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Guido Guidi
interviewed in: April 2005
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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. Guido was working on both the Generation One Title and
the Energon More Than Meets The Eye guidebook when Dreamwave
folded. Some of Guido's pencils from both of these titles can
be seen at the foot of the page. |
Thanks for taking the time for this interview.
Let’s get started, shall we?
1. How did you get the job at
Dreamwave?
In late 2001, after posting some fan art on the old Dreamwave forums,
I got an email from Pat Lee asking if I was interested in doing
a test-shot for Robotech (I think Dreamwave were pursuing that license
too at that time, with no luck). After a while I was asked to do
that Predaking litho and then I started doing regular freelance
work for them (toy, box-art, mini-comics), and finally the actual
Armada comics.
2. What are the five pieces
you’re most proud of from your time at Dreamwave?
Predaking litho
G1 volume 1 alternate cover for #5
G1 #12 page 1 (unpublished)
G1 #12 page 3 (unpublished)
G1 #12 page 7 (unpublished)
3. Which artists, both from
Transformers and other titles, influenced your work?
Almost exclusively artists from the old G1 Transformers TV series
and comics:
Floro Dery, Magami Ban, the Wildman/Baskerville duo, William Johnson,
Hirofumi Ichikawa, Don Perlin with Ian Akin and Brian Garvey, Kazuo
Nakamura (he was a great anime character designer from the 70s),
but of course also Don Allan Figueroa, James Raiz, Pat Lee and Hideki
Fukushima (TF Armada mecha designer) for my more recent stuff.
4. Which characters did you
love/hate to draw?
Loved: Armada Megatron, Unicron’s Four Horsemen - I’ve
created their altered designs and their metallic steeds.
Hated: While I can’t say I really hate drawing a Transformer,
the characters that posed some problems have been Armada Prime and
Energon Scorponok (the arms).
5. Did Armada and Energon offer
different challenges? How did you deal with these?
Well, the designs of those toys were really intricate sometimes.
My background was with classic streamlined Transformers like G1
or Beast Wars, but Armada/Energon designs were way more meched-out,
and sometimes I got distracted by all those details. I found the
Energon designs a bit easier to deal with, though.
Personally I would liked to re-draw them all the way the G1 toys
were redesigned in the G1 TV show, with a simpler streamlined design,
and more humanoid shapes, but I think this is due to the fact that
I always looked at the Transformers more as living characters than
just hi-tech war machines... I’m sure many fans out there
are glad I never did that!
6. Much was made of the "house
style" when it came to Dreamwave's art. How much stylistic
freedom did you have? Both Don Figueroa and Andrew Wildman mentioned
that their artwork had been altered at some point; were your pencils
ever altered?
Not that I’m aware… My humans were ok for them but
sometimes I’ve been asked to do some little “patches”
here and there (but actually most of them weren’t used at
all).
In Armada I tried to stay close with the anime TV version style
(at first I know this was the goal for that title), but at a certain
points I’ve been asked to draw more like Pat or Don (I think
in order to boost sales) which posed some difficulties. I used to
put lots of blacks and cross hatching in my drawings, and this style
would have clashed with the Dreamwave house style of colouring.
I think you can see my own style only in the exclusive OTFCC comic
TF Wreckers #3. Despite the end of 3H, this is perhaps the comic
book I enjoyed drawing the most.
7. How much control from Hasbro
on the storylines were you aware of?
I know they gave Dreamwave a lot of freedom, but sometimes they
asked for some changes, like removing RID Smokejumper and Dreadwing
from Armada #12 page 3 and replacing them with Skywarp and Sideways…
I think this would be a good Simon Furman question. :)
8. What was it like working
with Simon Furman?
Working with Simon has been a great experience, first because I
really loved his work as a reader back at the Transformers' Marvel
age, and I discovered that he’s a great writer to work with,
very open-minded, and a nice guy who really loves his work.
9. What did you make from the
reactions to your work?
Sometimes I did read some negative criticism about my work…
sometimes I found them a bit exaggerated, but otherwise I actually
tried to understand them in order to improve. Of course compliments
always give a boost. :)
10. It seemed your work on Energon
ended just as you were in full flow. What were the circumstances
of your departure? Did you still have dealings with Dreamwave at
the time of the collapse?
Basically I had been removed from their titles because Dreamwave
looked for in-studio artists when possible (I think this was one
of the moves in order to try to save costs without dealing with
any overseas artists), but I suspect that another reason could have
been that I never matched 100% with the intended house style.
I stopped working for Dreamwave in March 2004, and I didn’t
have any other work dealing (save for regular communications about
my delayed payments) until late October 2004 when I was asked to
pencil pieces for Energon MTMTE and then to do G1 #12 and #13, of
which I only penciled the first 13 pages of #12, right before the
Dreamwave demise. I think the 13 unpublished pages from #12 were
among my best work… unfortunately.
11. What did you learn from
your time at Dreamwave?
Good communication *should* be always an important part of a work
relationship. Makes life easier to everyone. If we all (freelancers)
were aware of the true Dreamwave situation, perhaps we could have
contributed some way in keeping the titles ongoing… who knows.
12. What were Roger and Pat
Lee like to work for?
Well, especially at first it was a lot of fun.
13. If the opportunity arose,
would you work for them again?
I don’t think this will happen, especially not at the actual
state of things.
But I don’t forget that it was because of them that I was
introduced to the professional field.
14. You’re stuck on a
tropical island with only three comics or trades. What would you
pick?
Hard to say… Marvel’s Transformers:The Movie adaptation
(I have a sort of Italian trade), Marvel TF #75, and my own TF Wreckers
#3 (why not?).
15. What is on the horizon for
you?
Most likely some non-TF stuff, but I still hope to get involved
with Transformers comics if the opportunity should arise again,
though. Anyway, I’m still doing some Transformers artwork
for Hasbro from time to time (boxarts for upcoming products).
16. Word Association:
Rodimus Prime
The Burden Hardest to Bear.
Dreamwave
Cars are expensive.
Brad Mick
I don’t know him enough.
Energon
I would like to see this comic finished.
Pat Lee
A guy that really knows how to pitch himself.
Thank you for agreeing to this interview and for your spectacular
work on The Transformers over the past couple of years. Everyone
here at TransFans.co.uk wishes you the best in all of your future
endeavors.
This interview was brought to you on behalf of Professor Smooth
and the Transfans Admin Staff
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