Talk:Transformers (Titan Magazine)

Publishing dates, or rather the lack of them

How come these Titan magazine articles lack publishing dates that our other comic issues have? Without them, I can't determine what came out first (thus determining the order of placement in fiction sections). --FFN 12:06, 4 May 2009 (EDT)

Exact publication dates (well, official ones, some places get them a few days earlier) have been added for each issue except #1 (cos, er, I can't remember that one). --Charles RB 13:45, 22 May 2009 (GMT)

ROTF

I can't wait to read the synopsis for these ones! If anyone bought a copy, could you post the synopsis for the first issue as soon as possible? Do they continue where the Movie 1 comics left off, or do they start a new story altogether? I need to know. Please, post synopsis soon! --206.253.51.107 14:05, 10 June 2009 (EDT)

Move?

Shouldn't this be at "Transformers Comic", like all of the individual issue articles? McFeely explained here why that is, and I see no reason why the same logic shouldn't apply to the main article as well. - Jackpot 22:32, 5 July 2009 (EDT)

Problem with that is that the title on the cover has changed twice and currently the indicia just calls it "Transformers". -Charles RB 160:06, 15 July 2009 (GMT)

I don't understand how that affects things. The individual issue articles, through both rebrandings and right up to the latest one, are titled "Transformers Comic". If that's what we're calling them, then it doesn't make a lick of sense to call this article something different. Now, if you think we should change the individual issue titles to something else - or vary them depending on which rebranding they're under - then the case for this article does become murkier. But as long as we're sticking with a catch-all term, it should apply here too. - Jackpot 16:21, 15 July 2009 (EDT)

I don't want the article to be at "Transformers Comic" because it's so damn unhelpfully generic.

(That's not a vote against per-se, because I'm in favor of standards... but I really feel like such a move would make the article harder to use-- at least insofar that it would become harder to find.)

We dump on 'Transformers' in many article titles because it's clutter... only retaining it when there's no better title to use. Since this is one of those times, I feel like there's almost a correlary imperative like... "if a [subject]'s only identifying name is Transformers and the resulting title, such as 'Transformers Card Game' could reasonably be expected to refer to more than one product (there are other TF card games, even if one is 'The Transformers Collectible Card Game') some form of clear disambiguation should be mandatory."

...but I dont' want to make that argument, because it does nothing but open a can of worms. Instead I'm going to go with Charles's argument; The comic has changes its title multiple times. The Dreamwave Armada and Energon comics have multiple articles to reflect the name change. If we think this is more minor than that, and all the different incarnations of the Titan comic should be covered by a single article then that article's title should not reflect any single title the Titan comic has had, but instead become a subject article, like "Dreamwave Unicron Trilogy comic" if we covered both series in one article.

I don't want us to become victims of the fact that there's 8-bazillion things just called "Transformers." And the proposed move seems to do that. If there's a consistent-with-our-policies way of doing something different, I'd strongly suggest pursuing that. -Derik 17:07, 15 July 2009 (EDT)

All I'm saying is, it's confusing that Transformers (Titan Magazine) and Transformers Comic issue 1 are referring to the same series. Both "Transformers (Titan Magazine)" and "Transformers Comic" are arbitrary choices on our part from several different options between the covers and indicia. There's nothing that makes one more applicable to the series-article and the other to the issue-articles. In suggesting that "Transformers Comic" win out, I was just going with the path of least resistance - moving one article instead of over two dozen. Whatever rationale is used, I don't care, just as long as we settle on SOMETHING. - Jackpot 17:30, 15 July 2009 (EDT)

I would not be opposed to retitling the individual issues if we settle on a better naming convention. I agree that it's awkward to have them where they are, given that the comic keeps changing its name. -Derik 18:03, 15 July 2009 (EDT)

If I had to make my own call on the matter, here's how I would do it: If a comic changes title but continues to advance in issue-numbers, then I say it's still a single series, and there should be one page for it. The title of the page should probably be the most recent title of the book, in the same way that we consider Universe featuring the Wreckers to be the "real" title of that series. Each individual issue, if it didn't have a story-title, would be titled with whatever its cover says. So indeed there would be a disconnect between some issues and the main series article, but at least it would be sensical, as opposed to the completely arbitrary disconnect we have here.

