Interview with John Barber on Transformers, Jem, and Creating Comics at IDW

Hi, this is John Barber from IDW Publishing.

You are listening to The Pull Bag. Hi, this is

Dan Gilbazan and you're listening to the GeekCast

Radio Network. Hello and welcome to The Pullback.

I am one of your hosts, DMG and Mike. Joining

me this time around is Pecan Court Michael. Hello.

Hey, how's it going? It's going. Last week everyone

heard Michael's Comic Origins episode and this

week we have a very special interview. I think

this would make it the fourth or fifth interview

on The Pullback. I don't know. I'd have to go

back and look at those numbers. Today we have

the pleasure of welcoming and saluting captain

continuity. Mr. John Barber from IDW publishing.

Hello, John. How are you? I'm good. How are you

guys? very well So, first of all, I think I had

to start with this. Who gave you the name Captain

Continuity? I assumed it was you. I don't know

who said that. No, I've heard other people call

you that. Okay. Alright then. Before we get started,

can you... You have penned him a name. That's

nice. Shut up. His new nom to plume. I assumed

it was because of a story editor type thing.

Yeah, because he's always fixing the goof -ups

from the old Transformers stories. Yeah. When

I first started on Transformers, I was doing

the movie comics. I kind of went in, especially

with that, like an archaeologist or something.

I went through and I watched the movies and wrote

everything that happened down. I went through

the comics and I was kind of treating it like...

Okay, if all this were real, how did these things

happen? Because the movies, there's not an entirely

smooth continuity between any one given film,

let alone all three of them at that point. So

I was kind of like, oh, here's some things. And

I'll tell you, the comics would come out and

they'd be kind of overwritten by stuff that happened

in the movie that we didn't know was going to

happen or whatever. So just as kind of fun or

sort of Easter eggs, I would... add sort of the

sides that would, you know, nod toward some of

that, I guess. When I was all done writing one

of the movie comics, my editor at the time, Andy

Schmidt, asked if there was anything like extra

I could add to the comic book. There's like a

weird thing where the, I think the paperback

came out first of the movie adaptation, and then

the comics were coming out, so they were looking

for something they could add into the comics

to make it like, if you bought the comics, you

didn't just waste your money. So I wrote these

like prose stories and they're all kind of at

least the first three at least were kind of okay

here's a story and the fourth one is just oh

here's me just yeah oh here's a bunch of other

continuity things I noticed so I'm just gonna

have a loosely formed story. It was kind of funny

like Michael Kelly that I work with now all the

time he's a really good friend. He saw that like

that was the one he had a note on he was like

this doesn't seem like a story. Okay, yeah, you're

kind of right, so I think it kind of kind of

reworked it a little bit to make it a little

more of a story, but I think that's where it

got started. I don't know. It's not like I hear

that, get called that too much in person. The

only reason why I ever heard it, and it's all

her fault and she can take full blame for this,

Lady Rek, over at the Underbase Podcast. That's

where I first heard that from. So it's all Amy's

fault. We'll blame Amy, and she'll just sit back

and take it. We've already gotten started, but

can you give us the scoop on what's going on

in the world of John Barber? Any upcoming Transformers

or GEM events that you can reveal that haven't

really been revealed yet? Transformers or GEM?

Let's see, no. I can tell you, but I'd have to

kill you first. Let me see. Right now, the Gem

Annual is at the press, the first one of those.

It's great. It really turned out well. I don't

think we've shown any pages of it yet. I think

we should be getting some of those out really

soon, because it's really amazing. Sophie Campbell

didn't draw it, but we have five guest artists.

because it's five short stories and they're all

they're all they're all amazing. Ariel Jovenelis,

whose name I just pronounced, I'm sorry. Jen

Bartel, Agnes Garbowska, Amy Meverson. So Amy's

on exterior art? Yeah, she's doing a framing

sequence on that, yeah. Oh, very cool. I loved

her her covers for issue one. classic yeah yeah

that was really the the genesis of it was uh

uh like that's another group that was part of

the genesis it's part of the story and that it's

gonna be uh what do you call it um uh we're gonna

have gem babies in this comic there's gonna be

a gem babies uh story uh rebecca isaac i think

i left her off she's a she's a i think that's

five right that's all five artists i think so

yeah Anyway, I think that's going to be fantastic

going on in Transformers. A new story called

Conquerors is starting with issue 46, which is

the issue after the next one. Andrew Griffiths

is off for a couple of issues, and the art in

that one is, speaking of me mispronouncing names,

Sarah Patri -Drocher. who drew the Combiner Hunters

one -shot. She's doing most of the arc. Andrew's

doing one issue of it, because it's one issue.

It's something that Andrew and I have been talking

about for a couple years. So we want to make

sure that we'd be able to do that one together.

But Sarah is amazing on this. That's going to

be really good. But there will be some big announcements

coming up soon. There will be some cool announcements

coming up. We're running up to issue 50 on each

of the books. At least one really big announcement

about about that You don't want to stomp all

over the NDA Well, I would think since he's the

boss he can All right, so you guys have any upcoming

is IDW going to any more conventions this year

I just went to the Chicago Comic Con yesterday

and Yeah, I didn't see much in the way of a of

an IDW presence there No, I don't think we did

we didn't we do much at Chicago I want to say

C2e2 there was Well, yeah, yeah, okay, I think

my daughter's probably watching run up here and

say hi Alright, so where did you grow up and

had you always wanted to get into writing and

or editing comics? Let's see, so I mostly, when

I was a little kid I was in a suburb of Chicago

called Elmhurst. I know it. My parents moved

to Anaheim, California. Oh yeah? Where are you

at? I'm in Chicago. Most people I say I'm in

Chicago, but the fact is I'm like 20 minutes

outside of Chicago just over the border in Indiana

I'm you know, I know Elmhurst It's a suburb.

