Ricky Church chats with Transformers’ John Barber and Steve Kurth…
If you’ve seen the commercials with a transforming razor, that’s the latest addition to the vast Transformers mythology, Hydrobot. He was introduced earlier this summer through IDW’s one-shot comic, Schick Hydrobot and the Transformers, written by John Barber and drawn by Steve Kurth. Barber is the writer for IDW’s Optimus Prime while Kurth has had an extensive career with Hasbro, illustrating their G.I. Joe comics in the early 2000s.
Hydrobot made his digital debut in a 30-second TV spot in 2016, and his IRL debut at Entertainment Weekly’s Con-X Fan Festival at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2016. The digital and animated comic book are available on the IDW app, Transformers Comics app and Madefire app for free; the print version was made available at select comic book stores nationwide.The synopsis for the comic is:
“Schick’s Hydrobot makes his debut in a one-of-a-kind comic book, featuring a new Transformers storyline, which unveils Hydrobot’s origin alongside fan-favorite characters Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Hound, and Megatron!”
In the interview, Barber and Kurth discussed the challenges in making a new Transformer, adding to the vast Transformers legacy and who their favourite Autobots and Decepticons are. Check out the interview below.
Transformers has been in pop culture for 30+ years. What do you do to find something new to add to the vast mythology?
John Barber: One of the wonderful things about Transformers is that it’s a group of characters and a setting—and the characters and setting are both expansive and expandable. There’s an infinite number of stories that can be told about the Cybertronians, and just in the years I’ve worked on the characters, we’ve introduced even more new Transformers and new locations to add to the mythos. I just think it’s a really wide-ranging mythology that’s even more full of possibilities now as it was in 1984. The characters can really tell any kind of story, which I think we’ve shown in the last several years of comics. With this new book, “Schick Hydrobot and the Transformers,” it’s a fun team-up between the Schick superhero Hydrobot and a few of the Autobots. Hydrobot’s sense of justice gets him caught in the middle of things when Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, and Hound try to stop a Decepticon plan—and they think Hydrobot’s working for the Decepticons…but he’s not!
Steven Kurth: Just my own interpretation of what are fun and iconic characters…but that’s more than enough in this case. What we’re adding is a bit less about the Autobots and more about the Schick superhero Hydrobot, where he comes from and what he’s all about to add to the bigger picture.
We’ve seen a lot of variety over the years with the characters’ appearances and personalities. How do you strike to the core of who these bots are?
JB: The key is that the Transformers are people with thoughts and feelings. They’re metal people who are 30 feet tall and change into real life objects, but you still have to think of them as living beings. They’re like superheroes in a way. They have the same wants and needs as us, but are raised to a bigger scale. They live for millions of years, travelling around the galaxy and they change modes, but we can still see ourselves reflected in them.
SK: In this case I look to the movies. Everything I need – especially with Optimus, Bumblebee and Hound – is all right there…I’m just trying to capture the attitude, body language and look of what’s going on there.
What can you tell us about the new Autobot, the Schick superhero Hydrobot?
JB: It’s interesting because, you’ll see in the new comic book, nobody knows if he’s an Autobot or a Decepticon. Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, and Hound think the Schick Hydrobot is a Decepticon, and when they try to track him down, they learn the truth: he’s a superhero fighting for good, helping to protect and defend against irritation, and just wants to help people with his quick wits and acrobatic abilities. Prior to this, you might have seen him on TV commercials, and through the new comic book, “Schick Hydrobot and the Transformers,” we finally learn his origin.
SK: My favorite thing about Hydrobot so far is that he expresses himself through actions. He’s tiny with a big heart and, because of his lack of speech, is showing you everything you need to know about him through his actions.
What are some of the challenges in creating a brand-new Transformer for such a large franchise?
JB: As Bumblebee and the others learn, Hydrobot is a Transformer just like them, but smaller. The comic is a really fun mashup of Hydrobot with the Transformers universe. But whenever you’re introducing new characters, you have to think about what they’re bringing to the story. It’s easy to bring somebody in and just have the character be stranded, narrative-wise. In this story, one thing Hydrobot brings to the table is a sense of determination—he’s tiny, especially compared to Megatron or Optimus – but he doesn’t let that stop him from his ultimate goal: to help protect and defend from irritation. And that affects the people and the situations around him.
