Transformers Legends (book)

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

|- {{#if: TFLegendsCover.jpg | | colspan="2" style="font-size: 12px; background-color:#ffffff;" align="center" | {{#if: Ceci n'est pas canonique. |
Ceci n'est pas canonique.}}}} |-

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|- {{#if: ibooks | |Publisher || ibooks}} |- {{#if: | |Published by || }} |- {{#if: | |Imprint || }} |- {{#if: | |Published in || }} |- {{#if: November 30, 2004 | |First published || November 30, 2004}} |- {{#if: | |Shipping date || }} |- {{#if: | |On-sale date || }} |- {{#if: | |Cover date || }} |- {{#if: | |Credits || }} |- {{#if: | |By || }} |- {{#if: | |Manga || }} |- {{#if: | |Manga by || }} |- {{#if: | |Original story || }} |- {{#if: | |Story & art by || }} |- {{#if: | |Story and color art || }} |- {{#if: | |Story || }} |- {{#if: | |Story by || }} |- {{#if: | |Story consultants || }} |- {{#if: | |Story concept || }} |- {{#if: | |Screenplay by || }} |- {{#if: | |Screenplay || }} |- {{#if: | |Adaptation by || }} |- {{#if: | |Adapted by || }} |- {{#if: | |Adaptation || }} |- {{#if: | |Based on || }} |- {{#if: | |Writer || }} |- {{#if: | |Writers || }} |- {{#if: | |Writing || }} |- {{#if: | |Written by || }} |- {{#if: | |Written & art || }} |- {{#if: | |Plotter || }} |- {{#if: | |Plotters || }} |- {{#if: | |Plot || }} |- {{#if: | |Plot by || }} |- {{#if: | |Plot/Script || }} |- {{#if: | |Scripter || }} |- {{#if: | |Scripters || }} |- {{#if: | |Script || }} |- {{#if: | |Scripting || }} |- {{#if: | |Script by || }} |- {{#if: | |Script and art || }} |- {{#if: | |Sript [sic] consultant || }} |- {{#if: | |Translation by || }} |- {{#if: | |Artist || }} |- {{#if: | |Comic artist || }} |- {{#if: | |Artists || }} |- {{#if: | |Art || }} |- {{#if: | |Art by || }} |- {{#if: | |Additional art by || }} |- {{#if: | |Flashback art by || }} |- {{#if: | |Art assistant || }} |- {{#if: | |Art assist by || }} |- {{#if: | |Line-art || }} |- {{#if: | |Line-art by || }} |- {{#if: | |Line art by || }} |- {{#if: | |Penciller || }} |- {{#if: | |Pencillers || }} |- {{#if: | |Penciler || }} |- {{#if: | |Pencilers || }} |- {{#if: | |Pencil art || }} |- {{#if: | |Pencils || }} |- {{#if: | |Pencils by || }} |- {{#if: | |Penciled by || }} |- {{#if: | |Penciling || }} |- {{#if: | |Guest penciler || }} |- {{#if: | |Layouts || }} |- {{#if: | |Pencil breakdowns || }} |- {{#if: | |Breakdowns || }} |- {{#if: | |Breakdowns by || }} |- {{#if: | |Illustration || }} |- {{#if: | |Illustrations || }} |- {{#if: | |Illustrator || }} |- {{#if: | |Illustrated by || }} |- {{#if: | |Illustration by || }} |- {{#if: | |Illustrations by || }} |- {{#if: | |Finished pencils || }} |- {{#if: | |Finishes || }} |- {{#if: | |Finished art || }} |- {{#if: | |Finishes by || }} |- {{#if: | |Inker || }} |- {{#if: | |Guest inker || }} |- {{#if: | |Inkers || }} |- {{#if: | |Inks || }} |- {{#if: | |Inks by || }} |- {{#if: | |Ink finishes || }} |- {{#if: | |Ink assist by || }} |- {{#if: | |Additional inks || }} |- {{#if: | |Inking || }} |- {{#if: | |Backgrounds || }} |- {{#if: | |Backgrounds by || }} |- {{#if: | |Colorist || }} |- {{#if: | |Colorists || }} |- {{#if: | |Colourist || }} |- {{#if: | |Colourists || }} |- {{#if: | |Color || }} |- {{#if: | |Colors || }} |- {{#if: | |Color art || }} |- {{#if: | |Colour || }} |- {{#if: | |Colours || }} |- {{#if: | |Colored by || }} |- {{#if: | |Color by || }} |- {{#if: | |Colors by || }} |- {{#if: | |Color art by || }} |- {{#if: | |Colors assist by || }} |- {{#if: | |Color assists || }} |- {{#if: | |Color assistance by || }} |- {{#if: | |Additional colors || }} |- {{#if: | |Additional colors by || }} |- {{#if: | |Color assist by || }} |- {{#if: | |Colour/Computer FX || }} |- {{#if: | |Computer coloring/effects || }} |- {{#if: | |Color Reconstruction || }} |- {{#if: | |Flats || }} |- {{#if: | |Flats by || }} |- {{#if: | |MTMTE Profiles || }} |- {{#if: | |Letterer || }} |- {{#if: | |Letterers || }} |- {{#if: | |Lettering || }} |- {{#if: | |Letters || }} |- {{#if: | |Letters by || }} |- {{#if: | |Lettered by || }} |- {{#if: | |Lettering|Production || }} |- {{#if: | |Special Thanks{{#if: | To}} || }} |- {{#if: | |Collaborators || }} |- {{#if: | |Contributors || }} |- {{#if: David Cian | |Editor || David Cian}} |- {{#if: | |Editors || }} |- {{#if: | |Editing || }} |- {{#if: | |Edits by || }} |- {{#if: | |Compiled and Edited by || }} |- {{#if: | |Original series editor || }} |- {{#if: | |Original Edits by || }} |- {{#if: | |Deputy editor || }} |- {{#if: | |Assistant editor || }} |- {{#if: | |Editorial assistant{{#if: |s}} || }} |- {{#if: | |Editorial Assistance
provided by || }} |- {{#if: | |Senior editor || }} |- {{#if: | |Associate editor || }} |- {{#if: | |Story consultant || }} |- {{#if: | |Project manager || }} |- {{#if: | |Production by || }} |- {{#if: | |Designer || }} |- {{#if: | |Design by || }} |- {{#if: | |Designed by || }} |- {{#if: | |Design/editorial || }} |- {{#if: | |Book design by || }} |- {{#if: | |Collection designer || }} |- {{#if: | |Collection editor || }} |- {{#if: | |Collection Edits by || }} |- {{#if: | |Graphic design || }} |- {{#if: | |Graphic design by || }} |- {{#if: | |Collection Design by || }} |- {{#if: | |Creative Director{{#if: | / Layout}} || }} |- {{#if: | |Contributing editors || }} |- {{#if: | |Research editor{{#if: |s}} || }} |- {{#if: | |Managing editor || }} |- {{#if: | |{{#if: |Editor-in-chief|Editor in chief}} || }} |- {{#if: | |Editorial consultant || }} |- {{#if: | |Dinosaur consultant || }} |- {{#if: | |Publishing manager || }} |- {{#if: | |Cover || }} |- {{#if: | |Cover art{{#if: |ist}}{{#if: | by}} || }} |- {{#if: | |Cover Design {{#if: |and Elements }}by || }} |- {{#if: | |Inside cover || }} |- {{#if: | |Apologies to || }} |- {{#if: Various | |Continuity || Various}} |- {{#if: | |Chronology || }} |- {{#if: ISBN 0743497910
ISBN 978-0743497916 | |ISBN || ISBN 0743497910
ISBN 978-0743497916}} |- {{#if: | |TPB ISBN || ISBN }} |- {{#if: | |UPC || }} |- {{#if: 304 | |Page count || 304}} |- {{#if: | |Price || }} |- {{#if: | |Packaged with || }} |- {{#if: | |Printed in || }} |- {{#if: | |Animation || }} |- {{#if: | |Music || }} |}{{#switch:{{#sub:xx|2|14}}|dark cybertron=}}

Transformers Legends is an anthology of Transformers short stories published in November 2004 by ibooks. It was edited by David Cian, who had previously written the second half of The Transformers Trilogy.

