Author's Reflections- Comic #224

#224

 

This comic may not be anything too special but I remember I had a LOT of fun writing the exchange between Megatron and Bumblebee. It was sort of an idea out of left field but with a mutual topic to complain about (Hot Rod), it seemed like a small conversation would be almost natural and funny. The photoshopped picture of Hot Rod being blasted by Megatron was intended to be blurry in an attempt to show some sort of motion. I suppose it could be argued that it worked to a certain degree, but I still didn’t particularly care for the way it looked so I’ve never tried it again.

 

I had no ideas for the Peanut gallery panel, which is quite obvious.

Author's Reflections- Comic #223

#223

 

Not a whole lot to talk about in this comic either…honestly I think my favorite part of it is Bumblebee standing on his tiptoes in the first panel. I’m sure quite a few people have a problem with my characterization of Optimus, but I love writing for him. I still take the approach that he’s more inept than outwardly being a jerk, but comics like this certainly don’t help my personal cause any.

 

Let’s take Hound’s advice and just move on…

Author's Reflections- Comic #222

#222

 

I like this comic mainly for the first panel with Optimus, Hot Rod and Bumblebee running away screaming and the turnaround in dialogue when Bumblebee first tries to calm Hot Rod down then wants to shoot him himself two panels later. For those that grew up watching cartoons in the 1980’s, Hot Shot’s “Mega-Shred-Skele-Cobra-MummRa” syndrome was pretty obvious, but for those who might not be that familiar, it’s just the names of several supervillains from said cartoons…Megatron (obviously from Transformers, Shredder (from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Skeletor (From He-Man), Cobra (the Evil organization from GI Joe), and Mumm-Ra (from Thundercats). All 1980’s cartoons aimed at boys were fairly shallow, always featuring a plot in which the villain would concoct some overblown scheme and the good guys were always able to thwart it. Naturally the routine would happen in the next cartoon. Poor villains never get much respect!

Author's Reflections- Comic #221

#221

 

This comic will always stick out in my mind just because of how much fun I had photoshopping the panels with the Decepticons charging in towards Optimus. As usual the quality of the photoshipping is poor but it was still entertaining to make nonetheless. I also enjoyed making a comic that the Decepticons actually had the upper hand on the Autobots (in no small part thanks to my version of Optimus’ ignorance). I was still on a giddy high after finally obtaining all six of the Classics Decepticon jets so just seeing them all together in their jet mode was exciting. Hot Shot’s line in the peanut gallery is what stands out to me most, since I had written this long before I began my fascination with Motley Crue bassist Nikki Sixx, who luckily avoided death several times and was even declared legally dead after overdosing on Heroin. Since then I have read both of Nikki’s books and absolutely love his band Sixx:AM's albums, so it’s pretty humorous I had Hot Shot say that randomly on a whim back then.

Author's Reflections- Comic #220

#220

 

This is another comic that doesn’t do much but drag out an already long story arc. It’s got a couple decent lines but other than cementing Optimus’ inept character even further, it’s honestly fairly pointless. What is more important to point out is that the Peanut Gallery panel (while not being anything spectacular either) marks the first picture that I was able to get the camera settings combined with proper lighting just right. The picture quality has always fluctuated over the years but I’ve always been able to get fairly decent pictures using the formula I figured out here. Also, the reason for the Peanut Gallery panels for the next couple comics being decent quality and the next couple actual comics being so different is that I always take all the pictures for the comic first, followed by all the Peanut Gallery panel following that. It’s a pretty obvious way to do it, but of course when I first started the comic I would take the Peanut Gallery panel pictures after the pictures for the actual comic…it’s inefficient and of course I ran into problems when I had stories with a lot of toys on the table being used for multiple comics!

Author's Reflections- Comic #219

#219

 

This comic is one that always stands out in my mind. Not because it was that incredible but because it introduced toys from the highly sought after 2007 Botcon box set. I was fortunate enough to find one for a very reasonable price (compared to what it typically sold for at that time) and couldn’t wait to finally complete the Decepticon Jet team (“Seekers”) in the comic. I did have some inner conflictions in using such expensive toys in a photo comic but I was extremely careful with them. The idea that Thundercracker, Dirge, Thrust and Dreadwind were simply “just standing offscreen the whole time” came from South Park; it was the exact same reason they gave for Kenny showing back up at the end of the season in which they had “permanently” killed him off. It’s simple and makes little sense but it appealed quite a bit to me that these four would have actually been through everything the original characters in the comic would have. Most importantly it was an excuse I could fall back on to get out of getting the new characters ‘caught up’ on what had happened previously. For the Gallery panel, I definitely agree with Cliffjumper. After only having 3/6 of the original Seeker jets, I couldn’t get over how awesome it looked to finally have all six of them displayed on my shelf.

Author's Reflections- Comics #217-218

 

#217

 

#218

 

 

#217-218

 

As usual, looking back on this run of comics I was dragging the plot out too long. These two comics here can really just be viewed as filler material, though I do like Optimus #1 plan out of the handbook. Also #218 looks differently because I tried taking the pictures with the flash on in an attempt to get the quality better. It only lasted a couple comics, and although I personally don’t like the way it looks I can’t argue that they were better than the blurry comics that came before it. The Peanut Gallery panel for #218 is probably one of my favorites of this ‘era’, though it had nothing to do with the plot.