But... but Swoop is neither vast nor predatory nor even a bird! What is he playing at?

British comic book writer Simon Christopher Francis Furman (born March 22, 1961 ^[1]) is probably the most well-known of all Transformers comics scribes, and certainly the most prolific. He wrote most of the UK-original comic stories of Generation 1, as well as the latter 1/3rd of the US comic run, and has been author on innumerable Transformers tales since. As a result, he is often the first, last, and occasionally only resort in penning Transformers literature, with a deep involvement in a wide variety of product. He's admitted this has left him typecast and his non-Transformers work gets overlooked, but he's stated he stopped struggling against the association years ago and gives thanks for the opportunities and steady income it's given him.^[2]

He has also written and created many non-Transformers characters, including Death's Head, "Dragon's Claws", and "To the Death" with Geoff Senior, "Brute Force" with José Delbo, and "The Vigilant" with Simon Coleby. He was an editor at Titan Books, which published collections of Transformers comics among other material, and at Tokyopop he 'localised' a translation of a sci-fi gothic romance manga. We're not joking.^[3] He was good at it too. ^[4]

In his spare time, Furman enjoys drinking Corona and killing off hordes of background characters. And Nightbeat. He's also a fan of West Ham United football club,^[5] which perhaps explains his bloodlust.

Work on Transformers

Never did want to have hair forever!

Furman almost drifted into Transformers, being asked early on to pitch some ideas when they needed new strip fast; he only had an 'in' here because he'd recently left IPC and joined Marvel UK thanks to his friend Ian Rimmer. He quickly became the Transformers guy at Marvel UK, also working as assistant editor for years before becoming the editor and writing letters pages until 1989 when he went onto just writing the scripts. (It was his idea to make Soundwave the first letters' host)^[8] Despite this, he hadn't actually wanted to be the editor of the comic after Rimmer as he'd just started editing the new Thundercats comic; his bosses made it clear he was moving title.^[9] Around 1989, he went on to be Bob Budiansky's hand-picked replacement for the US title (as Furman actually knew who all these characters were) and wrote it until it ended. When a Generation 2 comic was wanted a few years later, Furman went back for a year but didn't expect it to last.

His post-Marvel return to Transformers came courtesy of BotCon 1997: not only was he a guest expected to answer questions he couldn't remember the answers to, there was this thing called a "Beast Wars" they wanted him to write a short comic about. He quickly had to get back into the swing of things. After the Botcon material (and the last episode of Beast Wars gained via con networking), he'd work for Titan Books and brought to them the idea of Transformers reprints as the conventions he was being invited to proved there was money in it. He would then contact Dreamwave once he'd heard they had the license. ^[10] Thus, he was linked forever more with the franchise.

Contrary to the popular opinion that he is an outspoken critic of the Generation 1 cartoon series, Furman has stated in an interview that he loves the series. He explained that when he was involved with the Marvel comic books as a twenty-something-year-old writer, he thought the show was pitched a little young and that the stories were simplistic and had huge logic flaws, but conceded that he saw them from a different perspective than the generation that grew up watching the cartoon and buying the toys as kids, and so he concentrated on his work, which he believed was more "adult" in tone. He added that, in hindsight, he went back to watch the series and now really enjoys it, particularly Season 2's strong character stories. When he wrote for Marvel comics, he was averse to episodes that dealt with the character back-stories because they clashed with his own back-stories and also caused him to worry that he wasn't presenting the characters as intended. But now he had the freedom to take the series as a viewer and admire the way they were building upon their own mythos.

