TimeLines (BotCon) 2013 discussion

[Gomess]

Ok, so I guess if it works out at less than a dollar it's technically not a ripoff. MAYBE

But really, I'd rather see more stories generated by the fandom at large in publications like that, rather than some elite committee of BNFs. "Official fanfic" makes me taste sick in my mouth

[Dominic]

Club membership is $40usd. That gets you a full year subscription to their classified publication, as well as a free ad in that publication. Alternating months, the classfied paper (a really anachronistic precursor to the buy/sell/trade forums of today), includes a fanclub magazine which includes the comics mentioned in this thread. Membership also allows for access to exclusive internet content (bad text stories) and the right to buy toys from the club store, often at rates only slightly above retail.

IDW actually tried to run a fan-sourced content model. (Anderson was actually a part of it.) The results, as evidenced by what was posted, were (to put it gently) hit and miss. I can honestly say that it would *not* have been worth paying for most of them, or any sort of compilation with the average quality of what we did see. (Some of it was good. But, much of it was not.)

[BWprowl]

That gets you a full year subscription to their classified publication, as well as a free ad in that publication. Alternating months, the classfied paper (a really anachronistic precursor to the buy/sell/trade forums of today),

Oh man, I was not aware that this was a thing in the magazine. That's hilarious, does FunPub not know that eBay is a thing that exists?

IDW actually tried to run a fan-sourced content model. (Anderson was actually a part of it.) The results, as evidenced by what was posted, were (to put it gently) hit and miss. I can honestly say that it would *not* have been worth paying for most of them, or any sort of compilation with the average quality of what we did see. (Some of it was good. But, much of it was not.)

I think you may be looking at this from the wrong angle, Dom. While it's true that a lot of the 'Mosaic' content wasn't up to professional snuff and didn't always contribute well to TF storytelling as a whole, I think it was less about making content for people to pay for and more about giving lower-level, aspiring creators a way to get their names and ideas out there in the first place. Stuff like 'Mosaic' is more or less where guys like Don Figueroa, Guido Guidi, and James Roberts got their start, after all.

I've always found it interesting that despite your rigid stance that you should never ever produce non-professional, non-officially-published content ever, because it's the horrible worst thing to do, you don't supply a lot of alternatives for an aspiring comic writer/artist to build up a portfolio to attract the opportunity to be given that work in the first place.

"Hey, I'd love to come write a story for you guys."
"Well, show me an example of something else you've written."
"Oh sorry, I don't have anything. I didn't want to write anything that wasn't going to be published, since that would be a waste of time."

[Shockwave]

I actually liked a lot of the Mosaic stuff. It was like mini Spotlights.

[Dominic]

And, some of it was *terrible*. I can forgive the pieces that were basically "artist looking for a writer". In those cases, an artist with some talent would be putting there work out there for people (including real editors who mattered) to see. That was *fine*. But, some of the art was....not so good. And, much of the writing was people desperately trying to get "their Transformers story" out there and seen in a vaguely (but not quite) official venue.

From what I heard, it was actually legalities that finally brought down "Mosaic". There were questions about who owned what, especially as the work was not paid...but it was theoretically being looked at by IDW (a Hasbro license holder). This got especially dicey when some of them were printed as back-ups in various IDW "Transformers" comics.

I am not sure where the forma justification is listed. But, the only two to be considered wholly official feature the Wreckers, and were reprinted in the "Last Stand of the Wreckers" hardcover edition, despite one of them requiring some interpretive acrobatics to reconcile with what was shown in the rest of that book. There was also a Furman-penned "Mosaic" featuring Sunstreaker/Hunter as a head-master. Furman declared it to be in context with his previous work, right before "All Hail Megatron" made the story in question wholly impossible to reconcile.

I tend to figure that the other stories reprinted in comics are, if only by technicality, official (if obscure and not very relevant) content. But that is only my best guess.

I've always found it interesting that despite your rigid stance that you should never ever produce non-professional, non-officially-published content ever, because it's the horrible worst thing to do, you don't supply a lot of alternatives for an aspiring comic writer/artist to build up a portfolio to attract the opportunity to be given that work in the first place.

There is a difference between showing a piece of work to an editor, either to get it published or simply to impress them enough to let you write something professionally, and just writing "my own TF story to show to people". My first job in publishing was the result of a piece that I wrote that was never published. (As proud as I was of it 10+ years ago, it really was not very good. But, it showed that I had potential. Either way, it did its job and opened a door.)

