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Transformers: partworks in disguise

Started by IndigoPrime, 23 September, 2016, 10:20:16 AM

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IndigoPrime

Quote from: Tony Angelino on 12 January, 2017, 09:13:38 PMI don't think the reproduction is quite as bad as people make out.

Unlike some others here I haven't seen any other TF collections so its hard to say whether you should buy this or not.
I think that's the key thing here. If you don't care much about repro and/or don't have other collections, the early stuff in this set might not bother you. But I have the Titan runs of the UK and US material, along with the IDW UK reprints. The Hachette book is worse than all of them.

QuoteIn terms of the US reprints these are from a period when Marvel were printing their comics on very poor quality paper. I think Marc Silvestri's run on Uncanny X-Men was from around the same time and I remember his art in particular looked as if he hadn't finished drawing each page (or else the inker had only inked three quarters of it). An awful lot of fine lines just wouldn't see the printed page. The colouring wasn't good on those original issues either so IDW may have had no option but to recolour. From that point of view the reprint is quite faithful.
The original Titan books were straight reprints. Those were faithful. These saw IDW outsource scanning/recolouring to a studio in India that apparently didn't care much about the end result. That means when you originally had rubbish 1980s US colouring with dots aplenty, you now have rubbish US colouring transformed into eye-searing solids, and a lot of the fine details have just vanished. On the assumption this is the same content as in the IDW US Classics line, this isn't the worst of it either – some of the recolouring work is really bad.

On the notion that there may have been no other option, that's perhaps true – at least from Hachette's standpoint. But it's interesting to compare this approach with, say, Rebellion's. With 2000 AD collections, I sometimes have the odd gripe, but broadly speaking the scanning and retouching work has been very good.

Professor Bear

I imagine with licensing from both Marvel and Hasbro AND having to pay the original creators all over again, IDW couldn't afford to spend more money and time on a higher-quality restoration of what was likely - from their point of view - a one-off reprint to cash in on the TF nostalgia factor/online buzz about the UK comics and to set up any sequels to the material that they would later produce (Simon Furman's ReGeneration One, for instance).  They had a similar situation recently with the ROM reboot, where they pointedly didn't reprint the Marvel series, presumably because even something that sold as well as TF didn't make them back enough money to justify what they'd paid for the Marvel material, and I suppose it's not like ROM's creator Bill Mantlo needs the money or anything.

IndigoPrime

I can somewhat forgive Hachette, but not IDW. The recolour job for classic TF is bloody awful, and I fail to see why it was even necessary. I recall at the time them talking about faded colours and corrections being made. But the end result is just shit. As for the UK material, I've no idea where the hell the material came from, but the UK Classics reprints are ridiculous with their double gutter. Perhaps they had fairly low-res scans and that was the only way they looked half-decent (and these have now been enlarged for the partwork, hence their blurry appearance).

The Monarch

I've never liked anything idw have crapped out.

I know it sounds petty and all but my hatred of the company started when i was conned into buying their "angel season six" comics. it was hyped up big a continuation of the tv series joss whedon playing a huge role in keeping things tick like the dark horse buffy season 8 (thats another farce altogether) A 12 issue telling us what happened after the apocalyptic battle at the end of season 5.

Then issue 1 came out. Its set months after said battle. Characters are acting off. Dead characters are brought back. Characters from other angel comics show up for no goddamn reason. It all read like officially produced fanfic. Sure the buffy ones were not amazing either but at least whedon and other show writers wrote those ones. Yeah thats right Whedon did nothing for this series despite hyped as being a part of it. His entire involvement was saying "go ahead do it" to the writer who did do this mess. Then it became an ongoing and i just gave up. Even now i never read the end of it but i hear a very huge deus ex machina waved it all away.

Is it shocking it was canned and the rights were handed to dark horse?

and don't get me started on the judge dredd comics. Its obvious if you are not british or John wagner you clearly have no clue how to write Dredd. How it still goes on is beyond me.

