Bob Budiansky
| The name or term "Bob" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Bob (disambiguation). |
| “ | ... when [fans have] contacted me for one reason or another, like for an interview for instance, they don’t understand how I’m not as passionate about the Transformers as they are now, even though I worked on them for so long. All I could basically say is, "Well, I enjoyed working on them while I did it, but it was a job, and then after I finished that job I moved onto the next job". | ” |
—Bob Budiansky, "Looking Back With Bob Budiansky" interview | ||
Bob Budiansky was the writer of most of the Marvel US Transformers comic book series and the creator of much of the mythos, characters, and names behind the first several years of the franchise.
In late 1983, Hasbro approached Marvel Comics to create a storyline around a series of transforming toy robots they had licensed from Takara. Editors Denny O'Neil and Jim Shooter created some of the early background for Transformers, including several names, but much of the material for the first 28 characters was rejected by Hasbro. Revision duties were passed to editor/writer Bob Budiansky, who renamed most of the characters and revised the personalities. Though Optimus Prime was named by O'Neil, Bob Budiansky is responsible for the names of Megatron, the Dinobots, Sideswipe, Wheeljack, and countless others.
Due to its success, The Transformers four-issue miniseries became an ongoing. Bob Budiansky was moved from editing duties to writer. It was in these years that he developed popular characters Shockwave, Ratchet, and Grimlock into the roles they're famous for today; the only characters at this time he didn't create were the movie ones, who were specifically created for the film by Sunbow. He did, however, create the concept of the Autobot Matrix. Budiansky continued to write bios and name characters until the end of the original series, along with treatments to extended the line.
During his run, Bob was constantly kept up to date on Hasbro's plans: information about new toys and their model sheets were sent to him, he attended meetings at their Rhode Island HQ, he visited their annual toy exhibitions. Outside of pimping their wares, Hasbro left him alone. It was up to him whether or not he wanted to follow the cartoon's lead, he wasn't told to keep the target audience in mind (he made the decision himself), and he was even allowed to not use the future-set movie cast. [1]
Towards the end of his time on the comic book series, Budiansky started to feel fatigue. It was complicated and frustrating, from a story-crafting point of view, to introduce so many new characters in so few issues. At Budiansky's recommendation, the writer of the Marvel UK Transformers comic, Simon Furman, took over Budiansky's duties on the US comic.
An artist as well, Budianksy also drew several covers for Transformers and pencilled the first half of his final issue.
As the quote notes, Transformers was a job he enjoyed at the time but is still just a job he did twenty years ago. Not that he isn't pleased to have a 25 year old franchise as his legacy!
Outside of Transformers Budiansky is perhaps best known for drawing Ghost Rider, creating Sleepwalker and writing the entire series, and serving as group editor-in-chief of the Spider-Man titles between 1994 & 1995.
Transformers comics credits
| “ | If there are older Transformers fans who feel my stories were too geared to children–hey, good insight! That was the audience I was playing to. | ” |
—Bob tells it like it is, at Metal Machine.net | ||
Marvel Transformers (US):
- Editor - Issues 1-4
- Writer - Issues 5-15, 17-32, 35-42, 44-55
- Penciller - Issue 55
- Cover Artist - Issues 14, 29, 31, 45, 47
Marvel Transformers Universe
- Writer/Consulting Editor - Issues 1-4
Marvel The Transformers: The Movie comic adaptation
- Editor - Issues 1-3
Headmasters mini-series
- Writer - Issues 1-4
- Cover Artist - Issue 1
IDW Transformers: The Animated Movie comic adaptation
- Writer - Issues 1-4
Convention appearances
Budianskyisms
Though not as prominent or well-remembered as the so-called "Furmanisms" that successor writer Simon Furman would popularize, Bob Budiansky also had a few turns of phrase that he repeatedly fell back on:
- "Have some (X), courtesy of my (Y)!"
- where
- "X" = some form of damage, dismemberment or death
- "Y" = the special weapon of the character in question
- Examples:
- "Have some metal-eating slime, courtesy of my slime gun, Autobots!"—Blot Brothers in Armor!!
- "Have a mechanical malfunction, courtesy of my concussion cannon!"—Breakdown Heavy Traffic!
- "Just a case of bad balance, courtesy of my electro-scrambler."—Blaster The Bridge to Nowhere!
- "Energy feedback, courtesy of my electro-scrambler, tinhead."—Blaster Totaled!
- "You're going on a one-way trip, Monzo, courtesy of my anti-gravity gun!"—Skullcruncher Love and Steel!
- "I hope you (A) as well as you (B)!"
- where
- "A" = perform some action, typically shooting
- "B" = boast, brag, or some other meaningless non-action
- Examples:
- "You boast better than you shoot, Dreadwind!"—Goldbug People Power!
- "Grrr—I hope you shoot straighter than you think, Weirdwolf!"—Skullcruncher Trial by Fire!
- "Only if you aim as well as you brag, Brawl!"—First Aid Used Autobots
- "This wasn't in (Z)!"
- where
- "Z" = amusingly bureaucratic item with no bearing on the situation at hand.
- Examples:
- "This...this wasn't in my job description!"—anonymous railway worker Child's Play
- "This wasn't on the trail guide!"—anonymous skier The Man in the Machine!
- "None of this was in the rehearsal!"—Sky Lynx The Cosmic Carnival!
