#tf comic licensing

[optimistpax]

[ID: a screenshot of a wiki called dark horse comics (fanon). The body text says “dark horse comics is a publishing company that held the transformers comics license starting 2023. Their tenure followed idw’s…” end ID]

Lately this has been the first site that shows up whenever I look up the tf comics license and sort by past month and I am baffled. Are people writing??? Fiction?? About comic book publishing history????

[morethanmeetstheass]

i never posted this to tumblr but this was the third and final cover i did for idw before the license change. im so proud of it and i was so honored to get hired by them for a THIRD COVER. absolutely buckwild.

getting to play with sunstorm (technically exarchon possessing him but whatever) was so fun. his colors play to my usual color palette so well. im glad that my run with idw went out with a bang

[quetzalpapalotl]

So because IDW lost the TF license before they could finish printing the The Transformers: The IDW Collection, I made a reading guide and compiled the files to pick up where it left for someone, so might as well share.

So the IDW Collection is probably the easiest way to tackle the IDW1 continuity, it compiles all of it in a mix of chronological and publishing order. It starts with some big leaps like, the first comic is the 2007 mini series Megatron Origin, followed by two spotlights from 2008 and 2009, instead of anything from 2005 (when the continuity started), but that sort of thing lessens as it goes on. There are still some placements I wouldn't have done like that, but really, the whole thing is comprehensible, it includes everything you need, and is much easier to just read every volume in order from beginning to end that switching between however many comics. Plus, if you read a comic file in CDisplayEx, it will open on the page you were at last time you close it, so the 300+ pages per volume are not a problem.

The Internet Archive has all of Phase 1 and Phase 2 available for download as cbr files and you can download Phase 3 here. Or if you prefer to read them online (and have a good adblocker), here is Phase 1, Phase 2 and Phase 3.

As for the rest of Phase 3, on this drive link you will find a text file with the reading order (plus where to read it online) and a zip file that contains all the listed comics numbered in cbr/cbz files.

[decepti-thots]

🔥 on IDW

People like to blame IDW2's lackluster fan reception among enthusiasts for them losing the license. I think this is bullshit, and that they would have lost it whether or not they continued the IDW1 continuity instead. At the end of the day, IDW as a license holder never had amazing sales figures for the Transformers comics after the original launch post-Dreamwave- I know Roberts and Barber have both confirmed that MTMTE was doing better than the official sales figures indicated (as it was selling unusually well on digital platforms due to its demographic appeal, which are not counted because Comics Industry Bullshit), and I believe them when they say that helped there. But even by the overall dismal standards of USAmerican monthly comic sales (and they are dismal), by 2018 every single comic they were selling for Transformers was not looking good figures wise, and nothing they tried was boosting them for long. Hasbro didn't take it away because critical reception was poor; they took it away because they saw a better offer, and IDW as a company is just often... not... great at getting their comics the kind of publicity that is needed to keep your longterm serialised monthly comic out of the cancellation-figure graveyards. It's sad as hell it got cut short and I really wish it hadn't been. But I think attributing it to anything but sadly mundane comics industry problems- that unless you are Literally Batman, the market is tiny and highly spread out and keeping comics profitable is a losing game- is grasping at straws. Certainly I think laying all the blame at Ruckley's feet because not everyone loved IDW2 is unfair. (It sold better than the LL and OP runs in phase three!) (That relaunch was, of course, also comics industry BS, and not their fault.)

By contrast, Skybound is as of the latest sales figures outselling EVERY SINGLE DC COMIC. This is so incredibly rare among non-big-two comics. It won two Eisners. That is near unthinkable for a licensed comic. It's clear that Hasbro took that offer when the license was being renewed because Skybound had a plan to make TF comics explosively popular again, one which has self evidently worked to date, and there's really no need to get conspiratorial about why this happened when that explains the decision perfectly well. Shrug.

[geek-antic]

I wish I could’ve asked the writers of idw2 about the background story they had written for soundwave.