In the same interview, he thought the 1986 animated movie was "fantastic", and one of his stated reasons was that "characters died."^[11]

In terms of other Transformers media, he's a big fan of Transformers Animated, saying it's the best cartoon since Beast Wars,^[12] despite a relative lack of violent deaths. While he liked Wars, he stated in an interview that he considers Beast Machines to be too dark for a children's cartoon.^[13] He's not a fan of the movies either, believing they throw out characterisation and story, though he happily admits he's not the audience for them. He still admires the technical side of the films and Michael Bay's vision.^[14]

A list of all of the issues written by Furman's hand would be overkill; even the list of titles he's worked on is considerable:

• Marvel UK's The Transformers: Furman began his involvement with Transformers as editor and author for much of the Marvel UK run, writing stories that integrated with those coming from Marvel US.
• Marvel US's The Transformers: At writer Bob Budiansky's recommendation, Furman took over the US book after Budiansky left, writing issues #56–80.
• The Transformers: Generation 2: Furman penned the entire 12-issue run.
• Beast Wars cartoon: Furman scripted the final episode of the show, "Nemesis Part 2".
• 3H Productions: Furman wrote a series of BotCon-exclusive stories, including several live-action voice actor scripts, the Beast Wars comic "Ground Zero" (the very first BotCon story), and the Beast Wars text and comic story "Reaching the Omega Point".
• Titan Books: while working for them, he pitched the idea of collecting the Marvel Transformers comics into trades, and edited the collections. Titan ended up collecting almost everything Marvel US and UK had ever done, including being able to get the issues with Marvel characters quite cheaply, and got the rights for global licensing: at this point, pre-Dreamwave, neither Marvel nor Hasbro had much investment in Transformers! ^[15] When the live-action film series was announced, Titan decided to do a tie-in and Furman went on to write almost every issue of the first two volumes, plus a spin-off Animated issue, for 43 issues in total as of April 2012.
• Dreamwave Productions: Furman wrote two-and-a-half War Within G1 mini-series for Dreamwave, as well as most of their Armada and Energon comics.
• Transformers: The Ultimate Guide, a book giving an overview of the length and breath of Transformers (toys and fiction) as it existed at the time. The book was arguably somewhat biased towards comic canon (particularly that which he penned) and, in places, invented new material wholecloth without any precedent in prior fiction. As the Dreamwave Generation One continuity was in full swing at the time Furman tended to treat it as the baseline for many of the entries and new material presented here.
• Micellaneous work in the 2000s would include "Alignment" for the Transforce UK convention, several tie-in comics, Panini's short-lived Armada, and three different mangas.
• IDW Publishing: He wrote the first five Generation 1 mini-series for IDW's G1 reboot, as well as numerous Spotlight issues. His IDW run is notable for being the only instance where he has actually created the mythos from the ground up, rather than coming in after someone else had already set everything up. Other IDW titles include two Beast Wars mini-series and a Beast Wars guide book, various comics related to the film series, and the belated "completion" of his Marvel (US) G1 run as Regeneration One. For the 35th anniversary of the franchise, IDW had him write the Marvel prequel Transformers '84 #0; it sold well enough to get a sequel miniseries.
• Transformers: Earth Wars: Just when he thought he was out, in 2015–16 he was pulled back in by Hasbro to write the story for the Earth Wars mobile game. This was his first video game work and he said he enjoyed it as it involved "flexing new creative muscles".^[16] It was still ongoing five years later with him as writer, which, yes, led to him saying "maybe it does... never end!"^[17]
• Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection: Late 2016 saw Hachette hire our man to edit their sixty eighty one hundred-volume partwork collecting nearly every Generation 1 comic ever made.
• Transformers: EarthSpark - Expedition: In 2023, Furman returned to video games as the writer for this EarthSpark tie in.

Alternate mode

When Furman became the editor of the UK Transformers comic, it opened up a dilemma, as Marvel policy, enforced by Marvel US editor-in-chief Tom DeFalco, frowned on editors serving as their own writers. To circumvent this problem, it was agreed that senior editor (and frequent Transformers letterer) Richard Starkings would serve in an advisory capacity on Furman's own strips.^[18] When an editorial credit for the comic as a whole was required, Furman used the credit "Chris Francis", derived from his middle names.^[19]

Fiction

Dreamwave Armada comic

The flesh creature known as Simon Furman pleased Unicron with his accurate depiction of Unicron's omnipotent magnificence. Letters page for "The End"

Titan movie comics

According to Starscream, Furman was a Maximal disguised as a "strategically shaved ape. Especially on his head." #7's Star Screams When Starscream captured the Titan offices, only Furman escaped capture and was still at large, with a vast amount of intelligence regarding nucleon. #21's Star Screams

