James Roberts

The name or term "James" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see James (disambiguation).

A proud smile, a sad smile.

James Roberts (born November 15, 1976) 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.

His first shot at pro-work was pitching "Spotlight: Octane" with fellow TMUKer Nick Roche in 2007, where he wrote an extensive outline (some of which has shown up in his later comics). It wasn't picked up and Roberts forgot all about it until reminded in 2016. His first successful bit of work was helping out on All Hail Megatron #15, acting as a "sounding board" for Nick's script. While he didn't write any of the script, Nick made sure to include him in the credits.

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. He went on to write the text story Bullets for the Wreckers trade and then became a co-writer on the ongoing for the Chaos story. Following that, he co-wrote "Transformers: The Death of Optimus Prime" and became the sole writer on the new ongoing, The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye.

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". His characters are prone to language- and literature-related digressions and witticisms, and sometimes self-aware to the point of straining the fourth wall.

Always start off low, always start off with real people, y'know, because most of us are ordinary people.James Roberts,

Let’s just say that my interest in politics stems from time spent working closely with politicians.Roberts on his job before becoming a full-time writer.

Writing

• 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

IDW Generation 1 continuity

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

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.
• He was nominated for Favourite Writer in the 2014 True Believers Awards.
• His first Transformers comic was issue #113. Because of that, the number 113 is constantly showing up in his work.

James Roberts: E(aster Egg)!

• 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. [1]
• Shockwave's death in The Legacy of Unicron! has haunted Roberts since childhood...
• 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!"
• In Eugenesis, Roberts listed some of his creative influences (circa 2001): Simon Furman, Martin Amis, Chris Carter, Graham Greene, Neil Hannon, Vladimir Nabokov and Morrisey, "who I doubt have ever been acknowledged in the same sentence". He's since brought up his admiration for Russell T Davies' TV work (including his run on Doctor Who); Peter David, Grant Morrison's Zenith, and Justice League International in comics; and Don DeLillo, Philip Roth, and John Updike's "Rabbit" books in literature. Science fiction prose isn't his thing though, instead gravitating to literary fiction.
• 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. Nick Roche strongly implied in 2015 that these masses of detailed panels are why they hadn't worked together for a while, though they are still friends, you paranoid person.
• His biceps are huge.

External links

• James Roberts' Twitter feed
• One Shall Stand.com interview on the Wreckers
• TransFans interview with James Roberts
• Moonbase 2 interview with James Roberts
• TFcon 2015 YouTube interview