TRANSFORMERS HISPANOS FORUMS [http://forostransformers.mforos.com]
Synapse interviews Simon Furman [http://simonfurman.wordpress.com]


Uhm... I think I'd say something stupid if I tried introducing this, uh... completely unknown TF writer with some wise-ass joke so I guess I better ask him something right away!


1. A typical question, sorry. When did you know you wanted to become a comic writer? What was your first professional work in the field?

SF) I loved comics as a kid and re-discovered them as an adult, but I had no conception of being a comics writer until I started working as Assistant Editor on Scream, a short-lived kids’ horror comic published by IPC Magazines in 1984. Largely due to other writers missing deadlines, I did a few fill-ins here and there. My first story was a Library of Death story entitled "Beware the Werewolf" (Scream issue #8), but the first script of mine to see print was part 3 of "Terror of the Cats" in Scream #3 (7th April 1984), a real overnight fill-in.  

2. Now, what’s your first memory of Transformers and also your favourite episode (of any of the TV series)?

SF) My first memory of Transformers is sitting in the offices of Marvel Comics (UK) in late 1984 (aged 23) and being shown materials by the editor of the UK Transformers comic Sheila Cranna. I was looking for freelance script work after Scream closed its doors (with issue #15) and Ian Rimmer (who’d been my editor on Scream and had moved on to Marvel UK to edit Captain Britain Monthly) had recommended me to Sheila, who was looking for UK writers to provide original comic strip material for the UK Transformers comic. (Because of the frequency of the UK comic, fortnightly instead of monthly, there wasn’t enough US TF strip to support a purely reprint title). That was my first exposure to Transformers, though I was probably peripherally aware Marvel US had launched a comic of that name. My favourite TV episode? I wasn’t a huge fan of the TV show at the time, mostly because I wasn’t a kid. It was the original animated movie that most impressed me

3. Are you familiar with the Japanese G1 shows? Any plans or ideas about Japanese TF characters in the current continuity? Is that allowed by Hasbro, in the first place?

SF) I’m aware of, but not overly familiar with, the Japanese TV shows. While doing the recent Beast Wars stories (and sourcebook) for IDW, I did quite a bit of digging into Beast Wars II and Beast Wars Neo, but other than that I’m no expert. I’m not sure Hasbro would be too keen on using the Japanese cast in the US comic, but who knows… maybe the odd cameo would be doable.

4. What do you like and dislike most about Transformers... and about your work?

SF) I like… the amazingly rich and diverse cast and just how well realised everything was, right from the start, about the world(s) they inhabited. I like… taking obscure characters and turning them into something of a fan favourite, as I did with the likes of Bludgeon, Thunderwing and Razorbeast. I like… the freedom the animated movie gave us to take the UK storyline in new directions, allowing us to carve a unique (from the US comic) continuity. I like… the epic scope of Transformers, epitomised by characters like Unicron and Primus and The Fallen (the latter two of which were created by me). I like… the number of great artists I’ve got to work with on the comics.

I dislike… some of the later toy lines, like Action Masters. There was a sense of a great thing in decline as the variations got sillier. I cringe a bit to see my very early Transformers stories, such as The Enemy Within, as I’d yet to refine my scriptwriting skills. I always felt sorry for the artists on those early stories, as they had to cram so much into every page.

5. You always seem to have a lot on your plate! So what other projects are you working on right now? Any news or teasers you can throw in about The Thirteen?

SF) The Thirteen is probably not going to happen for a while, as it’s become more of a Hasbro thing than an IDW thing, and Hasbro need to crystallise the whole concept before it can be turned into a comic book. I think and hope it will still happen, as it’s a story I’d dearly love to tell, but I have no firm grasp or when or in what form it will eventually see print. Other than that, I’m working on Tales of the Fallen for IDW, Transformers UK vol 2 for Titan, Starcraft for Wildstorm, a movie script and I have two books out in June: Transformers: The Movie Universe and Rad Robots.

6. Also, what superhero comic book would you like to work on if you had the chance? From any publisher, yeah ;)

SF) I was always a Marvel reader growing up, and it’s to those characters I inevitably gravitate, given half a chance. I’d love to do an extended run on Spider-Man or Iron Man in particular. But latterly I’ve grown more and more intrigued with the idea of taking a run a The Hulk. And, of course, I’d love to get the original Death’s Head back in the main Marvel mix.

7. I usually say you are to Transformers what Straczynski was to Spider-man (you made it look fresh again and more mature than it had been before). My little brother calls you “the Chris Claremont of Transformers” and I think you can understand why. I read somewhere that you’ve actually been influenced by Claremont’s X-men multiple subplots...

SF) Yeah, I got a lot out of Claremont’s X-Men run. Mostly how well he managed multiple characters and sub-plots, something I’ve applied to my Transformers work as much as I can ever since. I always love to have other storylines building in the background while the main action is unfolding. The sense of brooding mysterious things to come helps maintain momentum in a monthly comic, I think. But right from the get-go, I never tried to tell anything but ‘mature’ stories in what was primarily a kid’s comic. I hated dumb or lazy storytelling when I was a kid and reading comics, so I wasn’t going to inflict that on my audience.

8. What are your other influences? As a writer, what other sources do you take inspiration from? And I mean movies, book, music...

