Comics
From Transformers Wiki
As a multi-decade multinational multimedia franchise, Transformers has naturally had a huge comics presence over its lifetime. And since it's not a property owned by a comic company, the comic rights have bounced across multiple publishers over the years.
Contents |
A Brief History of Major Transformers Comics
In the beginning, Marvel Comics held the rights to Transformers comics in the US and UK, owing to their hand in developing the characters and story for Hasbro. The original The Transformers comic ultimately ran monthly from 1984 to 1991, spanning 80 issues with multiple extra mini-series in the US. The UK The Transformers comic was weekly, and added a ton of extra stories woven into and around the reprinted US stories but it too ended not long after the US series did.
In Japan, the rights to Transformers comics were granted to Kodansha, who would split content among several publications, but the serialized manga stayed with TV Magazine, first telling side-stories woven around the accompanying cartoons, then telling completely new-timeline tales for later lines. However, by the late 80s, the comics were reduced to one-shots, then bare-bones "story pages", with the final genuine manga chapter being released in 1991.
When Hasbro attempted to revive Transformers with Generation 2, Marvel once again produced the accompanying comic in the US, though the story actually started in the pages of the still running G.I. Joe comics. But a combination of low faith from Marvel and poor sales ended the book after twelve issues, but with enough forewarning for the story to properly end. The UK got a modified version of Marvel Generation 2 through Fleetway (replacing any bits involving G.I. Joe with original content) that similarly fizzled out. Japan would skip "major" comic outlets, with its "G-2" story told through mini-comics packed in with the toys. Which also didn't last long.
Mass-market Transformers comics more or less took a hiatus in English-language markets until after the turn of the century, but Japan would see a brief resurgence in the late 90s. Following the success of their imported version of Beast Wars, Kodansha published serialized manga in their Comic Bom Bom monthly anthology book for the Japanese sequel series Beast Wars II, Beast Wars Neo, and Beast Wars Metals (Takara's version of the latter half of Hasbro's Beast Wars franchise). But sales of all three series were low and getting lower all the time, and Takara took another break from mainstream Transformers comics for a few years.
In 2002, the comics got a major rebirth when Hasbro granted comic rights to Dreamwave Productions, who capitalized heavily on the current "nostalgia boom" that saw renewed (and short-lived) interest in many 80's toy-based properties. Dreamwave made ongoing Generation 1 comics in a more "adult" tone, as well as Armada and Energon books for the then-running kids' series. Though they were a huge success, the Dreamwave era was very short, as the company imploded in 2004 owing a lot of people a lot of money.
But Transformers comics rebounded quickly as Hasbro granted the rights to IDW Publishing, who took the property in a new direction, with a "hard" reboot. Told at first through a series of connected mini-series and eventually moving to multiple ongoing titles (supplemented by even more mini-series and one-shots), IDW would go on to produce the single longest continuous run of Transformers comics in the brand's history, with their original storyline ultimately spanning thirteen years and hundreds of books, crossing over with multiple other Hasbro properties as a "shared universe", before being brought to a voluntary close in late 2018. Throughout that run, IDW also put out mini-series based on other then-current Transformers media, including the live-action movies, Transformers Animated, Prime and the 2015 Robots in Disguise. And on top of that, numerous out-of-continuity mini-series crossovers with non-Hasbro properties. A new, rebooted ongoing continuity subsequently began with the publication of a new Transformers #1 in March 2019, starting shortly before the beginning of the war, which eventually concluded in 2022 due to the expiration of IDW's Transformers license.
In 2023, Transformers comics came back in a big way with the announcement that not only had Skybound Entertainment picked up the license, but they would be launching the "Energon Universe", a new shared comic universe that combined Transformers with G.I. Joe and an original property, Void Rivals.
In the UK, Titan Magazines put out a Transformers comic magazine to coincide with the 2007 live-action movie. This book would run for seven years, containing new stories set not only in the live-action film continuity (all the way up to Age of Extinction), but for Transformers Animated and Transformers: Prime as well.
