Chris Ryall Responds To Beast Wars Profiles Criticisms
Tuesday, October 9th, 2007 9:23AM CDT
Categories: Comic Book News, People News, Company News, CollectablesPosted by: Tigertrack Views: 38,874
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Chris Ryall has heard the complaints, the comments, and the criticisms and he calmly replies, taking the blame for the book upon his shoulders, and promising better things:
"Hey, everyone--
In the time we've been doing Transformers comics, there have been highs and lows for the fans, I know. As there's going to be on anything -- some projects work better than others, for various reasons.
This one seems to be ranking somewhere near the first issue of the TF Animated Series for most of you, from the responses I've seen.
Which sucks all around--the last thing we want to do is release product that doesn't work for you. Especially since this particular book took so long to finally arrive. And because so many artists and colorists labored over it. And because Simon and Ben Yee did the same, and then waited patiently for the book to finally be assembled and released.
So for the person who just e-mailed me very angry and said "once again, IDW screws its fans," well, that's hardly true and hardly a sound approach to business, I would think. And nothing we would ever set out to do.
So what happened?
That's a good question. But there's really no need for me to make excuses or air any beasty-smelling laundry, so I'll just say that the book is, like everything we publish, ultimately my responsibility. This book was one that sort of slipped through the crack while I was dealing with an editorial shift, and it went out with some errors. Book Two was completed during this same period. But Andrew is here as the TF Editor now, and is extremely competent and he and I will do what we can to ensure the rest of the books are produced as they should be. As many errors are able to be corrected in the collected version will be fixed, too.
I know that this book was a bit of a disappointment for fans who waited so long. Transition with art teams or editorial teams can cause hiccups that are evidenced in the finished product, but certainly not on purpose.
So know that I share your pain on this--maybe moreso, since so many people have shared their pain with me--but also know that putting out something you don't love is never our intent. We'll get 'em next time."
You can see the original IDW Forum thread here.
While they cannot undo what has been done, and there are no promises made that things will be corrected in the Trade Paperback release, we do know that this will be a focus for them to get the remaining issues right.
You can become a part of our discussion of the 'Beast Wars Sourcebook #1' here
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Posted by Counterpunch on October 9th, 2007 @ 9:26am CDT
Big Convoy is still owed a big apology though.
Posted by darth reven on October 9th, 2007 @ 9:30am CDT
Posted by darth reven on October 9th, 2007 @ 9:31am CDT
Posted by Leonardo on October 9th, 2007 @ 9:36am CDT
Posted by Archanubis on October 9th, 2007 @ 9:38am CDT
Posted by tile_mcgillus on October 9th, 2007 @ 9:43am CDT
WOW. That never happens. Mad props to Ryall for doing what was right. I respect that immensely.
Posted by Optimutt on October 9th, 2007 @ 10:11am CDT
Posted by Sloptank on October 9th, 2007 @ 10:12am CDT
Posted by Ultra Magnus on October 9th, 2007 @ 10:54am CDT
Sloptank wrote:Major high fives to the man in the robot suit.
I agree! This is the guy we need working on the MOVIE!
Posted by Arcadius-Prime on October 9th, 2007 @ 11:18am CDT
Posted by Superginraix on October 9th, 2007 @ 11:23am CDT
Immature.
Big of Ryall to admit a mistake. I hope that it DOES get fixed up a bit in TPB form. Those images could be a lot larger to cover up some of that empty white space, for example.
I'm actually surprised by the lack of text in the book. I guess I was expecting something more like More Than Meets the Eye. Ah well.
Posted by Dr. Caelus on October 9th, 2007 @ 12:40pm CDT
Posted by First-Aid on October 9th, 2007 @ 12:46pm CDT
tile_mcgillus wrote:I am not a big Beast Wars fan but that was awesome. He admitted his mistake and apologized. Then gave plans for the future to rectify it.
WOW. That never happens. Mad props to Ryall for doing what was right. I respect that immensely.
Hey Barry Bonds and Michael Vick, THAT'S HOW YOU APOLOGIZE! LEARN FROM IT YOU IDIOTS!
Posted by slagfan on October 9th, 2007 @ 1:18pm CDT
Agreed. I enjoyed the prequel a lot and I thought things tied in to the movie quite nicely.