Because it seems like they had something pretty clear in mind that they wanted to delve into. And from the looks of things it could’ve been a rather interesting background story.

i love the how the artist was able to make him so expressive I can only imagine that it would’ve given some much needed depth to Soundwave’s character. Also would’ve been nice to finally see him get a proper origin story which I don’t think he really got in idw1 (the fact he starts out with no memories of his origins and no resolution still bothers me)

But I admittedly have a lot more issues with idw2, (mostly the repetition of words and sentences) yet surprisingly from what I did read in regards to soundwave I didn't have any major issues with his portrayal. (y'know aside from his yellow visor and job position) from what we did see of him he behaved coherently and according to his character. His little issues with starscream added some fun drama and made him a bit more relatable.

And then throughout the comics there are hints to soundwave having what seems to be a complicated past involving both soundblaster and sixshot? Which points towards it being a mercenary group of some kind.

And we never saw him in any of the flashbacks of the war against the Three fold spark, despite it being the perfect place for soundwave to become acquainted with megatron. but no, there's no explanation for how they met but there is a lot of megatron giving soundwave both orders and almost mentor like advice.

Its always a shame to see a continuity go dead when it had just started but I can’t say i’ll mourn anything else from it that isn’t soundwave. which says a lot.

RIP idw2 tf continuity, atleast you gave us a nice little story in the shattered glass comics you made before you lost the license.

Though now that the new license holder is image comics, I look forward to seeing what they’re gonna do with it. And if they’ll learn anything from the previous continuities.

[violent-optimism]

A (somewhat organized) collection of thoughts/things I noticed from the new TF #7 Comic (Spoilers!) - Part 1

Hello yes, I have things I would like to say, please!!

Let's start with Soldier.

I think we all knew damn well this was coming, but I don't think anyone expected him to propose A MINUTE after where the last comic ended. They're so cute and perfect for each other in their own twisted way, UGH!!!

Also I love how Heavy says no and he blatantly ignores it because of course he does. Heavy clearly disapproves of this relationship, but I like to think he also said "no" because he understands that Zhanna is fully capable of making that decision on her own and in the end it's not his choice, it's hers.

Soldier has a LOT of scenes and dialogue in this comic and I don't think that's a coincidence. I think it was a very conscious choice to honor Rick May, whom this comic is dedicated to. All of Soldier's scenes were so good and funny and I like to think Rick May would have enjoyed them if he were still here.

2. Miss Pauling and the Australium

There is so much to talk about here but I'm going to try and keep it brief.

Now, this was always kind of my headcanon, but I genuinely think this comic proves that Australium has almost a corrupting ability for those around it (similar to the One Ring in LOTR). Almost like it brings out the worst in people, or at least the greed. Miss Pauling never seemed like a greedy person until she finally got her hands on the Australium. It really didn't seem like her and it was very off-putting (in a good way if that makes sense).

When I first read this I had this horrible, sinking feeling that Miss Pauling was going to betray the mercs and end up being the over-arching villain or something. Needless to say, I'm VERY glad I was wrong. But surely I wasn't the only one who feared this? I mean look at the way she's staring at it the entire comic! (except for the end).

Also I thought Miss Pauling was already second in command?? That's wild. She's done so much for the Administrator and she's not even near the top of the corporate ladder.

3. Spy saving Miss Pauling.

When I tell you I audibly GASPED when this happened. I was on the edge of my seat like I was watching a movie!

Between this scene and the part where Spy tries to comfort Miss Pauling when they're captured, it's obvious that he really, REALLY cares about her. It's so heart-warming that one of the (seemingly) coldest mercs is also the one that was literally willing to jump in front of a plane to save her.

Love it. Love it a lot.

4. Sniper and the Plane

Sniper, my beloved...I can't tell you how happy I was to finally see you in the new comic.

Out of all the things I would expect to be in Sniper's repertoire, being a pilot was definitely not one of them. And yet it just makes sense?? (he might not actually be a licensed pilot per say but the way Spy phrases the question makes me think this isn't the first time).

I also love how his only line of dialogue (I think) in the entire comic is when he suggests to steal a broken down plane lol truly a professional with standards.

I just love this shot SO much. Seeing all of them crammed into that tiny plane is such a hilarious idea on its own. I love how Pyro is reaching for the fire at the front of the plane (I think?) and Medic's hilarious expression as he looks out the window along with the baby baboon (His pet? His child??)

This reaffirms my theory that Sniper is just the designated driver no matter what is going on or what kind of vehicle it is. He looks like he's about to lose it on them like a frustrated dad at any second lol

5. Scout and Miss Pauling

I don't know how anyone else feels about this moment, but I personally LOVED it.