The Autobots, however, were not much nicer. When Furman was writing his alternate universe tale, Ironhide "made sure" that it would have an Autobot-friendly ending... #12's Law and Disorder

Ask Vector Prime

Simon Furman was a Maximal because they had a better dental plan than the Predacons. Ask Vector Prime, 16/6/2015 He was identified as a wielder of the Quill, which allowed him to evade death. Vector Prime identified him as the one who had charted many of their destinies, which raises a lot of strange metafictional questions. Ask Vector Prime, 10/8/2015

Classics

When an alternate Ultra Magnus threatened to destroy Earth with the power of his Terminus Blade, Simon Furman was stuck in a collapsing building in Canada. Invasion

Female Transformers

Simon Furman has traditionally not been a fan of Female Transformers or the idea of gendering Transformers at all, stating on several occasions that he doesn't understand why robots would have women.^[20] Subsequently he's attempted to explain it in Marvel UK (which inherited Arcee from the 1986 film) and at IDW, but both stories have been pretty awkward. "Prime's Rib!" for Marvel said she was built after a feminist mob had protested about a lack of female Cybertronians, while Arcee's origin in the 2005 IDW continuity attempted "to apply a rationale to the whole issue"^[21] by saying Jhiaxus had introduced gender to the race. That was unfortunately shown by having Arcee as a genderless Cybertronian that was forcibly changed into a female gendered form, traumatizing her.

His insistence that Cybertronians are genderless, not male by default, extended to a post he wrote^[22] in response to a blog post by Mairghread Scott discussing other female Transformers in IDW, wherein she stated that she understood that Arcee's origin could be seen as offensive to women, especially those who are transgender. The two authors later talked in private and settled the beef.

Outside of their origins, Furman's female 'bots are written the same as their male counterparts.

In 2016, during an interview with Vice, Furman said they "almost certainly" "could/should" have done better with female Transformers in the 1980s but views it as a different time and audience and that he doubted he'd do it differently now. When it came to the recent work, he said he applauded what had been done "and done well" with female characters. ^[23]

Comic bibliography

Marvel Comics

• Marvel UK #13–21, 29–32, 45–50, 59–65, 74–88, 96–104, 113–120, 125, 130–138, 146–153, 160–161, 164–173, 182–189, 198–205, 213–332
• Marvel US #56–80
• Generation 2 #1–12

3H Productions

• "Ground Zero"
• "Terminus"
• Primeval Dawn #2–3
• Universe #1–3
• "Shell Game"

Dreamwave Productions

• The War Within vol.1 #1–6, vol.2 #1–6, vol.3 #1–3 (#4–6 unreleased)
• Armada #6–18
• Energon #19–30 (#31–36 unreleased), Volume 2, Volume 3
• "Perspective", from the 20th Anniversary Transformers Summer Special

Panini Comics

• Armada #1–9

IDW Publishing

• Infiltration #0–6
• Spotlight #1–6, 8, 9, 11, 12, 14, 15 (story by Klaus Scherwinski), 16–19 (Revelation), unrevealed Spotlight (status unknown)
• Stormbringer #1–4
• Escalation #1–6
• Devastation #1–6
• Revelation #1–4
• Maximum Dinobots #1–5
• The Gathering #1–4
• The Ascending #1–4
• Transformers: Movie Prequel #1–4 (with Chris Ryall)
• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen comic book adaptation
• All Hail Megatron #13 ("Old Ways")
• Tales of the Fallen #2, #4, #5
• Nefarious #1–6
• Rodimus vs. Cyclonus
• The Transformers: Regeneration One #80.5–100
• Transformers '84 #0–4

Titan Magazines/Titan Comics

• Transformers Comic v1 #1–25
• Transformers Comic v2 #1-9, #11-14 & #18-21.
• Transformers Animated #1

Atari

• "The Balance of Power"

Madman Entertainment

• The Transformers

Million Publishing/Henkei! Henkei!