If nothing else, with all of the official content available, (some of which I am skipping because there is enough that I can afford to be picky), why would I bother with fanfic, most of which is going to be wholly self-indulgent?


Dom
-will also call official content out for being bad, such as much of what Fun Publications produces.

[Shockwave]

Because some of it could be good and not self indulgent. And you won't know until you read it.

Granted, I have only passing experience with fanfic and most of what I read wasn't that bad. It wasn't that great but....

[Tigermegatron]

I gotta at the very least give TFCC positives for applying better colors on "SOME" of their TF Exclusives. The problem is most of the time those better colors on the toys get given to Obsecure TF characters hardly anyone knows or cares about.

I love the 2013 Botcon Megaplex color scheme in both modes. I think the 2013 botcon megaplex colors are better than the TFP Skyquake & TFP Dreadwing toy colors. PROBLEM is Megaplex is a obsecure TF character that really isn't on anyone's top 20 wish list for hasbro to create a new mold or recolor toy. Then theirs also the thing that this 2013 megaplex's toy will cost around $80 from TFCC & will get scalped for over $110+ on ebay. I'd be willing to buy 2013 Megaplex for under $25,I don't have enough love for the colors or character to pay $80 thru $110+ to buy this toy.

[Onslaught Six]

I love the 2013 Botcon Megaplex color scheme in both modes. I think the 2013 botcon megaplex colors are better than the TFP Skyquake & TFP Dreadwing toy colors. PROBLEM is Megaplex is a obsecure TF character that really isn't on anyone's top 20 wish list for hasbro to create a new mold or recolor toy. Then theirs also the thing that this 2013 megaplex's toy will cost around $80 from TFCC & will get scalped for over $110+ on ebay. I'd be willing to buy 2013 Megaplex for under $25,I don't have enough love for the colors or character to pay $80 thru $110+ to buy this toy.

Here's the thing--some of us don't *have* a "top 20 wish list" for new TFs. We just have characters we like. Megaplex is a dude who has a great concept behind him and any time it gets 'any' light shed on it, I get excited. That's why when MW was announced as the theme, we got all these good ideas for him...that didn't happen at all.

But whatever! One less thing I have to buy.

There is a difference between showing a piece of work to an editor, either to get it published or simply to impress them enough to let you write something professionally, and just writing "my own TF story to show to people".

Let's say I'm an aspiring comics artist. More than anything, I want to draw a Spiderman book. I don't even care if the story is crap; I just really like Spiderman, and I'm pretty good at drawing him, so there you go. I put my Spiderman drawings--which at this point, are completely fanart--up on my art blog or my DA or whatever, and people start going, "Wow, you should totally do Spiderman!" They start writing in to Marvel. They start sending emails to Joe Quesada. "Hey, this guy draws Spiderman real durn good. You should hire him." Bam.

I say this because Scott Wegener, the guy who draws (and co-plots and whatever else) Atomic Robo, has posted TF fanart in the past--usually of completely made up characters, too. He started reading MTMTE and got super inspired. Now, there's no question that Wegener is a professional artist--he's working on a creator owned book and has even done stuff for Marvel recently. At what point does Wegener's (mostly self-indulgent) fanart drawings cross over into legitimate portfolio work? It's a real possibility that Wegener could draw something TF-related on his own whims, and then IDW offers him a Spotlight issue or something based on that.


On another note, nine outta ten of the songs on my new album are based directly on the plots of 80s action/scifi movies. (It's titled 'First Blood' if that gives you any indication.) They are, for all intents and purposes, fanfiction in the form of song. Is this self-indulgent? Absolutely. But they're still entirely original songs, with words and music that I came up with. I could easily show some of them to people who had never seen the movies, and they'd have no idea.

[Sparky Prime]

Botcon has decided to go with show accurate colors for Obsidian insead of the bright green we've previously seen on the figure. I have to say, I think this color change is a vast improvement. These colors suit Obsidian so much better. Plus is a better match with Strika which they used show accurate colors for to begin with.

[Tigermegatron]

Updated BotCon 2013 Machine Wars Obsidian Black toy Images
http://www.seibertron.com/transformers/ ... ges/27049/

The colors certainly look better than the grass green 2000 BM toy colors.