Quote:
Originally Posted by lars573
He's mostly going on about the ugly side of the TF fandom and his own failings as a writer (although he didn't actually put it that way).
The ugly side of the TF fandom is:
-People who don't read comics who read the TF books, who are (to him) viewing his writing in a vacuum
-Gwunners who get extremely upset if things aren't exactly like the first 2 seasons of the G1 cartoon or the Marvel G1 comic
-Gwunners who get extremely upset if season 3 and beyond G1 characters are not being used
-Someone's pet character going through a change, or getting killed, or just generally getting treated like a comic character
-People who are still butt-hurt over IDW turfing Furman's story lines, and unfairly attack the new guy
Basically there is an element in the fandom that doesn't want any innovation or new ideas in their giant robits funny book.
His failings as a writer:
-The lack of respect he gets from the industry for writing TF's, due to it's non-human (and not Pinocchio machines) protagonists and 20 minute toy commercial origins
-Not ignoring the non-human nature of the TF's when seeking motivations for the characters
He's also got some regret about even taking the job in the first place.
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Interesting interpretation of those comments, mate, trust me when I say I may be able to understand how you feel on the subject, but I can't 100% agree with your assessment of his phrasing of those observations/complaints.
He flat out blamed Dreamwave for his failings as a writer, that right there smacks of an unprofessional jab at the past company. He didn't blame Furman or IDW, he blamed Dreamwave for why the comics fell flat and why the retailers don't make the sales he expected on a book like this... Or at least that's how I saw his brief comment on that front.
You can't blame a company or it's creative teams when that company is no debunk and the creative teams have moved on. They didn't act all high and mighty, they certainly weren't full of themselves over at Dreamwave. They completely understood the fans and the franchise as a whole and wrote consistently better recieved stories than most of his work.
I liked the comics he put out, to a point, but even I can admit that his storytelling was flawed, his grasp of the characters is completely non-existent and he seems to have completely ignored the established continuity of the characters from Furman's run and AHM, to take the characters towards different story ideas.
I'm more upset at him as a writer anyway for wasting the potential he was given, the characters of the IDW Transformers comics were great, they featured a lot of interesting new takes and were leading up to somewhere, hell he royally stomped flat all the character growth Starscream had after AHM... All though I'm not sure, but I think that also happened in the Coda issues, and I'm not sure if Costa wrote those issues or at least that one 11 page story.
The fact of the matter is, he did three things that were wrong.
1) He overanalyzed and overthought the Franchise to the point where he just couldn't wrap any of the core concepts, mythological or otherwise around in his head.
2) He wrote his stories months in advance and couldn't change anything after the first two story arcs recieved their negative critiques.
3) He was far too candid and lacking with a proper brain to mouth filter in his interview, unleashing the hellish fury of a fickle and quite intelligent fanbase upon his head.
There are other faults of his, for one thing he's blaming his lack of skills as a writer with these particular characters on everybody else except himself,
even after he flat out says he couldn't understand anything about the concept that is pretty straight forward if you take the time to research and look a little bit more closer at them. And he's pretty negative towards the people supporting his paycheck from month to month, seriously Comic Book readers aren't the most well disciplined of fanbases, and each niche be it Cape Lovers or Sci-Fi/Fantasy nerds can be even more intense and obsessive about their franchises. They will defend them, quite vigorously.
He started out by trying a different approach, but because of the way the comic book writing works for a monthly ongoing, and the severe lack of proper editorial for most of his run, he failed to fix the problems he had. And after two years, he doesn't 'understand' the characters or their motivations any better than when he started.
In other words (and here's the fun little ironic part.), he failed to adapt, to change, to Transform, if you will while working on this title. His mind remained closed, the negative critiques were not well recieved at all, even if half or more than half of them were just bashing and not properly thought out logical arguments, I'm sure a few of his naysayers were logical minded while tearing apart his plots and story concepts. So he's on the fans personal blacklist because of this, and the perceptions they took away from this interview.
Perception is what killed Mike Costa's potential continuing of working for IDW, should there be repercussions for the backlash his comments recieved. It wasn't because the fans were bitching and moaning, but because they were irate, up in arms and anything else you'd care to put here over how they percieved his words to come out. They percieved them a certain way, and with today's level of technology and connection, it could potentially backfire in his face.
Basically, he insulted the customers and badmouthed the product. And if he were in any kind of Retail environment he'd be kicked out so fast his head would spin clear off his shoulders. It isn't about the Customer Being Right, it's about Cowtowing and Licking the boots of the meanest, orneriest, bastard (Or bitch) of a customer and still serving them with a smile on your lips while you slip the strictnine into their purse... Or something.
