Simon Furman

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The name or term "Simon" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Simon (disambiguation).
“ Who can I kill? ”

—Simon Furman's first question upon being brought on to write for Beast Wars[1]

But... but Swoop is neither vast nor predatory nor even a bird! What is he playing at?

Comic book writer Simon Christopher Francis Furman (born March 22, 1961 [2]) is probably the most well-known of all Transformers comics scribes, and certainly the most prolific. He wrote most of the UK-original comic stories of Generation 1, as well as the latter 1/3rd of the US comic run, and has been author on innumerable Tranformers tales since. As a result, he is often the first, last, and occasionally only resort in penning Transformers literature, with a deep involvement in a wide variety of product. He's admitted this has left him typecast and his non-Transformers work gets overlooked, but he's stated he stopped struggling against the association years ago and gives thanks for the opportunities and steady income it's given him. [3]

A list of all of the issues written by Furman's hand would be overkill; even the list of titles he's worked on is considerable:

  • Marvel UK's The Transformers: Furman began his involvement with Transformers as editor and author for much of the Marvel UK run, writing stories that integrated with those coming from Marvel US.
  • Titan Books: while working for them, he pitched the idea of collecting the Marvel Transformers comics into trades, and edited the collections. Titan ended up collecting almost everything Marvel US and UK had ever done, including being able to get the issues with Marvel characters quite cheaply, and got the rights for global licensing: at this point, pre-Dreamwave, neither Marvel nor Hasbro had much investment in Transformers! [4] When the live-action film series was announced, Titan decided to do a tie-in and Furman went on to write almost every issue of it.
  • Transformers: The Ultimate Guide, a book which described the background of several continuities which he was not particularly involved in crafting. This book has seen significant criticism for being biased towards comic canon (particularly that which he penned) and, in places, inventing continuity wholecloth without any precedent in prior fiction. In such instances, it has since been assumed that Furman was filling in neglected areas of the (at the time underdeveloped) Dreamwave continuity.
  • IDW Publishing: He wrote the first five Generation 1 mini-series for IDW's G1 reboot, as well as numerous Spotlight issues. His IDW run is notable for being the only instance where he has actually created the mythos from the ground up, rather than coming in after someone else had already set everything up. Other IDW titles include two Beast Wars mini-series and a Beast Wars guide book, and various comics related to the film series.

He almost drifted into Transformers, being asked early on to pitch some ideas and quickly becoming the Transformers guy at Marvel UK, also doing the editorials and letters pages until 1989 when he went with just the scripts. His post-Marvel return to Transformers came courtesy of BotCon 1997: not only was he a guest expected to answer questions he couldn't remember the answers to, there was this thing called a "Beast Wars" they wanted him to write a short comic about. He quickly had to get back into the swing of things. After the Botcon material, he'd work for Titan Books and then go onto Dreamwave, causing him to be linked forever more with the franchise.

Contrary to the popular opinion that he is an outspoken critic of the Generation 1 cartoon series, Furman has stated in an interview that he loves the series. He explained that when he was involved with the Marvel comic books as a twenty-something-year-old writer, he thought the show was pitched a little young and that the stories were simplistic and had huge logic flaws, but conceded that he saw them from a different perspective than the generation that grew up watching the cartoon and buying the toys as kids, and so he concentrated on his work, which he believed was more "adult" in tone. He added that, in hindsight, he went back to watch the series and now really enjoys it, particularly Season 2's strong character stories. When he wrote for Marvel comics, he was averse to episodes that dealt with the character back-stories because they clashed with his own back-stories and also caused him to worry that he wasn't presenting the characters as intended. But now he had the freedom to take the series as a viewer and admire the way they were building upon their own mythos.

In the same interview, he thought the 1986 animated movie was "fantastic", and one of his stated reasons was that "characters died." [5]

He has also written and created many non-Transformers characters, including Death's Head and "Dragon's Claws" with Geoff Senior and "Brute Force" with José Delbo. He is an editor at Titan Books, which publishes collections of Transformers comics, among other material.

These days, he's a big fan of Transformers Animated, saying it's the best cartoon since Beast Wars,[6] despite a relative lack of violent deaths. He's also a fan of West Ham United football club[7], which perhaps explains his bloodlust.

In his spare time, Furman enjoys drinking Corona and killing off hordes of background characters. And Nightbeat.

