Shooter's initial treatment of The Transformers

[JediTricks]

This is the pitch that Jim Shooter, then editor-in-chief at Marvel, wrote to get Hasbro going on The Transformers, and to fuel the comic book treatment they'd be doing:

http://transformingseminarian.blogspot. ... rmers.html

When I got to the part about the Cybertronians not being able to create anything new due to a lack of resources, I was pretty impressed. Not only had Shooter managed to justify their coming to Earth, but he had also explained why there weren't newborn Cybertronians all the time. Not bad for a treatment he wrote for free to make up for a lackluster assignment from a colleague -- that tale told here:
http://www.jimshooter.com/2011/06/secre ... art-1.html
http://www.jimshooter.com/2011/06/secre ... art-2.html

[andersonh1]

This is the pitch that Jim Shooter, then editor-in-chief at Marvel, wrote to get Hasbro going on The Transformers, and to fuel the comic book treatment they'd be doing:

http://transformingseminarian.blogspot. ... rmers.html

When I got to the part about the Cybertronians not being able to create anything new due to a lack of resources, I was pretty impressed. Not only had Shooter managed to justify their coming to Earth, but he had also explained why there weren't newborn Cybertronians all the time. Not bad for a treatment he wrote for free to make up for a lackluster assignment from a colleague -- that tale told here:
http://www.jimshooter.com/2011/06/secre ... art-1.html
http://www.jimshooter.com/2011/06/secre ... art-2.html

There are some interesting behind the scenes stories there. Shooter has a bunch of those. I've read some other interviews with him detailing his time in the industry. I'm amazed that he was writing Legion of Super Heroes when he was just a teenager.

[Almighty Unicron]

I've had the pleasure of meeting Shooter a few times. Dude's a seriously good writer, even if his interpersonal skills are lacking.

[Dominic]

Did you shake his hand? And, did you get gangrene? (The guy has the touch of death form what I hear. Look at every project of his in the 90s.)


Joking aside, I retract my earlier comments about Shooter and apply them to O'Neil.

Books like TF (not so much license tie-ins, but third tier books) should be given to younger writers who are hungry and need to make a mark. A guy like O'Neil had not need to do a good job with TF. He would be getting paid and he already had a solid rep for his work at DC. (As much as I do not like his "Green Lanter/Green Arrow" run, his work with Adams on "Batman" was undeniably great.) Guys like Abnett got their start on TF and Joe in the UK. And, they made careers out of that start while writing solid comics for properties that others would not have put the effort in to.

[JediTricks]

There are some interesting behind the scenes stories there. Shooter has a bunch of those. I've read some other interviews with him detailing his time in the industry. I'm amazed that he was writing Legion of Super Heroes when he was just a teenager.

I read every blog he had up there until he stopped posting for months at a time, he's at least as interesting as he is controversial.

About LOSH, my mom remembers as a kid the change in quality from when DC brought his stories on board, that's when she became a fan and didn't know it was being written by someone nearly her own age.

I've had the pleasure of meeting Shooter a few times. Dude's a seriously good writer, even if his interpersonal skills are lacking.

HA! I've only seen him in videos but even there you can get that interpersonal skills lacking thing.

Did you shake his hand? And, did you get gangrene? (The guy has the touch of death form what I hear. Look at every project of his in the 90s.)

OUCH! He has tales for each one, but yeah, there is a bit of a touch of death about it.

Joking aside, I retract my earlier comments about Shooter and apply them to O'Neil.

Books like TF (not so much license tie-ins, but third tier books) should be given to younger writers who are hungry and need to make a mark. A guy like O'Neil had not need to do a good job with TF. He would be getting paid and he already had a solid rep for his work at DC. (As much as I do not like his "Green Lanter/Green Arrow" run, his work with Adams on "Batman" was undeniably great.) Guys like Abnett got their start on TF and Joe in the UK. And, they made careers out of that start while writing solid comics for properties that others would not have put the effort in to.

There's the problem, how do you build up a property fast if you give it to those who haven't built their skills yet? It's a catch-22, you get passionless work like Denny's on TF, but names sell comics and it's not because of fame all the time, it's because of skills and experience so you want to make sure it's launched with that cachet going for it.

[Onslaught Six]

From the other thread:

I had somehow scrambled Sunbow into being part of Marvel instead of their rivals for Hasbro's affections.

That's the thing though, Sunbow was part of Marvel. The problem was (according to Shooter) that most of the people working were "TV people" and thought comics were beneath them--which is strangely ironic for a company that is a wing of a comics company.

[Almighty Unicron]

When I interned at Blizzard, I worked with both Marv Wolfman and Flint Dillie, since one of the higher ups at the company is a massive transformers fan (Chris Metzen, who did Autocracy) and would often listen to them talk about their time behind the scenes at Sunbow. From what I heard it was a seriously dysfunctional place, but the only detail I can remember is that everyone was hated the fact that the building they worked in was pastel pink.

[JediTricks]

From the other thread:

I had somehow scrambled Sunbow into being part of Marvel instead of their rivals for Hasbro's affections.

That's the thing though, Sunbow was part of Marvel. The problem was (according to Shooter) that most of the people working were "TV people" and thought comics were beneath them--which is strangely ironic for a company that is a wing of a comics company.

Sunbow was never Marvel, they were working together but weren't the same company. Sunbow wast started from the Griffin-Bacal Advertising firm to get the ad clients animation, this was before they started working with Hasbro on GI Joe even; they brought The Great Space Coaster to tv in '81 then started working with Hasbro on GI Joe and The Charmkins, then other lines, essentially as a go-between. Sunbow eventually got bought by Sony, of all places. But they were never part of Marvel Productions, the animation arm of Marvel that Shooter was talking about, and you can see that by the pair of company logos at the end of the shows they worked together on. Shooter says Sunbow would take the Marvel Production cover sheets off their work and slap Sunbow cover sheets on the scripts and works, acting as the "go-between" from Marvel Productions and Toei Animation. Such are the perks of being executive producers.

When I interned at Blizzard, I worked with both Marv Wolfman and Flint Dillie, since one of the higher ups at the company is a massive transformers fan (Chris Metzen, who did Autocracy) and would often listen to them talk about their time behind the scenes at Sunbow. From what I heard it was a seriously dysfunctional place, but the only detail I can remember is that everyone was hated the fact that the building they worked in was pastel pink.

That's a funny thing to remember, the building color. I guess Sunbow generated character keys and that sort of thing, then sent them to Toei for the actual animation.

[138 Scourge]

I've had the pleasure of meeting Shooter a few times. Dude's a seriously good writer, even if his interpersonal skills are lacking.

Shooter did make Star Brand, and even if the New Universe stuff was (from what I've heard) the final straw to his days at Marvel, I've always really dug the concept and the design for the Brand. Regular chump gets a cool-looking tattoo that gives him all the superpower, but he's in a world where superpowers can't really fix anything? There's something I love about that.

Of course, I read that when it was coming out, so I was like, ten and hadn't read Watchmen at the time. Still, I think that stuff holds up.