Okay Indiana is a suburb of Chicago. So That

counts. Yeah, Chicago is pretty far away from

a lot of Illinois. I don't you know, I don't

know if people that aren't from there realize

that like, it's kind of like, it's more. Yeah,

it's more in the corner than it is. Yeah, they

have their own. They kind of have their own culture

outside of the rest of Illinois. Yeah, I mean,

I don't know anything about the rest of Illinois,

because I was eight when I moved out of there.

My parents moved to Anaheim, California, where

Disneyland is. And I found them, you know, they

moved, I tracked them down. So I mostly grew

up there. Right now I live in San Diego. I went

to college in San Diego. I was in New York for

about 10 years, eight to 10 years, somewhere

like that, because I can't do math very well.

But yeah, I kind of always wanted to get into

comics. When I was a little kid, I wanted to

do all the little kid stuff. I wanted to be like

an astronaut. And I kind of found out that was

really hard. And then I wanted to be a writer

for a while. And then I got really into comic

art. And I wanted to write and draw comics. That

was kind of my focus through high school, college,

even after college. And then I sort of lucked

into, I mean, I applied for a job at Marvel.

One thing led to another, and I got a job editing,

assistant editing at Marvel, and then I was there

for about six years. You know, kind of rose up

from, you know, assistant editor to editor. And

I left to go freelance to get back into writing.

And I started doing the Transformers stuff, and

then I just got the, what's now the Transformers

ongoing, but then the robots in the sky is ongoing.

James and I just got hired to do the books when

our editor Andy Schmidt left to go to Hasbro.

I was kind of nervous because the year I was,

I just got this ongoing gig. I was doing mostly

freelance graphic design stuff. He was like,

oh, I could throw your name in the ring to take

over my position. I was like, well, yeah, but

I don't want to give up writing. I really like

that part of it. And he was like, oh, not IDW.

You wouldn't necessarily have to give it up.

So that happens. Now that happened. I got the

job. Cool. And then we moved back out to San

Diego. Hi. Hi, daddy. That's my daughter. Everybody

says hi. She's dressed like Ariel. Everybody

says hi. Yeah, that's adorable. That is an awesome

costume, Ava. It's a starfish headband, isn't

it? Very good. That's the best kindest. Okay,

I'll be out in a little while. Alright, sorry

about that. She has an aerial costume now. How

old is she? Four years old. Oh boy, that's a

fun age. Their personalities are just emerging.

yeah mine are yeah mine are uh seven and nine

now so yeah they're they are fresh yeah yeah

fresh from their comic con visit so i take them

every year yeah like ava went to um i took her

to comic con not this past one the previous one

um uh and uh She was okay whenever she saw Disney

Princess or Spider -Man. And she was happy when

she was playing with the Legos, but like you

can do that at any mall or at home with Legos.

And she was kind of overwhelmed by the whole

thing. And then like the next day she looked

at me and she said, Eddie, I don't want to go

to Comic -Con. Okay, don't worry. Okay, all right.

But she didn't go this year, but I think she

kind of regretted that one. so probably she'll

be back next year. I think by the time she's

like five, almost five. Yeah, I think by the

time they're maybe almost five, they'll like

it a little bit more. Yeah, I started mine off

at five. I think four might have been a little

odd. But yeah, at that point it's like, you're

not gonna do the panels. You're not gonna sit

in line for four hours to be Bruce Campbell.

You're basically there for your kids to see Spider

-Man. Yeah Okay, so I'm sorry to digress You

were telling us the story I actually thought

you were gonna say and and then I applied at

Marvel and got rejected and then I applied at

Marvel and got rejected and then I applied at

Marvel and they Did you just get right in just

slide right into the door Well, okay, what happened

was we moved to New York and my wife was going

to grad school and I was working a temp job.

It was actually a great job. I was bug checking

this website for its nonprofit company. Literally

nobody there ever saw my timesheet. I just filled

it out after it had gotten signed. It was really

the greatest job in the world and I probably

should have stayed there forever. Um, but, uh,

so I was applying to like any job that I sounded,

you sounded at all interesting or that I thought

it was at all qualified for. And I, um, I applied

for this job at Marvel and I guess, and I forgot

about it. Like I literally forgot that I applied

for a job. Uh, and then one day Bill Jemez called

me on my cell phone and I thought it was my friends

just messing with me. Like, you know, I really

didn't think it was real. I actually had to go

on my computer and find the cover letter. that

I had saved somewhere. I was like, oh, I did

apply for a job at Marvel. So I went in for an

interview. And it was for some, I had applied

for some sort of like a manufacturing job or

something, something I knew nothing about. But

I just saw there was Marvel, and I thought, oh,

well, roll the dice. And then I, by the time

Jemis had got my, Bill Jemis, I don't know if,

he was the president of Marvel in the early 2000s.

And he was a very colorful figure, very controversial.

So I came in for an interview. And at this point,

it was like for some sort of, I don't know if

you follow Marvel stuff at all, but it was maybe

sort of like a talent relation job before they

had that in position. So that was sort of what

I was interviewing for. And James and I hit it

off really well. I've never worked with a gentleman.

And that might be a key in our relationship.

Like, we get along really well. We've never actually

worked together. And then the interview went

really well. And then the job literally didn't

materialize. Like, that job didn't come into

being. I think it was probably five years later

before that job actually existed at Marvel. And

I wouldn't have got it anyway. Bill liked me,

so I guess he was telling people at Marvel to

take a look at me. It was about four months of

interviewing. I went in for maybe two more interviews.

