Transformers: Mosaic
Transformers: Mosaic is an unofficial anthology of one-page comic strip stories borrowed from a concept started by Drivaar at the Allspark message board and overseen by Josh van Reyk and Shaun Knowler, who posted their first strip on IDW Publishing's official Transformers forum on June 18, 2007. From then until the series' end in 2012, Mosaics were written and drawn by a large number of contributors (most of whom are fans, though a few pros have contributed), and expanded out to almost every Transformers forum online. In May 2012, van Reyk and Knowler announced the end of the project.[1]
Appearances in IDW publications
From October 2007 to December 2008, IDW printed Mosaic strips as a backup feature in its Transformers comics. The practice was eventually discontinued, however, due to unspecified copyright problems.[2] Published Mosaic strips included:
- Rain, featuring Hound (published in Devastation #2)
- Reason, featuring Beachcomber (published in Devastation #3)
- Ghost in the Machine, featuring Punch/Counterpunch (published in Devastation #4)
- The Curse, featuring Blurr (published in Devastation #5)
- Feeling Yellow, featuring Sunstreaker (published in Devastation #6)
- Rank, featuring Prowl (published in "Spotlight: Grimlock")
- Break Away, featuring Silverbolt (published in "Spotlight: Cyclonus")
- The Wait, featuring Scorponok, and The Passenger, featuring Barricade (published in Saga of the Allspark #1)
- Dark Visionary, featuring Megatron (published in Saga of the Allspark #2)
- More Than You Can Chew, featuring Grimlock, (published in The Reign of Starscream #5)
- Creation Matrix, featuring Ratchet and Optimus Prime (published in Saga of the Allspark #3)
- Dead Men's Boots, featuring the Wreckers (published without disclaimers in the Last Stand of the Wreckers trade, and thus made canon)
Simon Furman's participation
In February 2008, Simon Furman produced a Mosaic titled "Hail and Farewell", which he stated to be canon—the first Mosaic to be so.[3] However, that canonicity was eventually overridden by a statement from IDW that, "The Mosaics are all a lot of fun, but they're all not continuity tales."[4] The stories seen in print until Dead Men's Boots carried a disclaimer stating that they are "non-profit-making, independently produced stories by Transformers enthusiasts" and are "not affiliated with Hasbro or IDW Publishing". Years later, the Facebook edition of Ask Vector Prime would declare its events to have actually occurred within the Transformers multiverse, all but making "Hail and Farewell" itself canon, albeit not in the continuity it was written for.
External links
- Partial archive of Mosaic strips and avatars at the IDW forum
- List of all Mosaics published, sorted by character
- Transformers: Mosaic at deviantART
- Interview with Van Reyk and Knowler at Newsarama (includes info on fan submissions) (archive copy)
- Hail and Farewell
