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On January 18, 2005, rumors surrounding the comic book started, hinting at cancellations, reboots, and relaunches. Josh Blaylock, President and founder of Devil's Due Publishing, took the time to answer the following questions for us regarding the rumors and DDP's plans for G.I.Joe.
Robots??
Q: If Devil's Due were to obtain the Transformers comic license, how
would you handle it?
Hmmm... that's a fun one. First off, there were WAY too many products
coming out every month demanding cash from the fans wallet. Still,
there were a lot of people out there looking forward to some of the
upcoming series. I'd like to see whatever was in production when
Dreamwave closed shop get put back out on the stands as soon as
possible. Reign in all of the creators who were currently working on
the titles and put them back in action.
As mini-series ended, we would whittle the amount of books down to
about three. I think G1 and BEAST WARS were the ones with the most
potential. G1 is obviously the big daddy, but there's a whole
generation of readers who identify BW as 'THEIR' Transformers. After
streamlining the line, then we could figure out the best course of
action. Do a revamp similar to what we're doing with Joe? Just
continue the series? Start from scratch? The latter is pretty
drastic, and I'd probably lean towards one of the first two.
Just doing a relaunch from scratch, though, would really suck for the
fans who were hoping to see all of those stories resolved. And it
would be nice to make sure artists could be compensated for any art
they completed before they realized it wasn't going to see print.
For the new upcoming cartoon, I'd want to put a major focus on the mass
market, and the younger audience. Comic book stores would still be
able to order those books too, but Energon seemed to struggle the
hardest to find a place with the older readers, for obvious reasons.
Q: Would the Transformers and G.I.Joe share a universe in their main
continuities?
ABSOLUTELY NOT! I think this is a horrible idea, mainly because the
TFs would stomp all over the Joes, and the threat of a giant robot
alien invasion would make Cobra seem a little less important. I'm all
about playing around with the characters together in a SEPARATE
continuity, though.
Q: Devil's Due has recently signed former Transformers artist Don
Figueroa to an exclusive contract. What plans or projects do you have
lined up for him?
Don was initially hired to do work for Devil's Due Creative Services,
another division of Devil's Due, but we have other plans for him as
well.
Q: Are there any other artists or writers that worked with Dreamwave that
you would be interested in?
There were a lot of talented individuals involved. Some amazing
colorists. I spoke with Simon Furman just a couple days ago. He's one
of the nicest guys in comics.
Q: Are there any plans to incorporate the recent Transformers Binaltech (the Japanese equivalent of Alternators)
story which includes
characters from both G.I.Joe Extreme and Sgt. Savage?
Those are some SWEET toys, but that is one of the worst
ideas for what to do with the comic series that I've heard. I can't
believe that rumor got past one message board. I don't have any plans
to use G.I.Joe Extreme or Sgt. Savage in any comics. They might be
fun, but we'd sell about 1,000 copies
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