Posted by Dr. Z on October 9th, 2007 @ 1:27pm CDT
Posted by Cyber-Kun on October 9th, 2007 @ 1:40pm CDT
Posted by Obi-Wan Kenobi on October 9th, 2007 @ 2:54pm CDT
Posted by Counterpunch on October 9th, 2007 @ 3:47pm CDT
Obi-Wan Kenobi wrote:What else is he going to??? the mea culpa is nice, but this 'falling through the cracks' is the main reason I don't buy IDW comics anymore.
You have some other reason to give them grief?
Except for this small delay for these current books, IDW has been pretty good and damn loyal to the fan base so far.
Posted by Liege Evilmus on October 9th, 2007 @ 5:13pm CDT
Posted by i_amtrunks on October 9th, 2007 @ 5:40pm CDT
In fact I think Ryall is pulling too much blame onto himself, much of the blame has to be given to the writers.
But full marks to Ryall for being a stand out bloke.
Posted by Darth Bombshell on October 9th, 2007 @ 6:52pm CDT
tigertracks 24 wrote:To others they put it aside, and chalked it up as an IDW rush job with so much happening on the TF comics front lately.
It's not exactly a rush job if it took a year to do, and with most of the bulk that could have caused these problems happening months ago.
And it`s all well and good to take responsibility for it. Quite a different thing to actually do something about it later.
Posted by slagfan on October 9th, 2007 @ 7:40pm CDT
Also, I'm no expert, but I think that Ryall has to oversee EVERY book IDW does, not just the TF ones. That probably puts him in a bad spot as being the one to have to answer to things that go sour. They did a lot this past year with the prequel stuff, movie-related projects (remember the Target comic?) and we've heard they have DVD-related stuff, too.
They're a small group and do good stuff. I think we can cut the guy a little slack, no?
And yes, "30 Days of Night" looks awesome.
Posted by Darth Bombshell on October 9th, 2007 @ 7:51pm CDT
slagfan wrote:I think we can cut the guy a little slack, no?
No is right. I don't feel like particularly giving anyone involved in this any brownie points, considering they've all had a year to get their acts together.
Posted by slagfan on October 9th, 2007 @ 7:51pm CDT
Just sucks to see someone take blame openly and then get knocked for it.
But come to think of it, that Soundwave/Shockwave goof was pretty bad!
Posted by Darth Bombshell on October 9th, 2007 @ 7:53pm CDT
slagfan wrote:Just sucks to see someone take blame openly and then get knocked for it.
As I said, taking blame is one thing. Doing something about it is another.
Posted by i_amtrunks on October 9th, 2007 @ 8:19pm CDT
Posted by Calvatron on October 9th, 2007 @ 10:15pm CDT
Obi-Wan Kenobi wrote:What else is he going to??? the mea culpa is nice, but this 'falling through the cracks' is the main reason I don't buy IDW comics anymore.
not to be rude, but whose comics do you buy? Seriously, no sarcasm. I'm not a huge comic affiscionado, but IDW has less cracks than any other company i'm familiar with. And they patch their's faster. I guess what i'm asking is what real-world based standard are you comparing them with, because i'd really like to check out stuff by a company that is more reliable than idw(no one I know of is) to see if they have stuff that interests me. But i'll be with idw to the end.
Posted by Calvatron on October 9th, 2007 @ 10:23pm CDT
Darth Bombshell wrote:slagfan wrote:Just sucks to see someone take blame openly and then get knocked for it.
As I said, taking blame is one thing. Doing something about it is another.
You bring up a good point. I think that as long as Beast Wars is seen as TRANSFORMERS: beast wars, this will always be the case. While i like furman a lot and think he does good work, If beast wars is going to become a serious creative outing, i'd like to see it get its own team, including a personally devoted writer. And to lose the emphasis on being a transformers comic. It's just too large to be sub-grouped. While i do enjoy the occasional side project by furman, this simply is no longer in the realm of side projects. I'd like to see him focus on G1 and this get it's own project status.
Posted by NuclearConvoy on October 9th, 2007 @ 10:56pm CDT
Posted by Leonardo on October 10th, 2007 @ 2:27am CDT
slagfan wrote:But come to think of it, that Soundwave/Shockwave goof was pretty bad!