• "Starscream's New Body"
• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: Unite for the Universe
• "The Fierce Fighting on Planet Nebulos"

Bibliography

3H Productions

• "Herald" (both versions)
• "Covenant"
• "Schism"
• "Paradox"
• OTFCC 2003 Voice Actor Drama
• OTFCC 2004 Voice Actor Drama

DK Publishing

• Transformers: The Ultimate Guide
• Transformers: The Movie Guide
• You Can Draw Transformers
• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: The Movie Universe

Titan Books

• Transformers: The Art of the Movies (canceled)

Voice Roles

• Narrator (Voice Actor Drama)

Convention appearances

Notes

• Transformers was the earliest comic he wrote after leaving IPC's Scream!.
• Outside of Transformers, he's worked on multiple comic strips in the 80s to 10s. His most prolific time was 1980s Marvel UK, where he not only wrote Transformers but also strips for Action Force and Doctor Who Magazine, and created Dragons Claws and Death's Head (both netting ten issues, plus a graphic novel for DH). Editor Rob Tokar would bring him to Alpha Flight, though that comic would be killed off in the infamous early 90s market crash. Outside of comics, he's written for a few cartoons, was involved in Rik Alvarez's first stab at an independent toyline^[24], and in 2012-2015 was the head writer and script supervisor for UK/Canadian co-production Matt Hatter Chronicles. He and Andrew Wildman created an IP company, Wildfur, in the early 00s to try and sell new ideas they'd come up with^[25] but that quietly died. He and Senior brought out a webcomic, To The Death, in late 2016 (which harkened back to both Claws and Death's Head) which would later come out in print (along with a prequel) both on its own and as one of the core strips for the 2020s anthology Shift, doing well enough to get a sequel story in 2022. In 2023 he was tapped to write the comic for Astrobots, another sentient robot series by Whatnot Publishing.
• One of Furman's big contributions to the franchise is crafting the Transformers as children of the light god Primus, born to fight the universe-killing demigod Unicron. How did he sell Hasbro on this? He didn't, he just wrote "The Legacy of Unicron!" on the assumption they wouldn't object if it was already in print! (He told James Roberts in a 2014 interview that Hasbro didn't seem to notice anyway.)^[26]
• It is generally accepted that Grimlock is Furman's signature Transformers character, although a case could be made for Nightbeat. His signature creation (according to the man himself ^[27]) is the bounty hunter freelance peacekeeping agent Death's Head, yes?.
• He spent at least some time as the writer of the Marvel UK comics letters page, setting the precedent for having a Transformer "host" reply to the kids' letters, but without patronising them. This tradition has been followed up on in other UK comics.
• Chris Claremont, X-Men mega-writer, is one of Furman's key influences in comics: "Mostly how well he managed multiple characters and sub-plots, something I’ve applied to my Transformers work as much as I can ever since". Other influences are Alan Moore's Marvel UK work; 70s/80s sci-fi films like Blade Runner, Aliens, and Terminator, as well as Assault On Precinct 13; and crime books.^[28]
• If his last words before dying aren't "hnng... never did want to live forever", there will be much sadness.
• Apparently, if Pat Lee wants back in Transformers, he will have to climb over Simon's cold, rotting corpse to do it.^[29]
• Furmanite and Simfur are obvious enough puns on his name.
• Due to the impact of Marvel UK's Transformers on a generation of British and Irish comic readers, House to Astonish only half-joked that Furman was the underrated influential writer of his generation.^[30] Known pros who grew up on his work include James Roberts, Nick Roche, Simon Williams, John-Paul Bove, and Kieron Gillen.
• Outside of his official work, when attending unofficial conventions, Simon Furman has been known to write exclusive Transformers stories in the form of voice-actor script readings or comics for the events. The most prominent cases were the Transforce-exclusive "The Last Days of Optimus Prime" and "Alignment", which attained pseudocanonical status, but other examples include:
  • Furman frequently wrote script readings for Auto Assembly, including three Beast-Wars themed scripts across Auto Assembly 2009, Auto Assembly 2010 and Auto Assembly 2011,^[31][32][33] an IDW-themed reading at Auto Assembly 2012,^[34] and a Prime-themed script reading at Auto Assembly 2015.^[35]
  • For the Nordic Transformers convention RetCon 2019, Furman wrote "The Last - And Only - Stand of the Remnants", an innuendo-laden comic starring Transformers with unfortunate names (Erector, Windbreaker... you get the idea) illustrated by Ed Pirrie.
  • And for BotCon 2023, Furman wrote "Bee in the City 3: Let's Go to the Mall!", a script reading with no connection aside from the title to older readings from official BotCons of yore.^[36][37] An epilogue script reading written by Jesse Wittenrich was performed the following day.^[38][39]

