#Zac DeBoard

[transformers-mosaic]

Transformers: Mosaic #503 - "Home Is Where The Laser Core Is"

Originally posted on June 16th, 2010

Story - Juan Pablo Osorio Art - Oscar Choquecota Letters - Franco Villa Edits - Zac DeBoard Diaclone designs - Benjamin Galley

deviantART | Seibertron | TFW2005 | BotTalk

Later revised and annotated for Transformers: The Lost Seasons

wada sez: The first of three strips written to bring a Transformers Animated character into Sunbow continuity; I've bumped up the other two, which were originally posted not long after, for a better reading experience. Bulkhead’s group here has a mixture of origins, as explained in the comments on deviantART, but includes a couple of Diaclone bots, who were slightly redesigned by Galley for the sake of variety. The blue bot is actually a Brazilian character, Camaro, who was renamed "Sprint" after Windcharger's preliminary name. In the final panel, the bots present are the main cast of Animated, and to cement the homage Ratchet is seen fixing his forehead chevron, a cheeky reference inserted by Choquecota. Bulkhead’s original design was done by Choquecota, and Osorio wrote the whole story based on it; later, Osorio would create a separate character model for Bulkhead along similar lines for The Lost Seasons, which was widely shared online and seems very likely to have inspired the later official release of the G1-style Legacy Bulkhead. See below for all of this relevant artwork.

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Transformers: Multiverse #21 - "Change"

Originally posted on June 15th, 2013

Story - Wout Jut Story, Letters - HdE Art - Elmer Damaso Colours - Jim Lafferty Edits - Zac DeBoard

deviantART

wada sez: This strip is set after the flashback portions of the two-part “Chaos Theory” story by James Roberts, which established a friendship between Impactor and Megatron. An interesting titbit from HdE on deviantART, who wound up sharing the script credit on this piece: “Wout allowed me to tweak a lot of that as I lettered it, which isn't something I get to do on 99.999% of the stuff I letter these days. I have to say though, my favourote lines in the script are all Wout's. The throat grab is a great example. 'In the end it won't matter..' right as Impactor strangles the guy. That's really great stuff!” To which Jut replied, “I don't mind to allow tweaks. =) The story, that's important, not my ego. ;-)” What a class act! See below for clean art and colors.

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Transformers: Mosaic #640 - "Ragnarok"

Originally posted on March 12th, 2012

Story - Juan Pablo Osorio Art - Mitsuko Hazama Letters, Edits - Franco Villa Edits - Zac DeBoard

deviantART | Seibertron | TFW2005

Later revised and annotated for Transformers: The Lost Seasons

wada sez: See the link above for some commentary! On deviantART, the project team clarified: “Yep, multiple Abominuses (or is it Abomini? :D ), these guys had so little personality in the cartoon that the ones we saw in the show could have very well been different sets of Terrorcons, it's also a nod to the armies of Terrorcons the Quints had in TF:Energon.” They also had this to say about their involvement with Mosaic generally: “this will be most probably one of our last Mosaics as we've been asked to not submit any more thre-part stories.” The evil is defeated!

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Transformers: Multiverse #19 - "Drifted"

Originally posted on April 30th, 2013

Story - Wout Jut Art - Hosanna Lau Colours - Brandy Dixon Letters, Edits - HdE Edits - Zac DeBoard

deviantART | BotTalk

wada sez: On deviantART, Wout Jut said: “I really wanted to make a comic about evil Drift. I suprised that there are so few fan-stories about him ( I found only one!).” Shattered Glass Drift had a somewhat storied conceptual history, with his final official characterisation being just Deadpool. HdE has appropriately given him Deadpool’s yellow speech bubbles. This strip gives him a new backstory adapting the pacifist Circle of Light from IDW’s Drift miniseries; here, they seem a bit more violent. The mirror-universe color schemes for Wing and Dai Atlas have been invented by Dixon. See below for clean colors, and check back tomorrow for another of Jut’s Shattered Glass strips.

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Transformers: Multiverse #20 - "Getting His Eyepatch"

Originally posted on May 20th, 2013

Story - Wout Jut Art - Koen Luyten Colours - Brandy Dixon Edits - Zac DeBoard

deviantART

wada sez: This strip provides a backstory for Shattered Glass Blurr’s eyepatch; the BotCon 2008 convention box-set controversially blew some of its budget on a brand-new head for the Cybertron Blurr mold—which already had a Blurr-inspired head—to have an eyepatch. As usual for a Jut strip, none of the characterisations feel like a match for the character’s official depictions, either in the convention fiction or as an original riff on their personalities. Why is Inferno a medic? Why is Thundercracker a calculating thug? See below for character models for the whole cast, and clean colors.

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Transformers: Mosaic #600 - "Instrument of Destruction"

Originally posted on May 16th, 2011

Story - Juan Pablo Osorio, Franco Villa Art - Francesco D'arcadia Colours - Eveline Albers Edits - Zac DeBoard

deviantART | Seibertron | TFW2005 | BotTalk

Later revised and annotated for Transformers: The Lost Seasons

wada sez: This strip aims to give some more background to Blitzwing’s final appearance in the Sunbow cartoon, in “Five Faces of Darkness, Part 5″, by tying his motivations into the legion of Blitzwings seen in the opening to the cartoon’s third season. See the link above for the creators’ original annotations, and below for clean art and an Italian translation.

