Lil Formers

LilFormers logo.png

Lil Formers is a series of single-panel comic strips by the flesh creature Matt Moylan using super deformed artwork. Like other comics of similar Transfan ilk, its content often reflects the biases of its creator.

As a fan-comic, Lil Formers was primarily published online, with the first strip being released in 2006. By the end of that year, strips were being commissioned for the Hasbro Transformers Collectors' Club magazine, produced by Fun Publications, starting in the same format but quickly expanding out into full-page affairs. Those strips which were officially published in the magazine are considered to be some sort of canon, at least for the purposes of this wiki. Two of the webcomics were also printed as backmatter to Spotlight: Wheelie by IDW Publishing.

Beginning with strip #100, the webcomic expanded to cover a larger variety of pop culture properties, though Transformers strips still appeared occasionally. When covering Transformers topics, the comic decorates captions with either the Autobot or Decepticon logos depending on context. For non-Transformers comics, the captions are left plain. After the release of strip #200 in 2010, Moylan ceased publishing regular strips to focus on other comic projects, but has posted a small handful of additional Lil Formers strips in the time since.

Publication history

Lil Formers strips were published in:

• Hasbro Transformers Collectors' Club issue 11 (two strips)
  • #17b "Beast Machines": Battle Unicorn tries to join the cast of Beast Machines, only for his audition to go awry when he reads Unicron's line from The Transformers: The Movie, allowing Nightscream to take his spot on the show instead.
  • #17a "Snakes on a Seeker": Thundercracker, Thrust, and Skywarp are freaked out by a showing of "Snakes on a Plane." Cobra Commander pops up to ask if the Decepticons want to do a cross-over, startling Skywarp out of his seat.
• Hasbro Transformers Collectors' Club issue 12 (one strip)
  • The secret of the giant robot hand prop from BotCon 2006 is revealed! It's actually Astrotrain's servo. The Decepticon asks the convention organizer to give it back to him right after the convention, only to be informed he might not get it back for a few years...
• Hasbro Transformers Collectors' Club issue 13 (one strip)
  • To Cliffjumper's frustration, Prowl is unable to determine the culprits behind a crime scene... despite the graffiti in the room making it clear that the Decepticons are responsible.
• Hasbro Transformers Collectors' Club issue 14 (one strip)
  • Out of his chest compartment, Soundwave ejects Laserbeak, Ravage, Beastbox, Buzzsaw, Squawktalk, Howlback, Garboil, Overkill, Slugfest, Ratbat, and Frenzy! He attempts to eject out Rumble as well, but the last cassetticon refuses to come out, now that he's got some extra leg-room inside of Soundwave's chest.
• Hasbro Transformers Collectors' Club issue 15 (full page)
  • Hound makes a bold claim, Skywarp, Bombshell, Wheelie, and Snarl talk about their memories of The Transformers: The Movie, Runamuck has Frenzy repaint him so that he may escape Megatron's anger, and Metroplex gives out tips to his fellow city-bots.
• Hasbro Transformers Collectors' Club issue 17 (full page)
  • For your benefit, Ultra Magnus goes over the Decepticon seekers; Starscream, Thundercracker, Skywarp, Sunstorm, Thrust, Dirge, and Ramjet. The lot of them come off as fairly ineffective.
• Hasbro Transformers Collectors' Club issue 18 (full page)
  • Megatron introduces his alternate incarnations, all of whom have their own weird quirks about them.
• Hasbro Transformers Collectors' Club issue 20 (full page)
  • Animated characters meet their Generation 1 counterparts; Prowl shares his weight-loss secrets with Prowl, Ratchet asks Ratchet exactly how old his counterpart is, and Optimus finds Optimus's voice slightly unsettling...
• Hasbro Transformers Collectors' Club issue 21 (full page)
  • Negative-polarity Starscream and Grimlock compare themselves to their positive-polarity counterparts, while negative-polarity Optimus Prime runs afoul of Nemesis Prime.
• Spotlight: Wheelie (two strips)
  • #22 "Wheelie": Alpha Trion tells Wheelie that he's #7,659 on the list of candidates to become the next Prime—after Roller and Twin Twist.
  • #85 "IDW": When the staff at IDW Publishing start running out of Spotlight ideas, Simon Furman falls back on an old favourite.

See also

• Mini Mayhem!
• Superdeformers

External links

• Lil Formers archive