And then after the last one, I was walking home,

and I got a call that day, and I was like, oh,

you're hired. When can you start? I'm like, oh,

I'm working this temp job, so technically I can

leave whenever. like uh you know it'd be nice

to give them like two weeks you know so they

could find somebody else to do this job and then

later that day it was like okay can you start

tomorrow like oh well uh yeah okay we'll work

that out maybe the day after um so uh yeah it

was kind of funny and then by that point Bill

like Jemis was leaving Marvel and he was um so

he wasn't really involved in the editorial he's

just kind of helping uh the like the new people

kind of come in um there was it was mostly Dan

Buckley who was the who eventually took over

his publisher. There's a guy in between that

Dan took over basically that position. And yeah,

he's a great guy. And I was lucky to get to work

with him. Cool. Awesome. You're very fortunate.

I've never heard a more fortunate story. It just

kind of fell up. It's like Michael said earlier,

it's like, sorry, no, sorry, no. It's like, hey,

maybe I should apply at DC and get even more

rejection. OK, so when you were working at Marvel,

compare that process to what you guys do at IDW.

How much of the, because we all know Marvel had

their quote unquote method. What's the difference

between the two companies? As far as like the

editing side of it goes um You know it can depend

I mean a lot of the stuff that IDW does is Either

we know we do some create our own stuff But a

lot of it is licensed. We don't do a ton of stuff.

That's Like sort of your company owned So the

logistics of that are different it really depends

on the license like some some comics like some

comics like very closely follow the model of

what they're licensed from, like the Skylanders

comic, for instance, like that's something that

I think really, like it looks like the Skylanders

are, you know, it follows those designs exactly,

the stories, you know, very carefully fit in

with what goes on in Skylanders. So, you know,

the mechanics of sort of editing that are different

than... Let's say the GIGO or Transformers comics

or GEM or something. Those are effectively the

same as working at Marvel. There really isn't

any material difference in them, other than Hasbro

has the role of, when I was there, a Joe Casada

or an Axel Alonso now, where you'll talk to them

about sort of... storytelling and broad strokes

and every once in a while there might be something

that they come in and either like as a story

thing like hey it would work better if you did

this or you know every once in a while something

like I don't know if we should do this you know

this thing so let's let's talk about this but

I mean Hasbro is really you know really great

to work with on these things and you know we're

I got the comics that IDW do on all of those

are kind of off on their own. They're not aligning.

We do a comic based on the Robots in the Sky's

TV show and that's a little different because

then you're trying to follow the models a little

bit closer. You have to make sure you're not

doing a story that steps on anything the studio

is doing or that interferes with their stories.

It's all additive and builds up the world instead

of getting in each other's way. You're not going

to get nearly as much leeway. with that property

than you would with, you know, like the Lost

Light. Right, yeah. It isn't even just leeway,

it's just like the, you know, it's a different,

it's just a different sport that you're going

in and playing. You can't kill Strongarm, you

know. Right, exactly, yeah. Oh, don't even. I

like Strongarm, I'm just saying. No, no, no,

what I'm saying is don't bring up the point of

character deaths, because if you bring it up

enough times... We've already seen Marigrid kill

Scrounger, whoever that guy was. Are you going

to kill him? Are you going to kill him? Are you

going to kill him? Are you going to kill him?

And she killed him. Scrounger with his one special

arm? I don't think Georgia Ball is as dark and

sickening as Marigrid can be in the writing,

though. Luckily, the TF RID animated series is

a lot more lighthearted than what Marigrid usually

writes. They introduced a lot of new decepticons

that could probably die in grisly ways and nobody

would bat an eye. Just throwing that out there.

We'll think about it. Oh boy. Now you're giving

them ideas. Great. We're sorry, folks. Michael

Wilson broke IDW on the Transformers animated

RID cartoon comic and it now is cancelled after

issue five. I'm sure Hasbro would have something

to say if Grimlock accidentally bit somebody

in half. Just throwing that out there. Well,

it was an accident. Wait a minute wait, you can't

have Grimlock biting in this up to kind of an

African. This is this is a kids show so After

seeing some of the stuff that happened in more

than meets the eye, I mean somebody getting bit

in half is kind of trivial Is such a complete

different monster than what the red animated

comic is yeah It has to my original point. Yes

And it's one of those things where between, you

know, technically the book you write, John, the

main book that you write is technically a spawn

of prints because it is now known as the book

formerly known as Robots in Disguise. With those

two books, what I would assume is that it's,

you know, I'm assuming, and you can tell us here

in a moment, I'm assuming you guys pitched several

ideas to Hasbro And they say, okay, that works,

that works, that works. Then they just give you

guys creative freedom to write whatever story

you're going to write. I, I wouldn't think at

this point in the game of both the ongoings that

they would have too many story notes on it. Would

they? Um, I mean, yeah, I know. I mean, we, we,

um, like it, it isn't like they're there, like

there isn't a thing where they come in and they're

like, This is what you have to do or you know,

no don't do that. There really hasn't like ever

been that sort of thing like I I talk with the

Transformers brand team a lot So, you know, we

both sort of know what we're doing You know,

like a lot of the toys can kind of change in

the last well not the last minute but they can

change You know as things are going on, but I

sort of know what you know What what toys are

looking to do, you know, what's gonna come out

and I kind of enjoy putting some of that stuff

in there. It isn't a situation where, I think

if you go to the end of the Bob Budiansky run

and the original Transformers and it's just like,

oh, what thing is he gonna get stuck with now?

How is he gonna have to try to get, how is he

gonna have to try to make this fit in the story

that's going on? But there are definitely some

points where we've, they've known that we were

doing combiner stuff and we had been going back

into the early days of RID. You know, they knew

that we were doing the whole thing with prowl

was going to be Devastator but we're part of

Devastator and then Megatron is going to be part

of that for almost part of that So you're gonna

have the sort of modular combiner sort of thing.