Alternate mode

When Furman became the editor of the UK Transformers comic, it opened up a dilemma, as Marvel policy, enforced by Marvel US editor-in-chief Tom DeFalco, frowned on editors serving as their own writers. To circumvent this problem, it was agreed that senior editor (and frequent Transformers letterer) Richard Starkings would serve in an advisory capacity on Furman's own strips.[8] When an editorial credit for the comic as a whole was required, Furman used the credit "Chris Francis", derived from his middle names.[9]

Fiction

Unicron Trilogy continuity

The flesh creature known as Simon Furman pleases Unicron with his accurate depiction of Unicron's omnipotent magnificence. The End

In the final issue of Dreamwave's Armada comic, Unicron used his ability to gaze across parallel dimensions into a world where he was only a comic-book character and answer letters from readers. He was apparently unaware this issue ended with his defeat.

Titan Magazines

According to Starscream, Furman is a Maximal disguised as a "strategically shaved ape. Especially on his head." #7's Star Screams When Starscream captured the Titan offices, only Furman escaped capture and is still at large, with a vast amount of intelligence regarding Nucleon #21's Star Screams.

The Autobots, however, are not much nicer. When Furman was writing his alternate universe tale, Ironhide "made sure" that it would have an Autobot-friendly ending... #12's Law and Disorder

Comic bibliography

Marvel

  • Marvel UK #13–21, 29–32, 45–50, 59–65, 74–88, 96–104, 113–120, 125, 130–138, 146–153, 160–161, 164–173, 182–189, 198–205, 213–332
  • Marvel US #56–80
  • Generation 2 #1–12

Dreamwave

Panini

IDW

Titan

Madman Entertainment

Million Publishing/Henkei! Henkei!

Bibliography

DK Publishing

Titan Books

Convention appearances

  • San Diego Comic-Con 2009

Notes

  • It is generally accepted that Grimlock is Furman's signature Transformers character, although a case could be made for Nightbeat. His signature creation (according to the man himself [10]) is the bounty hunter freelance peacekeeping agent Death's Head, yes?.
  • He spent at least some time as the writer of the Marvel UK comics letters page, setting the precedent for having a Transformer "host" reply to the kids' letters, but without patronising them. This tradition has been followed up on in other UK comics.
  • Chris Claremont, X-Men mega-writer, is one of Furman's key influences in comics: "Mostly how well he managed multiple characters and sub-plots, something I’ve applied to my Transformers work as much as I can ever since". Other influences are Alan Moore's Marvel UK work; 70's/80's sci-fi films like Blade Runner, Aliens, and Terminator, as well as Assault On Precinct 13; and crime books. [11]
  • If his last words before dying aren't "hnng... never did want to live forever", there will be much sadness.
  • Apparently, if Pat Lee wants back in Transformers, he will have to climb over Simon's cold, rotting corpse to do it. [12]
  • He stated in an interview that he considers Beast Machines to be too dark for a children's cartoon.[13]
  • He's not a fan of the movies either, believing they throw out characterisation and story, though he happily admits he's not the audience for them. He still admires the technical side of the films and Michael Bay's vision. [14]
  • Simon Furman wrote a script for the Auto Assembly 2009 script reading making fun of himself and Furmanisms.
  • Furmanite and Simfur are obvious enough puns on his name.

See also

References

  1. ↑ BotCon 2002 appearance
  2. ↑ Interview at Ben Yee's website
  3. ↑ Interview at Mindless Ones blog
  4. ↑ Moonbase 2 AA2010 interview, 7:50 -
  5. ↑ Simon Furman's interview on Madman Entertainment's Beast Wars Season 3 DVD set
  6. ↑ July 4, 2008 blog post
  7. ↑ Interview on Transfans.co.uk
  8. ↑ Starkings, Richard "Prophetic Words" in Dark Designs Trade paperback (London; Titan Books, 2002), page 4.
  9. ↑ Unknown author "Transformers UK" in Second Generation Trade paperback (London; Titan Books, 2004), page 6.
  10. ↑ http://forum.idwpublishing.com/viewtopic.php?p=42871
  11. ↑ Interview with Transformers Hispanos Forums
  12. ↑ Based upon a comment Furman made at BotCon 2008 when asked if Pat Lee would ever work for IDW Publishing
  13. ↑ "The Last 'Action' Hero"
  14. ↑ Interview at Mindless Ones blog
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