Japan's "mainstream" comic output through this period, and to this day, remains scattershot. The majority of Japanese Transformers comics would come in the form of comics packed in with toys, short comic stories included in larger books, and a lot of online exclusive comics. There have been a few serialized comics over the years in several "mainstream" publications from different publishers, each usually ending after a year or so.
A More Involved History of Transformers Comics
US-market Transformers comics
Marvel Comics (1984–1994)
Duplicating the successful formula of having Marvel Comics develop the story and characters for G.I. Joe, as well as producing a comic book and having a major hand in other tie-in media, Hasbro had them do the same for their new Transformers line. What was originally planned to be a four-part mini-series quickly ballooned into an 80-issue monthly ongoing series, and that's not counting several in-continuity mini-series, including a crossover with G.I. Joe (which would happen a lot over the years).
After a couple years' hiatus with the end of the original series, Marvel was once again tapped to produce the comic tie-in for Transformers: Generation 2 in the US, which actually started with a five-issue setup crossover in the still-ongoing G.I. Joe comics. But limping sales (and not much faith from Marvel's higher-ups out of the gate) meant the series only lasted a year before cancellation. And that was the end of Marvel's run of Transformers... except for a weird Avengers crossover miniseries co-produced with IDW Publishing over a decade later.
Much of Marvel's Transformers output has been collected into volumes by Titan Books and IDW, which is a fair bit easier than tracking down all those individual issues.
Blackthorne Publishing (1987)
In a very sneaky move, Blackthorne Publishing finagled the rights to make Transformers comics in the US and UK at the same time as Marvel, as Blackthorne's books were gimmicky 3-D comics and therefore different enough from Marvel's output in Hasbro's (and various lawyers') view for both to exist. However, the series was incredibly short-lived, lasting all of three issues. Marvel didn't have a lot to worry about there.
Story-wise, these seem to take place in some variant of the original cartoon's continuity, though inter-issue continuity itself is... shaky at best. Oh, it also ended on a major cliffhanger. *thumbs up*
- Major titles
3H Productions (1997–2004)
Following the end of Generation 2 and the emergence of Beast Wars, no major (or minor) comics publisher had the rights to make Transformers comics. 3H Productions, the original producers of the BotCon conventions, negotiated a limited license to make convention-exclusive comics centered on their exclusive toys and stories. Taking place mostly in the same continuity as the Beast Wars and Beast Machines cartoons, the series spun its own side-stories, even continuing the timeline following the end of Beast Machines and tying into the Universe toyline.
This series can be a bit confusing to follow, as much of the early story was continued/supplemented with text stories both online and printed in convention booklets, web pages, and more, and usually on a slow, slow drip-feed. On top of that, the removal of the convention license in 2004 left multiple stories in cliffhanger limbo. Several years later, convention-license-recipient Fun Publications would "finish" most of these unresolved plotlines in one form or another.
- Major titles
- Ground Zero (aka Critical Mass)
- Reaching the Omega Point (multi-part multi-media story)
- The Wreckers / Primeval Dawn
- Universe
Dreamwave Productions (2002–2004)
Following a renewed interest in the brand, coinciding with the big "nostalgia boom" of the early-Oughts, Hasbro granted the rights to produce Transformers comics to up-and-coming Canadian comics house Dreamwave Productions, a decision based heavily on a piece of "concept art" by Pat Lee (well, theoretically by him, at least. He was given credit for it. But... well....)
Dreamwave first produced a six-issue mini-series based on the "Generation 1" franchise that sold amazingly, then another, then made that storyline an ongoing title, supplemented by extra mini-series. They also produced ongoing tie-in comics for Hasbro's then-current iteration of Transformers for kids, Armada. On top of that, both series got extensive multi-issue profile books, which gave personalities to many toys that had gone character-less for over a decade.
