview

 

Andrew Wildman

Andrew Wildman pencilled numerous covers for the original UK Transformers comic and as of 198 onwards was one of the comics regular artists. He later transferred to the US comic (whilst still providing pencils for some of the UK black and white stories) starting with issue 69 and was the artist on the title until the end of the comics run (issue 80), and one of his notable achievements was adding toilet doors to Unicron. | Full interview