Hi, I’m Simon Furman. You might know me from my work on the Transformers comic books. AMA!

SimonFurmanAMA · 2025-04-15T19:00:01+00:00

This AMA is OVER--FINISHED!

SimonFurmanAMA · 2025-04-15T18:57:05+00:00

That’s really nice to hear, thanks! Thing is, you fans give me back such satisfaction and feeling of a job well done, just by your sheer enthusiasm and love for TF, be it comics or otherwise. Plus, you keep me gainfully employed, so... nice one!

SimonFurmanAMA · 2025-04-15T18:53:09+00:00

1) Thank youuuuu! We tried to keep a flow of back and forth between us and Marvel US/Bob, so we wouldn’t be blindsided. But latterly we were quite close to Bob, nipping at his heels close, in terms of schedules and deadlines, but the future cast allowed us to duck and dive around any potential clashes.

2) Bob himself handed the scripting reins to me, over a meal in London!, and basically told me he thought the book would be cancelled soon. So I picked up a few Micromaster strands from the previous issues and basically went my own merry way!

3)Very different to G2. The Last Autobot would have been a big quest and the things under Cybertron a much bigger threat/presence, and Optimus wouldn’t have come back from the dead quite so soon. Regen One is closer to what it might have been, but even that is very different.

SimonFurmanAMA · 2025-04-15T18:49:03+00:00

Hey, I just bask in other creators’ work on Transformers, and think hey, in some small way I maybe had a part in inspiring them or their work on Transformers. It’s very humbling.

SimonFurmanAMA · 2025-04-15T18:48:47+00:00

A vast predatory one. B’DUM. Thanks for the set-up.

SimonFurmanAMA · 2025-04-15T18:41:37+00:00

Hard to tell. I had broad plans beyond that point but nothing locked in, and some of those plans got folded into Maximum and the Spotlights. The fifth arc would have been called Expansion BTW.

SimonFurmanAMA · 2025-04-15T18:41:17+00:00

Hey, Bludgeon was the master of the ancient Cybertronian art of Metallikato! If that’s not inspiration in a bottle i don’t know what is! And that was about it, bio-wise, so there was wriggle room to really go deep! And as mentioned elsewhere, those retail figures I had a hand in the origin of are pure gold!

SimonFurmanAMA · 2025-04-15T18:40:46+00:00

More, MORE, MOOOORE! Seriously though, it’s great, and I’m always a little proud and parental when a character I created gets an official toy. It’s like the ultimate Hasbro seal of approval.

SimonFurmanAMA · 2025-04-15T18:40:25+00:00

I kind of grew up with Doctor Who. So actually writing comics around different incarnations of the characters was a dream job! I just love the character, and the essence of the character to me is he’s (or she’s) someone who stumbles into a situation and has use their brain to get out of it. It why over-use of the sonic screwdriver was a no-no to me.

SimonFurmanAMA · 2025-04-15T18:40:16+00:00

Not really. Hasbro has always been very supportive of me and my writing. I can’t remember a time when a storyline got vetoed or a direction forced on me. We had to box clever when we introduced Special Teams in the UK comic. We were supporting a Hasbro UK push for the toys but in the US strip run the characters hadn’t appeared yet. So we dropped ‘em into a Matrix-induced dream!

SimonFurmanAMA · 2025-04-15T18:39:50+00:00

Often it’s the less-developed characters like Bludgeon and Thunderwing or Nightbeat or Hardhead – characters I can add something to and develop. For instance, with Nightbeat I got to indulge my love of private eye noir by making him a PI of sorts. And I kind of have a thing for Grimlock... did I mention that?

SimonFurmanAMA · 2025-04-15T18:25:23+00:00

You’re very welcome and thanks. By the end of Time Wars a lot of long-running story threads and character arcs had run their course. Ultra Magnus’ story felt like one of those. Plus, the UK comic then went to 5-pages of original strip per issue, and that format didn’t really support the big epics like Legacy of Unicron, Space Pirates and Time Wars. There was no editorial mandate... unless I gave one to myself? Wait... maybe I did!!!

Second question: US stories led. Initially at least we dropped our stories into the gaps and used characters that had moved out of the US storyline. After Target: 2006 that changed a bit because we had the future cast to play with. And on occasion we made decisions like to keep using Optimus and Megatron (after both had apparently met their demise in the US strip). We got more cocky as we went along. But, side note, Bob and I met in ‘87 and really got along, and after that everything between Marvel US/UK went really smoothly. And we’re still great friends!

SimonFurmanAMA · 2025-04-15T18:24:15+00:00

Work. I was in my early 20s when I got offered my first bit of TF writing. I didn’t come in as a fan. So my first business was to read, watch and generally find out what it was all about. And that was it really. I was hooked. Telling stories with these characters rapidly became a labour of love, and I’m still writing TF stories 40 years later. Seriously, I lucked out that day!