That all came to a crashing end in late 2004 as the company basically imploded, with creators going unpaid, numerous license-granters going unpaid (not just Hasbro!), and Dreamwave head honchos going somewhere far away with wads of cash to try and pull it off again. This left multiple storylines in cliffhanger limbo, but unlike with 3H's stories, nobody bothered to cap them off later (well, with one minor exception), though some scripts for unproduced issues have since surfaced.
- Major titles
Devil's Due Press (2003–2007)
While Dreamwave held the Transformers comic rights in 2003, the rights to G.I. Joe were held by Devil's Due Press (later moved to IDW Publishing, see below). As part of a cooperative project with Dreamwave, both companies made their own Transformers / G.I.Joe crossover miniseries in 2003. Devil's Due would go on to make three more of these minis well after Dreamwave's demise, all in a single continuity that got crazier and crazier the longer it went.
- Major titles
IDW Publishing (2005–2022)
Following Dreamwave's ignoble end, Hasbro gave the US/Canada comics license to IDW Publishing. Though they briefly (very briefly) flirted with the idea of continuing Dreamwave's story, they instead decided upon a ground-up restart, focused on the "Generation 1" cast, different in tone, different in look. It started with a series of six-issue mini-series following one after the other (although not always in chronological order), and would eventually balloon into multiple ongoing titles, soft reboots, side-story mini-series, one-shots, a major multi-brand crossover... all in all, IDW would produce the longest continuous run of Transformers comics in the brand's history, the largest number of issues published, and longest ongoing single storyline.
The initial thirteen-year "Generation 1" continuity ended in late 2018, with a new continuity reboot (one based on the franchise's concurrent heavily-"Generation 1" styling) running from 2019 to 2022.
In addition to its main "Generation 1" based series, IDW put out mini-series based on other then-current Transformers media, including the live-action film series, Transformers Animated, the "Aligned" continuity (primarily Prime and Robots in Disguise)... and even a "sequel" series to the original Marvel comics continuity, separate from Generation 2 because... reasons. And on top of that, numerous out-of-continuity mini-series crossovers with non-Hasbro properties.
Due to the heavy reliance on the miniseries format for vast swathes of story, as well as the books hopping around their respective timelines rather willy-nilly, it is highly recommended to look at the main "IDW Publishing" page for a complete list of their books, as well as the "2005 IDW continuity" page for assistance in detangling that whole deal.
Major "Generation 1" (2005–2018) titles
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Major live-action film titles | Other major titles | ||||
| Major non-main crossover titles | 2019 ongoing titles |
IDW also produced tons of trade paperbacks of both their own comics, and reprints of the Marvel comics from both the US and UK runs, as well as a fair amount of Dreamwave material... though that company's stories were interspersed among "theme" books along with Marvel and IDW tales, rather than given their own separate collections.
Fun Publications (2005–2016)
After the convention and "fan club" rights were taken from 3H, they were transferred to Fun Publications, the company that had been producing the official G.I. Joe convention and newsletter for many years prior. Like with 3H, the focus of Fun Publications' comics (and other media) was primarily to promote their current selection of convention- and club-exclusive toys. As they were not beholden to any single franchise or continuity (basically anything but the live-action film series was fair game, fictionally), Fun Publications had perhaps the broadest range of story settings of any "comics" publisher. Virtually all of their media was put under the umbrella name Timelines.
Their comic output started with the bi-monthly Hasbro Transformers Collectors' Club magazine, which featured a multi-page ongoing comic story at the back end of each issue. These stories were serialized and could span several years. These issues would also sometimes feature comic strips and single-page comic "previews" of prose stories to be published online later. Some comic previews were posted exclusively online rather than within the magazine's pages.
Each year's BotCon box set of toys also included a full comic issue, telling a story featuring that year's crop of toy exclusives. Many were "jumping off" points for later prose stories or magazine comics, and even included all-new continuities, most notably the "Shattered Glass" "mirror universe" series. Most years, these comics were reprinted with extra ancillary material and sold in comic shops later in the year.
