Hearts of Steel

Hearts of Steel is a comic miniseries published by IDW, now available in trade paperback. It was the first story in IDW's Evolutions series. It is set in an alternate Generation 1 continuity in which the Transformers' first contact with humanity is in the late 19th century, not the 20th. Most of the Transformers thus take on the form of fanciful locomotives and railway cars, rather than automobiles, etc. Two notable exceptions are Shockwave, who becomes an ironclad ship, and Starscream, who becomes a biplane (which is a bit of an anachronism). John Henry and Mark Twain, along with other historical figures, appear in the comic. Optimus Prime and Megatron do not appear, though concept drawings for them are included in the trade paperback.

Dating

It is not possible to pin down exactly when this story takes place. The Civil War is not mentioned, so it is most likely after 1865. Mark Twain lived in San Francisco from 1864 to 1866, and he appears to live there in this story. However, he claims in Part 4, to have one daughter, which would place the story between 1872 (the birth of Susy Clemens) and 1874 (the birth of Clara Clemens). In this wiki, we've picked the arbitrary compromise date of 1867.

"Ice Age Wars"

The first few pages of this story show that the Transformers came to Earth immediately prior to an (unspecified) ice age, and fought a war there and then using dinosaurs, giant insects, and (possibly) other beast-forms as altmodes, before going into hibernation until the 19th century. Many of the main characters wear these distinctive spiky bodies for the first half of the story, before taking on vehicle-based forms. Where necessary in this wiki, this prelude to Hearts of Steel is referred to using the (unofficial) term "Ice Age Wars".

Hearts of Steel issues:
#1 | #2 | #3 | #4

From Teletraan I: The Transformers Wiki, a Wikia wiki.