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Transformers: Mosaic #633 - "The Answer"

Originally posted on January 23rd, 2012

Story, Art - Tomoko Story, Letters - Franco Villa Edits - Zac DeBoard Ideas - Ibai Canales

deviantART | Seibertron | TFW2005

Later revised and annotated for Transformers: Seeds of Deception

wada sez: This strip is set prior to Canales’ prior strip, “Full Metal Contact”. Tagging this one for transphobia is maybe a little unfair, as there’s nothing overt in the strip itself (at least nothing worse than in Spotlight: Arcee), but it’s definitely developing ideas from this same creative team on worse prior strips, and I figure I may as well spare most readers this aggressively mid writing. See below for clean inks, colors, and an Italian translation.

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Transformers: Mosaic #638 - "The God Makers"

Originally posted on February 27th, 2012

Story - Juan Pablo Osorio Art - Mitsuko Hazama Letters, Edits - Franco Villa Edits - Zac DeBoard

deviantART | Seibertron | TFW2005 | BotTalk

Later revised and annotated for Transformers: The Lost Seasons

wada sez: The first part of yet another three-part trilogy from these guys, titled “They Were Titans”—y’know, ‘cause they’re literally Titans. I’m told Mosaic at one point had a hard limit on multi-part stories going no longer than three strips, and I have to imagine that was entirely because of this team. Click the link above to find out what they meant by this, I’m not your dad. See below for a character model for the little Sharkticons and a cover for this storyline.

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Transformers: Mosaic - "His Name Is... Ginrai"

Originally posted on January 30th, 2013

Story, Art - Mitsuko Hazama Letters - Franco Villa Edits - Zac DeBoard

deviantART

wada sez: I’ll leave it to Hazama to explain this one, per the deviantART notes: “Transformers: Masterforce means very much to me. Last year was the year Masterforce is said to take place, 2012, and this is the year of Victory. I drew this comic in the summer of last year to celebrate this fact, and to pay a tribute to the series because it does mean so much to me. In particular, always I have looked to Ginrai for inspiration. Ginrai did not choose to become a hero, did not choose to gain the Masterforce. It simply chose him, and what makes him so strong is how he accepted it, even though that was so difficult to do. He struggled with it, and tried to deny that fate, but in the end, he learned that all people needed him to rise, and he needed himself to accept his destiny. Even if you aren't familiar with the series, I hope that you may also draw inspiration from Ginrai, because he is truly the definition of what makes a hero. PS. Although it bears the "Mosaic" name, and was accepted, it never actually got posted before the project closed. Bummer. :shrug:”

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Transformers: Mosaic #517 - "Hunter Or Hunted"

Originally posted on July 16th, 2010

Story - Zac DeBoard Art - Kei Tomoe Letters - Franco Villa Edits - Juan Pablo Osorio Lockdown design - James Cox

deviantART | Seibertron | TFW2005 | BotTalk

Later revised and annotated for Transformers: The Lost Seasons

wada sez: This is the second of three strips aiming to back-port a Transformers Animated character into Sunbow cartoon continuity, following the previous strip "Home Is Where The Laser Core Is"—here, Lockdown is pitted against classic bounty hunter Devcon. I’ve included Cox’s full art for Lockdown’s design below, along with a Japanese translation by Barricade 643!

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Transformers: Mosaic #557 - "Loyalty Rewarded"

Originally posted on November 15th, 2010

Story - Zac DeBoard Art - Kei Tomoe Letters - Franco Villa Edits - Juan Pablo Osorio “Chopper” design - Andy Short Whirl design - Paul Vromen