So yeah tldr not a fan of idw

IndigoPrime

I always thought those Whedon series were missed opportunities. Firefly, in particular, had such a following, and yet the comics were pedestrian at best, and generally poorly written. On the others, I've read most of Buffy S08 and that's OK. Probably no worse than the last couple of seasons of the TV show, but a long way from its prime. I have Angel in digital, but haven't bothered with it as yet.

Hawkmumbler

You think thats bad, Buckaroo Banzai had comics as well. How do you mess up Buckaroo Banzai in comic format? IDW did.

Proudhuff

DDT did a job on me

Mardroid

I had a look in W H Smiths for the first issue. I don't plan on getting this series, but I'm fond of Transformers and I figured the first issue would be worth it. All gone, but there's a few of the second issue available. Still not bad for £6.99 but I think I'll save the money for now.

Link Prime

Quote from: The Monarch on 16 January, 2017, 11:38:48 PM

So yeah tldr not a fan of idw

And yet, IDW have produced some amazing comics.
Locke & Key is widely (and justifiably) regarded as a modern classic.
Ragnarok is one of the best ongoing comics currently being produced.
I've also really enjoyed several other series by the company- Transformers Regeneration One and the Dredd / Anderson / Rogue Trooper minis.
All of those comics also had fantastic production values (although the thicker card stock covers seem to have disappeared).
Yeah, they have produced some lemons- but every publisher has.

Personally, I've bought and enjoyed far more comics from IDW than I have from Marvel over the past few years.

The Monarch

As i said i may be a wee bit petty all comic publishers make good and bad stuff i am just basing things on the shite i rrad

IndigoPrime

Link Prime: I'm with you on Locke & Key, one of the very few things I've ever triple-dipped on. I bought it on Kindle, and then grabbed a bunch of paperbacks. When I could only get one volume in hardback, I rebought them all and sold my paperbacks.

Link Prime

Quote from: The Monarch on 17 January, 2017, 07:00:30 PM
As i said i may be a wee bit petty all comic publishers make good and bad stuff i am just basing things on the shite i rrad

Fair enough- and for what it's worth I didn't rate either of IDW's 'ongoing' Dredd titles very highly (both volumes were dropped after a couple of issues).

Quote from: IndigoPrime on 17 January, 2017, 07:57:30 PM
Link Prime: I'm with you on Locke & Key, one of the very few things I've ever triple-dipped on. I bought it on Kindle, and then grabbed a bunch of paperbacks. When I could only get one volume in hardback, I rebought them all and sold my paperbacks.

Triple-dipped? Pffft, fair-weather fans!
I have this (in particular the 1st collection) in so many formats it's embarrassing (including 'PSP Digitial Comics'  :lol:).
And I'm still tempted to buy the new Hardback editions.

sheldipez

Quote from: Link Prime on 17 January, 2017, 06:13:43 PM
Quote from: The Monarch on 16 January, 2017, 11:38:48 PM

So yeah tldr not a fan of idw

And yet, IDW have produced some amazing comics.
Locke & Key is widely (and justifiably) regarded as a modern classic.
Ragnarok is one of the best ongoing comics currently being produced.
I've also really enjoyed several other series by the company- Transformers Regeneration One and the Dredd / Anderson / Rogue Trooper minis.
All of those comics also had fantastic production values (although the thicker card stock covers seem to have disappeared).
Yeah, they have produced some lemons- but every publisher has.

Personally, I've bought and enjoyed far more comics from IDW than I have from Marvel over the past few years.

Their rebooted and ongoing version of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" has been top, consistently great art and great writing IMO. I hear that their reprints of the old Eastman and Laird era have been good too.

IDW's "Season 10" of the X Files was also much better than the actual return of Season 10 we got on the TV.

Professor Bear

There was an interview with some guy who bankrolled The Asylum where he said it didn't matter how terrible the movies were, it just mattered that they had content to sell.  In a similar vein, I think of IDW's licensing-heavy portfolio as being the comics equivalent of shovelware, and I wouldn't like to be the poor fucker trying to sell Star Trek comics in 7 or 8 years' time when the brand has run out of goodwill.  Or Judge Dredd TPBs, come to that.

The Monarch