INSIDE TRANSFORMERS: WAR JOURNAL

[MattBrady]

by Benjamin Ong Pang Kean

First, there was this successful fan fic pieces that’ve been making the rounds online on various Transformers message boards and forums called Transformers: Mosaic and Newsarama.com sat down with the principals, Josh van Reyk and Shaun Knowler, and brought you word that the first piece was to be reprinted in the pages of IDW’s Transformers comics in October.

Well, it looks like one of the guys behind Mosaic has teamed up with several like-minded Transformers fans to launch another fan fic, this time a full 22-page “issue” called Transformers: War Journal.

We spoke with van Reyk about their latest initiative for the fans, by the fans.

Newsarama: Hey, Josh, before we get to Transformers: War Journal, I’d like to find out what’s up with Transformers: Mosaic. So, how has the response been so far?

Josh van Reyk: Mosaic is powering along, stronger than ever. There are now over 300 individuals involved in the project and, even with the increased release rate of thrice weekly (Monday, Wednesday & Friday), we look set to continue the project through to its one-year anniversary in June 2008. There have also been a number of professional Transformers artists who have offered their services to the project, including; E.J. Su, Marcelo Matere, Josh Burcham, Josh Perez, Liam Shalloo and Drew Eiden. A few of our members, Mosaicons as I like to call them, have recently scored themselves official work with the Transformers license. Both Jamie Snell and Matt Frank have provided art for IDW’s Beast Wars profile books, while Kris Carter, one of the projects mainstays has provided colors for Devastation, Spotlight Arcee and the TF U.K. series. Although the Mosaic project isn’t directly responsible for these talented people getting this recognition, we couldn’t be prouder.

Newsarama: All righty then. Onto Transformers: War Journal now then, shall we? Is this some sort like a web anthology?

JvR: Yes and no. It's a collection of separate tales, each piecing together to form a larger story.

NRAMA: How did War Journal come about? Who came up with such an idea?

JvR: Since we have started releasing the Mosaics, one comment has always been consistent; "too short." I'd been racking my brains to try and solve this problem, while still keeping the feel of the Mosaics intact. So when John-Paul Bove and Tom Parrish (who have both been involved in Mosaic) came to me with their idea of creating a full 22-page comic made up of separate, yet linked Mosaic-style stories, I grabbed hold and started running. This is very much their baby, I'm very luck to have had such a big role in bringing it to life.

NRAMA: From the teaser image, it is pretty obvious that it is still Transformers-related. What do you hope to achieve with War Journal?

JvR: The Mosaics have shown that there is an exceptional amount of talent in the Transformers community. War Journal is really an expression of what happens when that community gets organized! Our hope is first and foremost that this will be enjoyed just like a "real" TF comic, that the writing will be well received and that all aspects of the art will blow people away. There are a number of artists on board and I hope we can showcase some of their work to the right eyes, and the writing too for that matter! It's also a bit of a gift back to the community. We want to make as professional a "fan" comic as we can, in the writing, the art, even down to having an editorial process and also the presentation of it. The teaser is a big part of that as we'll peel away the image a bit at a time and reveal a character and a little about their role in the story. We're also going to have a cover and a few variants as if it were the real thing! We haven't figured out how to make holo-foil come up in a JPEG yet unfortunately...

NRAMA: What sort of Transformers stories do you guys intend to tell with War Journal?

JvR: War Journal will basically follow the same formula of the Mosaics; one page focusing on how a specific character deals with their role in the war. First and foremost it needed to be set somewhere where it wouldn't interfere with IDW continuity but hopefully support it. Simon Furman's take in IDW continuity has been to make it a lot more "real", and we wanted to take it a bit more in that direction. War Journal is, obviously, very much a war story. But it's set on the front lines, it's trench warfare, the planet's inhabitants are almost wiped out, the Decepticons are there en masse. The Autobots are outnumbered, outgunned and on the retreat. War Journal focuses on how each character is affected by the situation they find themselves in. How would that affect you? Could you see that much action and not be changed by it? Could you kill that much and not lose yourself somewhere along the line? War is about tough decisions, sacrifice and pain, but it’s also about ideals and hope, and hopefully all of that gets touched upon over the course of these 22 pages. The opportunity has been taken to show some characters who have either never featured centre stage or at all in the history of TF comics and give them a chance to shine (or fall), to see how war can affect even the best of us. How it forever changes you.

NRAMA: Will it cover all the different versions/universes of the Transformers franchise like Generation One, Beast Wars, the Unicron Trilogy, and others?

JvR: It's squarely set in G1 IDW continuity which has meant some rewriting at times as new issues come out and we realize we can't touch certain characters any more for fear of continuity clashes. JP and I are both continuity junkies, so we've tried our best to keep this in line with IDW's comics.

NRAMA: Who're some of the writers/artists/colorists working on these journals? Are there any big name creators involved?

JvR: The script was written primarily by John-Paul and myself, with Jon Stone (who is also providing art) penning a page. As for artists and colorists, the team is made up with guys who have contributed to Mosaic; Tom Parrish, Matt C. Adams, Shane Anderson, Casey Coller Stavros Kundromichalis, Stanley L. Chou , Jeremy Tiongson, Richard Cookson, Kent Lin, Evan Gauntt with John Flores also joining in. John-Paul has also colored the bulk of the covers, as well as the entire interior art, he’s spent well over 300 hours coloring. Josh Burcham has provided a variant cover, as has Andrew Wildman who provided a “Sketch” cover to raise awareness for the “Draw The World Together” charity. Bernie Lee, a freelance letterer has stepped in to give the project a more “professional” look.