I think yeah, I didn't like that was the sort

of thing that eventually The other combination

of that and you know, whatever other forces of

it would be cool to get combiners back into the

generations toy line You know leads to combiner

wars happening someday, you know where that was

a dovetailing of a story that we set out to tell

or launched in robots disguise and then became

a toy thing. We put out a lot of Transformers

comics and comics are really difficult for like

licensors because there's so many pieces to it.

Like a prose book, you have a manuscript and

a cover, that's it. The comic book, you have

the script, then you have you know, 20 whatever

pages of art, you know, they come in with pencils

and inks and colors and the lettering and, you

know, we'll have three covers on every issue,

maybe four sometimes. There's just a lot of pieces

to it. So it's, you know, it's a lot of work

to even get through all that stuff. But yeah,

no, I mean, you know, I can't think of a time

where James and I have come up with something

and wanted to go somewhere where they... They

weren't really supportive of it. Yeah, I mean

I didn't see this No, I just saw James at TF

con and this was how long ago was this? No, this

was longer than I thought. This is like October,

but he was talking about No, that was yeah, he

was talking about No, this was The brain -eating

scene and more than meets the eye Oh, where Hasbro

saw that and said, you know, how about not? Oh,

that's actually not true. Oh, it's not true.

OK. Yeah, that happened. Because he was like

showing us the original art and this is what

it looked like before. And this is what it looked

like after. The original art was kind of a sketch,

right? Yeah. Yeah, no, that was it. It looked

very similar to what what was on the page. It

was just one of the. one of the panels was switched

so that what happened originally in the story

wasn't actually what happened. Yeah, that was

a funny James's. Well, I don't know. No, that

was the thing that James and I talked about that

I think through other. There were some connotations

to what was portrayed initially that were not

intended. And, yeah, he and I talked about that,

and we talked about the artist's agent, because

the artist happens to not speak English, or at

least went through an agent, maybe he speaks

English. Actually, you know what, that's not

true, he does speak English. I'm sorry, he does

go through an agent. Okay. I don't know how comfortable

he is speaking English. But yeah, no, that wasn't

a Hasbro thing. No, that wasn't a Hasbro thing.

Oh, okay, so that was internal. I thought the

first version of that. Yeah, okay. Oh, okay,

well then maybe I misrepresented that. That was

actually recently, I want to say that was at

BotCon. They showed that during one of the panels.

And yeah, I was surprised at the original imagery.

I was like, wow, that's okay. Yeah, like I said,

it wasn't just that it was gruesome. It was,

like I said, evocative of things that I don't

think were intended by James' script. Right.

I'll buy that. I'll buy that. I had the impression

that it was mixed by Hasbro, not by management.

No, I wasn't under the impression it was a mutual

discussion between James and I. I think that's

what we thought. You were there, so I'll take

your word for it. So Michael is a huge toy collector.

He has an entire office back wall of cabinets

filled with Transformers in them. It's good that

we've got you on here now that I can finally

figure out what is going on with this so I can

inform some of my other friends that don't know

about this. When you guys do the pack -in comics

for the toys, is that a specific comic written

and drawn for that toy packaging, or is that

like a mini -comic preview of like a More Than

Meets the Eye or Robots in Disguise issue, or

how do the comic toy pack -ins work? Well, the

very first set we did, because something like

IDW had kind of wanted that for a while, You

know because like for from our point of view

It gets a comic into the hands of somebody who

maybe would never know there were Transformers

comics or would never see one And I think a lot

of us you're reading comics now kind of started

at least partially because we'd get these you

know, like the I don't know the Masters of the

universe comics or the Like math had dead comics

packed in with a comic with some of the toys

So, you know, we kind of wanted something like

that, you know for a while the very first set

They had six characters that they wanted to do.

So we went out, we set up and we did six one

shots, which were the spotlights that we did

several years ago. So those were really clearly

set up to tie in with those toys. But then also

James and I and Nick, because Nick Roach did

the Megatron one. So it was just sort of set

up. Like they're all set in different eras in

the continuity, and they kind of help reinforce

some points that maybe we were going to try to

make in the main comics. You know, like there

were a few things that got set up that kind of

pay off later. I think probably most directly

with more than UTI stuff, because most of those

are set like right between two specific issues.

Like the one that I did were kind of set in different

eras. Nick did the one. Yeah, it was in James

and the Orion packs when it was set in the past,

but it's definitely got some stuff that we brought

up later. Anyway, those we all did like really

specifically for those for those toys. And then

they worked out pretty well, but it wasn't really

something like sustainable. And what kind of

happened is like Hasbro liked it too. Like we

both enjoyed what we got out of it. Like they

get extra content in the toys, which is great.

You know, it's like an added value for the toys.

We get, you know, the comics in the hands of

somebody that maybe wouldn't know or wouldn't

care if they were Transformers comics, but maybe

will become a fan of the stuff once they see

it. And eventually, like we started to do, it

was going to be, you know, like 12 a year and

then 16 a year. And it didn't make sense to do

that many one -shots, you know, like at all.

Like it would just be really, the one -shots

probably wouldn't stay very good. And, you know,

the sales and the one -shots are funny because

Transformers fans, I think, really want the characters

that don't get play in the books. Comics retailers

really want Optimus Prime and Megatron. You know,

so like the Spotlight Megatron sold really well.

Spotlight Hoist didn't sell that well, which

is crazy because if it had been an issue more

than UTI, it would have sold great. You know,

you could have told that exact story more than

UTI. So that was sort of our thought, oh, well,

maybe we can tell these stories within the comics.

