James Roberts

This article is about . For other uses of "James", see James (disambiguation)|The name or term "James" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see James (disambiguation).}}

James Roberts (born November 15, 1976)<ref>{{#if: Best tweet ever. “@rollerOrbital: @jroberts332 It's your birthday? HAPPY BIRTHDAY! i didn't get you anything because trailcutter is dead” |"Best tweet ever. “@rollerOrbital: @jroberts332 It's your birthday? HAPPY BIRTHDAY! i didn't get you anything because trailcutter is dead”"—|}}{{#if: https://twitter.com/jroberts332/status/533729176067801088 |jroberts332|jroberts332}}{{#if: Twitter |, Twitter|}}{{#if: |, ""|}}{{#if: 2014 |, 2014{{#if: 11 |/{{#switch:{{#len:11}}|1=011|11}}{{#if: 15|/{{#switch:{{#len:15}}|1=015|15}}|}}}}|}}{{#if: https://twitter.com/jroberts332/status/533729176067801088 ||}}{{#switch:{{#sub:https://twitter.com/jroberts332/status/533729176067801088%7C7%7C11}}%7Cweb.archive= (archive link)|}}{{#switch:{{#sub:https://twitter.com/jroberts332/status/533729176067801088%7C8%7C11}}%7Cweb.archive= (archive link)|}}{{#switch:{{#sub:https://twitter.com/jroberts332/status/533729176067801088%7C7%7C10}}%7Carchive.is= (archive link)|}}{{#switch:{{#sub:https://twitter.com/jroberts332/status/533729176067801088%7C8%7C10}}%7Carchive.is= (archive link)|}}{{#if: | (dead link)}}</ref> is a British writer and Transformers fan. He was one of the early members of fan club Transmasters UK (TMUK), and wrote a number of text stories and strips. The most famous of these is the absolutely massive Eugenesis, an unofficial novel he first published back in 2001.

After that, Roberts was brought in to co-write Last Stand of the Wreckers, in order to lessen the stress and workload for Roche. While the first issue was all pre-planned by Roche, from issue two onwards it became a collaborative effort.<ref>Moonbase 2 interview, 39:40 to 31:00</ref> He went on to write the text story "Bullets" for the Wreckers trade. On the back of that, Andy Schmidt offered Roberts a role as "showrunner" on digital-only 5-page stories called War Stories; most would be written by Roberts but guest writers like Simon Furman would drop in. This was derailed by, as Roberts remembered in an interview, plans for a digital Transformers Prime story that itself went unmade (unless in interviews he's confusing that with The Transformers: Autocracy). After that, he pitched a one-off Megatron origin story that would become "Chaos Theory", which saw him brought into a multi-writer "brain trust" modelled on the contemporary writers' room for Spider-Man after "Brand New Day", co-writing "Chaos" with Mike Costa and then being on the ground floor of the Phase Two soft reboot, co-writing The Death of Optimus Prime and became the sole writer on the new ongoing, More than Meets the Eye.<ref>Guernsey GeekOut interview, 1:12:30 to 1:15:10</ref>

One of his noted habits is massive world-building and drip-feeding character details & backstory throughout a run. He's cheerfully admitted he likes building up a character history in non-sequential order "so you fill in the blanks".<ref>"The Underbase Podcast Deconstructs Shadowplay", 09:11 - 09:24</ref> His characters are prone to language- and literature-related digressions and witticisms, and sometimes self-aware to the point of straining the fourth wall. Due to all his long term plots, he obsesses a lot over every script and they all start as longhand before being refined ("I have a tower of notebooks full of my barely legible handwriting").<ref>Interview with Boroughcon</ref>

Always start off low, always start off with real people, y'know, because most of us are ordinary people.{{#if:|{{{quote2}}}}}{{#if:James Roberts,<ref>"The Underbase Podcast Deconstructs Shadowplay", 1:10:22 - 1:10:30</ref>|James Roberts,<ref>"The Underbase Podcast Deconstructs Shadowplay", 1:10:22 - 1:10:30</ref>{{#if:|, {{{3}}}|}}|}}

Let’s just say that my interest in politics stems from time spent working closely with politicians.{{#if:|{{{quote2}}}}}{{#if:|{{{2}}}{{#if:|, {{{3}}}|}}|}}

Writing

All Hail Megatron #15 (first story, assisting Nick Roche)
Last Stand of the Wreckers (co-written with Nick Roche)
- "Dead Men's Boots"
- "Bullets"
- "Zero Point"
The Transformers #22, #23, #24, #26, #28, #30, (co-plotter on #24, #26, #28, and #30 with Mike Costa)
Transformers: The Death of Optimus Prime (co-written with John Barber)
The Transformers Classics UK (essay writer)
The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye
The Transformers Spotlight: Orion Pax
The Transformers Spotlight: Trailcutter
The Transformers Spotlight: Hoist
"Dark Cybertron" (with John Barber)
"Silent Light", from The Transformers Holiday Special
"The Last Autobot" (with Mairghread Scott and John Barber)
The Transformers: Lost Light