The book went out of print almost immediately, and for years commanded at least 4–5 times the original cover price on the secondary market.

Continuity

David Cian's 2 page foreword to the anthology includes contradictory statements about the standing of the stories found within. He first let us know what the ground-rules to the authors were:

The rules, as the saying goes, were simple. Write a Transformers story set in any of the various timelines or universes. Don't break things, but have fun. Optimus Prime can't show up with a heretofore unknown short-range tactical nuke in his helmet, but he can have an adventure that no one has ever heard before.{{#if:|{{{quote2}}}}}{{#if:Cian tells writers to write in existing continuities and be careful not mess anything up.|Cian tells writers to write in existing continuities and be careful not mess anything up.{{#if:|, {{{3}}}|}}|}}

He then concluded the introduction by explaining:

But remember, none of the stories in this volume are part of continuity. In other words they don't count for future "facts" in the Transformers universe except as they should: these stories are for fun, giving us the chance to read about characters we've come to love. Enjoy the journey!{{#if:|{{{quote2}}}}}{{#if:Cian "reminds" readers that none of these stories count.|Cian "reminds" readers that none of these stories count.{{#if:|, {{{3}}}|}}|}}

To even further confuse the issue, the book's back cover states that its stories are guided by "no hard and fast rules [and] no themes."

Cian's odd "future facts" phrasing suggests he was doing some [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Cover your ass|{{#if:CYA|CYA|Cover your ass}}]], since at least one of the stories ("Two for the Price of One") was set in the future of the then-ongoing Dreamwave G1 comic, with no guarantee that the events of the short story would 'fit' when the comic caught up to it. As it happened, there was no conflict... though of course Dreamwave's bankruptcy kinda helped in the end.

Readers considering Cian's credo may, as always, make up their own minds on the matter of authorial intent. Many of the stories are easily identifiable as fitting within specific continuities and events already established in other fiction; one of them, "Singularity Ablyss", occurs seamlessly within a single episode of Beast Machines and was written by that series' editor. Though perspectives differ, the area of overlap on nearly all of these stories is negligible—that is, they would have no impact on broader continuity even if they had been inserted without any proviso.

Some believe Cian may have been speaking from the perspective that there is a set and specific number of continuities into which all stories had to fit somewhere, similar to the [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Crisis on Infinite Earths|{{#if:pre-"Crisis" DC comics|pre-"Crisis" DC comics|Crisis on Infinite Earths}}]]. This would leave Legends stories as "imaginary tales," to be enjoyed but not made to fit in, and not "counting" as TF stories — almost as though they were examples of pseudocanon. This is difficult to reconcile with Hasbro's earlier published policy of creating an all-encompassing multiversal metastory in which all TF material from any media are legitimized, every single one of them recognized as having "happened" somewhere. One Legends story, "Prime Spark", depicts deceased characters from two of those universes dimension-hopping to visit each other and Primus, a multiversal singularity of precisely this nature.

For the sake of practicality and consistency, TFWiki generally ignores the whole "does not count" claim, allowing readers to draw their own conclusions as to whether the stories from the anthology belong in micro-continuities or applicable parent continuities.

Notes

Online listings give ibooks editor Steven A. Roman a co-author/editor credit alongside Cian. The extent of his contribution to the book is unclear, and Cian himself has said this is an error which probably originated on Amazon <ref>Post on Don Murphy Message Board</ref>.

References

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Transformers Legends (book)

Contents

Table of contents

Continuity

Notes

References