NRAMA: Where are these issues hosted?

JvR: War Journal will be featured everywhere that the Mosaics has been released; forum.idwpublishing.com, www.Seibertron.com, tf-war-journal.deviantart.com, to name a few.

NRAMA: Any chance of seeing these issues reprinted by IDW as well? What’re these covers that you've placed online?

JvR: As with the Mosaics, seeing War Journal in print would be a dream come true, but there are no plans set in place to bring that dream to life. As I said earlier, we’ve really treated this project like a “real” comic, so we always planned to have covers for the piece. When we release the covers along with the 5-page preview, we had a huge response from the online community, 31st of December was a day to remember, both for the creative team and our audience. The response has been so overwhelming, that I’ve already started planning the next big project(s), 2008 is going to be a busy year, but more on that another time…

[kurupted]

as a sucker for anything transformers chances are i'll be getting this

edit: oh snap, for the first time ever........first!

[MNM]

Am I the only one to have found most of the mosiac artwork to just not be of that high quality?

[ZacWilliam1]

Hmmm... If it's trying to be at least generally insinc with IDW continuity there's a problem in that last pannel. It's been firmly established that there are NO gestalts (other than Monstructor) yet in the IDW verse, and the technology is unknown, so Superion definately shouldn't be there.

Otherwise looks interesting.

[Chris]

OH MY GOD! YOU KILLED MINERVA! YOU BASTARDS!!!!!







Chris

[davewhitaker]

Originally Posted by MNM

Am I the only one to have found most of the mosiac artwork to just not be of that high quality?

Its a fan fic, a labor of love, produced by regular TF fans. Its not made by professional artists for the most part. Of course the quality may not always be 'up there'.

[-Armando523-]

looks like a lot of fun

[HazMatMan]

Never was terribly impressed with the IDW TF-verse. This still fails to draw my interest. TF: Animated on the other hand? I wanted to hate it but found myself actually enjoying it.

[Thephanboy]

man count me in on this title. great idea from idw.

[MNM]

Originally Posted by davewhitaker

Its a fan fic, a labor of love, produced by regular TF fans. Its not made by professional artists for the most part. Of course the quality may not always be 'up there'.

I know it's a fan fic, it's just I hear all the time from people on various messageboards about how great these look, and yet whenever I look at one myself, I remain unimpressed. Sure, it's better than I can do, but that's not saying much.

[ThorEl3]

Outstanding. Good going, guys!

As someone who's been working heavily on a TF Fan related project (a Fan Character profile series over at the Allspark), I can really understand how much time and effort goes into stuff like this. It's really great to see it get this kind of positive attention.

[Kolimar]

It looks pretty good considering it's done by amateurs. Well done, guys. Best of luck.

[Kolimar]

Originally Posted by MNM

I know it's a fan fic, it's just I hear all the time from people on various messageboards about how great these look, and yet whenever I look at one myself, I remain unimpressed. Sure, it's better than I can do, but that's not saying much.

In my experience, when we know the artist is an amateur a lot of us automatically cut them more slack compared to professionals. IMHO, that's only fair, in a way. Quoting myself: "It looks pretty good considering it's done by amateurs."

[wordmongerer]

Originally Posted by MNM

Am I the only one to have found most of the mosiac artwork to just not be of that high quality?

It's horses for courses with the Mosaics, from fantasy to mainstream so there's something for everyone. Give War Journal a try and see what you think.

[wordmongerer]

Originally Posted by Thephanboy

man count me in on this title. great idea from idw.

Actually, it wasn't IDW's idea at all, War Journal's been entirely been made by us the fans!

[wordmongerer]

Originally Posted by kurupted

as a sucker for anything transformers chances are i'll be getting this

edit: oh snap, for the first time ever........first!

You don't need to get it it's free, just click on the links!

[wordmongerer]

Originally Posted by Chris

OH MY GOD! YOU KILLED MINERVA! YOU BASTARDS!!!!!







Chris

Sorry about that...

[olokin]

Who can say no to free comics?

Its a fan project but seems to have a professional vibe. They even have a exclusive sketch cover. Its actually not bad.

[Groovemaster]

I think this is pretty darn cool. I have respect for the people making this -- it exists only because they wanted to create it, because they love the Transformers.
Very cool.

[Mallory]

Despite its piecemeal nature this is actually a really well put together package with some really fun art . Look beyond the Giant Robots and it actually manages to conjure a couple of poignant moments and a feeling of the futility/valour of prolonged war.

….and it's full of Giant Robots so I'm happy

[ryuzo]

Originally Posted by ZacWilliam1

Hmmm... If it's trying to be at least generally insinc with IDW continuity there's a problem in that last pannel. It's been firmly established that there are NO gestalts (other than Monstructor) yet in the IDW verse, and the technology is unknown, so Superion definately shouldn't be there.

Hey what's up? I drew that page actually, hehe. The reason for the gestalt is explained partially in this page of the TF War Journal. Check it out.
http://tf-war-journal.deviantart.com...GE-15-73365514

[ryuzo]

Oh and for easier viewing, please check this link for a clickable flash version of the TF War Journal!!

http://glovestudios.com/tf_flash/

Much thanks to glovestudios, see his other work here or here