Transformers: Mosaics... At least the ones I did.

Well, I thought I'd talk a bit about my upcoming plans a bit. I've mentioned I've been doing some scripting, and I am. But I still want to keep drawing while I'm working the script out. (I'm a lot less polished of a writer than you may think.) In the meanwhile, I plan to do a few more Transformers: Mosaics. If you're not familiar with Mosaics, it's really simple. They're one page fancomics. There's a lot of fan artists and writers in the Transformers fanbase, and quite frankly... This is a really wonderful addition to the fanbase, allowing for some real true creativity, not to mention, discovering of some amazing new talent that people aren't even aware of... Yet. Some have been very good. (Aaaaand some have been EXTREMELY bad. Goes with the territory of fanfiction, I suppose.) You can read the archives here.

I've done a couple of these in past years. None recently, at least not since I moved back up to Michigan in '08, but now I planning on doing a few more. I have a few stories I'd like to tell, and since they're just one page long... Why not? (Not to mention, it keeps me drawing, and that's something I need to keep doing.) So I thought I'd post the three Mosaic's I've done. The first two are entirely done by me, but the last one I only just colored. Thing to remember though is that they are fan works, so a lot of them are not all too accessible by the average reader. So apologies ahead of time for it. (By the way, with the future comic scripts, like Firecracker and Black Banshee, this is something I'm trying to avoid doing.)

The first one was done around early Winter of '08, I think? (Can't have been sooner.) It was a story involving the thoughts behind Megatron of the Beast Era of shows. (That would be the 90's Beast Wars and Beast Machines. He's not the same Megatron that's popularly known in Generation One or the movies.) One of the issues brought up by the fandom at the time was that it was never relly explained why Megatron went from a revolutionary terrorist to a guy who basically imprisoned the sparks of the entire population and repopulated the planet with mindless automatons he controlled. I thought it might be an interesting challenge to explain that. Now one of the problems that occurred was that this Megatron had a habit of talking in long rambling and somewhat interesting Machiavellian speeches... And I kinda overdid the wordiness and made a few misuses of tense. The script probably could have used another pass to tighten up the words. However, I did like the art in this one, especially the coloring in the first panel. I was actually rather proud of myself for using the BM Megatron toy as a reference as opposed to the cartoon show or the Transmetal 2 Megatron toy. (I actually don't mind the toy, despite it's flaws.)

This second one was done around late Summer of '08. Occasionally with Transformers, Hasbro (the company that makes the toys) will occasionally lose the rights to a name. Either they'll have to add a qualifier to the name (such as 'Turbo Tracks' or 'Autobot Jazz') and other times they'll have to call them something else all together. (Such as Trailbreaker now being 'Trailcutter' and Outback having to go by the name 'Fallback'.) Generally this sucks, but what can you do? Other than Hot Rod, Bluestreak to Silverstreak was probably the most well known example of the name changing. And I thought that considering Bluestreak's irrational and talkative nature, it might be kinda fun to explain why he changed his name. This one was really well-received, which is funny because it's wordier than the first one... But I think it's got more to do with the fact it's an exchange of dialogues as opposed to an internal monologue. Also, the sheer amounts of in-jokes probably helped. And I'll be honest... I liked how I colored it, but I thought my lineart was especially weak in this. It was also the last major Transformers comic I personally drew. I was happy to draw Smokescreen as his Alternators toy for this one, as opposed to his traditional look... I always thought it was a better looking toy. (And for those curious, Hasbro regained the rights to the name Bluestreak again.)

I wanted to do another one, but obligations to Shadowgirls understandably prevented that. But during this time I did a shitload of them for Martin Fisher where I just lettered. You can find them in the link above. By the way, as a side note, I'm currently lettering a comic that he and Mark Miller wrote called Luna: Order of theWerewolf. It's in comic stores now. (A lot of people don't realize but I actually do quite a bit of lettering.) However, one of the Mosaics I colored last summer. It was written by Fisher and drawn by Jeremy Tiongson... I only colored it, but the combination of the Jeremy's lineart and my colors... I think it turned out exceptionally beautiful. I was really proud how I did the lighting effects in this one. And the story, it's really accessible so there isn't much you need to know... It's Drag Strip, and he's a dick.

So yeah, while I'm writing Firecracker, I got a few of these short stories written out. Like I mentioned before with Robots in Disguise, I'm really feeling nostalgic lately, and I'd like to revisit some old stomping grounds. Even if it is just for a short little visit...

...Because how else are you going to find out why Megatron hasn't killed Starscream yet?