Because let's be honest, the trope of Scout being madly in love with Miss Pauling (and not receiving any ounce of affection back) was starting to become a little old and tiresome at this point. There needed to be some kind of resolution to it, but it's painfully obvious that things were never going to go the way Scout wanted them to.

And I love how he comes to this realization COMPLETELY on his own. Scout is smarter than people give him credit for and it's so refreshing for him to finally show some maturity and realize when enough is enough. It's time for him to move on and he knows that, and we eventually see him following through with it.

I also adore the scene that comes immediately afterwards. There's absolutely no hard feelings on either side and I just love their relationship for exactly what it is.

6. The Administrator Reveal and the Mercs Reactions

I'm not gonna lie, this was.....really fucking creepy. Like, it almost ventured into the horror genre which was not what I expected from a TF Comic (not that I'm complaining at all, I loved it!).

I cannot believe that this whole time Zepheniah Mann has actually been alive, and the Administrator has been keeping him that way and FORCING him to watch his sons pointless war for the rest of his life. Like...DAMN.

I know we still don't fully understand her motivations or why exactly she's doing this but in my opinion that actually makes it scarier. I like that we didn't just get all the answers on a silver platter and the writers still left some mystery, right until the end.

Most of the mercs do a good job at representing how I actually looked while I was reading this scene. Almost everyone looks either horrified or confused. Medic's the only one that looks more fascinated than anything but what else did you expect? lol

Part 2 to come!

[altraviolet]

Hello I hope you're having a lovely day, just had a quick question. Im not sure if anyone has asked you this before but have you ever considered making a hard copy of The Echo Garden? Im a sucker for hard cover books and I just had the idea that it would be awesome if you had your own. Especially if all the art work that's been made for The Echo Garden was at the end of the book like how the do for The Art of Transformers One or The Art of Transformers Fall of Cybertron ect...

hi! yes, it's a lovely day, thanks :)

I would be extremely into making hard copies of TEG if it weren't illegal to do so. to be more specific- it's kiiiiiind of a gray area if I were to bind my own fic. it's definitely illegal if I were to bind my own fic and then sell it. it's kiiiiiind of a gray area if you were to bind my fic and keep it for yourself, or gift it to a friend. it's definitely illegal if you were to bind my fic and then sell it (and I would be very mad at you). and it's definitely illegal for you or me or anyone else to get my fic printed through a print-on-demand company, or someone selling fanfics on etsy, or anything else like that

the reason you can buy books from Hasbro about TF1 or the video games is because Hasbro owns the rights to the characters and they can do whatever they want with them

I don't own the rights to the characters, but I do own the rights to my work. kind of. fanfic is a legal gray area and the reason it continues to exist is because we don't make money off of it. AO3 is very clear about this, and it's part of what makes the website strong and free and able to exist

I've heard that fan art technically exists in this exact same legal gray area, but big companies are much more lenient about it for a bunch of historical reasons. someone who makes fan art can even use it in a portfolio and even get hired by a comic company- it happened to a lot of IDW1 fan artists, they got hired for IDW2

but fanfic writers cannot (to my knowledge) use fic in their portfolios. you ESPECIALLY cannot use fic of an IP in your portfolio to apply to that IP (editors WILL NOT read fanfic). there's lots of legal reasons for this, most of which I only understand at a very surface level

at this time, TEG is the most popular TF fic, at least on AO3. it would be extremely noticeable if printed copies popped up- and that would make me very angry. I am not willing to be mired in any kind of legal action or dispute or distribution of my work. I do not give permission for it to be printed, unless it's in the very specific instance of someone printing the fic on their own printer and binding the fic for themself or for a friend

so yeah!! if I could buy a license from Hasbro and legally get hard covers made, I heckin' would. but I cannot do that and I'm not willing to stick my neck out and possibly get fanfic thrown into court, where companies would then HAVE to set legal precedents about it, which might axe it, if not for good, in a very severe way

thanks for the thought tho! I do think that fanfic will eventually have some kind of license precedent in law (assuming the tech bros don't monetize it via AI and then lobby for law changes that allow only their AI to do it, or something equally vile and terrible): the 'vulgar arts' have a way of ascending into capitalism eventually

have a good day =)

[disaster-reasonable-48]

i read in the tags in one of your posts that you thought of names for the other medics in the tf universe.

mind telling us what those names are?