Timelines ended in 2016 when Hasbro dissolved its Transformers relationship with Fun Publications. The rights to the G.I. Joe convention and club continued with Fun Publications another two years, but that too came to an end.
- Major titles
Skybound Entertainment (2023–current)
Several months after IDW formally relinquished the Transformers license, Skybound Entertainment announced the launch of a new science fiction comic, Void Rivals, which followed a pair of shipwrecked aliens stranded on a barren planet. Partway into the story, the pair discover a derelict spacecraft—only to discover that this is really the Cybertronian Jetfire in disguise. Off the back of this surprise reveal came the announcement that Skybound had acquired the Transformers and G.I. Joe licenses, and used them to springboard the "Energon Universe", a new shared universe setting that would encompass Void Rivals, Transformers, and several G.I. Joe miniseries.
- Major titles
European-market Transformers comics
Marvel Comics (1984–1991)
Marvel also held the rights to publish Transformers in the UK from the start, but that market's books were... a bit different. Most importantly, the book was weekly, and had a shorter pagecount to boot. This meant that the reprinted and recolored US stories needed to be chopped in half, and more stories needed to be created to fill out the other weeks each month. Thus, the UK got twice the content, with wholly unique stories interwoven into the continuity of the US series (not always gracefully, and occasionally a royal continuity headache), omitting the G.I. Joe bits as needed. On top of this were several "Annuals" and text stories full of original content.
- Major titles
Much of the UK Transformers output has been collected into volumes by Titan Books and IDW, which is a fair bit easier than tracking down all those individual issues, especially for US fans.
Fleetway (1994)
While Marvel produced the Generation 2 tie-in comic in the US, for the UK the rights ended up with Fleetway, mainly because Marvel UK was dying/dead at the time. It started with its own similar-but-different take on the US comic's story, featuring some of the toys that had only been released in European markets, and in the process excising G.I. Joe's involvement from the series. But soon it would move on to reprinting the US comics, with extra character bios and other ancillary material.
But this series was even more short-lived than the US comic, only releasing a whopping five issues, ending mid-story.
- Major titles
Panini (2003)
Italian comic publisher Panini, mainly known for their sticker books in many countries, acquired the rights to produce comics based on Armada in the UK. This book would take the form of a "comics magazine"; mainly a magazine with two comic stories inside and multiple other features, plus a small pack-in gift in every issue. Poor sales led to its cancellation after nine issues.
The series was in its own continuity separate from Dreamwave's concurrently running Armada comic, even though it was written by the same author (and shared a few story beats here and there).
- Major titles
Titan Magazines (2007–2014)
After obtaining the rights to produce Transformers comics in the UK, Titan Magazines (part of the same company as Marvel comics reprinter Titan Books) went nuts producing its own stories based on numerous then-current franchises, but all under the singular Transformers title (with one super-short-lived exception). Like Panini's book (see above), Titan's Transformers was more of a magazine-with-comics-in-it than a proper comic book, but again, it's a lot of original comic content. It bounced heavily from franchise to franchise, changed prices, pagecount and physical size seemingly at random, "relaunched" numerous times... it was a real mess, but it did last an admirable seven years!
- Transformers comics
- Transformers (2007 movie)
- Transformers Animated
- Revenge of the Fallen
- Dark of the Moon
- Transformers: Prime
- Age of Extinction
Eaglemoss (2012–2013)
Did you know that there was a Prime comic in Russia? Yeah, we were shocked too. As with Panini and Titan, Eaglemoss's Transformers: Prime is a magazine full of features that also includes original comics. Though the book only lasted a year, it published weekly for the overwhelming majority of its run, totaling 65 issues by the end.
