Joana Lafuente

James Roberts' work on IDW's Transformers franchise is some of the most explicitly political storytelling in comics right now. Politics is a core theme of Roberts' entire Transformers work, and while the comics do have some of the best action, romance and comedy, they're also all about refusing to let anyone else make your decisions for you.

IDW's Artist Editions are the kind of books I covet with a fervor that threatens to bankrupt me. It's such a simple idea --- reprinting the original penciled and inked pages of a comic in high quality at their original size, letting readers see not just the art and story, but the way a comic comes together, full of lettering paste-ups and details that were erased or shrunk down in the printed version. It's no wonder, then, that IDW has decided to celebrate it with a line-wide set of variant covers paying tribute to the idea. So when Optimus Prime hits shelves in January, it's not just bringing Wreck-Gar and the rest of the trash robots from the planet Junkion, it's also sporting a spiffy new Artist's Edition cover from Casey Coller, which we're pleased to reveal along with Joana Lafuente's regular cover and the solicitation for the issue!

I've never liked the Transformers. The franchise didn't get its hooks into me as a kid, and while I've tried to give it a shot as an adult, it never really clicked. But now, with a recommendation from almost everyone I know and a well-timed Humble Bundle sale that left me with three years worth (and counting) of IDW's More Than Meets The Eye and Robots In Disguise comics, I'm going on a quest to see if these comics can turn me from someone who has never cared at all about Optimus Prime into someone who uses words like "Cybertron" and "alt-mode" with alarming regularity. And Primus help me, it's working. This week, Arcee. Kills. Everyone.

I've never liked the Transformers. The franchise didn't get its hooks into me as a kid, and while I've tried to give it a shot as an adult, it never really clicked. But now, with a recommendation from almost everyone I know and a well-timed Humble Bundle sale that left me with three years worth (and counting) of IDW's More Than Meets The Eye and Robots In Disguise comics, I'm going on a quest to see if these comics can turn me from someone who has never cared at all about Optimus Prime into someone who uses words like "Cybertron" and "alt-mode" with alarming regularity. And Primus help me, it's working. This week, Orion Pax is back in action and back in time!

I’ve never liked the Transformers. The franchise never really got its hooks into me when I was a kid, and while I’ve tried to give it a shot as an adult, it’s never really clicked. But now, with the recommendations of almost everyone I know and a well-timed Humble Bundle sale, I’ve found myself in possession of three years worth (and counting) of IDW’s More Than Meets The Eye and Robots In Disguise comics. I’m working my way through a story arc every week, and if I have to read about these robots, you’re coming with me. This week, the Decepticons have a time machine. So, you know. That's not good.