But I think the next thing we did was Dark Cybertron.

And when we set out to do Dark Cybertron, that

was something we all... That was actually weird,

or not weird, it was a unique one that... I think

Hasbro flew James out. I flew out, and then Phil

Jimenez took the train from... from New York

all over to Rhode Island, and we all got in a

room with everybody at Hasbro and sort of started

working on what we could do for this big crossover

story. And we had a list of what characters were

going to be, what the toys were going to be,

but by the end of that, they didn't line up anymore.

The plans had changed on some of the toys. You

know, maybe plan to change in the comics as things

went on too. So kind of like at that point, we

started to maybe see, it wasn't gonna work out

too well if we got too specific on what characters

we were gonna time in with. So where we are now

is kind of, we've been doing the Combiner Wars

stuff. So like IDW did six issues that we labeled

Combiner Wars. with the impacts, like it's those

six, plus it's like the four issues of RID that

kind of lead up, or was it RID then? The four

issues of the book I write, that kind of lead

into it. And then we pulled some of the old issues

of RID that sort of set up some of the combiner

stuff, like the DinoBot hunt issues, stuff in

the wilderness. And then the whole, actually

the whole end of the icon. uh... that you would

be the uh... all of the bubble be uh... metalhawk

uh... uh... star screen story cycle at whatever

it's it's issues of that i think so those are

the results so those comic packings for dark

cybertron combiner wars are basically mashed

up stories from the ongoings but i don't know

if you want exactly an issue Okay, yeah, so so

like if you have all the issues of Dark Cybertron

and all the issues The combiner combiner war

stuff like you have all of the other Binder changes

were like because the toys are aimed at like

maybe Whatever five or six year olds or eight

year olds You will maybe you'll maybe cut out

some of the harsher words. Yeah, like that sort

of thing But that's really the only change. And

no cutting people lengthways. Yeah, that would

maybe be pushing it, but we have... I actually

don't think we changed in the art in any of the

comics. I definitely thought there was one where

we were going to, but they were okay with it.

Wow. So, uh, uh, yeah, like we're looking at

these times we were, you know, like we were writing

issues as just regular issues and a lot of them,

I mean, some of them were, you know, we decided

a year down the road, this would be, this would

be an impact, you know, so definitely wasn't

had an inner in our mind. Um, but, uh, yeah,

yeah. So it's, um, yeah. So when you actually

tore those open, I mean, there, there, it's a

full, it's a full comic book. Um, yeah, it's

got a little recap. It's got all, uh, all the

pages of the comic. It's full size. There's a

lad in there for how to get IDW comics Yeah,

yeah, I've got just somewhat on my desk right

now I've got chromia wind blade tank or and rat

trap and We were just having this conversation

the other day and if I open it, you know Not

only am I not only my devaluing the toy. I'm

devaluing the comic I can't possibly open any

of these now Come on open it up, you know, you

want to well it depends, you know, it's like

it's I'm pretty sure they're not gonna make a

specific chromia comic book They probably just

have you know, one of the episodes that have

been rebranded for this purpose Well, John's

here John. What is the chromia pack -in? Do you

remember? Yeah, no Probably an episode of wind

blades with chromia in it No, I don't think it

is. Is it labeled Dark Cybertron? No, it's labeled

Chromia. It's like the Chromia. It's just labeled

Chromia. I've got it. Michael, open the toy package.

Open the toy, damn you. It's like Chromia is

going to go for a million dollars on eBay tomorrow,

Michael. Yeah, well like with like another comic

just funny one really funny because we actually

We're gonna enter like like wind blade won the

fan built but Contest right lately or whatever.

Yeah, whatever you want to call it. Like they

you know So when blade is gonna get introduced

to do in the dark Cybertron So James and I were

figuring out when we did that, oh, she should

probably have some friends with her. We'll bring

in Chromia. And then I think James wanted to

do a new character, so he did Nautica. So we

introduced them into it. And then after that,

Hasbro was like, oh, we're going to do one of

the last waves of the Dark Cybertron Toys is

actually going to be Chromia. So I go, oh, that's

really cool. Great coincidence, because we actually

have the character in Dark Cybertron. That's

perfect. Couldn't be better, so there'll be an

issue of Dark Cybertron that's got Chromia in

it. And I think the toy got pushed back for whatever

logistical reason, or whatever perfectly reasonable

reason the toy got pushed back for. But then,

so all of a sudden, it wasn't going to be one

of the Dark Cybertron issues that had her in

it. That was a funny one. She popped in and then

popped back out of Dark Cybertron as being a

toy. And also, I might be misremembering that.

I'm pretty sure I'm right, but I might be wrong.

There's a lot of these dead. If Michael would

grow a pair of Devastator Balls and just open

the toy... You know, it's right there on your

desk. There are a lot of other toys on my desk

that are in the queue to be open before these,

so this might not be open for a while. Okay.

You mentioned Dark Cybertron earlier. How did

the Behind the scenes on that with you and James

collaborating to bring the two on goings together.

