IDW Tranformers Panel

Without movie news to report (so far), how about some comic book related news. IDW, the publisher of the Transformer comics, held its panel yesterday at San Diego Comic-Con and discussed some of their upcoming and current plans. An interview with TF writers is here.

Transformers: All Hail Megatron
- 12 issue series that has the Autobots in hiding after the near death of Optimus Prime as the Decepticons begin their push to conquer Earth.
- First issue out as of a few weeks ago
- New character Drift, an Autobot, will be introduced in this series.
- "He's calm, collected but also capable of significant acts of violence. In a nutshell? He's not someone you want to mess with."
- Alt mode is a Nissan Silvia S15, a Japanese drift racing car, will be first IDW design that will be made into a toy by Hasbro.

Transformers: The 13
- Written by Simon Furman.
- Covers the origin of the Transformers race, "really define a big, big part of the whole Transformers mythology/back story. Expect lots of stuff that’s never been definitively, categorically set in stone to be established once and for all..."
- Expected to come out sometime in 2009 as part of the 25th Anniversary of Transformers.
- "Questions that every Trans-fan has always wanted to ask will finally be answered. Plans for the series are still evolving as we speak, just because (perhaps more than ever before) we’re going hand in hand with Hasbro on this one. But I’m not ruling out possible links to what’s happening now."

Transformers: The Reign of Starcream
- Issue three just came out, covers Starscream plans to rebuild the Allspark and lead the Decepticons.
- Soundwave appearance was removed due to his use in the movie (probably didn't want their design to contradict the movie design).

Transformers: Destiny
- Writer is Chris Mowry and art by Alex Milne
- Transformers 2 Prequel ("hopefully") with first issue (of five-part series) coming out December 2008
- "We'll bear witness to the rise of the Decepticons on Cybertron, and the formation of the Autobot resistance. Their history has a strange habit of repeating itself, and we just may see their actions repeated on our planet next. So we'll go way back to the beginning, move forward to the present, then finish up in the near future"

Maximum Dinobots
- Written by Simon Furman
- Focuses on Grimlock and other Dinobots but will also fill in the story gaps that have developed in the line from the various Spotlight issues and the jump from the end of "Devastation" story to "All Hail Megatron."
- Will also feature Scorponok, Machination, Headmasters, Sunstreaker, Hot Rod and others.

Transformers Spotlight: Blurr
- Written by Shane McCarthy
- "Blurr's whole personality in this is built on his ability to travel at remarkable speeds; someone with that ability has the capacity to make life and death decisions in a hundredth of a second. This sounds well and good but it has its downsides too."
- Set before the Great War, on Cybertron, self contained story.

Transformers Spotlight: Cosmos
- Out sometime in 2009
- Covers Ascension and All Hail Megatron story arcs

Transformers Revelation
- Focus on Sideswipe
- Written by Simon Furman, art by EJ Su.

Transformers: Animated
- Five issue mini-series set during the first season that will recap season plot points from a different point of view.
- Each issue will have two stories that will be 11 pages in length each.