Yea yea! Took me a minute to figure out what you meant before I realized you meant the tags on my "M E D I C!" post

I'm going to be honest, it's been a bit and I forgot what I named the original medic from the first team fortress team from the comics so sorry peepaw but I do remember the rest!l have a bit more info on my interpretations of the characters too!

Tfc - His name is Javier. His last name is still unknown, but he's Mexican and mysteriously vanished one day. Presumed dead.

Tfi - His name is Dr Wolfgang Ludwig, and he's Tf2 Medic's uncle on his father's side. He went missing with the rest of the Team Fortress Invasion team when Medic was young(like small child) and never got the chance to really know him. He's suspended in space with the rest of his team abandoned by the administrator and put into stasis sleep. It's unclear if this team will ever wake up, though.

Tf2 - Klaus Ludwig! My guy, my man! He's a Jewish doctor who had the training but just lost his license to practice after Skeleton snatching. But thats about it bc my interpretation isn't too different from the majority.

MvM - This is a stray robot named Haywire, who's sentient and considered defective. He's living in the forest around Rothenberg hidden from everyone else. He likes it that way.

[palegalestudios]

I decided on what I want to do.

I wanna make my own Transformers story. HOWEVER, it is going to be set in a sort alternate universe, but still follows the lore (kind of). Why? Because I can’t trust that I’ll get the lore right. Most of my research stems from tf wiki’s (which are pretty vague to begin with) and ytbers who analyse specific shows and their universe lore, or how it continues on in the official tf timeline.

And there’s a lot of tf media that I still haven’t seen, like the comics, that I know would have so much story but I can’t access it. The only one I do have is an IDW series that someone has put onto a website, cause IDW doesn’t have the rights from Hasbro for the tf license anymore.

Honestly, I just don’t want to steer away from established lore too much.

I could also just be overthinking it tho. You tell me

But yea, if I am going to do this, the most that will come out of it will be character concepts, maybe short comics, maybe some fics, maybe even a pitch (which, tbh, will NOT be sent to anyone. I just like making pitch’s/Show bibles lol)

[dragon-snoots-a-boopin]

As many of you that follow me may know is that I absolutely Transformers. I love the figures, the various tv shows, the movies (good popcorn flicks) and the various video games. I have Transformers clothes, jewelry, shot classes, car stickers and so on, alongside my collection figures.

One thing I also have is Transformers comics and I have about one long box full of them. I have TF comics ranging from the classic Marvel TF comics, pretty much all of the Dreamwave comics and a pretty decent amount of TF comic published under IDW but, definitely not all as I just could really afford to keep up when I did have a pull list at a comic shop. Some of you may not know this but, IDW no longer publishes TF comics nor do they even own the license to Transformers anymore.

No, that now goes to folks over at Image Comics, aka, the people that publishes The Walking Dead, as well as many other good comic books. I don't really plan on getting into the new comics but, what I wanted to talk about is the overall look and design of the Transformers that we've gotten to see.

I regret to inform anyone reading this that I really do not like the designs shown here. Like, Prime's legs are SO BIG and SO SQUARE while his thighs, waist and even a bit of the chest are super skinny and then his chest extremely BIG AND SQUARE again. His arms, to me, are also way too big and chunky. Idk what is going on with his head but, it just doesn't look right to me and all of this also applies to Starscream as well.

Like, sorry not sorry, but the proportions of Prime and Starscream are just so bad and wonky to me that it really bothers me. Just look at IDW's G1 Transformer designs, they hit the nail on the head with them so, idk, maybe the artists over at Image Comics just don't really know how to draw robots.

[inkfamy]

Not to get all woobie on main but I'm honestly so excited, the TF comic license last changed hands almost 2 decades ago and even though I've been in/around TF fan stuff almost that long, this is the first time I've actively been on the ground floor when a comic's gone from announcement to publication and im so excited!!!! I'm so excited!!!!!!!!

