There were lots of great speakers, many inspirational presentations, mindblowing talks and some really great practical tips on various forms of web design and development.

One presentation though, stood out for me above others, so much so, that I had to contribute to the conversation when it was question time.

It wasn’t until today, when I received an email from one of the organisers of Web Directions that I realised that my comment was recorded on the podcast! WOW! ME represented in such a form! What an honour! This morning I gave my fellow work colleagues a run-down on the conference at the Staff Meeting. I casually mentioned  for conversational effect, that I was recorded in one of the podcasts. After the meeting, as a joke (but kinda serious) I mentioned to fellow work colleague Evan Englezos, “Hey, you should remix me ha.ha.ha”, well he did!

Original Podcast

Remixed Podcast thanks @evanenglezos

The session I attended was from Robert O’Callahan – The Open Web Platform in the mobile era

Great Conference!

“This handy infographic visualizes all of the Autobots (cars and other land vehicles) from the original American Transformers cartoon, which aired between 1984 and 1986.”

I love it, It does some fan offensive things such as misrepresenting G1 Optimus Primes alt mode as long nosed highway freight rig, as opposed to the Cab Over Engine (COE) that it actually originally was. It also misrepresents G1 Ratchets alt mode as his Transformers Animated alt mode, and other borderline to hysterical fan heresy.

But the fun thing is that they are all cars that would have existed in the 80′s when the G1 cartoon aired.

Check it out below…

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And here’s a pic of the iconic Pink Floyd album cover…

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And here’s the result of combining them…

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Blooper reel / Directors commentary / Work in Progress stuff…

I had a few attempts at the idea, here’s a few of them…

Attempt 1

Just get them together and see what might happen…

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Attempt 2

The idea here was to get the rainbow to emit from the light source in the O letter, this caused the subtitle to be obscured though, so I moved on…

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Attempt 3

With this one I thought “Hey! I know! I’ll replace one of the letters in the Transformer title with the Pink Floyd triangle! GREAT IDEA!”, except it made the title read as “TransfArmers”, which was an unintended side effect of combining the two design elements I could have chosen to replace the A in the TF logo with the triangle, but it would have involved severing the R and A from one another, for one, this is too much work, and the second reason I didn’t do it was because it involved a bit too much destruction of the original logo, I find with these sort of things, the less you do the better subtlety is the key… So I decided to move in a different direction….

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As far as graphic design is concerned, I don’t really consider myself much chop, but I can get around the concept of vector based artwork. I am more familiar with Adobe Flash’s vector tools, but recent changes to Flash have made me resent the program for other reasons, and now I barely use it. So I turned to Illustrator, a program I have disliked for a while now, mostly due to it’s almost impenetrable workflow for creativeness. I made an effort, looked up some info on Google, and started tracing.

Note:- Click the images for a larger view of them.

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Before I got to Illustrator, I took the original comic, and put it into Photoshop, it became the base image I worked from, I used it to get an idea of how certain layout ideas could be applied to the page. I swapped around the panels, messed with the layout and added a few elements that I thought would enhance key panels in the comic. More specifically, I added a bit more excitement to the 4th panel, this was starting to take the comic in a new direction thematically, as the previous “blandness” was, as I later found out, an intentional seriousness that was implied in the design of the comic, I was taking into to a more fun arena, given that TF:Animated went in this direction anyway, I thought this to be a fitting angle to pursue.

After I had made a few more preliminary layout alterations, I took this bitmap into Illustrator, and used it as a reference for some cleaner vector art, I traced images, created backgrounds, threw in some more panels and did some more layout rearranging, heres one of the final results, still not finished though…

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Reasonably confident that I had done quite a number on the comic, I posted this image to Siebertron.com. I got a good idea from Predaprince, who mentioned that it would be fun to actually show the clones in a final panel, arguing and bickering with each other, and Starscream looking dejected, his plan a failure, I thought this was a good fun idea, and started work on sourcing reference for the clones, found some good images, and got cracking…

Heres a few attempts at getting the final panel worked out, each attempt played a part in deciding the final outcome…

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However, as usual, life got in the way, in the most tragic way possible, and it took me away from the project for a bit over a week. Anyway, tragedy and drama aside, when I got back into things, I used my free time efficiently, and finally had something worth showing off to others, so I uploaded it the Siebertron.com forum, for what I thought was going to be the final time (little did I know), here’s the result…

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I was happy with the fruit of my labour, and thought it was pretty good for a first attempt at creating a comic page (something I had NEVER done before), even got some positive feedback from the forum. So rather brazenly, I informed Underbase what I had done, and I went to submit this as an “official Transformers Mosaic”, it’s different enough to be it’s own entity now right? Surely it warrants submission? I thought. As it turns out, no it doesn’t. I was told that they “don’t do that kind of thing”, but I am free to show it off on my own site, but I have to remove the TFM logo. This made me cranky, and upset, but I shook out the funk and, determined to now own this project as mine, I made a few changes once more, here’s the result…