How did that really work? What was the genesis

of of that because as anyone that's read dark

Cybertron knows that's basically the conclusion

to shockwave story since he hasn't been back

in the comic sense Yeah Yeah, I've been setting

up in in the transformers in or in robots in

the skies that shockwave is gonna be Like the

next villain or you know, the next like the next

piece of the story And gosh, how did it all Hasbro

had the idea of doing this like 12 -part Event

and like it's funny now because we're almost

at issue 50 But like at that time we were probably

at issue You know like 10 of those of the books

and that and that felt really long, you know

It felt like we'd been at it for a while Because

like you go into this not knowing How the books

gonna do and not knowing if the comics are gonna

get cancelled or if they're gonna you'll keep

going And everything was going great you're on

issue 10, you know, so we felt pretty confident

that we had more shoes in us, you know everything

but there's still a sort of I don't know. Like

now I feel like I could be confident that, OK,

if we're going to be at issue 50, I'm pretty

sure we'll be at issue 60, as long as the story

goes that long. But at that time, going to issue

10 and then looking to issue 20 was like looking

forever into the future. It's like when you're

three years old, in fact, when you're six years

old, as opposed to when you're 35 and looking

when you're 38. Like those the distance is so

much further So I got the time. We're like, hey,

okay, you know, we will have been apart for like

You know 18 issues by this point You know, we

should we should do something that brings the

two stories together, you know, so Yeah, I don't

maybe I talked James into it. I don't really

remember He might distance himself, I don't know

but So we wanted to do something that would bring

the cast back together and be really big. We

kind of wanted to go over the top big and do

the big crossover story. We all went out there,

we all went out to, I mean, James and I and Phil,

and I mean, Phil's like an amazing artist and

writer. He worked on Infinite Crisis. He drew

that. He's written and drawn Wonder Woman and

Donna Troy. He's been on big X -Men, the Grant

Morrison X -Men, the Warren Ellis X -Men. He

drew part of Invisibles. He's an amazing artist

and writer. And he's also a huge Transformers

fan. So he was kind of out there with sort of

this fresh set of eyes. He was a huge Transformers

fan, but he wasn't as down in the trenches in

the comics as James and I were. There were all

kinds of people from Hasbro that were kind of

throwing out ideas. Michael Kelly is always somebody

that's really big there. Andy Schmidt was still

there at that point. Mark Webber has been a great

friend of the comics. He works on the G .I. Joe

brand team now. He was a big supporter. I think

he was maybe, you know, the one who threw out

some of the crazier ideas as things went on.

And we sort of, you know, kind of came up with,

it came to like bits and pieces, you know, some

stuff. It would float out in the room and it

would just be too crazy. At one point, every

Transformers multiverse was gonna come crashing

down together. But that didn't feel right. And

once we started doing it, just wound up introducing

all the stuff into the story that we hadn't,

it had never been a part of the story that we'd

been telling. So as big a scope as that comic

has, for a few minutes it got a little. Like

a little bigger, but not a little kind of good

way maybe Yes Confusing is the term I would use

I I like to and again Mike and I have had this

conversation before plenty of times but I liked

the the different uses of Art style to kind of

split the story up. Yes And that that made it

a little more coherent. I think if it was just

one solid Art style, it would have been really

confusing You mean Dark Cybertron Dark Cybertron.

Yeah The only artist, no offense to any of the

other artists, but the only artist that I could

read Dark Side Return all the way through if

it was just one artist, Livio Vrimandelli. I

love his art on the Transformers books. Livio

is so awesome. I love that he's got that kind

of, it's kind of like a sheen. like the difference

between a matte and a glossy photo and his are

more kind of Glossy a little bit and it's oh

man. I love Livia's art Yeah, the stuff's still

so weathered, you know, like it looks like those

transformers. Yeah, four million years of war,

you know, like you like You see all the dents

and all the scratches on them. I like with you

a lot too. Yeah Yeah, yeah, so we'd like when

James and I actually so we I can't we can't put

an outline together Kind of bad at that back

and forth. I don't, yeah, like I think at a certain

point you got so big and unwieldy. I don't know

if there's any way to give notes on it. You know,

I can't remember anything. And then we, like,

you can really tell in the beginning, you know,

James is writing the Lost Light parts and I'm

writing the stuff on Cybertron. But the stuff

I really liked in that last four issues or so,

I thought it really coalesced. And it was really

funny because I would outline a scene and then

James would write it or vice versa. He'd outline

a scene and I'd wind up writing it. And then

the other one would go back in and rewrite it

or edit it. And it was really great. I mean,

I had a really good time doing that because it

was really collaborative at that point. I think

that stuff was really fun. Like, yeah, there's

bits that one of us came up with the other one.

I have an idea how to write it. It's like, okay,

go for it. I don't know, it was a lot of fun,

a lot of fun to write those last bits. So you've

come through the dark Cybertron and now we're

kind of knee deep in combiner wars. Oh, now we're

out of it, but yeah. We're through Combiner Wars.

Oh. Oh, so it's over? That's sad. Well, no, I

mean, from a fan point of view, it's like, well,

yeah, so far in the Combiner Wars, you know,

we've seen Superion, we've seen Menasaur, we've

seen, you know, the Devastator, but there's so

much new content coming out of Hasbro. That you

know, like the skylings combiner. How cool would

that be? The optimus prime combiner. I mean things

that I would like to see is in there Yeah, I

would really like to see more, you know more

stories about these guys because we've never

had a skylings combiner before Yeah, yeah I'm

not saying we won't have more combiners but yeah,

like the actual across the actual story was six

issues or you know, the the core book that we

were calling Combiner Wars, and the paperback

is called Combiner Wars and all that. I mean,

definitely the ramifications of it are going

to be in there. There's going to be some more

combiners in the next issue of Transformers.

And, like, Victorion is a character that's going

to be playing a role, a significant role going

forward. You know, some of the combiners are

going to work, and some of them kind of don't

make a lot of sense where we are right now in

the stories. So, you know, we're picking and

choosing what works. The coolest thing is that

if you guys are really done with individual character

spotlight books, like you were talking earlier,

if you guys are completely done with that, make

combiner spotlights. If you had combiner spotlights,

you could do five different stories in one book.

That would be awesome All right, really quickly.

