Marvel Comics

Face front, True Believers! The merry mirthmakers at Marvel Comics brought you seven scintillating years (1984–1991) of fabulous funnybooks starring the ever-lovin' Transformers! A mere two years later, those argumentative appliances struck back (and struck out, natch!) in Transformers: Generation 2. Eons later, in the far-flung future of 2007, Marvel published New Avengers/Transformers, teaming Cybertron's Mightiest Robots with Earth's Mightiest Heroes!

Most of these Marvel mags were penned by one of two brilliant Bullpenners:

• "Blazing" Bob Budiansky, who ably edited the original 4-issue limited series before becoming the first permanent writer of the ongoing series, and is credited with creating most of the backstory to the Transformers mythos, as well as writing most of the terrific bios that came with the Hasbro toys.
• "Senses-Shattering" Simon Furman, who had been the main writer for the Marvel UK series before being asked by Budiansky to write for the US comic, as well. Furman wrote the last 25 issues of the original series, then battled back to pen all 12 issues of Generation 2. For if he could not write them, what chance, then, did anyone else have?

Marvel published the following Transformers series, so hit those back-issue-bins and Make Yours Marvel!

• The Transformers (US)
• The Transformers (UK)
• The Transformers: Generation 2
• The Transformers: Headmasters
• G.I. Joe and the Transformers
• Transformers: The Movie
• The Transformers Universe
• New Avengers/Transformers

Excelsior!

Astounding origins

Marvel is actually responsible for much of the 1980s Transformers concepts and characters. They'd previously done the same for Hasbro on G.I. Joe (to the extent "Laughing" Larry Hama invented the very idea of bad guy toys, never mind all of Cobra) to $ucce$$ and Hasbro asked them to do it again on Transformers.^[1] "Blazing" Bob Budiansky, who'd go on to name almost every character, rushed his way to get the original 28 done in a week during Thanksgiving.^[2]

Basically, unless it only ever appeared in the cartoon or comes from the film, Marvel at least named it. (And then "Senses-Shattering" Furman gave cartoon-critter Unicron an origin that's become his official one in everything else!)

Whacky Working Conditions

Marvel UK in the 80s only had a limited number of people on each comic: usually just the editor and designer, both trying to get a new comic out every week. People would come into the office to draw but it was only in later years there was an actual studio space for them. Furman once recounted "we had free for alls in the office, lots of freelancers coming in hanging around, and we would have fights with water pistols in the office, it was remarkable we got our comics out." ^[3] (The US branch at the time, under Jim Shooter, was notably more corporate.)

While Marvel US got hold of a big fat design 'bible', the UK didn't. When Mike Collins visited America, Budiansky asked why the UK didn't follow the 'bible' and, after Collins stared at him in confusion, gave him a copy of it to take back to Britain.^[4]

Fantastic Fiction

Marvel Comics continuity

Marvel Comics published the ridiculously terrible Robot-Master comic book series. It did not, however, publish a Potato Salad Man graphic novel entitled This Man, This Mayonnaise. I, Robot-Master!

Robo-Capers

Deciding that Soundwave had been answering the letters page for too long, Grimlock arrived at the Marvel Comics UK offices to oust him. Little did he know, Soundwave had already managed to sneak a lift to America, leaving Grimlock to be swamped by unopened mail. Robo-Capers issue 74

Similarly, Dreadwind arrived at the Marvel UK offices to challenge Grimlock to a fight over the letters page but the Dinobot was in a hurry and managed to bury the Decepticon in suitcases... full of unopened mail. The Wind of Change!

Titanic Toys

Marvel characters are incorporated as part of the Crossovers franchise. Marvel Transformers? That certainly sounds familiar.

Bravura Books

Marvel Books published children's coloring and activity books in the 1980s, based on licensed properties retained by Marvel Comics, including Transformers.

Awesome other titles

It may surprise you to know this, but Marvel published comics that had nothing to do with Transformers! A number of these titles would be reprinted as back-up strips in Marvel UK's title: Visionaries, Iron Man, Machine Man, Planet Terry, Hercules, Spider-Man, The Inhumanoids, and, the longest of all, Action Force G.I. Joe the Action Force G.I. Joe. Marvel UK also published Action Force, which crossed over with Transformers.

The massive success of Transformers for Marvel UK may have been the reason it focused so much on licensed material throughout the 1980s, and James Roberts argued in The Transformers Classics UK Volume 2 that the look and format of those licensed comics was very much based on a Transformers-established house style. ^[5] It's certainly the reason why, when the company attempted US-sized monthlies in the late 80s, it did Death's Head and the Furman/Senior Dragon's Claws.

Heroic death

What we call a mid-nineties crisis.

Marvel UK made a great deal of money from Transformers, which was its biggest hit for years (later supplanted by The Real Ghostbusters) and was still selling Transformers Collected Comics reprint specials in the early 1990s. It also spun off Death's Head, who Marvel UK made extra-extreme in 1992 and started to put in every single UK title they could and also the Lord Mayor's Show^[6] Despite the Transformers reprints, in late 1992 editor-in-chief "Punchy" Paul Neary dismissed them and the original Death's Head: "I didn't think there was much future in Transformers-style robots."^[7]

Unfortunately the 1990s also saw the harsh, depressing death of the UK imprint, as too many titles were launched too quickly in a market which was already swamped by a boom turned glut^[8] turned crash. On 29 September 1993, their new Director of Sales, Lou Bank, reported that there was "simply no room to display" all the comics being made^[9] and Marvel UK's efforts in the American direct market coughed its lungs up the following year.^[10]. Panini, partner company of Marvel Europe, took out Marvel UK and despite plans for a smaller-scale relaunch (including another Death's Head revamp^[11]), the first new bosses (who had little publishing background and soon left) abruptly shut down the entire comic department and part of the profitable Marvel Magazine crew.^[12]

One of their last comics was Transformers Winter Special 1994.

Further thrilling information

• Marvel Comics continuity
• Marvel Comics timeline

Notes to Astonish!

• Marvel UK had both an editorial department and a licensing department in the 80s, the latter selling on toy license rights. Ian Rimmer remembered in 2011 that the licensing department had sold the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe rights to someone else, which narked off the editorial department and was part of why they decided to do Transformers. ^[13]

Resounding references