| The
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| Transformers 101... | |
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| The Transmasters club dates
back
to 1986 and the very first newsletter, Trans-Action goes back
February
1990 (the earliest issue I have access to is May 1991). Many
of the
first issues were very simple in their layouts while the
last few had a
more fancy font title and columns/boxes. Many of the early
issues also
featured "for sale" lists, etc. too. Trans-Action ended with issue #29, April 1992. |
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When the secretary of the
time,
Liane Elliot quit the club, the TA newsletter also ceased
publication
(she produced it). It was quickly replaced with the
short-lived Trans-Action
II (which had an issue
zero before changing into The
Cybertronian. The
Cybertronian
lasted three issues further and aburptly ceased publication.
The Cybertronian went from November 1992 (as TAII) and lasted until February 1993 (#0 - #3). |
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| Auto-Update
was started by former club President Tony Buchanan,
gathering together
the fan club again after the meltdown that occurred at the
time. AU ran
77 issues, from before the internet gained popularity
(starting May
1993) until 2000, keeping all kinds of TF fans up-to-date on
the
current TF news as well as spotlighting other fan
productions (such as
the fanzines listed below). Tony was there for the first
BotCon in
1994, did a companion quarterly magazine called Teletran (full of
stories, art,
etc.) and even kept a TF artifact list that compiled all of
the TF
merchandise
up to that point. Auto-Update #1 - #77 (May 1993 - 2000). Teletran #1 - #8 (1993 - 1999) |
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| To view old issues of TransAction, The Cybertronian and Auto-Update, click
HERE. |
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| Transmasters UK
also had a newsletter. TransTalk
was an early newsletter they did which changed to TransWord with issue #5
and then
became Informer at
issue #6.
(by Andy Dornan, Matt Dallas and Martin McVay). Informer ran 33 issues total (including its previous titles), from June 1991 to May 1995. Informer, Generation 2 replaced it (February 1995) and ran some length (uncertain how long). In addition to their newsletters, TMUK had a long running Transformers: The Continued Generation 2 fan comic that continued the story left off from Marvel's TF:G2 #12. This comic was notable at the time for getting some fan talent like Nick Roche to draw it. (It ran 36 issues, including both comic and text stories in each issue). The UK club did Trans-Strip (Matt Dallas. Fan comic, Jan. 1992 - Sept. 1994, 24 issues); Transmasters Universe (ran at around thirty issues, 1995 - 2003) and likely some more fanzines in there I've overlooked. :) The Transmasters UK club had a vast tight-knit story continuity and it was hard for some of us outside of it to keep track of it all. If there is more substantial information to be added here, please contact me and let me know. Email tkphoton at hotmail.com Apparently TMUK is now doing a fanzine called Hubris. More on that and other matters, here: http://www.the-hub.co.uk/ |
(no image available). |
| Several early TF fanzines
were Trans-Script
(one issue, 1992. Note
that there was also a Trans-Scrypt
later
which
was
no
relation). Also, TransArt
(a collection of various TF art from what I can tell--only
one issue
exists); TransText
(storyzine
by Mark Tisdale at the time. It ran 11 issues, April 1991 -
May 1995).
An earlier president, Alex Jones, also did a fanzine called
Matrix, which went
two issues and
contained stories, etc. (More information on these early efforts will be added if and when I can obtain it). |
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Not a fanzine but an incredibly useful fan resource was released in 2005 by Peter Phelps. The Transmasters International Archive CD-ROM. It has several old issues of fanzines on it, such as some of TransAction, Auto-Update, BOP, Unofficial Beast Wars Comic, etc. Additionally, it has tech specs, old TF toy catalogues and much more! |
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Conquest. This fanzine was
produced by Raksha and dedicated exclusively to the
Decepticon point of
view, which made it a unique and interesting production. The
fanzine
went from the early 90s to sometime in the early 00s. |
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| Transformers:
The
Victory Saga was a short-lived six issue fan comic
that
apparently focused on the Victory concept characters. Victory Saga ran six issues (date uncertain but it was between 1992-93). |
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Trans-Spoof. A TF comic strip written/drawn by Tim Finn that was quite popular among the TF fandom. It ran from 1994 to about 2002 approximately (the last several issues came out on an annual basis). | |
| (Image unavailable) |
Cillacon. Holding the distinction of being a Canadian produced TF fanzine, Cillacon was a general focus TF fanzine that contained stories and artwork, produced by Marg D. (aka Jettara). It ran about eight large issues over the span of about five years (at least sixteen issues were produced). Marg also was responsible for a Beast Wars fan comic called Beast Wars: Bloodlines (along with Patricia P. (aka Zaanai) which ran seven issues. |  |
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Trans-Scrypt. Produced from
Spring 1994 until Summer 1996, Trans-Scrypt
was another general focus
TF fanzine from Canada, focusing primarily on TF stories and
artwork.
It ran eleven issues in total, many of which were quite
large in size.
It was produced by Tony K. (aka Thunder).In addition to
Trans-Scrypt,
Tony K. co-wrote/produced BOP (below) and did one-shot
spotlights
for Optimus Prime and Megatron (see www.karmicsalt.com/fanzines.html
) |
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| Balance
of
Power. A storyzine that started out as an
alternate
continuation of the original Marvel TF comic, BOP was
started by Thomas
Z. then continued by Tony K. and later Matt K. BOP holds
the
distinction of running for 35 issues total and over a span
of 16 years
(with some breaks of time in there). Unlike many TF
stories, it
actually does have a proper ending to it. BOP archive: www.karmicsalt.com/boparchive.html |
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TransNet was published by
Matthew S. (aka Chief) and ran for only three issues
(1999-00). It
focused on general TF news and information. |
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| Poetry
and
Verse
of
the
Transformers was published by Matt K. (aka
Talon). He did three separate volumes over the course of
about three
years (the first volume was the largest). As the title
suggests, the
fanzine was full of TF themed poems and so on. Truly a
unique
production. In addition to this project, Matt wrote stories
for just
about every TF fanzine going at the time as well as Talon's Talons (TF
humor articles)
in some of the earlier newsletters. He also contributed to
and produced
some of the Balance of
Power
fanzine. Matt has since gone on to be a professional fiction writer. |
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Comic Smorgasborg was a
one-shot
comic produced by David Kolodny-Nagy and released around the
time of
BotCon '94 (the very first one). It was the first ever TF
fanzine to
have a professionally produced cover (the letters are in
metallic gold
ink) and a b/w white interior pages. (I believe a second
volume was
planned but never materialized). |
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| The
Unofficial
Beast
Wars Transformers comic was by Peter Phelps
(also the current Transmasters President). The comic ran
five issues. |
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Overlord
II was the official magazine of The
Survivors TF
fan club (which was started by the former TM Club Secretary
Liane
Elliot after she left the club). Overlord
II was produced on a quarterly basis and contained
a variety of
TF art, stories and articles. (The cover used here is drawn
by Nick
Roche). OII went for some time, running twenty two issues in
total. |
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| Transformers Bootleg came out at BotCon 05 (the first year of Fun Publications doing the convention). By that time, virtually no TF fanzines were left so it was a nice call-back to a simpler time. The fanzine was by Jennifer U. (aka Trixster), Robert S (aka Shumworld), and Bill H. (aka Fang). | |
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