Post by Jeff on Dec 16, 2003 13:38:25 GMT -5
A photographed toy comic featuring the Transformers would answer both my need for more content on my site, as well my need to create a comic without drawing. I even had a digital camera already, as well as numerous Transformers toys. I immediately began considering what I would do with my own transformers comic.
It’s important to state that, at this point, I had no intention of developing ACT as a real web comic. I’m not even sure I knew what a web comic was, at that point. I just wanted to make something Transformers fans would enjoy.
I came up with a parody on the original cartoon. I had recently seen the first episode for the first time since I was a kid, and I was amazed by the fact that the Autobots and Decepticons were out cold for thousands of years, only to awaken and assume (correctly) that Cybertron hadn’t changed a bit. My first idea for ACT was centered in that moment. I wanted Skywarp (who was all black) to be this depressive goth sort of Transformer, who automatically assumes Cybertron is dead and all life is now meaningless, as a result. Sure, it wasn’t enough for an entire comic, but it made for a funny episode.
I then backtracked to consider how I’d get to that point. Obviously, the origin would have to be funnier. My original treatment for the first few episodes ended up being something like this:
Episode 1: Some Autobot comes to Optimus Prime’s door and knocks. Optimus Prime (the Powermaster version) is seen sleeping in his regular mode. He wakes up and says “Hold on! Geez. What time is it? Let me get some clothes on”. The panel then cuts (“A few minutes later”) and Prime answers the door in his combined larger mode. It was really a visual gag, for the most part; targeted at people who were familiar with the toy (remember: this was designed just for Transformers fans, at this point).
Episode 2: The Autobots are going on a munchies run and wanted to know if Prime wanted anything. They decide to make a trip to Earth to pick up some Twinkies, and consult the engine room to find out if they have the power. The engine room is run by Sunstreaker, who is convinced that the rest of the Autobots are racist against yellow Transformers.
Episode 3: Prime comes down to engineering, only to find Sunstreaker leading a Yellow Power rally. In attendance are Bumblebee, some yellow Decepticon race car that was part of Menasor, and Wolverine (just for a sight gag).
Episode 4: The decepticons would somehow attack the Autobots, causing them to crash land on Earth. From the start, I wanted the Decepticons to be led by Fred, though the rest of the team would consist of Starscream, Thundercracker, and Skywarp (real Decepticons). I always hated the Megatron toy, and thought that the Diaclone Diattacker (Fred) made a much cooler looking bad guy. I also thought it would be funny if he had an absurdly common name. Instead of being called “Megatron” or something technical and grand like that, he could be “Bill” or “Jack”. I originally wanted to call him “Greg”, but soon realized I was stealing that from “Greg The Bunny”, the short lived television series that used the same gag in giving an average name to a furry little rabbit. So I settled on “Fred” instead.
Episode 5: This is the only episode idea that actually made it into the final comic (used in episodes 7 and 8). The repair probe comes out, freeing the Decepticons, and then freeing the Autobots. The probe’s constant tendency to repeat itself pissess off the Autobots. It then surprises them by uttering some insult at them.
Episode 6: The idea that started the comic, with Skywarp doubting Cybertron’s continued existence. I hoped to eventually acquire a Diaclone Black Ironhide and have him feel the same way, ultimately having the two meet and go off on their own together.
I also had some abstract idea about a Unicron wanna-be toy that would attack, though I wasn’t sure when or how it would play out. The humor would be in the fact that the toy was huge, but clearly wasn’t Unicron.
Okay, so the original ideas weren’t all that funny. That’s probably why I sat on them for so long. I went months and months with talking about my ideas, but never actually creating them. In that time, I sold off most of my vintage transformers, in the hopes of buying upcoming reissues in better shape for half the price. At the time, it didn't really occur to me that I would no longer have the characters needed to film my comic.
Meanwhile, I started to consider that a parody of the original Transformers story might be too limiting. I began considering a parody of day time soap operas using Transformers toys instead, where toys would fall in love with, betray, and kill one another on a regular basis. Though I had trouble considering story lines, I began working on titles that would parody those of real soap operas. My two best candidates were “All my Autobots” and “As Cybertron Turns”.
Probably in December of 2002, my good friend Melissa, (now author of Edge of The World), sent me a link to The Adventures of CyberPope Moses I and Wormwood (URL is no longer available), a random toy comic she’d found while surfing the net that had a sense of humor similar to my own. She wrote that she hoped it would finally inspire me to get started on these comic ideas.
