SDCC 2008 Day 2 - IDW Transformers & GI Joe Panel

IDW PANEL attendees include Chris Ryall, Josh Perez, Klaus Scherwinski, Shane McCarty, Denton J. Tipton, Alex Milne, Marty Isenberg, Marcelo Matere, Chris Corey, Steve McCarthy, Robby Musso

All Hail Megatron

1ST ISSUE is out. They have good feedback and passionate criticism.
They like debates over the comics.
Issue 2 will be out in 2 weeks
Issue 1 is almost sold out with a possible 2nd printing.
New characters Ravage and a "Frenzy Moment" coming in issue 3.
It is not just about Decepticons.
Was described as an all galaxy wide extravaganza.
Should get good with Prime down.

New Character Drift

He will be a Japanese drift racing car.
He will be made into an action figure.
1st IDW toy to be made

Revelations

With Sideswipe, Simon Furman is writing and EJ Su is drawing with a special cover by Nick Roche


Animated

Comes out August 13
Issues 2 cover by Elrini Maramba
Interiors by Dario and Liam


Animated: the Arrival will be a 5 issue mini-series that takes place in Season 1 of the show.
Lots of things that happen in S1, or are related.
First appearance of Oil Slick.
Recap of pilot with diff points of view
Each issue will have 2 stories, 11 pages each.

TF Movie Return of Starscream

On its way to America
Issue returns Decepticon to Cybertron.
Starscream has a plan in motion.
Rebuilding facsimile of Allspark.
Things go wrong, but in a surprising way.
Still Starscream, the nasty commander type.
Soundwave was supposed to be in issue 2.
He was removed because of appearance in movie.

Coming Soon

Destiny

Written by Chris Mowry, pencils by Alex Mine, and colors by Josh Perez
Ties in with prequel with next movie... hopefully
Coming December 2008
Will cover things like fall of sector 7 back on earth and how some chars changed for next movie.

Maximum Dinobots

Furman is not going anywhere.
Alex Milne & Nick Roche on covers.
Threads from Headmasters works up to a story climax.

Spotlight: Blurr

New approach to character, but keeps the edge.
Make him more relevant, but give some new life.
Blurr is not comedy relief.
Story set up before the Great War.
They are back on Cybertron before every thing went to hell.
Blurr's position and who he is. He's a prick.

The Thirteen

Origins of the first 13 Transformers
Simon Furman is working with Hasbro on it.
No release or artist assigned yet.
Date not yet set, coming in 2009.

Spotlight: Cosmos

Chris Mowry and Andrew Griffith art.
Some time in 2009.
Tie in with Acsention / All Hail timelines

GI Joe

A New Beginning
Robert Atkins - Editor
Larry Hama - Writer
Andy Schmidt - Art

Some updating with a classic look.
Inking comics now.
Retailer incentive cover with art by Ben Templesmith of 30 Days of Night

Other comics include:

• Reprints of the classic Marvel Comics.
• Movie Universe comic.
• Movie Adaptation.
• 4 issue prequel series
• 4 issue adaptation of the upcoming film

Larry Hama
Says he is excited because now he has a chance to do lots of things he wanted to, but never got to do such as taking the characters in a more gritty and modern direction.

Loves working with IDW. Thinks their artwork is fabulous.

Dont get confused by "Classic"Lots of times they want "old way." But his work evolves and changes. So he's not doing what he did 25 years ago. He wants to do better with a different understanding of characters

He wants to make the series more accessible to wider range of people.


Robert Atkins
Says he loves GI Joe and wants to get a grasp of characters and show them how they act and interact with each other.

GI Joe design is visually good, so they don't want to mess with it. He wants to take the favorite aspects and add some modernization to them.

Art should work practically. If can be done in real life, it should be drawn that way.

The characters have been revised a few times.

October will see an issue #0 with an issue #1 coming with 16 pages of story

Sketches, notes, and behind the scenes for #0 were shown at the panel.
Destro will have a furry red collar!

Questions & Answers

Cartoon Cobra Commander is wimpy. How will yours be?
Larry says he is just totally badass with a whole new depth of evil for him. He has to balance with Destro.

Who's your fave character?

Robert says he always liked vehicle and gear. Sky Striker, Hiss tank.
Andy says Stalker is way cool. Only guy who could kick anyone's butt.
Hama - Snake eyes, because he's easy to write for.

Will there be Ninjas?
Stories can get sidetracked by character popularity. They can take over. Some characters are not as popular as others. Have to bow to pressure of why isn't there more and are trying to work it out.

Is this a relaunch of GI Joe or continues from Devils Due?
This is a relaunch and want to stay away from DD story by working with a clean slate and new ideas. Toys don't have so much influence on story now that they are out.
They are going to be retelling the story from day 1 and be as faithful to characters as possible, but have to deal with 25 years and work it as new with same guys.

How many Marvel comic will be reprinted?
All Marvel comics.

TF Questions

Any other IDW characters in toys?
Not at the moment.

New Animated series coming next spring.

Why the dumb Grimlock in the toon?
Dumb Grimlock Funnier.