Broken Frontier

While many TRANSFORMERS fans think of Don Figueroa, E.J. Su, or maybe even Herb Trimpe when they imagine their favorite ‘bots immortalized onto comics pages, a new name has emerged as a fan-favorite artist as IDW’s TRANSFORMERS universe has grown–Nick Roche.

Originally working on covers for BEAST WARS: THE GATHERING and TRANSFORMERS: GENERATIONS, most recently Roche tackled his first interior illustration duty on TRANSFORMERS SPOTLIGHT: SHOCKWAVE before repeating the role for TRANSFORMERS SPOTLIGHT: HOT ROD. Now he’s set to go one step further with the April-bound TRANSFORMERS SPOTLIGHT: KUP—Roche will not only handle the cover and interior art chores on the book, but he’ll make his writing debut on the title as well.

In this Spotlight on the grizzled old TRANSFORMER, Kup finds himself stranded, facing shutdown, and fighting evil that just might be all in his mind… Roche also offers up what’s maybe the closest we’ll come to Transformers Zombies in the issue, too (which also features a variant cover by artist Alex Milne (artist on June’s TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE ADAPTATION).

In addition to KUP, Roche has signed on to create new covers for the forthcoming TRANSFORMERS UK reprint series TARGET: 2006. In this five-part series which picks up where THE TRANSFORMERS: GENERATIONS leaves off, Roche recreates classic images from this landmark series written by Simon Furman with art by Geoff Senior and others and presented in monthly comic books in America for the first time. Issues 1-4 will collect two chapters each in this landmark saga, with issue 5 collecting three parts and being presented ad-free.

“This Kup one-shot is a big departure for THE TRANSFORMERS mythos in general, and for me as a writer/artist,” said writer/artist Roche. “Instead of space-opera and subterfuge, you’ve got a veteran warrior making his last stand alone against a horde of creatures plucked straight out of a nightmare, with writing and art to match. I usually go for a clean look to my lines, and like the light-hearted side of life, but this book, though— this is one murky motherboard! I’m hoping that fans of the twisted side of the TF Universe will dig it, and that maybe a few non-Transformers fans might get a kick out of it, too. Either way, I’m loving the chance to be (I think) the first Western creator to write AND draw an official Transformers comic. Hell, being a Transformers writer whose name doesn’t rhyme with Fimon Surman is pretty unique, so I’m doing my utmost to make a mark.

It’s all pressure, all the time right now, but in a good way. With Kup, it’s not just my art that’s under scrutiny, it’s my writing now too. And with the Target:2006 series, creating covers to do justice to the iconic imagery inside is no mean feat. But I’m enjoying everything about the process, and I hope it shows.”
THE TRANSFORMERS: SPOTLIGHT KUP (Diamond Order Code FEB07 3526), the seventh all-new TRANSFORMERS one-shot, hits shelves in April 2007 as a 32-page full-color comic book.

TRANSFORMERS: TARGET: 2006 #1 (Diamond Order Code FEB07 3529), reprinting classic Marvel UK TRANSFORMERS stories, hits shelves in April 2007 as a 32-page full-color comic book.

TRANSFORMERS is under license from Hasbro Properties Group, the intellectual property development arm of Hasbro, Inc. (NYSE: HAS).