SF) I try not to be too directly influenced by other sources when I write, but sure, stuff does creep in, like a natural osmosis or something. The Captain Britain and Marvelman/Miracleman stories written by Alan Moore were very influential. I loved how Moore made words and pictures feed off of each other, the art mirroring dialogue or dialogue framing the action. Stan Lee was a big influence in terms of scale for me. He could make the most mundane scene dramatic with some fantastically overblown caption or dialogue, and he loved to push his vocabulary envelope. There was always some word in there that had me reaching for the dictionary.

Movies, I’d say elements of Alien/Aliens, Terminator, Assault on Precinct 13 (the John Carpenter original), Blade Runner and others have crept into my work, but I’m wary of anything too derivative. My literary diet is mostly detective, police or thriller fiction, I don’t actually read a lot of sci-fi. Recent stuff I’ve read includes The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson, Gone Tomorrow by Lee Child, The Devil You Know by Mike Carey, Age of Iron by J.M. Coetzee and 20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill.

9. How do you think you’ve evolved as a writer since your Marvel and also Dreamwave days? When you look back, is there anything you would have done different?

SF) I tend not to look back. What’s done is done, good, bad or indifferent. I’m much more concerned with whatever’s coming next. Making sure the next script/story is as good as I can make it. I really don’t want to rehash stuff, so if I do look over my shoulder it’s to make sure I’m not just re-running an old story in a new form. And I want to keep trying to surprise, even if the trapping are very familiar. We’re featuring the Twins, Skids and Mudflap, quite heavily in the originated material I’m writing for what will be volume 2 of Titan’s Transformers comic/magazine, and I’m trying to layer in a lot more depth (than you probably get in Revenge of the Fallen) to the characters, to try and sustain interest and create empathy. Doing so has, I think, pushed me as writer, and I need that.

10. You had to rewrite some of Death’s Head first dialogues after you saw Geoff Senior’s bad-ass designs for the character... how many more times has this happened to you?

SF) Not that often, but these days I always revisit the dialogue I write at script stage once I see the art. Often it’s just a matter of re-jigging or refining the dialogue, but sometimes the actual art just plainly makes me re-think whole chunks. The art helps me see both what needs adding and what needs subtracting. Sometimes you just see that the dialogue you wrote is superfluous, and that the image says everything you were trying to say in a far more eloquent way.

11. An almost unavoidable question: did you ever see the Dreamwave thing coming? How did you react when all you guys found out?

SF) I’m not sure anyone saw the Dreamwave thing coming, except for the Lees, who allowed, even encouraged, me and a whole bunch of other people to continue producing work that they knew would never see print (and, more to the point, we’d never get paid for). How they conducted the last few months of business was lamentable, shameful. I hold very few grudges, but Pat and Roger Lee still have a lot to answer for. They covered their own asses and hung everyone else out to dry.

12. TF Hispanos boards user Sardestron would like to ask you something we all actually wonder: how come you’re not writing more for TV shows and why the heck it’s not your name which appears in the TF movie’s writing credits? ;) Will you be having any involvement with the third movie?

SF) It’s a strange demarcation, but even though I seem to be the (or ‘a’) go-to guy when it comes to Transformers comics and books, the same doesn’t apply to TV and films. I’d have loved to write for Transformers Animated, but no invitation was forthcoming, despite making a few gentle overtures to the script editors. Maybe I should have tried harder... who knows?

As for the movies, I’d have loved to be involved, but Hollywood operates on yet another level, and I guess I just don’t have enough in the way of credits. Or maybe it was a conscious effort on the part of the filmmakers to move away from direct links to Generation 1, etc. Be great to do something for the 3rd movie, but I’m not holding my breath.

13. User Tanafor asks: of TF books not written by you, do you have any favourite? Also, Imagine you had total writing freedom and you could ignore both sales and critics. What kind of TF book would you like to write? What characters would you kill?

SF) For a start, it’s great to see other Transformers writers emerging, and delivering some kick-ass work. I’m not sure I have a favourite other TF book per se, but of course I simply have to acknowledge the amazing groundwork done by Bob Budiansky in the first 50 or so issues of the U.S. comic. While there may have been highs and lows, Bob really laid down the rules of engagement, not to mention fleshing out 300 or so characters. Amazing work.

As for a no-rules, no limitations story, I’d opt for a continuation of G2 in comic book form, so following directly on from issue #12 of the original series, maybe taking it in a new direction entirely, not using the novella story Alignment at all. And to have Don Figueroa or Nick Roche draw it would be the icing on the cake. And despite my reputation, I wouldn’t just use it as an excuse to kill characters wholesale.

14. Now, saw this somewhere else and liked how it turned out so let’s do some word association if that’s ok with you.

- Beast Wars – Bob Forward, lovely chap and he really got me going on the TV animation side of things.
- Animated – Fun! I like their dumb, lovestruck Dinobots.
- Grimlock – Greg Berger, another lovely chap.
- Nemesis Prime - Badass
- G2 – Some of the most fun I’ve had in the many worlds of Transformers.
- WW Age of Wrath – Unfinished business!


Thanks so much for your time. I hope you don’t mind being bothered with another interview, maybe in a couple of years!