Fiction

2005 IDW continuity

James Roberts was the author of a book Jimmy owned, whose title began with an E. Maximum Dinobots #3

Legends comic

A resident of the Legends World, James Roberts was saved from a Zamojin invasion by Skyquake and Thunder Clash toys that revealed themselves to be real Transformers. Legends World in Imminent Danger! Part Two When his world was destroyed, Roberts was evacuated to Cybertron of the G1 World. The Road to Legends' Revival Chapter 2

Convention appearances

BotCon 2014

Notes

He first got into Transformers in 1986, in time for the Triple Changers, and hunted down older toys and Ladybird Books at second-hand shops and fetes; key memories also include visiting the local shop and poring over their Hasbro retailer catalogue for new toys, with his mind being blown by Mega and Ultra Pretenders ("they're inside and oh my god that one transforms!"). The earliest toy he bought himself was Snapdragon. He's even said the Action Masters were "cool", explaining he felt those toys showed Hasbro's faith in the characters selling toys and not the transformation gimmick itself.<ref>Moonbase2's second interview with James Roberts - 49:50 to 59:30</ref>
The Marvel UK Transformers comic printed letters from a young James Roberts on four separate occasions.<ref>Dread Tidings issue 288 and 295; Darn 'n' Blast issue 310 and 316</ref>
He was nominated for Favourite Writer in the 2014 True Believers Awards.<ref>True Believers Comic Awards nominees</ref>
The number 113 constantly shows up in Roberts' Transformers work in homage to The Transformers UK issue #113, the first issue he bought for himself after getting pulled in from reading a friend's copy of issue #97.

Roche snuck Eugenesis into a bookshelf in Maximum Dinobots #3.
The original Eugenesis cover looked like a Penguin Classics book (even sporting the tagline "Polyhex 21st Century Classics"). Roberts has said this was him poking fun at his own "lofty" aspirations.<ref>Interview with Roberts at TransFans.co.uk</ref>
Shockwave's death in The Legacy of Unicron! has haunted Roberts since childhood...<ref>Moonbase 2 interview, 50:26 to 51:08</ref>
Mike Costa has joked that because of James's popularity among the nerdier fans, he thought that even if people didn't like Chaos, "they'd have to pretend they did because James' name was on it!"<ref>The Underbase podcast interview with Mike Costa ("Special Guest")</ref>
In Eugenesis, Roberts listed some of his creative influences (circa 2001): Simon Furman, [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Martin Amis|{{#if:||Martin Amis}}]], [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Chris Carter|{{#if:||Chris Carter}}]], [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Graham Greene|{{#if:||Graham Greene}}]], [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Neil Hannon|{{#if:||Neil Hannon}}]], [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Vladimir Nabokov|{{#if:||Vladimir Nabokov}}]] and [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Morrissey|{{#if:||Morrissey}}]], "who I doubt have ever been acknowledged in the same sentence". He's since brought up his admiration for [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Russell T Davies|{{#if:||Russell T Davies}}]]' TV work (including his run on Doctor Who); [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Peter David|{{#if:||Peter David}}]], [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Grant Morrison|{{#if:||Grant Morrison}}]]'s [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Zenith (comics)|{{#if:Zenith|Zenith|Zenith (comics)}}]], and [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Justice League International|{{#if:||Justice League International}}]] in comics; and [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Don DeLillo|{{#if:||Don DeLillo}}]], [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Philip Roth|{{#if:||Philip Roth}}]], and [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}John Updike|{{#if:||John Updike}}]]'s "Rabbit" books in literature. Science fiction prose isn't his thing though, instead gravitating to literary fiction.<ref>Moonbase2's second interview with James Roberts - 01:20:00 to 1:22:15</ref>
Roberts admitted to being "a control freak when it comes to my scripts", and that they are often 50 pages long with precise panel-by-panel descriptions. However, he concedes artists like Alex Milne have "a far, far superior grasp of visual storytelling than I do", and "unless the way a particular shot is framed is integral to the plot", they can feel free to deviate.<ref>Answer to a post on an IDW Forum Q&A.</ref> Nick Roche strongly implied in 2015 that these masses of detailed panels are why they hadn't worked together for a while,<ref>{{#if: @MMortAH Well, we haven't worked together in three years... make of THAT what you will... :) |"@MMortAH Well, we haven't worked together in three years... make of THAT what you will... :)"—|}}{{#if: https://twitter.com/NickRoche/status/665246818389856256 |NickRoche|NickRoche}}{{#if: Twitter |, Twitter|}}{{#if: |, ""|}}{{#if: 2015 |, 2015{{#if: 11 |/{{#switch:{{#len:11}}|1=011|11}}{{#if: 13|/{{#switch:{{#len:13}}|1=013|13}}|}}}}|}}{{#if: https://twitter.com/NickRoche/status/665246818389856256 ||}}{{#switch:{{#sub:https://twitter.com/NickRoche/status/665246818389856256%7C7%7C11}}%7Cweb.archive= (archive link)|}}{{#switch:{{#sub:https://twitter.com/NickRoche/status/665246818389856256%7C8%7C11}}%7Cweb.archive= (archive link)|}}{{#switch:{{#sub:https://twitter.com/NickRoche/status/665246818389856256%7C7%7C10}}%7Carchive.is= (archive link)|}}{{#switch:{{#sub:https://twitter.com/NickRoche/status/665246818389856256%7C8%7C10}}%7Carchive.is= (archive link)|}}{{#if: | (dead link)}}</ref> though they are still friends, you paranoid person.
His biceps are huge.
Roberts collected many of the more interesting tidbits from his early notes for More Than Meets the Eye into four volumes of The MTMTE Notebooks, which he sold at conventions and online.

