Interview - Comic Artist Don Figueroa

Don Figueroa of Dreamwave and fandom fame recently sat down to chat with Tformers about his involvement in the G1 on-going series, revealing much about the creative mind of what many consider to be one of the best artists to ever pencil a robot. Read on for more.

Click here for the corresponding gallery of G1 On-going images!

Tformers: With War Within, you where pretty much given a clean slate to redefine each character in your own artistic eye ... do you find it harder to take something like G1 which is so clearly defined in the viewer's eye and reinterpret it without "damaging the product" so to speak?

Don: It was much harder with The War Within. I was always worried that the characters I redesigned will be unreconizable to fans and I'll get all sorts of negative feedback from it. The pressure was lifted later when the fan reaction was mostly positive and a most speculated toy line coming out of it. Sure, a few did call for my head on a pike, but as long as the majority of the fans liked it I was happy.

With G1, I had a choice of having either them based on the cartoon models or being toy accurate. Just to be different, I decided to mesh the two together and add in more contemporary technology based on the Alternators/Masterpiece toys so I can draw in realistic looking transformation sequences.


Tformers: When drawing a character that is basically a repaint ... such as Sunstorm for instance ... how do you try to differ that character physically from the other characters that share the same physical form while giving it a unique identity all it's own?

Don: Basically, I just rely on the facial expressions when it comes to the bots with similar design. I'll also tweak certain parts of their head/helmet or body form a bit. and of course, the coloring helps alot.


Tformers: With the scope of the G1 series taking a greater overall feel, do you find yourself more challenged as an artist vs. a smaller setting where the emphasis is just on a few characters?

Don: For me, the more characters I have to play with, the better. You can only draw a character so much before you start to get bored with it. It's cool to draw Optimus Prime and Megatron but the book is not only about them, it's about ALL the Transformers. Besides , it's always cool to see new players contribute to the story line. whether it be a prominent role or just a cameo


Tformers: If you could bring one character in from any timeline or "universe" into the G1 story line just for the sake of that character being fun to draw ... who would it be?

Don: Megatron from Beastwars would kick ass, especially if I can draw him in his Transmetal form, maybe Victory Saber as well. Heck, any of the non-U.S. Transformers would be cool. I guess it wouldn' t be too hard to incorporate them with some sort of hackneyed time travel story-line.


Tformers: Is there a character at this point that you absolutely despise to draw? Or maybe one that you find particularly difficult, and if so, for what reason(s)?

Don: If there is one, I probably haven' t drawn it yet. TFs are always fun to draw. Not everybody has the same body design, size or personality. Although, I find that it is a bit of a challenge to draw some of those non-toy characters from the cartoon or old comics. I have to pop in a DVD and watch it a few times or on pause to get them right. Oh and with Micromasters, I don't have alot of those little buggers and damn if I only knew all their names. I had to research some of them. Thank God for sites like www.tfu.info (those guys and a few online friends helped a lot during MTMTE)


Tformers: We love the cameo appreances of figures that look like they came from the Diaclone and MicroChange lines. Was that intentional and why?

Don: During TWW, yes, it was intentional, I just don't have the time to design Randombots and Genericons for cannon fodder or crowd filler that doesn't look like a simple blockbot. So I decided to put in the old Microman and Diaclone (and others like the Pre-Omega Supreme) toys that were never used as Transformers, only to save time and as an homage. Later on, they got written into it. The Gobots cameo are just for fun and I thought the fans would get a kick out of it.