John Barber and Steve Kurth sat down for an interview with Flickering Myth regarding their work on Schick Hydrobot and the Transformers which acted as a tie-in comic book (albeit loosely) for Transformers: The Last Knight.
John, you’ve been working with IDW on Transformers for several years now and are currently writing the Optimus Prime title. What’s the difference for you between writing in that universe and the movie-verse?
JB: The biggest thing is that the IDW comics have a vast universe where the comics are fully driving the storytelling. Everyone at Hasbro and IDW and the people that are working on the comics are all focused on the comics’ stories. It’s important to tell a story that still has importance for the characters and that means something, but the movies are so big, cost so much, take so long and involve so many people to make them—they’re necessarily driving the storytelling car. That said—I got my start writing Transformers on movie tie-in comics, and I’d love to get to do some again in the future.
What can you tell us about the new Autobot, the Schick superhero Hydrobot?
JB: It’s interesting because, you’ll see in the new comic book, nobody knows if he’s an Autobot or a Decepticon. Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, and Hound think the Schick Hydrobot is a Decepticon, and when they try to track him down, they learn the truth: he’s a superhero fighting for good, helping to protect and defend against irritation, and just wants to help people with his quick wits and acrobatic abilities. Prior to this, you might have seen him on TV commercials, and through the new comic book, “Schick Hydrobot and the Transformers,” we finally learn his origin.
SK: My favorite thing about Hydrobot so far is that he expresses himself through actions. He’s tiny with a big heart and, because of his lack of speech, is showing you everything you need to know about him through his actions.
Check out the full interview at Flickering Myth.
GOLD5
With Targetmaster companion Onacup-Man! (Im sure they already exist as major product lines in Japan.. Just gotta go to the right stores.. Its right next to the Evangelion life sized sex dolls..)
Deadend
Sounds cute. Will read it!
DeletedUser_119270
New inteview.
Exclusive Interview with Transformers’ John Barber and Steve Kurth
Daimao
I miss them too. I know they weren't technically cannon but they were great for filling in plot holes and giving character to a lot of the offscreen toys.
MrNiceGuy
man this really makes me miss the movie tie-in comics.
I mean Bay's reason for disallowing them is pretty solid, after the fiasco with the amazon comic preview that spoiled sentinel's betrayal, but it still really sucks. Feels like something's missing.
Thelonicon
My local store slipped a copy into my folder today too, and I was pretty surprised to see it in print.
Wreckgar
Not sure if anyone knows but there is a print version. I found it at my local comic shop in Chicago as a free giveaway.
supernova222
being a dumb brute is still a personality and more than what we have gotten from most cons in these movies, so if thats all he is, ill take, especially if he at least talks.
whats funny is now when i look at the different shots of onslaught from the trailers, his claw is now so much more obvious to me,
Lazerwave
I hope so. On the other hand, he was never shown in any promo pictures or stickers or anything. I was hoping for another leak from Weibo hinting about a Wave 4 in the future. Just with the movie getting closer I would have heard something about Any Onslaught toy.
And if the comic said what Onslaught personality is, I can only imagine if he had lines in the movie that he would be voiced by someone like, Patrick Warburton.
kaijuguy19
You know the more I think about it I'm betting that Onslaught is being set up as being Hound's main rival like how Bumblebee is rivals with Barricade and obviously Optimus against Megatron. With how Hound is actually being featured the most in a lot of the promotions along with Bee and Optimus as well as how like I've said before Onslaught was the only Decepticon officially announced along with Megatron and Barricade perhaps that also indicates that he may have more to do then what we're shown of him like him having a personal history with Hound that could be explored upon a bit even if it's a little bit.
Lazerwave
I love how Onslaught looks, I just hope there will be a toy, but I'm not holding my breath. As much as I can see parts of him from parts of the fake toy picture.. Let's just hope there is either a plan for wave 4 or Takara has something up their sleeve.
primalxconvoy
That's great! I wish my phone could open pdf comes that large though. Sorry to be cheeky, but is this available as picture format files?
primalxconvoy
Or just hosting it here. I'm on my phone at the mo and don't want to give out my credit card details for a free thing.
Cheers in advance.
TCJJ
We all joked about it, but this is no laughing matter now.
DecepticonSpike
Trying to download it from IDW. Taking a lot longer than it should. Hopefully it'll be on Comixlogy soon.
Danny-Boy
Movie Long Haul has character?
Darkryt
Alright, reading it (thank you again for the contact information-free pdf, Danny-Boy,) it seems like good, cute fun like you\'d find out of a cheesy 80\'s or 90\'s comic book … but assuming his depiction here is accurate to the film, I am bit disappointed that Onslaught – you know, the intelligent tactication who led his own subgroup? – is a dumb brute who\'s a retool of the gripestest Constructicon.
I know it\'s the movie universe, but they usually get the signficant of the names somewhat right (Jetfire is a jet with Decepticon ties, Long Haul is a Construction who complains, etc).
kaijuguy19
Seeing as he was actually officially announced to be in the movie along with Barricade and Megatron last year as opposed to just being held top secret like the rest of TLK Decepticons like Nitro,Hooligan,Berserker and Mowhawk that does seem to indicate that he could possibly have a larger role then we thought.
supernova222
unfortunately, i feel like onslaughts involvement is meant to compensate for a very minor movie role.
Chopperface
Sure do wish that we could get a mini-series filling in the gap between DOTM and AOE. Looks like we'll be brought up to speed better both regarding that gap and the gap between AOE and TLK in the actual film itself, though.