We're not gonna spend a whole lot of time on

this But I have to ask this because as we all

know The book formerly known as rid and more

than meets the eye. They are two very serious

transformers on goings You recently finished

up Trent angry birds transformers I saw it as

a way for you to step away from the seriousness

of the regular ongoing and actually write Transformers

comedy. What was the process of getting the four

-issue miniseries off the ground and going? That

one was David Hedgecock, who's IDW's managing

editor. He edits the... the Angry Birds comics.

Actually, also, the Angry Birds comics are sort

of, there's a next colleague of mine, Nate Cosby,

who put together the first set of them for Rovio,

so I don't want to cut him out of the story.

Anyway, it came to be we were going to do this

Angry Birds Transformers comic, and I don't know,

one lunch, David was sort of joking like, hey,

you're going to write it, man. I'm like, yeah,

yeah, yeah. And he's like, no, I'm serious. I'm

like, oh, really? Oh, OK, OK. It's a weird one

to get thrown at you. I mean, I played Angry

Birds. And I like Transformers. So I guess it

fits. But I don't know. It took a little bit

to wrap my head around it. But I had a great

time writing that comic. I really, really did

enjoy it. And like in the Punishment book that

Livio and I did, which is probably the darkest

and most serious the comic ever gets, where it's

all about war crimes. I still have yet to read

that. I still have yet to read that when I have

it. I have it. I just haven't picked it up yet.

it gets kind of dark and you know I'm in sort

of dark place writing it um and then like the

next thing was you know the next thing was getting

asked do I want to write Angry Birds Transformers

and I'm like oh man it would be that would be

nice you know it would be nice to kind of step

out and do something it's just fun and goofy

um and then like I can show my kid you know that

that here here's here's the Transformers comic

that isn't about the moral ambiguity of war My

older son was really in the Angry Birds and you

know, he had Angry Birds and Star Wars Angry

Birds and Angry Birds t -shirts and blah blah

blah and Yeah, yeah, he got a copy Yeah, I kinda

came up with what the outline for the story would

be and just had a fun time listening to it. I

always listen to music when I write, but I don't,

usually it's just kind of whatever new albums

I've got. But this time, I was really going out

and I was putting on a bunch of Weird Al albums

and I think they might be giants and as serious

as they could get. Wait, hold on, wait a second.

Be honest, John. You had, be honest here, you

had Dare To Be Stupid on repeat when you were

writing Angry Birds. I definitely went out and

bought that album. I had it on vinyl when I was

a kid. Wow. Wow. Yeah. Dating yourself. Kids

listen to vinyl now. The kids are gonna think

I'm 20 when I say that. That's right with a huge

handlebar mustache Bring it back so All right

Let's get some let's get to some truly outrageous

questions, and then we'll let you go after that

So all right you you are editing the gem in the

holograms ongoing And I've read places and I've

seen you say this That you had been wanting to

get a gem comic at IDW since you started the

job Yeah Absolutely. What took so long? In retrospect,

it's really funny. I mean, I don't think people

appreciated how much gem fandom there was, how

many people would be excited about gem. And then,

I mean, part of it was You know getting getting

Kelly and Sophie getting out of Kelly Thompson's

and then Sophie Campbell on that book I mean,

it's an amazing book. Like it's a really good

comic and You know, you can't you can't plan

on that three years ago, you know So Part of

it, I mean I don't want to take anything away

from how important it is that Kelly and Sophie

and Victoria Roboto on colors You have made this

book what it is, you know, like they really come

in and then they had gem stories to tell and

have gem stories to tell and Yeah, you know,

they're really passionate about the comic So

without them, I don't know if you I don't know

if we you know, we could have just come up with

a failed gem comic but I kind of think But it

was hard like You know, even a few years ago,

it was a little bit different. And I think there

was an audience for it, but I don't think everybody

knew that at that time. I mean, I don't know

if that makes a lot of sense, but like... It

does. You know, and the other thing is just sort

of the difficulty of... Like, I guess the movie

and all that stuff must have been in development

at Hasbro. you know for a while you know I mean

like so there'd be sort of logistical problems

where if they're developing one thing maybe you

know they're they're not sure if they can go

out and do another thing because yeah I brought

it up every once in a while we never we never

really I mean it's not Hasbro's fault or anything

like that like we really just never got serious

about it you know between 90w and Hasbro it was

something we talked about and be like oh you

know if you get a good gem bitch then maybe we'll

do something you know so I talked to a couple

people and things wouldn't work out for whatever

reason you know schedules or whatever And then

finally it was like, oh no, let's, you know,

let's really do it. Yeah. I don't know. There's

no good excuse. You know, yeah, it's a good question.

I don't know why it took that long. I think there

was a, it came like a perfect storm in that,

you know, a year or so ago, maybe, maybe two,

there was a... I don't want to call it a big

sink, but it was a big stink, you know online

as far as people saying there are no Female artists

in comics. There's no female writers in comics.

Yes bull Well at the time at the time it wasn't

it wasn't bull and there was statistics to back

that up particularly, you know at the big two

and then IDW Comes up and you've got your Marigold

Scott. You've got your Sarah Stone and the stuff

they produce is amazing and I think that kind

of got the ball rolling and now you've got Jim

and the Holograms you have more writers you have

more artists And and definitely ahead of the

curve as far as you know having female talent

compared to like the big two Although there are

no slouches either anymore. They they definitely

heard the criticisms Yeah, I mean honestly IDW

has really stepped up the game on the female

talent. I mean you got Marigold writing You've

got Korn Howell on art. You've got Sarah. I'm

gonna butcher her last name to not not stone

the other one How hard is it to say stone? I'm

confused. No, no, no, not not not Sarah Stone.

I can't say enough good things about Sarah Stone.