- Major titles
Ades Media (2018–present)
Starting in 2018, Swedish publisher Ades Media began publishing Transformers books in Swedish for the first time since the early 2000s. This came about due to an increased interest in the franchise within the Nordic region in recent years. Sweden in particular has had a relatively big appreciation for the Transformers franchise and has seen publication of material from both the Marvel US and UK comics in the 1980s and '90s, as well as some of the Dreamwave books during the 2000s. These books were initially done in more-or-less connection with the unofficial convention RetCon: The Nordic Transformers Convention, that launched in 2017. Beginning with I siktet: 2006, their Transformers books would be published through imprint Retrobokklubben. On March 2 2024, they announced on Facebook that they had worked out a deal with Skybound and will continue publishing Transformers titles after their time with IDW had ended the previous year.
- Major titles
- Wreckers sista strid - collection of The Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers, "Bullets", Spotlight: Kup, and "Everything in Its Right Place", along with all the bonus material originally featured in each publication's original TPB releases, as well as "Wreckers: Sweclassified" - a short article written by translator Johan Boström.
- Mer än ögat kan se - a collection of the first eight issues of The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye, along with "Primus: You, Me, and Other Revelations", "The Reluctant Specialist", and "The Waiting Game" - as well as the bonus material and cover gallery from each of those publications, an interview with author James Roberts, and a reprint of "Bullets," correcting spelling-errors and mistakes present in Wreckers sista strid, featuring new and exclusive illustrations to go along with the story by famed Transformers artists Nick Roche, Jeff Anderson, and Stephen Baskerville, and non-pros Winston Chan and Thomas Sjöström.
- Jakten på Matrixen - a translation of the "Matrix Quest" storyline from the Marvel comics run, based on the IDW reprints found in The Transformers Classics, and about 100 pages of supplementary material taken from the Marvel UK comics, as well as an assortment of translated The Transformers Universe profiles.
- Kaos och Skuggor - a collection of issues #22, #23, #24, #26, #28 and #30 of The Transformers, "The Death of Optimus Prime" and issues #9-#13 of More than Meets the Eye including "Signal to Noise". Bonus material includes original pages, a cover gallery and an afterword from James Roberts.
- Krig och hågkomst - a translation of #14-#22 of More Than Meets the Eye as well as Spotlight: Orion Pax and a special illustrated version of The Sound of Breaking Glass, in the same vein as "Bullets". Bonus material is once again original pages, cover gallery and an afterword from James Roberts as well as some sketches from Alex Milne.
- I siktet: 2006 - a translation of various Marvel UK materials, mainly Target: 2006 and other related storylines. Bonus material includes more translated Transformers: Universe profiles, four articles from James Roberts, all translated from the pages of The Transformers Classics UK, an article on Atlantic's original Swedish reprints of the Marvel comic from the 1980s and various emphemera.
- Transformers & Action Force: Vedergällning - Mainly the very first collection of Marvel UK's original weekly Action Force strips, this hardcover also includes the Ancient Relics crossover, as well as Ladies' Night, What's in a Name and Grudge Match.
- Du sköna nya värld - a translation of issues #28-38 and #40 of More Than Meets the Eye. Bonus material this time consists of a preliminary sketches and finished pencils from Atilio Rojo with commentary by Roberts.
- Optimus Prime - Tillbaka till jorden - a translation of issues #28-32 and #34-38 of The Transformers: Robots in Disguise and the Punishment mini-series. Bonus material consists of an afterword by Andrew Griffith.
Japanese-market Transformers comics
Kodansha (1985–2005)
In Japan, the rights to produce comic material for this new Transformers line went to Kodansha, the publisher of several different monthly comic compilations and magazines for kids.
The bulk of the ongoing, serialized fiction in the original series was in the pages of TV Magazine, a mix of multi-page advertising spreads for the newest, flashiest kids' TV shows and associated merchandise (well, those that paid for space in the magazine) as well as exclusive black-and-white manga (comics). The Transformers manga started as side-stories to the imported cartoon series and the Japan-exclusive The Headmasters cartoon, but later series would tell their own stories separate from the cartoons. By the late 80s, TV Magazine's Transformers content was heavily reduced; without any new cartoons to shill for, only a few one-shot manga were produced, and the last years of Japan's "Generation 1" story were represented only in super-truncated "story page" form. Over a decade later, TV Magazine would feature an ongoing Transformers comic again... in the form of a "toy photos" comic for the short Robotmasters series.