Skybound/Image have worked on such cool stuff in the past, Robert Kirkman, Daniel Warren Johnson and Mike Spicier have such an amazing list of previous works, AAAAA

There is nothing but optimism and enthusiasm and yelling into a pillow. I CANT WAIT

[optimistpax]

Well looks like the cat’s out of the bag wrt tf comics licensing.

[4th-make-quail]

This might be a really stupid question, but since my dash is experiencing a robot resurgence thanks to the new tf movie and for some reason I thought you were in that crowd... Have you ever been into transformers? You strike me as someone who would enjoy the later run of IDW comics (MTMtE especially was very queer and very good - a bit tought to recommend rn if you aren't already familiar because they lost the license so the most reliable way to get them is *innocently hums sea chanty*.) The DJD would be up your alley, I think. Or Pharma. Or hell even Cyclonus, who is a bit tamer in comparison, but he is very explicitly a cantankerous gay old man.

Omg I have to be honest with u nonny, I've only ever watched the Michael Bay transformers films! I.... Did not realise there were comics!! 🫠 I did enjoy the film and I think I saw the second one?? Idk I had a boner for Starscream's voice iirc??

I love some subsets of comics - mostly dc vertigo - hellblazer being the most notable, but I don't really read anything these days. My laptop screen is very small so it's difficult to read larger formats on there if I can't get the physical graphic novels u know?

Show me the characters tho? I'm intrigued!!

[quetzalpapalotl]

I think it bears remembering that, in the grand scheme of things, the Transformers comic are far from being a priority for Hasbro. Not that it doesn't care at all, but sometimes being in the Tumblr bubble where the comics are the most popular media kind of make them seem like the biggest deal and people find it baffling when Hasbro doesn't cater to its fans.

But the truth is that we are not in the Marvel era and the TF comics are relatively niche. Hasbro cares much more about things like the mainline cartoons or the movies which are meant to be public faces for the franchise and to have a tie-in toyline and are a direct investement on Hasbro's part, since it pays for them to be made.

Whereas with comics, the publishing house pays Hasbro for the Transformers license and then they do all the work of hiring writers and artists and doing the publishing and then cash on sales. They still have to haggle with Hasbro who may forbid some things to not damage their brand, may ask for things to keep brand synergy or to promote a toy line or whatever, but the comic creators have relatively more freedom.

Ultimately, Hasbro still makes the most sales out of children buying toys (or rather, adults buying toys for children). Adult toy collectors being a secondary market and comic fans are not necessarily all that invested in buying toys.

[decepti-thots]

May as well maintag this news, eh.

So about that rumour re: Void Rivals being where the TF comic license went.

[earthstellar]

I think this was going to be called “Collision Course”, and it probably would have been handled similarly to how IDW handled their Star Trek licensed crossovers (where you had TOS/TNG/DS9/VOY/etc. all overlapping to make a singular plot/story arc). 

They did a good job on those Star Trek crossovers, so I’m thinking something along those lines may have been the template for how to start approaching something like this from IDW’s side of things (although this would have been on a larger scale--mitigated by much of the material being stuff that was already made with IDW, so their in-house teams for Transformers would have had the extra experience and familiarity to pull something like this off at that level of complexity), but of course we’ll never know for sure. 

IDW was probably the best comics group to handle something like this, given their extensive experience with large scale licenced property crossovers and smaller crossover projects which were typically around four issue short series runs (I think they did this with the Mars Attacks brand at least once, which included X-Files, Ghostbusters, etc.), but alas. 

Reminds me somewhat of Hasbro’s scrapped idea for UNIT-E, although honestly I think Collision Course would have been more coherent as it involves crossovers from within a single franchise, rather than combining multiple different properties/franchises under the same brand/ownership. 

I think if anyone could do it, it would have been the IDW team(s) for Transformers. They established a broad but internally pretty consistent universe for the IDW comics, and it would have been fun to pull in characters and elements from other non-comic TF media for a crossover event or series like this. 

The hype was real, and I definitely feel like we missed out on something that had a lot of potential. 

So I just discovered there was a canceled Transformers comic

AND I AM FREAKING OUT OVER IT

I just came across the cover for it and lemme tell you I have never gasped out loud before but LOOK

I CANT EVEN CONTAIN MYSELF TO WRITE THIS

LOOK AT EVERYONE

LOOK AT WHAT WE COULD OF HAD