SK: My favorite thing about Hydrobot so far is that he expresses himself through actions. He’s tiny with a big heart and, because of his lack of speech, is showing you everything you need to know about him through his actions.
This new Transformers comic, “Schick Hydrobot and the Transformers,” is a digital first. What are some, if any, differences between making a digital comic vs. print?
JB: When I’m writing, the main thing is to just tell a fun story. With something like this, it’s probably going to be some people’s first comic, or first Transformers comic, and Steve, our illustrator and I want to give them a nice experience. And we want to make a fun bonus story for the fans who are already Transformers comic book fans.
But knowing this story is going to get out there in a few ways for my part, I needed to make sure logistically everything would work on all the different formats. But I think most of that responsibility fell to Steve and to Carlos Guzman, our editor. Check out the animated and digital versions for yourself!
SK: The big difference is that you can’t just draw a normal comic page as a single one off. Everything needs to be broken down into layers. If you want Optimus to move his hand, his arm, his head…then you draw each of those things separately as they’re going to be compiled together and “animated” later. So, where I’d normally have one-page equal one page…in this case, I have at least two or three drawing boards with different elements on it coming together for one page; until they get assembled the finished pages look random and nonsensical.
John, you’ve been working with IDW on Transformers for several years now and are currently writing the Optimus Prime title. What’s the difference for you between writing in that universe and the movie-verse?
JB: The biggest thing is that the IDW comics have a vast universe where the comics are fully driving the storytelling. Everyone at Hasbro and IDW and the people that are working on the comics are all focused on the comics’ stories. It’s important to tell a story that still has importance for the characters and that means something, but the movies are so big, cost so much, take so long and involve so many people to make them—they’re necessarily driving the storytelling car. That said—I got my start writing Transformers on movie tie-in comics, and I’d love to get to do some again in the future.
Steve, you illustrated the “Spotlight: Orion Pax” issue a couple years ago. What’s it like for you to draw Optimus Prime in all his glory now?
SK: This time it’s particularly fun because with Orion Pax, I was doing a younger and slightly different version of an early Optimus Prime. With the new comic book, “Schick Hydrobot and the Transformers,” not only is it Optimus Prime proper, it’s the movie version…which is something I’ve wanted to draw in some form for a long time.
Who is your favorite Autobot and Decepticon and why?
JB: Prowl’s my favorite Autobot. He was the first toy I ever got, and I like how he’s evolved in the comics to be a guy working for the greater good, but with a real end-justifies-the-means attitude.
Starscream’s my favorite Decepticon. In the comics, he’s the current ruler of Cybertron—which puts such an interesting twist on the character, and shows that he’s good at what he does; it’s just that what he does is utterly amoral.
SK: It’s always going to be Optimus. Hands down, he’s my favorite. Being a fan of the first animated movie as a kid, I not only was riveted by what happened to Optimus, but I also really enjoyed Hot Rod – which means I’m really looking forward to Hot Rod being introduced in this latest movie.
John, out of all the Autobots and Decepticons you’ve written, which has been the most fun for you?
JB: I love writing Arcee. I think she’s really interesting and has grown and changed the most over the years. She has a complicated backstory in the comics, and moving her character forward has been fun to do. She’s sometimes bewildered that the way she looks at the universe is different from the way other people do, which I can sometimes identify with.
Steve, you began your comics career with G.I. Joe in the early 00s. What’s it like for you to have worked on two big 80s franchises fans are so passionate about?
SK: Honestly, it feels great. My one wish would be that I would have been able to work on something Transformers-related to the same extent I did with G.I. Joe. I’ve got two Transformers books under my belt, which is great, but I had well over 20 G.I. Joe books that I’d worked on. Transformers would be a great place to spend as much time on as G.I. Joe.
What are you hoping fans will enjoy the most from this digital series?
JB: Hopefully it’ll be a fun one-off adventure—though who knows, maybe there’ll be more! That’ll have some exciting moments, some laughs, and leave you in a happier place than you started. I know the whole team is excited to finally learn more about who Hydrobot is, too, and where he comes from. Also—Steve’s art is outstanding, so I hope everybody can see it!
SK: The fact that the giant robots we love in a comic book are actually moving and doing things. While it’s not animation, it’s fun and amped up beyond the normal comic book – a comic book where you can actually see Hydrobot, a Transformer, change from an everyday object into a superhero!
Many thanks to John Barber and Steve Kurth for taking the time for this interview.
Ricky Church
