LISTENING TO: JESU - Conqueror
READING: TRANSFORMERS - The Complete Ark by Jim Sorenson & Bill Forster
WATCHING: Ren & Stimpy
PLAYING: Nothing, really...
EATING: A $40.00 bag of Jelly Bellies
DRINKING: Miller Lite
FUCK YOU: Black Friday
Not that anyone cares, but I'm going to precursor this review with a little background information about myself. I loved Transformers as a child, but although the toys were all shades of tits, it was the characters that really interested me and nowhere was that more represented than in the cartoon and (to a much more satisfying degree) the Marvel US & UK comics. The older I got, I became more interested in the workings of Transformers than the final products themselves. Finding out about obscure characters and script writers was often times more interesting to me than the toys, comics and cartoon themselves. I had chanced upon a few character models which were used by Sunbow (for the cartoon) and Marvel (for the comic) simultaneously for both aspects of the franchise and something inside made me want to have ALL of them. When Marvel produced the TRANSFORMERS UNIVERSE limited series of character profiles (a sort of TF version of Marvel's popular MARVEL UNIVERSE series), a lot of the original character sheets were utilized (though detailed and cleaned up by fabled inkers Akin & Garvey) and this became a sort of holy grail to me. Though while the TFU was cited as having character entries on every Transformers character, there were some glaring omissions. Some would be caught up and featured in individual issues of the Marvel Comics (and A to Z entries in the UK Marvel series), but I'd always wanted a complete bare-bones character model collection and this led me to a search which took me to various Japanese import outlets, hunting for model sheets that would appear in Transformers mooks in various quantity and quality. I could go further into my search for japanese laserdiscs and the discovery of the various Japanese Transformers animated series that only made me want more character models, but I'll stop here and just say that (for the most part) my search is over thanks to Jim Sorenson and Bill Forster.
THE COMPLETE ARK is a collection of character models which were used as reference for artists and animators working on Transformers cartoons or comics. Previous versions of this book involved THE ARK I (pretty much a collection of American character models which were also used by the Japanese at various points) and THE ARK II (a collection of character models that were used only for the Japanese incarnations which existed beyond the American understanding at the time). THE COMPLETE ARK combines both of those books in one huge, handy volume. Let's get to the meat and potatoes, now.
The first half (much like THE ARK I) focuses on the American character models and is extensively exhausting in its capacity. Aside from standard fare, there are featured some obscure characters here and there (such as fan-favourite Devcon) as well as alternate models that were not used (like Jetfire and precursory designs for the Combaticons).
The second half focuses on the Japanese portion of the Transformers animated and manga world featuring many unseen designs as well as divurgences from the ones that were used in the states (the Headmasters for example have highly different character models than those which were used in 'Rebirth' and the Marvel comic). This is the really interesting portion of the book for those gleaned on just the American fare of Transformers mythos, as the Headmasters series, Masterforce, Victory, Zone and various elements of Battlestars and other media are explored.
For the unitiated, the images are accompanied by small tidbits of information about the character and the franchise itself where relevant, which are very informative to those who may not be worth their weight in TF nerd-dom. Overall, the collection of character models is exhaustive, though not as complete as I might like. However, this is obviously due to size restraints (the book is a whopping 416 pages and weighs about 3 and a half pounds) and not due to any lack of insight on the archivists' part. What IS missing is diligently being supplied by Jim Sorenson's sporadic updates at his highly-recommended blog, Disciples of Boltax. Here, Jim posts bits of missing material from time to time which includes background treatments, transformation sequences and highly obscure character models which were not able to be fit into the book.
For those who already own the sold-out (and ridiculously after-market priced) ARK I and ARK II, the COMPLETE ARK does include some additions and expands upon pre-existing models to give you more than enough reason to pick this one up as well. While visually impressive, these models also serve as wonderful references for the Transformers artist. I recently submitted a scan of one of these pages to Herb Trimpe for a piece of artwork he was working on for the Rusting Carcass portoflios. He had been asking for character references besides the ones he penciled in the original Marvel comic and when I gave him these, he remembered them from back in the day and remarked that this is what he had initially been looking for to finish the piece. Thanks Jim & Bill!
Finally, I've been reading some reviews (mostly on Amazon) which claim that this book is nothing more than a glorified colouring book due to its black and white nature. While I can't be very vocal on a site like Amazon, I can say whatever I want here, and these people are fucking idiots. Beautiful artwork need not be coloured in order to be enjoyed and beyond that, this book is not the Don Figueroa coffee table book; it explicitly states to be exactly what it is: A collection of character designs. If you're a mouthbreather looking for pin-ups, I suggest you pick up whatever comic dredge IDW is churning out to cover its horrendous continuity mistakes these days. However, if you're looking for an amazing piece of painstakingly researched and archived Transformers history, I can't recommend this book enough. This is EASILY one of my favourite Transformers products to come out over the last decade; giving me a sense of closure in my search for these models (as well as an excuse to sell off some of my older mooks in the process).
The bottom line is that no one will know the amount of research, travel or work that went into collecting and restoring of these images, but I for one am eternally grateful. Here's to hoping for some BW related Arks in the future.
Thanks, Jim & Bill.