See also

• Furmanism
• 80% of this Wiki.

External links

• Simon Furman on Twitter
• Simon Furman's blog
• To The Death homepage
• Homepage of Wildfur Productions, original properties by Andrew Wildman and Simon Furman.
• Simon Furman on the Internet Movie Database

Interviews

• 1987—Get Fresh
• 2001—BotTalk
• October 2002—Altered States Magazine (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)
• August 2004—TransFans (Part 1, Part 2)
• October 2004—Toy News International
• October 2004—Seibertron
• November 24, 2004—Transfandom (with Chris Sarracini) (archived)
• June 2005—Auto Assembly
• September 2005—TransFans
• October 2005—Comic News International (with Chris Ryall)
• October 2006—CBR
• 2007—Sci Fi Channel
• 2007—Fractal Matter (with Chris Ryall)
• August 2007—Ain’t It Cool News
• April 2007—CNI
• April 2007—IDW Q&A 1 (questions #1-15, #16-20)
• December 2007—IDW Q&A 2 (questions #1-15, #16-20)
• July 2008—Newsarama (with Chris Mowry and Shane McCarthy)
• July 2008—CBR (with Chris Ryall)
• December 2008—IDW Q&A 3 (questions #1-15, #16-20)
• July 2009—Mindless Ones
• July 2009—Transformers Hispanos
• July 2009—IGN
• November 2009—Review Graveyard
• November 2009—Sci-Fi-London (defunct)
• December 2009—Geek Syndicate
• August 2010—Moonbase 2
• March 2011—IDW Q&A 4 (questions #1-6, #7-18)
• April 2011—Newsarama
• May 2011—The Allspark (Part 1, Part 2)
• August 2011—Auto Assembly (with Geoff Senior)
• August 2011—Auto Assembly (with Andrew Wildman, Nick Roche and James Roberts)
• October 2011—The Underbase
• January 2012—CBR
• February 2012—The Allspark
• March 2012—Free Comic Book Day (with Andrew Wildman)
• August 2012—Auto Assembly (with Andrew Wildman, Stephen Baskerville, John-Paul Bove and Jason Cardy)
• November 2012—The Allspark
• August 2013—Auto Assembly (with Andrew Wildman, Stephen Baskerville, John-Paul Bove, Jason Cardy, and Geoff Senior)
• February 2014—CBR
• March 2014—Bleeding Cool
• March 2014—ComicsVerse
• August 2014—Auto Assembly (with Andrew Wildman, Stephen Baskerville, John-Paul Bove, and Jason Cardy)
• December 2014—Urban Species Studios
• February 2016—USA Today
• June 2016—Pocket Gamer
• June 2016—Vice
• August 2016—TFNation (with James Roberts and Geoff Senior)
• August 2016—Seibertron
• August 2018—VentureBeat
• August 2019—TFNation (with E. J. Su, Nick Roche, and Kris Carter)
• May 2020—WonderCon@Home (with John Barber, David Mariotte, Sam Maggs, and Brian Ruckley)
• December 2020—TransMissions
• May 2021—The Great Derelict Podcast
• May 2021—Talking Codswallop
• August 2021—Transformerspodden
• June 2022—Ben's World of Transformers
• June 2022—Dollar Bin Bandits
• August 2022—TFNation (with Nick Roche, James Roberts, Jack Lawrence, and Brian Ruckley)
• January 2023—AARGH! MY OPTICS!
• February 2023—Transformers The Show

References