deviantART | Seibertron | TFW2005 | BotTalk

Later revised and annotated for Transformers: The Lost Seasons

wada sez: The last of three Sunbow-version-of-Animated-character strips. On the Machine Wars Starscream color scheme used for Scrash, DeBoard said on Seibertron: “I believe Scrash's coloring was a way to differentiate between he and Skyquake (even though they were pretty much consdered to be the same character), as well as being a shout out to MW Screamer.” Onslaught’s seeming death here appears to be an choice, as he’s alive and well later in the Sunbow timeline—but Cattleprod points out that the Combaticons first appeared reduced to personality components after a failed coup, so presumably this is intended to lead into that, with Onslaught just heavily damaged but alive. The blue character is an OC based on the Diaclone helicopter who, in later official sources, would variously be given the names "Fumes", "Rotorbolt", and "Skyklik"—the creators of The Lost Seasons apparently used a common fan-name at the time, "Chopper". I've tagged him as Rotorbolt, because of the Wreckers connection. On the strip’s ending, DeBoard said: “Personally, I love ol Luggy and I just assume that while his body may have been destoyed, his spark survived....like they put it in a machine like they have a Garrus 9 or something.” He explained the strip’s plotting as follows: “Again, this is just "in my head" but Megs was probably obsessed with The Autobots on The Ark (at least for the moment) and didnt bother to take attendance, so to speak, and therefore didn't notice Lugnut. Another thing to keep in mind is...we were kinna working within a set continuity and trying to fit stories and characters where we can. Obviously Lugnut wasnt in G1 originally so it's a tricky thing to do. I just kinna thought it was a pretty neat way to introduce him and explain his "absence" from the show. Believe me, I try to take all of this stuff into account when I write, but if I overthink it, I'd never get anything written! Hehe. As for the faces of the "transplanted characters. It seems to be harder to translate the facial features of the TFA bots into a G1 style (for instance, I felt Lockdown's face in the Drift mini was just horrific), but I think Lugnut came out very well in this. [...] We are floating around some more stories featuring G1 Lugnut so hopefully he will be fleshed out more in later stories. Personally, I hope to bring his personality closer to the fanatic he was in TFA, which is what made him one of my favorite characters. With the space limitations of the Mosaic, we really didn't get to do a lot of it (though it was more prevalant in the script).” This strip evolved from an earlier script of DeBoard's, which went unused: “Unfortunately, I realized there was already a Mosaic piece essentially telling this same story. This one however was set in the G1 universe”—I’ve reproduced the full text below, alongside the usual Italian translation. The earlier strip with a similar idea was “False Saviour”, in case you were wondering.

Before I was little more than a thug.  Making a living by robbing those less fortunate than me.  Feeling I was destined for a greater purpose, I had applied numerous times to the Cybertron Military Academy only due be denied due to what the Head of the Academy deemed was an aggressive attitude.

This would haunt me in my future endeavors as I could find little work.

Eventually I found the Arena.

It was there than I unleashed my aggression and anger, my strength was unparalelled and I became known as the Kaon Crusher.

And, as quickly as I embraced my newfound outlet, I soon found myself longing for more.

Was this all I was meant for?  Mindlessly destroying mechs for little more than a thrill?

Blastburn lies defeated at my feet and I feel nothing.  I walk away, feeling just as beaten as my foe.

"Your designation Lugnut?"

I nod.

"It is."

"My commander has had an optic on you for over a Vorn.  He has seen your indifference and longing."

"What do you or your commander know of me?!"

"He believes he can provide you with a sense of purpose--a new life, if you will."

The blue mech (Soundwave) has my attention.

"And what do you call your glorious leader" I say to him mockingly.

"His name is...Megatron."

At the end would be a close up of Lugnut's single red optic, with an image or a shadow of G1 Megs in it.

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Transformers: Mosaic #527 - "Remembrances"

Originally posted on August 9th, 2010

Story - Franco Villa Art - Tomoko Edits - Zac DeBoard Thanks to - Gianluca Gamba, Davide, Peter Istyle

deviantART | Seibertron | TFW2005

Later revised and annotated for Transformers: Seeds of Deception

wada sez: As always, see above for full annotations for this strip. Peter Istyle was credited solely in deviantART description, not on the strip itself. Preview, clean colors and Italian translation below.

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Transformers: Mosaic #460 - "Behind the Noise"

Originally posted on February 25th, 2010

Story - Franco Villa Art - Gianluca Gamba Edits - Zac DeBoard Thanks to - Ibai Canales

deviantART | Seibertron | TFW2005 | BotTalk

wada sez: On Brawl’s surprisingly-intelligent characterisation here, Villa had this to say on deviantART: “I was a bit bored of the fact that 90% Decepticons seem to be moron. And since this is an updated version of the character, I gave him some knowledge... but after all, he just read the tech specs of his weapon: this doesn not exactly make him the sharpest mech in the bunch.” See below for a clean version of the first panel, Gamba’s character models for Brawl, and an Italian version of the strip.

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Transformers: Mosaic #490 - "Replacement"

Originally posted on June 3rd, 2010

Story, Letters - Franco Villa Script, Art - Simon Reeves Colours - Timothy Pugh Edits - Zac DeBoard Thanks to - Peter Istyle

deviantART | Seibertron | TFW2005 | BotTalk

Later revised and annotated for Transformers: Seeds of Deception

wada sez: Italian version below.

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Transformers: Mosaic #639 - "Wrath Of The Gods"

Originally posted on March 5th, 2012

Story - Juan Pablo Osorio Art - Mitsuko Hazama Letters, Edits - Franco Villa Edits - Zac DeBoard

deviantART | Seibertron | TFW2005

Later revised and annotated for Transformers: The Lost Seasons

wada sez: Smash that link above to find out what’s going on here!

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Transformers: Mosaic #511 - "The Flaw Within"

Originally posted on July 2nd, 2010

Story, Letters - Franco Villa Art - Jeremy Tiongson Colours - Ibai Canales Edits - Zac DeBoard

deviantART | Seibertron | TFW2005 | BotTalk

Later revised and annotated for Transformers: Seeds of Deception

wada sez: A “Side B” to the previous strip, told instead from the Decepticons’ perspective. See the link above for more notes on this one.