It did.
It was then that fame and success turned me to a life of sex, drugs, and self-destruction.
It’s important to state that, at this point, I had no intention of developing ACT as a real web comic. I’m not even sure I knew what a web comic was, at that point. I just wanted to make something Transformers fans would enjoy.
I came up with a parody on the original cartoon. I had recently seen the first episode for the first time since I was a kid, and I was amazed by the fact that the Autobots and Decepticons were out cold for thousands of years, only to awaken and assume (correctly) that Cybertron hadn’t changed a bit. My first idea for ACT was centered in that moment. I wanted Skywarp (who was all black) to be this depressive goth sort of Transformer, who automatically assumes Cybertron is dead and all life is now meaningless, as a result. Sure, it wasn’t enough for an entire comic, but it made for a funny episode.
I then backtracked to consider how I’d get to that point. Obviously, the origin would have to be funnier. My original treatment for the first few episodes ended up being something like this:
Episode 1: Some Autobot comes to Optimus Prime’s door and knocks. Optimus Prime (the Powermaster version) is seen sleeping in his regular mode. He wakes up and says “Hold on! Geez. What time is it? Let me get some clothes on”. The panel then cuts (“A few minutes later”) and Prime answers the door in his combined larger mode. It was really a visual gag, for the most part; targeted at people who were familiar with the toy (remember: this was designed just for Transformers fans, at this point).
Episode 2: The Autobots are going on a munchies run and wanted to know if Prime wanted anything. They decide to make a trip to Earth to pick up some Twinkies, and consult the engine room to find out if they have the power. The engine room is run by Sunstreaker, who is convinced that the rest of the Autobots are racist against yellow Transformers.
Episode 3: Prime comes down to engineering, only to find Sunstreaker leading a Yellow Power rally. In attendance are Bumblebee, some yellow Decepticon race car that was part of Menasor, and Wolverine (just for a sight gag).
Episode 4: The decepticons would somehow attack the Autobots, causing them to crash land on Earth. From the start, I wanted the Decepticons to be led by Fred, though the rest of the team would consist of Starscream, Thundercracker, and Skywarp (real Decepticons). I always hated the Megatron toy, and thought that the Diaclone Diattacker (Fred) made a much cooler looking bad guy. I also thought it would be funny if he had an absurdly common name. Instead of being called “Megatron” or something technical and grand like that, he could be “Bill” or “Jack”. I originally wanted to call him “Greg”, but soon realized I was stealing that from “Greg The Bunny”, the short lived television series that used the same gag in giving an average name to a furry little rabbit. So I settled on “Fred” instead.
Episode 5: This is the only episode idea that actually made it into the final comic (used in episodes 7 and 8). The repair probe comes out, freeing the Decepticons, and then freeing the Autobots. The probe’s constant tendency to repeat itself pissess off the Autobots. It then surprises them by uttering some insult at them.
Episode 6: The idea that started the comic, with Skywarp doubting Cybertron’s continued existence. I hoped to eventually acquire a Diaclone Black Ironhide and have him feel the same way, ultimately having the two meet and go off on their own together.
I also had some abstract idea about a Unicron wanna-be toy that would attack, though I wasn’t sure when or how it would play out. The humor would be in the fact that the toy was huge, but clearly wasn’t Unicron.
Okay, so the original ideas weren’t all that funny. That’s probably why I sat on them for so long. I went months and months with talking about my ideas, but never actually creating them. In that time, I sold off most of my vintage transformers, in the hopes of buying upcoming reissues in better shape for half the price. At the time, it didn't really occur to me that I would no longer have the characters needed to film my comic.
Meanwhile, I started to consider that a parody of the original Transformers story might be too limiting. I began considering a parody of day time soap operas using Transformers toys instead, where toys would fall in love with, betray, and kill one another on a regular basis. Though I had trouble considering story lines, I began working on titles that would parody those of real soap operas. My two best candidates were “All my Autobots” and “As Cybertron Turns”.
Probably in December of 2002, my good friend Melissa, (now author of Edge of The World), sent me a link to The Adventures of CyberPope Moses I and Wormwood (URL is no longer available), a random toy comic she’d found while surfing the net that had a sense of humor similar to my own. She wrote that she hoped it would finally inspire me to get started on these comic ideas.
It did.
It was then that fame and success turned me to a life of sex, drugs, and self-destruction.