Author's Reflections- Comic #238

#238

 

This comic may sit a little awkwardly in the flow of the criss-crossing storylines but I still really like it as a standalone one shot. I was never the biggest fan of Brawn as a kid and this was my way of poking fun of him. I loved his backtracking dialogue in panel 6 and it still stands up to a re-read several years later in my opinion.

Author's Reflections- Comics #236-237

#236

 

#237

 

 

#236-237

 

I definitely wanted the Ungas to help out Optimus and crew during this storyline but I also wanted it to be a situation they felt forced into it. ‘Tapicoa’ is still the mouthpiece for the Unga tribe, something that carried through the entire run of the comic. I had to make fun of myself and my lack of varying backgrounds in panel 4 of #237 when Optimus mentiones the inside of the cave looks just like the rest of Knockora-Offina.

Author's Reflections- Comic #235

#235

 

This comic stand out in the middle of this story arc as being one of the better self- contained comics. It would also have far-reaching implications later on as upgrades became major plot devices. I like how Panel 2 turned out with the Primes and Perceptor diving over the wall, and Freakboy’s “No hablo Cybertrrrrrron” line. Perceptor and Brawn’s exchange is, in my opinion the best part of the entire story arc, even though it had nothing to do with the actual story (For anyone who is unfamiliar with the Generation 1 cartoon, watch the episode entitled Microbots. Its one of the better episodes of the series, and you’ll understand Perceptor and Brawn’s exchange here. Plus you see drunk Decepticons, the single best moment in the entire Generation 1 cartoon!). I’ve never really thought of why Perceptor, a G1 toy like the others managed to climb the wall, but the toy does have a better range of movement than the others, having leg joints as well as elbow and shoulder swivels. It almost makes sense in a very retroactive damage control kind of way I suppose.

Author's Reflections- Comic #234

#234

 

The two stories criss crossing here helps move things along a little bit but it still drags everything out a lot longer than is really needed. Like I stated before I was anxious to use the Ungas in the comic again but the REAL inspiration I got for the story was going through some of my old Power Rangers toys and finding this beetle, which I immediately thought would make for a good power up to the Unga’s Chief, Stagg. I had originally hoped I could use the two little clip hard points on the toys’ chest to attatch the Matrix to it, but that didn’t work out as I imagined. In the long run it made more sense for it NOT to be on the toys’ chest (which we’ll discuss soon), but the shape of the detailing made it so I could outline it as if the Matrix was shining through the inside of the toy anyway. I think it worked out pretty well.

Author's Reflections- Comic #233

#233

 

This comic was my attempt at trying to get some characterization to Prowl, who I’ve always liked. It wasn’t very prominent, but I think it does a good job for setting up the Prowl that would later become a major character in the comic. Unlike Comic #232, I feel this one does stand on its own, even though it interrupts the overall flow of the story arc by its placement. There’s plenty of decent things that aren’t absolutely laugh out loud worthy but I do chuckle when I see “My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard”…

 

Obviously Hot Shot shares my sentiment on the flow of this story. Reading this now really makes me wonder why I kept it that way when I wrote Hot Shot’s line here. I suppose I was trying to get some sort of mystery out of the two stories before they intertwined. Viewing it that way it’s still only an adequate arc at best compared to some of my others.

Author's Reflections- Comic #232

#232

 

Again, this can really just be viewed as a transitional comic, being pretty weak on its’ own accord. There are really only a couple of Prime’s lines that salvage it, most notably informing Bumblebee that the sound was just his shortness eating away at him from the inside.

Author's Reflections- Comic #231

#231

 

Reading this run of comics, the sub-plot with the secondary characters really seems out of place but at this point I was trying to include all the characters as much as I could. It’s not that this is necessarily a bad comic…there are some lines I still love, like “Expand-O-Ass” and the Primes realizing leaders shouldn’t need an excuse to be stupid is a simple great notion to me…but it doesn’t gel very well with the overlaying story.