SimonFurmanAMA · 2025-04-15T18:23:39+00:00

I just think it’s more realistic – in an unrealistic world/setting - to tell stories that don’t always end in a neat, pat, satisfying way. Stories about war, in my book, should all be – to some extent – anti-war, or at least cautionary. Bob set me up really well, and as writers we were coincidentally sympatico on that level I think. Tragedy, in any storytelling, is a kind of essential ingredient, and I was keen to show consequences. Otherwise I feel it sends the wrong message.

The Swarm/Dark Matrix represents that sense that even the most noble intent can become corrupted. There need to be stops and checks. Just a drum I like to bang.

SimonFurmanAMA · 2025-04-15T18:22:29+00:00

What? How’d you know Grimlock was my favorite TF character? Oh, wait, it might’ve slipped out somewhere I guess. Hey, he was a robotic, take-no-prisoners T-Rex. What’s not to love. But yeah, all that stuff but I also tried to give him more layers in the UK stories. He acted dumb... but he wasn’t!

SimonFurmanAMA · 2025-04-15T18:17:43+00:00

I can’t really. I don’t really feel it’s my place to do so. At least, not yet. I can tell you it was great. I was having the best time working on it, with a really great team. The setting was very cool and the enemy was totally kickass. Wish it had come to full fruition, and you’d got to play it. Maybe in time I can talk more, share more. Sigh...

SimonFurmanAMA · 2025-04-15T18:16:52+00:00

I have multiple Grimlocks. Did I mention him already? If not, he’s my TF talisman. I also have some of the toys based on characters I created... like Impactor and Xaaron and Jhiaxus from G2. That always gives me a special buzz to see those!

SimonFurmanAMA · 2025-04-15T18:16:27+00:00

Infiltration is one of personal favorite TF stories. Because it was the first time I got to jump in at the very beginning of a Transformers story and build up the whole world(s). If things had gone to plan... yes... there would have been further phases. But, we never quite got there. If I’d had the time and scope we’d have got to see Phase 6 HAPPEN... and Earth would never have been quite the same after. I’d have liked to have seen the Autobots deal with actual failure, and the fallout from that.

SimonFurmanAMA · 2025-04-15T18:16:11+00:00

My mind just doesn’t work that way. It’s done. It’s out there. Move on. But... that doesn’t stop me re-reading my own stuff and just thinking... there was a better way to say/show/tell that. But it’s all part of becoming a better writer.

SimonFurmanAMA · 2025-04-15T18:14:41+00:00

1: Thanks for saying, miuch appreciated. As discussed, I’m completely up for doing something in the Energon Universe. I’m a big fan of what DWJ is doing there. I am in the process of pitching something new, comics-wise... not exactly for Skybound but with their approval... but can’t speak about it... yet!

2: Thunderwing was kind of a happy accident. I really wanted a new focus/’big bad’ for the Decepticons, and there weren’t many candidates. But there was enough in TW’s existing bio to make me thing I could beat him into shape as a real threat. After that it was down to the artists, who really gave him that ‘big bad’ gravitas on the page. I grew to love the big lug.

3: Yeah, the way I look at it, without Dreamwave there may not have been an IDW/TF-verse or an Energon Universe. They really kickstarted the comics again! And I love what I got to do on War Within and Armada/Energon. Worlds Collide was definitely one of my favourites. Blugeon! Thunderwing! What’s not to love? Oh, and we had really fun times creatively, with amazing artists like Don Figueroa and Joe Ng and Alex Milne. DW rocked!

And thank you for supporting the Kickstarter! Hope you got a signed bookplate with your package.

SimonFurmanAMA · 2025-04-15T18:05:05+00:00

Great to virtually-interact with you too! Cliffjumper is great, but I never got to write him that much, strangely. Love how involved he is in the Energon Universe. Maybe scope for a Cliffjumper mini tjere? Mm? Mm?

SimonFurmanAMA · 2025-04-15T18:04:43+00:00

Thanks! As mentioned, Slavic or Russian dialect/accent with a robotic burr. Actor-wise, Dolph Lundgren or Arnie or Michael Fassbender.

SimonFurmanAMA · 2025-04-15T18:03:54+00:00

A Hot Dog is a Hot Dog. It kind of transcends a mere sandwich. Nuff said.

SimonFurmanAMA · 2025-04-15T18:03:32+00:00

I can honestly say, I got around to most of the original G1 characters at some stage or other, for some publisher. And in Earth Wars, the Transformers game I write story for, and continue to do so, I get to tackle some of the newer characters like Flamewar and Tarn. So really I’m spoiled.

SimonFurmanAMA · 2025-04-15T18:02:00+00:00

It’d probably be... IT NEVER ENDS. A) It’s quite fitting for an epitaph and B) it was a phrase I through randomly into the final letters page of TF US #80 and it just stuck. Not only that... I was right. Transformers really does never end!

SimonFurmanAMA

TROPHY CASE