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Transformers Classics - UK

Started by Rogue Judge, 16 November, 2016, 07:11:49 AM

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Rogue Judge

Growing up (in Canada) I was always been a Transformers fan and really enjoyed most of the Marvel run, especailly the Simon Furman stuff. I've never had the chance to read the UK TF books and was wondering if these collections (Transformers Classics UK) would be worth reading. Any opinions?

http://www.bookdepository.com/search?searchTerm=Transformers+Classics+UK&search=Find+book

Smith

They introduce Deaths Head.Nuff said.
Thats a yes.

The Amstor Computer

Great material, poor presentation - for some reason they decided to reprint the stories with enormous gutters so you have narrow comic pages surrounded by vast swathes of white. As it's the only easy way to get this material you just have to look past that but it's quite frustrating.

IndigoPrime

Agreed. I have them, and the reproduction is dire. You get gutters WITHIN the gutters, meaning every piece of art is surrounded by acres of white. The actually scanning work is fine – nothing special, but OK considering the source material. But they're a long way from Titan's editions some years back. The saving grace of the IDW books is the contextual essays that run throughout every book. These interview creators, talk about what was going on between UK stories in the US ones, explore editorial changes required to make the continuity fit, and also print all the covers, albeit as thumbnails.

If you only want the material, they're still an affordable means of reading the material. (And, hint, Wordery is cheaper and also not owned by Amazon.) Otherwise, if you have access to the UK marketplace in some way, it might be worth hanging on to see whether the Transformers collection gets a full run, and cherry pick the relevant volumes (or just buy the entire Marvel G1 run, to have it all in hardback). From what I could tell, the repro on these was a lot better than in the IDW books.

Incidentally, IDW messed up the US books as well. These were recoloured, which in reality meant obliterating much of the detail in the art. Hideous. How that got by any editors, I've no idea.

Rogue Judge

Thanks for the info - after your recommendations/warnings I went to my LCBS and took a physical look at these books, and you were not exaggerating - the gutters are enormous. IDW does some quality collections and re-prints, so I don't understand why these were done so poorly.

IndigoPrime, that hardback collection looks incredible, I would love to have a HC Transformers run like that, but my only access to the UK market is through online book stores (like Amazon, More for U, and now Wordery - thanks). Looks like I might hold out for a proper US release for now.