So that means that in the case of this page, it would be called "Universe (2008 comic)", and it would not include any of the "Revenge of the Fallen" issues. Those would be on a new page called "Revenge of the Fallen (comic)". The individual issue-pages would be "Transformers (Titan) issue 1", all the way up to #21. Then they would be "Universe (2008 comic) issue 22" and onward until the ROTF ones, which would be a separate series anyway.

(And yes, this would also mean combining the DW Armada and Energon series-pages into one page. I'm in favor of that.)

One more thing - Charles might know this: When did the indicia stop referring to the series as "Transformers Comic" in favor of just "Transformers"? If it was at the Universe/ROTF break, then that would be handy - all of the pre-ROTF issues and their series-page could be "Transformers Comic", while all the ROTF issues and series pages would be "Revenge of the Fallen (comic)".

If I had to make the call.

- Jackpot 21:18, 15 July 2009 (EDT)

I think keeping everything under a simple "Transformers (Titan Magazines)" is going to be easier and cleaner than splitting into two volumes and altering the title with each name change, but YMMV.

I've checked and the indicia never called it "Transformers Comic". The editorial at the front called it "Transformers Comic" in issues 1 and 2, as McFeely says (I thought the indicia had as well at some point but no). The indicia constantly calls it "Transformers" only. - Charles RB 21:53, 18 July 2009 (GMT)

Certainly I don't have enough stake in these particular articles to try to impose all of my ideas on them. You're the one actually putting the elbow grease into them, so hey, whatever works for you. The one point that I'll continue to stand by is that if the individual articles are going to be consistently named with a common title, then that title should carry through here (or vice-versa). It's nonsensical and confusing (it genuinely confused me) to have a disconnect when the choices are so arbitrary to begin with. - Jackpot 13:08, 27 July 2009 (EDT)

Transformers Adventures

What is the source of the info about a third volume - "Titan produces digest-sized collections of the UK strips under the title Transformers Adventures; two have come out with a third upcoming"? I recently asked about this on Furman's blog - http://simonfurman.wordpress.com/2009/07/07/sdcc-09-1/#comments - but he said he didn't know about Titan's plans. Also, Vol.1 reprinted #1-6 and Vol.2 #7-13. Should that go on this page? J'mie 07:47, 25 July 2009 (EDT)

There's a third advertised on Amazon. It still hasn't come out though...

I'll add the stuff to the page. Charles RB 16:35, 25 July 2009 (GMT)

Name starting at issue 2.1

At least on the cover, the name of the magazine appears to have changed to "Transformers Revenge of the Fallen." Is this accurate? - Starfield 00:17, 8 September 2009 (EDT)

Character info boxes

I noticed these articles don't have a box listing all of the named (or otherwise) characters appearing in them. We should probably get around to that. --FFN 01:20, 17 March 2010 (EDT)

The curse of letters

I'd like to point out that, so far, all the letters page answerers except sideswipe got killed off in Dark Of The Moon (including Megatron, so how the hell is he answering letters?)Burnout 06:07, 24 August 2011 (EDT)

Titan comics letters page is Cybertronian purgatory. Sideswipe was killed offscreen. --abates 06:23, 24 August 2011 (EDT)

Cancelled?

Does anyone know if the title has been cancelled? No new issue since July has been posted and their website doesn't even have the magazine listed. --MistaTee 20:05, 16 September 2012 (EDT)

According to the last issue, the next one is scheduled for October 11. --abates 22:06, 16 September 2012 (EDT)

Gotcha. Still sorta lame that their website doesn't promote the magazine. --MistaTee 22:46, 16 September 2012 (EDT)

It does, it's just hard to find starting from their home page. --abates 23:18, 16 September 2012 (EDT)

In case anyone's wondering about the non-appearance of #4.13, I contacted Titan and it's scheduled for the 31st. --abates 23:47, 14 January 2013 (UTC)

Note that it has now been cancelled -- issue 5.5 (released 18th Dec 2014, cover date Jan/Feb 2015) is the last one. I think this merits some rewrite of the blurb at the top of this main page, which sounds like an ideal little Christmas task. Ho ho ho! --Astrobot (talk) 13:43, 20 December 2014 (EST)

Well, that's a shame. Titan's comics were quirky and often the only ones based in whatever the current franchise was at the time. Falling sales, I guess. --abates (talk) 15:45, 20 December 2014 (EST)