5 out of 5 Pickles. Easily.
READING: TRANSFORMERS - The Complete Ark by Jim Sorenson & Bill Forster
WATCHING: Ren & Stimpy
PLAYING: Nothing, really...
EATING: A $40.00 bag of Jelly Bellies
DRINKING: Miller Lite
FUCK YOU: Black Friday
Not that anyone cares, but I'm going to precursor this review with a little background information about myself. I loved Transformers as a child, but although the toys were all shades of tits, it was the characters that really interested me and nowhere was that more represented than in the cartoon and (to a much more satisfying degree) the Marvel US & UK comics. The older I got, I became more interested in the workings of Transformers than the final products themselves. Finding out about obscure characters and script writers was often times more interesting to me than the toys, comics and cartoon themselves. I had chanced upon a few character models which were used by Sunbow (for the cartoon) and Marvel (for the comic) simultaneously for both aspects of the franchise and something inside made me want to have ALL of them. When Marvel produced the TRANSFORMERS UNIVERSE limited series of character profiles (a sort of TF version of Marvel's popular MARVEL UNIVERSE series), a lot of the original character sheets were utilized (though detailed and cleaned up by fabled inkers Akin & Garvey) and this became a sort of holy grail to me. Though while the TFU was cited as having character entries on every Transformers character, there were some glaring omissions. Some would be caught up and featured in individual issues of the Marvel Comics (and A to Z entries in the UK Marvel series), but I'd always wanted a complete bare-bones character model collection and this led me to a search which took me to various Japanese import outlets, hunting for model sheets that would appear in Transformers mooks in various quantity and quality. I could go further into my search for japanese laserdiscs and the discovery of the various Japanese Transformers animated series that only made me want more character models, but I'll stop here and just say that (for the most part) my search is over thanks to Jim Sorenson and Bill Forster.
THE COMPLETE ARK is a collection of character models which were used as reference for artists and animators working on Transformers cartoons or comics. Previous versions of this book involved THE ARK I (pretty much a collection of American character models which were also used by the Japanese at various points) and THE ARK II (a collection of character models that were used only for the Japanese incarnations which existed beyond the American understanding at the time). THE COMPLETE ARK combines both of those books in one huge, handy volume. Let's get to the meat and potatoes, now.
The first half (much like THE ARK I) focuses on the American character models and is extensively exhausting in its capacity. Aside from standard fare, there are featured some obscure characters here and there (such as fan-favourite Devcon) as well as alternate models that were not used (like Jetfire and precursory designs for the Combaticons).
The second half focuses on the Japanese portion of the Transformers animated and manga world featuring many unseen designs as well as divurgences from the ones that were used in the states (the Headmasters for example have highly different character models than those which were used in 'Rebirth' and the Marvel comic). This is the really interesting portion of the book for those gleaned on just the American fare of Transformers mythos, as the Headmasters series, Masterforce, Victory, Zone and various elements of Battlestars and other media are explored.
For the unitiated, the images are accompanied by small tidbits of information about the character and the franchise itself where relevant, which are very informative to those who may not be worth their weight in TF nerd-dom. Overall, the collection of character models is exhaustive, though not as complete as I might like. However, this is obviously due to size restraints (the book is a whopping 416 pages and weighs about 3 and a half pounds) and not due to any lack of insight on the archivists' part. What IS missing is diligently being supplied by Jim Sorenson's sporadic updates at his highly-recommended blog, Disciples of Boltax. Here, Jim posts bits of missing material from time to time which includes background treatments, transformation sequences and highly obscure character models which were not able to be fit into the book.
For those who already own the sold-out (and ridiculously after-market priced) ARK I and ARK II, the COMPLETE ARK does include some additions and expands upon pre-existing models to give you more than enough reason to pick this one up as well. While visually impressive, these models also serve as wonderful references for the Transformers artist. I recently submitted a scan of one of these pages to Herb Trimpe for a piece of artwork he was working on for the Rusting Carcass portoflios. He had been asking for character references besides the ones he penciled in the original Marvel comic and when I gave him these, he remembered them from back in the day and remarked that this is what he had initially been looking for to finish the piece. Thanks Jim & Bill!
Finally, I've been reading some reviews (mostly on Amazon) which claim that this book is nothing more than a glorified colouring book due to its black and white nature. While I can't be very vocal on a site like Amazon, I can say whatever I want here, and these people are fucking idiots. Beautiful artwork need not be coloured in order to be enjoyed and beyond that, this book is not the Don Figueroa coffee table book; it explicitly states to be exactly what it is: A collection of character designs. If you're a mouthbreather looking for pin-ups, I suggest you pick up whatever comic dredge IDW is churning out to cover its horrendous continuity mistakes these days. However, if you're looking for an amazing piece of painstakingly researched and archived Transformers history, I can't recommend this book enough. This is EASILY one of my favourite Transformers products to come out over the last decade; giving me a sense of closure in my search for these models (as well as an excuse to sell off some of my older mooks in the process).
The bottom line is that no one will know the amount of research, travel or work that went into collecting and restoring of these images, but I for one am eternally grateful. Here's to hoping for some BW related Arks in the future.
Thanks, Jim & Bill.
5 out of 5 Pickles. Easily.