What is this goof of which you speak? Enlighten me, please!
Posted by Alex Kingdom on October 10th, 2007 @ 2:43am CDT
IMO so far IDW have done pretty great job with Transformers especially the new G1 stuff and Beast Wars, so I'm willing to forgive this this minor indiscretion. Maybe If I'd bought the Animated Movie series I'd be more pissed off but right now I'm willing to chalk the £4 I paid for BW Source Book 1 down to experience. I'll not be getting any of the other issues in preference of waiting for the TPBs which will hopefully have all the errors corrected.
BTW does anyone have a list of these so called error? I'd like to know exactly what i might be missing?
Yours AK
Posted by Darth Bombshell on October 10th, 2007 @ 8:07am CDT
Alex Kingdom wrote:BTW does anyone have a list of these so called error? I'd like to know exactly what i might be missing?
BB colored like Sunstorm, TM2 Blackarachnia colored as normal Blackarachnia...
Posted by fairplaythings on October 10th, 2007 @ 1:22pm CDT
But seriously - colouring errors? We get a book that has Autostinger and features Japanese colour-variations of U.S. releases and people have their knickers in a knot about colouring errors? Have people sat through G1 cartoons lately?
The summaries are well done and the art is superb. Though it would be nice if Cheetor had a picture of his TM2 mould and there was something on the back inside cover, I'm still surprised we have this book and it is of this overall quality. We should be apologizing to IDW for not being worthy...
Posted by Alex Kingdom on October 10th, 2007 @ 2:11pm CDT
Darth Bombshell wrote:Alex Kingdom wrote:BTW does anyone have a list of these so called error? I'd like to know exactly what i might be missing?
BB colored like Sunstorm, TM2 Blackarachnia colored as normal Blackarachnia...
Honestly? Is that it? Is that all? Is that really what everyone has their knickers in a twist over? Jeez!
Personally, i think the biggest problem with the book is that seemingly unimportant characters like Bigmos and Archadis have received double page spreads whilst important guys like Dinobot and Big Convoy get a page each with a reasonably short write up, in fact most of the Bios in this book are short and unsubstantial. The incorrect coloring of a couple of character really is the least of it's problems.
Yours AK
Posted by Darth Bombshell on October 10th, 2007 @ 3:02pm CDT
Alex Kingdom wrote:Is that really what everyone has their knickers in a twist over?
No, those are just the ones that come to mind most readily. The issue about profile space, like you said, is a big deal to some, too. (Hell, I've been ragging about the inclusion of the Japanese characters forever...)
Posted by i_amtrunks on October 10th, 2007 @ 6:38pm CDT
Alex Kingdom wrote:Personally, i think the biggest problem with the book is that seemingly unimportant characters like Bigmos and Archadis have received double page spreads whilst important guys like Dinobot and Big Convoy get a page each with a reasonably short write up, in fact most of the Bios in this book are short and unsubstantial. The incorrect coloring of a couple of character really is the least of it's problems.
Yours AK
Thats what my knickers are slightly knotted up for.
Posted by slagfan on October 11th, 2007 @ 1:16am CDT
Leonardo wrote:slagfan wrote:But come to think of it, that Soundwave/Shockwave goof was pretty bad!
What is this goof of which you speak? Enlighten me, please!
It was in the Animated Movie Adaptation. Don't know the page off-hand, but in issue 1, when Laserbeak returns from spying on Prime (the whole "a little energon and a lot of luck" line), Megatron says "soundwave, play back laserbeak's findings".
SHOCKWAVE says "as you command" or something like that.
Not to beat a dead horse, but that was fixed for the trade.
Posted by Leonardo on October 11th, 2007 @ 2:22am CDT
slagfan wrote:Leonardo wrote:slagfan wrote:But come to think of it, that Soundwave/Shockwave goof was pretty bad!
What is this goof of which you speak? Enlighten me, please!
It was in the Animated Movie Adaptation. Don't know the page off-hand, but in issue 1, when Laserbeak returns from spying on Prime (the whole "a little energon and a lot of luck" line), Megatron says "soundwave, play back laserbeak's findings".
SHOCKWAVE says "as you command" or something like that.
Not to beat a dead horse, but that was fixed for the trade.
Ah, I see. Silly IDW!