External links

Interviews

February 2007—TransFans
December 2009—One Shall Stand (with Nick Roche)
April 2010—Moonbase 2
August 2010—Auto Assembly (with Nick Roche)
July 2011—The Underbase (with Andrew Griffith)
August 2011—Auto Assembly (with Simon Furman, Andrew Wildman, and Nick Roche)
August 2011—The Underbase
August 2011—The Underbase (with Nick Roche)
February 2012—CraveOnline
May 2012—CBR (with John Barber)
June 2012—TFW2005
August 2012—Auto Assembly (with Nick Roche and Livio Ramondelli)
August 2012—The Underbase
2012—transformers2015
December 2012—Facebook
January 2013—Multiversity Comics (with John Barber)
April 2013—CBR
May 2013—Facebook
July 2013—TFCon (incomplete)
August 2013—Full Metal Hero (defunct)
August 2013—Auto Assembly (with Nick Roche)
August 2013—Auto Assembly (alternate recording) (with Nick Roche and Chris McFeely)
August 2013—The Underbase (with Alex Milne)
September 2013—Auto Assembly (with Alex Milne, Nick Roche, and Andrew Griffith)
October 2013—Newsarama (with John Barber)
October 2013—The Underbase
November 2013—Moonbase 2
February 2014—Iacon Underground (with John Barber)
February 2014—Bleeding Cool
April 2014—IDW (with John Barber, and Mairghread Scott)
April 2014—The Underbase
June 2014—Sequart (Part 1, Part 2)
June 2014—BotCon (with John Barber, Mairghread Scott, Andrew Griffith, Saren Stone, and Livio Ramondelli)
June 2014—BotCon (alternate recording)
June 2014—Transmissions / The Underbase (with John Barber and Mairghread Scott)
August 2014—Auto Assembly (with Jim Sorenson, Nick Roche, John-Paul Bove, and Casey Coller)
August 2014—Auto Assembly (with Alex Milne and Joana Lafuente)
October 2014—TFCon (incomplete)
October 2014—TransMissions (transcript)
February 2015—Women Write About Comics
March 2015—TransMissions (transcript)
March 2015—The Solar Pool
March 2015—Seibertron.com Twincast / Podcast
April 2015—Fanboy vs Transformers
July 2015—TransMissions (transcript)
July 2015—TFCon (incomplete)
September 2015—Pajiba
September 2015—GamesRadar
October 2015—Vangelus
January 2016—Movie Trailer Reviews
March 2016—Gizmodo
March 2016—TransMissions (with John Barber)
April 2016—Orbital Comics (archived)
April 2016—Toy Meets World
July 2016—Comics Alliance (with John Barber and Mairghread Scott)
August 2016—TFNation (with Simon Furman and Geoff Senior)
August 2016—TFNation (with Alex Milne)
August 2016—Den of Geek (with John Barber)
August 2016—Podcast Maximus
October 2016—Moonbase 2
November 2016—Movie Trailer Reviews
December 2016—The Guardian
December 2016—Forces of Geek
April 2017—BoroughCon
July 2017—CBC News (with John Barber and Mairghread Scott)
August 2017—TFNation (with Jack Lawrence)
August 2017—Podcast Maximus
August 2017—ITV
September 2017—TFCon (Part 1, Part 2) (with Alex Milne)
September 2017—TFCon Q&A (incomplete notes)
October 2017—TransMissions (with Casey Coller, Andrew Griffith, and Josh Burcham)
June 2018—The Beat
July 2018—RetCon (with Nick Roche)
November 2018—Instagram Q&A (incomplete recording, incomplete transcript)
January 2019—Real Transformers News
March 2019—Guernsey Geek On
August 2019—TFNation (with Nick Roche and Jack Lawrence)
July 2021—Ia-Con (with Mae Catt, Jack Lawrence, and Thomas Deer)
July 2022—AARGH! MY OPTICS!
August 2022—TFNation (with Simon Furman, Nick Roche, Jack Lawrence, and Brian Ruckley)
March 2025—Triple Takeover (with Nick Roche)

References

James Roberts

Contents

Writing

Fiction

2005 IDW continuity

Legends comic

Convention appearances

Notes

External links

Interviews

References

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James Roberts

Writing

Fiction

2005 IDW continuity

Legends comic

Convention appearances

Notes

External links

Interviews

References

Navigation menu

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