A post from Weibo has shared images of an upcoming Chinese edition of the IDW Beast Wars Comics.
IDW published several Beast Wars comic material from 2006 to 2008. The titles included: Beast Wars: The Gathering and Beast Wars: The Ascending, and the Beast Wars Sourcebook (character guide). According to the Weibo post, each of these titles will be released as TPB and translated into Chinese. No release date or price is indicated, but according to the images it seems like the publishing company is DMan.
Update: Thanks to 2005 Boards member Kafuka Fuura, this pre-order page on Taobao prices 165.00 Yuan for all three books ($26.20 approximately) and the expected release day is around May 15th.
You can check out the mirrored images after the jump, and then let us know your impressions at the 2005 Boards!
Black Convoy
Thanks for the extra info! Updating the post and giving you credit.
Gamerlingual
Was the English version that bad?
KJ_81
I'd like them in an English hardcover. I can't recall one being done. You could also throw in the Dreamwave Summer Special, just for funsies. But not the IDW BW Profiles series. Forget that.
Kafuka Fuura
According to their pre-order page on Taobao 变形金刚BW漫画beastwars野兽之战3本套装 集结令升天令人物档案-淘宝网 the price (all three) is 165.00 CNY in total and the expected release day is around May 15
SHIELD Agent 47
TCJJ is right. The Weibo post is written entirely in the Chinese language, not the Japanese language. Moreover, I don’t think most Japanese publishers have direct operations overseas, and vice versa.
To elaborate, Chinese call their written script “hànzì” (汉子/漢字) while Japanese refer to these as “kanji” (漢字). China uses “simplified characters” (简体字 jiǎntǐzì), Taiwan and Hong Kong use “traditional characters” (繁體字 fántǐzì), and Japan uses “new character form” (新字体 shinjitai). Some shinjitai are like jiǎntǐzì, some are like fántǐzì, and some are unique to the shinjitai set.
But you can easily distinguish Japanese text from Chinese text because Japanese mixes logographic kanji with phonetic kana.
Also, due to a long historical rivalry between China and Japan, I advise the use of culturally-appropriate terminology, even if you are writing/speaking a different language like English. As TCJJ points out, some Chinese will take offense to their writing being called “kanji”. Vice versa with the Japanese.
GoldDeadEnd
I liked these series. Tried to add a lot of characters while not disturbing what was the first objectively well thought out, smart (and I grew up with and love the G1 cartoon) TF show. Unenviable job to tie BW2 and Neo in.
highlander3000
I enjoyed them especially the artwork. I could tell what was going on in each panel without having to squint or turn the book around. I would love to see them all in an oversized IDW Collection style hardcover. My TPB are pretty beat up.
DarkEyes
The art is outstanding
Macross7
Haven't read them since they came out. Seemed like they just crammed in every toy that didn't make the show.
Probably would enjoyed them if it was set between episodes and had a couple extra characters added in but featured the show cast.
Nevermore
He's, uhm… main character-ish?
TCJJ
Essentially, yes. Kanji = Chinese characters used in the Japanese language, basically. In Chinese, it's just… Chinese. At least some of them would get upset if you told them their characters were kanji.
Black Convoy
I really loved these mini-series. Hope we have more information, price and release date soon.
SPLIT LIP
Simon Furman has never really "got" Beast Wars as far as I'm concerned. Even with Nemesis, which I maintain was the worst misstep of the entire series. He tries to write it just like any other TF series and not in any way like the original show. Beast Wars was a series primarily centered around character interactions between a long lasting, fairly small cast, and Furman immediately threw every single fucking toy/character he could into the book and gave them no personality.
Like seriously, can anybody describe Razorbeast's character to me besides his relation to the plot?
Gamerlingual
Oh so the name is Kanji in Japanese but Chinese give it a different label. Got it.
TCJJ
I'm pretty sure it's not kanji at all – it's straight-up Chinese. I think Japan already got these years ago but I could be completely wrong about that.
It's definitely a shame they didn't do more with these Beast Wars books. I like them but it definitely was lacking because the story didn't get a chance to be fleshed out.
Pretty sure they are. Which is a shame, because Don is one of my favourite artists. Last we heard, he was working on Armarauders, and now that that's basically dead and didn't go anywhere (also a shame), I have no idea what he's up to.
Verno
Damn. I hope the bridges aren't completely burnt.
Starscream Gaga
The abridged version, he made designs for his own Transformers comics that he wanted to pitch to IDW and they said they weren't interested but then later wanted to use the designs. He gave them the designs (which included the Stealth Bomber Megatron later used in IDW and made into a toy) and they agreed to listen to his pitch but then never showed up to the meeting.
Verno
What's the story there?
Starscream Gaga
You've summarized the series perfectly. It was… not good.
IN regards to Transformers? Sulking, mostly, from what I hear.
Verno
Delicious artwork. What is Don up to these days?