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Not sure if this is the end of this saga, it very well might be, but who knows what some more efficient use of time will bring? Stay tuned…

Transformers Ongoing issue#8 cover A

STORY SO FAR (taken from inside cover)

When the evil Decepticons seized control of Earth, they destroyed much of human civilisation. Instrumental in their plans was the giant robot Devastator, formed by six smaller robots called Constructicons merging together to create the behemoth. Devastator crushed the tunnels to New York City, trapping everyone on Manhattan and flooding the tunnels. The Decepticon siege eventually ended when human hero Major Spike Witwicky shot and nearly killed the Decepticon leader. He has since been asked with hunting down all Transformers, Decepticon and Autobot alike. Devastator and his six Constructicon component parts are still at large.

Primarily, this is a story about Spike, as the story centers around him. The cover is a hint of things to come in the ending portion of the story.

Art

Another new artist! This time it’s a fellow called Javier Saltares. This marks the second change in artists for this series, the first was the work of E.J.Su on issue#7.

It’s a different style, at times it reminds me of Mark Bagleys Amazing Spiderman run in the mid-1990′s.

Page number crunching…

Just to give you an idea of the amount of pages in this issue, and what is actually on them, here’s a list.

• 32 pages in total (not including front and back covers).
• 22 pages of actual story (10 pages of advertising).
• 16 pages of human only appearances (no robots).
• 6 pages of robot appearances (only 1 robot).

Story

As you can see from the list above, the overarching human aspect of the story is examined quite heavily. We start off with a monologue from Spike, in the gym, talking about his past when he was growing up, about fighting as a kid, and fighting as an adult. Then we get some interaction between members of Spikes troops, acting manly and …fighting! There’s a theme here! This is followed by some tense military interactions between Spike and his superiors (one of them being his dad, Sparkplug), in the form of a big screen conference call, big screens that take up large page space. In this conversation, Spike gets outed for letting Optimus Prime escape, but because Spike has a good track record, his superiors let him go with a warning. After the conference call is concluded with the other military big-wigs, Spike and Sparkplug linger and have a private chat on a big screen, they mention a problematic person named “Allenby” one of the superiors in the conference call earlier, I’m sure this aspect of the story will feature in upcoming issues.

Spike leaves the base, claiming to his female subordinate that he’s “off-com” tonight. In actual fact, he goes out on a solo-mission, where he encounters a Constructicon, and single handedly takes him down with clever use of his environment and some home made acid. Eventually, the whole encounter becomes a revenge killing, as Spike murders the Constructicon in the name of a fallen comrade named Tim Simmons who died 3 years earlier, when the Constructicon was part of the combiner named Devastator. This brutal act of murder is quite dark, and shows us a deep seeded hatred for machines inside Spike, as he mentions in the closing panels of the issue…

I hate machines.

The ones that make you stronger. The ones that make you more vunerable.

And the ones that make you forget your humanity. And make you feel like a machine yourself.

It’s the worst part of the job.

Hate to say it Spike, but killing a machine in cold oil, makes you not only cold LIKE a machine, but also, the WORST of humanity too. Deep stuff. Maybe that’s the point?

Verdict

While dealing with heavy subject matter, this issue feels like a filler story for the overall series. Given that it centers on Spikes conflict between his job in the military and his dad, and the revenge killing that ends the story. But we see nothing of the rest of the Autobots, and nothing of Megatron as was teased in issue#7. Bit of a let down. This coupled with different art, make for an awkward read.

Can’t wait for issue #9, will see if it’ worth getting or not.

Transformers Ongoing issue#7 cover B

Art

Different artist on this issue, E.J. SU. I’d heard of his work online, but never bore witness to a comic he has drawn. And while his art style is unique and interesting, it’s such a radical shift from what the series has established with Don Figueroa. I must admit, I dont like it, the robots are too simplified, I know I mentioned less-is-more, and my interest in the DCAU style, but not for the robots! The humans maybe…

Transformers Ongoing issue#6 cover B

Story

Spike freaks out when faced with Menasor, so he releases Optimus Prime. Bit of comedy in this one as Optimus Prime lands on Swindle after saying “Well, who’s stupid now?”, this series needs a bit more comedy, a welcome change. But it doesn’t continue, as Optimus puts Menasor onthe ropes, using his skills as a soldier, and also as a leader, he rallies his former team into destroying the threat of the gestalt.

