TFW2005.COM Member Monzo dropped by tonight to take us back to the oldschool with a bit of Transformers Generation One history – a scan of rare artwork and an interview of Marvel Productions editors Bryce Malek and Dick Robbins. Monzo had this to say about the interview:
[INDENT]The January 1985 issue of Comics Feature ran a story on Marvel Productions, the company that produced the original Transformers cartoon. As part of this story, Comics Feature briefly interviewed Transformers story editors Bryce Malek and Dick Robbins, and included a piece of rare pre-production Transformers artwork. After learning of this story, I bought a copy of the magazine and made a high-resolution scan of the art, which is included in this post. This is not the first appearance of this particular piece of artwork, as it came into the hands of collector Alex Bickmore some years ago; you can see it here, where the corner isn’t covered up by part of a Pandamonium promotional painting.[/INDENT]
You can check out both a mirrored scan of the artwork as well as the transcription of the interview after the jump. Thanks again to Monzo for sharing this with us here! [INDENT]Dick Robbins and Bryce Malek are two story editors at Marvel. Robbins is a veteran writer from the days of dramatic radio and live TV, who since 1972 has worked almost exclusively in the animation field, and Malek is a young man who used to work in Hanna Barbera’s accounting department. It was Margaret Loesch who gave him his first writing assignment in 1980. Both Malek and Robbins came to Marvel in April of 1984, where they’ve been putting together the syndicated Transformers series ever since.
“It’s based on a toy line,” Malek says, “which a lot of Saturday morning shows are these days. They’re similar to Go-Bots and about three or four other different lines. They are robots you can manipulate into jet planes and automobiles and all kinds of things.”
The large number of characters in the Transformers series necessitated the hiring on of numerous freelance writers to get the scripts for the required number of episodes done on time.
“We normally would prefer to work with fewer writers,” Robbins explains. “If we get a good writer to do a good script for us, we know his or her subsequent scripts will be even better. But we’ve been under the gun on this one. It’s nice to have four or five writers for a series, but on this one we’ve had to have many more.”
“In this case we were required to get out two scripts a week,” Malek adds. “Twice as many as usual. We’ve had to work on several scripts simultaneously and some of our episodes are serialized. When we have a three-parter, it’s not easy farming the information out to the person who’s writing script #3 when you don’t know what’s happening with script #1. It can be pretty hectic and it gets very pressured.”
Regardless of the pressure, Robbins and Malek are enjoying working on Transformers. Because the show is syndicated, they have much less stringent restrictions on depicting violence and action then they would have if it was a network show. “We can do a lot more,” Malek confirms. “The violence is between the robots, so there’s nothing that kids can really emulate. You can destroy a robot and then fix him up tomorrow. This show’s got laser beams, crashes, explosions… it’s real violent and I think boys will love it![/INDENT]
Gingerchris
I'm assuming it's supposed to be either Spike or Buster. Although since this is a really early piece of pre-production artwork that might predate the creation of both those characters it could be just a generic human companion guy.
That said, the woman in Bumblebee (if we are to assume it's him) looks kinda like Carly so it could be more cartoon-based than comic-based, even though Carly showed up later in the cartoon's run. However, the comic's Buster also had a girlfriend, Jessie, who this could also be (although I think she was a red head, or at least more on the ginger hair colour spectrum than Carly's blonde).
I'm thinking it's just an early generic guy and gal and those two later became both Buster and Jessie and Spike and Carly.
Autovolt 127
Wait who is in the drivers seat in Optimus Prime's chest?
Scaleface
So does this make it official that Transformers are just some GoBots ripoff? For some early moment in late '83/early '84 the best description you could give a layman of Transformers is "they's similar to GoBots!"? 😉
Monzo
Cap was in both the 1980 Spider-Man cartoon (he and Spidey fought the Red Skull) and Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends (twice); the cel is probably from one of those appearances. Of course, a bunch of G1 season 1 eps DID take place in an indistinguishable desert landscape, so the comparison is still apt…
Tripredacus
The pic of Captain America is interesting. Looks like he is in a G1 Season 1 episode.
Nope. Captain America finally did get a movie. It was released in theaters and on video. The Fantastic Four movie also took an extremely long time to get made, only to end up being unreleased.
bradforj
"… it's real violent and I think boys will love it!"
It is a pity that parents no longer understand this about their little boys.
StarFire_MK2
Wow, I remember seeing this when I was a kid. I really liked that drawing of Optimus. Thanks for sharing!
I always liked that look, too. Frank Springer used in in the first 4 or so Marvel comics, IIRC.
Monzo
The earliest treatment for the Transformers franchise was developed by Jim Shooter and Denny O'Neil at Marvel Comics, stemming from Hasbro's relationship with Marvel on G.I. Joe. That treatment, shown the last time Bob Budiansky was at BotCon, already had the Transformers as sentient alien machines. It's possible this artwork was simply developed based on the fact the Optimus toy had seats in its chest.
There was a blue condor in the Microman range. It would eventually serve as the inspiration for the e-HOBBY cassette Garboil.
No, not quite. Death's Head and Circuit Breaker were both introduced outside of Transformers comics – DH in a Marvel UK advert, CB in an issue of Secret Wars II – to circumvent the fact that Hasbro's contract with Marvel stipulated that anything introduced in the TF comics would become theirs. There is no way in which Marvel could "steal" Transformers from Hasbro; they were just a licensor, though one with more original input on the brand than a lot of others.
Smasher
Out of all those movie ideas Howard the Duck was the only one that made it to the screen.
What a tragedy!
UltraMagnus3786
The kid burning alive in 'Bee was Spunk, Spike's older brother. He was never mentioned in the series again after this horrific death. As to who that is riding inside of Optimus with his bowl of Man Chow, the world may never know.
Star Saber
Ah, the time when Gobots was more popular than the Transformers.
That said, can you imagine if the Transformers ended up closer to the original Diaclone line – with human pilots?
Cobalt Agent
I love how instead of just disappearing, Optimus Prime's wheels remain but on the back of his legs. I've never seen that take on his model before.
Dormamu
Proof that Stan was the man even then. I find it interesting that he states one of the Ten Cartoonists Commandments: "It's really the networks that exert the control." True then and true now, true believers.
Smasher
This whole article is fantastic.
I wish it were a little larger and easier to read, but it's great.
I wish that Daredevil cartoon had made it to the screen.
G1Prowl
We need a green Bumblebee now. Now.
TFW10
I love these pictures
GAUGE
I remember when there was a time Marvel tried to steal the Transformers franchise by trying to cross over stuff from both franchises into eachother.
Hasbro was all like: "Nope"! *yoink*
So long Death's Head and Circuit Breaker. you will be missed. *sniffles*
A moment of silence.
…
Gingerchris
Optimus: "Laserbeakseseseses! All my nemesiseseseses!"
Laserbeakses: "Attack!"
Optimus: "Seseseseseseses!"
Bumblebee: "My precioussssss…"
Wonder if there's any more of this artwork kicking about. I love this older and somewhat more innocent kind of thing. Pity those three attack birds couldn't have been Laserbeak, Buzzsaw and a third repaint. Was there ever a third colour version of that mold to draw on for a trio?
Deonasis
Fixed. And I await my punctuation to be fixed
Gingerchris
That's kinda nice.
The guy inside Optimus looks like he's just gazing out wondering if the weather is going to be rainy that day (that's not a steering wheel he's holding, but a cereal bowl of Man Chow). I suspect a few seconds later he'll just draw the curtains and go back to bed for some daytime telly and a lazy fap.
I like how Bumblebee has his top down.
He should have a care since that's Laserbeak he's facing. His deadliest nemesis.