Transformers Comic-Magazin

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.

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.

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. 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.

Text stories

The Transformers Comic-Magazin team, looking for more horrors to inflict upon the world.

Starting with issue 2, the comic began to publish original text stories to publicise the latest toy releases, usually written by the comic's translator, Robert Mann. These stories were charmingly inept at best, but feature a lot of obscure characters, such as Crossblades and the Rescue Force.

Stories tended to veer between actual tales, lists of available toys (disguised as briefings), or old stories pasted in whole or part with a new introduction. The story in issue #4, for example, is repeated briefly in issue #10 and in full in issue #21.

Due to the stories being written in 1989-1992, there is a rather interesting cast dynamic. The Autobots are led by Powermaster Optimus Prime, with the Autobot Double Targetmasters appearing in nearly every story. The Autobot Powermasters, Sparkler Minibots and Cloudburst, Landmine and Waverider are also regulars. Bumblebee appears until he is turned into Goldbug in the comic, where he becomes Goldbug in the text stories. The Decepticons meanwhile are led jointly by Megatron and Shockwave, in a nod to the early Marvel US stories which the comic had been reprinting.

Notes

• The writers often seem confused as to the nature of Headmasters and Powermasters. The term is used as a rank in most of the tales, thus Megatron is referred to as a Powermaster, and Rodimus Prime is a Headmaster. This would be more understandable if writer Robert Mann wasn't also the person who translated some of the Headmaster Marvel comic stories.

• Rodimus Prime appears sporadically, though depending on which writer uses him, he is either the Autobot leader on Cybertron who is a contemporary of Optimus Prime and easily contactable, or the Autobot leader on Cybertron of the near-future. Again, writer Robert Mann translated the Marvel UK tales in which Rodimus time travels to the present day, so he really has no excuse.

• Many of the stories revolve around Optimus Prime mysteriously going missing. By issue #16 his fellow Autobots actively start to distrust him due to this.

• There are some hilarious name misspellings. Hosehead is consistently written as 'Horsehead', Finback is 'Funback', Bomb-Burst is 'Bombursi' and Submarauder is 'Submaroder'. These are not isolated incidents, these occur in every issue in which these characters appear!

• Through either design or accident, several new characters are introduced. These are Stealth, who gets a rather large role; Groundshaker (Ultra Pretender) who gets a medium sized role; Clockwise who gets a tiny role; and Blackcat who gets to present a puzzle page.

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 40-60% were typically shipped back as unsold stock<ref name="handbuchmedien">"Handbuch Medienerziehung", German-language book on media influence on children, partially available at Google Books.</ref> (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.<ref name="handbuchmedien"/> 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.<ref name="maskde">German M.A.S.K. comics at m-a-s-k.de.</ref>

Footnotes

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