She's just a fantastic artist You've got Priscilla

Tramontano who has essentially stepped up from

being just solely a cover artist and she's doing

all the art on the RID cartoon comic. As well

as the covers, usually the main cover. She was

a colorist originally. Going back to the very

first stuff Andrew and I did together. She's

coloring that stuff. With the with the gem comic

Since I've been reviewing it here in the pull

bag with my lady friends Amy and Nicole We've

noticed a few things Not nothing bad or anything

That how much the first arc is mirroring sort

of mirroring what is going on? with the original

first five episodes of the cartoon series there

are a lot of differences in the comic obviously

but there are certain nods like i really cracked

up when kelly wrote the um when they were first

finding out about synergy when she wrote the

the the combination code and i'm like she did

not just make an eight six seven five three oh

nine joke and she did um With the gym comic and

is I think it's probably the only time I've seen

any Like I don't usually read letters pages.

I just don't sometimes I will sometimes I won't

And I forget, you'll tell me which issue this

was, because you'll know what I'm talking about

here in a minute. You probably already do. I

think it was either issue three or issue four

that either Amy or Nicole had told me, oh, did

you see the letters issue? Somebody or did you

see the letters in this issue? Somebody wrote

in a bad letter. And I'm like, wait, what? and

this is the one where somebody is just completely

throwing the comic under the bus and I think

they said something about it's okay to print

this but if you don't I'll understand or something

and it's like how how dare they dare John Barber

to print a bad letter well you know it was a

little more pointed than I'll understand if you

don't want to print it It was, I know we not.

I'm paraphrasing. I don't have the comic in front

of me. I can only imagine. Which issue was it,

John? That second work a second time. It was

funny because the letter said something like,

I'm sure I'm not the only letter like this. And

it literally wasn't the only letter like that.

It's too rich to not do that. It's okay to not

like the gem comic, I guess. I think you're wrong,

but it's okay. That went a little further than

not liking the gem comic. The fandom, we get

more letters. about gems and we do anything else

now. And it's funny, I mean, more than meets

the eye, I got a lot of letters for a while.

And then I think even when there's like sort

of a call for letters, there really aren't as

many as there used to be. I mean, feel free to

send letters, guys, letters at idwpublishing

.com. But I kind of think once the comic goes

on for a while, maybe you just kind of. You were

run out of the this comic is so great. It changed

my life, you know Kind of letters, you know,

you know what I mean? Like there I think there

were a lot of people that really like I'm more

than meets. Yeah There are a lot of people that

never saw a Transformers comic being like that,

you know It's a letter to you. Yeah, they wouldn't

be necessarily Sorry, but didn't James just recently

tweet out. Hey, how about we bring the letters

page back? Didn't it isn't like essentially disappeared

until Whatever current issue you guys are on

He said something about yeah, no he did we got

three letters one of them said Please print my

letter one of them very very mockingly went through

and made fun of every story that IDW has ever

published Wouldn't it be great if you guys did

this and then you know like describe the worst

version of every story we published And I got

a camera. The other one was somebody that liked

the old stuff better. So we didn't have to fill

out a whole letters page yet. So keep those cards

and letters coming in, folks. Make James happy.

Make James happy so he can torture your soul,

folks. We actually got a couple other letters.

I'm just kidding. We probably will see those

letters come back. But really, you know, it really

is, you know, people go online and talk about

it. I mean, if you want to go on Tumblr, if you

want to see the more than you can, you know,

it's all over there. But, you know, it's funny

just the number of letters we do get about, about

gem and how much it affects people in a positive

way. I mean, that's great. I mean, yeah, I love

that book. All right, before we let you go remind

the listeners what you've got coming up All right.

Well more than meets the eye. I added that I

mean I added all the transformer stuff. I don't

write So, uh, let's see the transformers ongoing

continuing Libio and I are doing a second book.

It's a sort of sequel to punishment called redemption

That'll be out Next month? What month is it right

now? It'll be out in October. And I think some

of Olivia's best stuff. And then I'm writing

the Back to the Future comic. I'm co -writing

that with Bob Gale. That's right. And Eric Burnham

is co -writing another story in each issue with

Bob. That's pretty cool. You know, getting to

work with Bob Gale on Back to the Future is pretty

neat. I'm really lucky to get to be a part of

that. That's pretty exciting. The Back to the

Future hits in October, right? Yeah, October

21st, I believe. It's actually going to come

out the day that Marty goes into 2015 in Back

to the Future 2. Very awesome. And then Gem's

continuing, Gemmanual, Emma Vaselli is going

to come in and do three issues of Gem from issue

seven through nine. She's doing an amazing job.

It's really cool. And Sophie will be back, don't

worry. So yeah, I don't know. I think that's

everything. Awesome. Where can people interact

with you online if they would like to do so?

They don't want to do that. I'm at TheJohnBarber

on Twitter. I'm on Facebook, but I haven't gone

onto Facebook in like a year or so. If you friend

requested me, I haven't ignored you. I don't

think I've friended my dad yet. Facebook just

isn't your thing. It's tough. It's rough. This

is the first world problem, I know. But the last

time I went on Facebook, it was because I got

a message that a friend of mine had died. And

while I'm reading that, people are direct messaging

me, hey, can you check out my samples? And I'm

like, I can't do that. Yeah, yeah, you know,

so it's kind of like it's taken away I haven't

been able to go back to Facebook since then Yeah

Twitter's the best place I guess Twitter's alright

still right? Yeah, yeah, I still got Twitter

account Mr. Barber, for taking the time to chat

with us in this latest interview here inside

the pullback on the GetCast Radio Network. Make

your great escape into comics and we will see

you later. Thanks so much. Thanks a lot. This

is going to be juicy. All hail Starscream! Oh

my gosh, this is so great!