Transformers Comic-Magazin

This article is about the insane German reprints of the American comic book. For the saner American reprints of the American comic book, see The Transformers Comics Magazine.

Soundwave was mostly surprised by the gigantic Emirate Xaaron statue.

Transformers Comic-Magazin ("Transformers Comic Magazine") is a German comic book series published by Condor Verlag, following the Die Transformer series that reprinted the first four issues of The Transformers. Comic-Magazin was more successful than its predecessor, going on for 24 issues as opposed to only three Die Transformers issues.

Transformers Comic-Magazin was published in Germany in A4 magazine format for 24 issues from 1989–1992 to coincide with the airing by RTL of the cartoon, the comic was a combination of Marvel US/UK reprints, original text stories, and puzzles.

	Transformers Comic-Magazin issues:
#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 #13 #14 #15 #16 #17 #18 #19 #20 #21 #22 #23 #24

Overview

Covers

Perhaps the most striking thing about Transformers Comic-Magazin was the covers. Mostly redrawn from traced images, they usually bore little or no relation to the contents, and contained bizarrely coloured renditions of various characters. For some reason, images of Optimus Prime were usually redrawn from Soundwave. And there were often some random humans regardless of whether humans actually appeared in the story or not.

Gallery

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Click for extended cover gallery

Reprints

Top: German recolored version without the magenta. Bottom: US original

Although issue 1 picked up where the limited series had left off, issue 2 suddenly skipped the rest of the first long story arc and jumped straight to issue 14 of the US title. Of note, these US stories were recolored minus the magenta plates of the originals. The next four issues continued reprinting the subsequent US issues in chronological order... but with issue 7, the title suddenly switched to a reprint of UK stories, starting with issues 96 and 97 (Condor would continue to reprint edited US issues #19-30 in the smaller-format Transformers Comic-Taschenbuch). For a while, Condor continued reprinting UK stories in chronological order (but left out the extra-long story from issue 100, which contains a lengthy flashback that refers to "Target: 2006", which hadn't been published by Condor). The "Burning Sky!"/"Hunters"/"Fire on High!" arc omitted both the beginning ("Wanted: Galvatron — Dead or Alive!") and the finale ("Vicious Circle!") because Condor never published any material from UK annuals. Condor continued to publish UK material in chronological order (albeit skipping some stories) until Transformers Comic-Magazin was cancelled in 1992 with issue 24.

Puzzles

Characters were colored in a sober and sensible manner.

Issues often contained various puzzles and cut-out models to build. Whilst some were generic pages featuring cartoon children, others featured wild and wonderful new Transformers in a dazzling array of colors.

Publication details

• According to publishers, the standard production run for comics that promoted toy lines at that time, such as BraveStarr, Action Force, Ring Raiders or Transformers (many of which were released by Condor under one of their many alternate names) ranged between 60,000 and 110,000 copies. Between 40 and 60% were typically shipped back as unsold stock (and often ended up being re-released as "collected editions" with new covers).
• Most of these toy tie-in comics were commercial failures, while others such as He-Man kept changing publishers. The Transformers Comic-Magazin was an exception, lasting on the market for over three years. Another successful example was the M.A.S.K. Comic-Magazin (published by Condor's "Interpart" imprint), which lasted for even more issues than the Transformers Comic-Magazin.

Notes

Well, either way it's a shattered glass version of him.

You tell him he's not black enough.

• Following its discovery by the English-speaking Transformers online fandom (including its coverage on this very wiki), the wacky colors from Transformers Comic-Magazin ended up inspiring two toys released through Fun Publications, the first being Shattered Glass Straxus (inspired by the bizarre coloring of regular Straxus's head on the cover of Comic-Magazin issue #10), the other being Blackcat (inspired by a one-off "character" from a puzzle page in issue #18, with some additional coloring inspirations taken from a recurring bizarrely colored rendition of Ravage that appeared on the covers of issues #4 and #6).