Kodansha's other big publication, Comic Bom Bom, was primarily made up of comics both original and based on popular kids' licences from multiple companies. While it featured Transformers content right from the beginning, it was mainly a series of one-shots, with very little after the first couple years of the franchise. Comic Bom Bom would not get a regular serialized Transformers comic until the late Nineties, with the Japan-original Beast Wars II manga, and the following series. These stories were, like the later TV Magazine comics, unique stories in a separate-but-sometimes-similar continuity from their cartoon counterparts. But as the Beast series did not end well for Takara, there was another long gap in Transformers manga until a brief resurgence with Galaxy Force, the Japanese version of Cybertron... but that too did not last. And neither did Comic Bom Bom itself, as the book was ended in 2007 after poor sales.
| Major TV Magazine titles | Major Comic Bom Bom titles |
Following the end of Takara's relationship with Kodansha, Japanese Transformers comics tended to be very scattered, focusing mostly on comics packed in with toys, and mini-comics in larger books or published online. But some serialized content did pop up here and there.
Media Works (2005–2007)
To advertise Takara's The Transformers Collection series of "Generation 1" reissues, an ongoing single-page manga was produced for Dengeki Hobby magazine, a light humor series where the humanoid computer Teletraan 15 would journey through space and time to gather data on various Cybertronians. However, as the reissue line could go months without a new release, filler had to be created, so some "missions" spanned several issues. Towards the end of its run, with the Collection line effectively dead, the story began highlighting new Kiss Players toys instead, and eventually entire installments were given over to hypercondensed "pre-caps" of the weekly Kiss Players radio shows rather than 15's adventures. (As in, they recapped the events of the radio plays, before the plays actually aired. Oops!) But 15's story was brought back to conclude in the final few months.
- Major titles
The entire run of Go! Go! was collected together in the Kiss Players/15 Go! Go! compilation book.
Poplar (2008–2009)
- Major titles
Kadokawa Shoten Publishing (2010–2013)
Transformers eventually settled down at Kerokero Ace, a boys' magazine that actually dedicated a lot of its pagecount to Takara's rival toy company Bandai, particularly their Gundam toys. But Kerokero ran two serialized year-long Transformers comics, as well as some one-shot stories (including a crossover with the magazine's other major focus, the Sgt. Frog manga/anime). However, Kerokero closed down in 2013, the final issue also containing the final episode of its second serialized Transformers manga.
Every Transformers comic to appear in Kerokero was done by the same author/artist, who also did plenty of Gundam art for the magazine. Busy man!
From this point on, TakaraTomy would pretty much stick to "in house" manga with pack-in and web-based comics (see below).
- Major titles
Pack-in comics
As noted above, a lot of original comic material has been produced to be packed in with toys Hasbro/TakaraTomy are selling. Takara has historically used this outlet more frequently than Hasbro.
Hasbro's most active time of original pack-in comics was during Armada and Energon, adding small booklets in with every Deluxe-and-above-size toy. These booklets were half comic (usually created by Dreamwave Productions), half catalog for other toys in the line. The practice slipped out of favor quickly after the collapse-and-plundering of Dreamwave, and not helped by rising production costs.
In 2013, Hasbro and IDW Publishing worked together to add reprints of IDW's currently-running series in with the deluxe-level Transformers: Generations and Combiner Wars toys. These comics were usually coordinated to feature the relevant toy character... but sometimes the toy would merely be a cameo, and sometimes not even in the issue at all. These reprints also had various edits for content, emphasizing the use of trademarked names and replacing "harsher" words like "kill" with "destroy". But by Titans Return this too would end.