Great action scenes as Menasor gets riddled with bullet holes, lots of well depicted and choreographed fight sequences.

Bumblebee has a meaningful conversation with Ultra Magnus, puts him in his place. HotRod steals Ultra Magnus’ ship and gets away from earth before Ultra Magnus, or any other Autobot can stop him!

Art

Cover B sports a pic of Optimus Prime Battling an Offscreen Menasor. As you can see from the pic in this post, it’s quite a great action pose! You can just imagine a toy on your shelf doing this! Really great! There’s also great attention to detail in the bent metal of various robot forms, Menasorhad quite the wrestling match with other smaller robots, and the stress of all that action really shows! Also, Ultra Magnus gets a pretty serious beating, his “armour” show pretty serious evidence of mis-treatment! Excellent! Now if only there was more grit and texture in the colours! Then we’d have a pretty awsome issue! As it is, the colours are quite good, crisp and clean, but yeah, like I mentioned with banged-up robot metal, it sort of doesn’t fit!

Transformers Ongoing issue#5 cover B

Art

Ok, so I bought cover B, which sports an Andrew Wildman cover. I mentioned in my issue#1 review, that I wasn’t a fan of the G1 artwork, and I still stand by that, but I don’t mind this cover. It doesn’t add any dynamic qualities to the character, but merely serves as a functional image of Ultra Magnus. It sort of looks, passionless. Whic from having heard him talk about his experiences drawing robots in the G1 comics, rings true, given he drew them with sweat ad gritted teeth, nt what you’d expect from a robot! I guess they are sentient living robots, but still… I don’t have much ground to stand on, as other interpretations of TF such as animated series’ have committed the same “offence”.

Transformers Ongoing Issue#4 cover A

Seasons in flight

Story

Starts off with a story about Thundercracker, and what happened when he was damaged and stranded on Earth, illusions to his “betrayal”, he hooks up with a rag tag bunch of Decepticons. A large part of the story is told from Thundercrackers perspective, his story is told via an internal monologue throughout the issue. Thundercracker reflects on the Transformers seeming inability to change over a vast amount of years, and the strength of organic life to return after “wildfires and wars”. Thundercrackers story is intercut with the ongoing drama of the defecting Autobots, we see HotRod teaming up with the same ragtag bunch of Decpticons that Thundercracker mentions earlier. We see Ultra Magnus’ interference in the defection and revelations in their affairs as the plot thickens! Thundercracker is depicted as a witness to these events, literally, we see over his shoulder certain scenes.

Swindle is depicted, well swindling HotRod, sweet talks him into doing some as yet, unknown thing, calls him “Rodimus Prime” HotRod likes the name, depicts HotRod as a gullible idiot, the reader can see that something bad is going to come of this, this makes you want to keep on reading, clever plot device. Finally! Something to latch on to!

Transformers Ongoing issue#3 cover A

A Rude Awakening

Story

Jetfire has a headache! A robot with a headache? Well… ok…(?) HotRod sweet talks Jetfire into helping him with is naive quest.

As was revealed at the end of the previous issue, Ultra Magnus has come to earth. He proceeds to question the remaining Autobots who haven’t flown the coup about the events that lead to Ironhides death, and Optimus Primes defection. This makes Bumblebee uneasy, he’s not really interested in leading the Autobots anyway, he’s a reluctant leader, unsure of himself, and Ultra Magnus just runs rough-shot over him.

Tracks, Hoist, Blurr and Beachcomber leave the Autobots base, not wanting  get arrested by Ultra Magnus, they prefer to be free. Unwittingly, they fall right into the hands of Spike and his military cohorts, but Blurr gives them the slip. From my knowledge, this is a breakaway point into the Bumblebee 4 issue limited series, where Blurrs actions and plight are further played out there. Strange tie-in, as theres a few different things happening between the two series.

Optimus Prime is further depicted in this series as a mopy and depressed robot, he’s sorry for the damage and chaos he’s wrought to the human race, his own sense of loss in Ironhides death, indicates that Optimus is experiencing stage 4 of the Kübler-Ross model, he’s depressed, poor fella, but it just dosnt ring true for Optimus Prime, the heroic leader of the Autobots, to be depressed!

Art

The art starts to get into a groove now, it’s less jarring, and you take for granted the effort that went into the creating it, which you could argue, is the purpose of good art. The opening page with Jetfire complaining about having headaches as he sits atop what looks like an aircraft carrier in a air plane hangar, is a clever touch. Jetfires robot mode is well executed, and you start to see how the conceptual forms of the robots can be applied to just about any TF you’ve seen from G1, this is a clever art style, by someone who has spent time and effort understanding how a Transformer is constructed, it’s a credit to Don Figueroa.