War Within Questions

Q: What was it like collaborating with Simon Furman? Is it something that you'd like to do again?
A: It's great to work with the Simon, the whole experience has been a blast and it's sad to see it end, I look forward to working with him again.

Q: When designing the characters in the story, did you try to keep the transformations the same as the toy, or did you go in a new direction?
A: About 90% of the redesigns also have a different transformation, I didn't want to shortcut anybody and just stick with their original transformations.

Q: Did you get free reign over most of the background characters, or was it a strict cast given you by Simon?
A: Some of the background characters are actually written in the script, some aren't even on my initial list of characters to design, so I had to come up with their new forms on the fly, but when Simon says random characters, I'll just put in whoever I want, like that one Fembot on #4.

Q: Were the Easter Eggs your idea, or was it a collaboration between you and Simon?
A: Mine. I just wanted to add my personal touch in there.

Q: About how long does it take to do a complete issue?
A: About 3 weeks, preferably less than that

Q: How closely do you work with the colorist after you send them your finished art?
A: None. I'll just put in little notes on the page for the inker or colorist, but basically, I leave it up to them. They do tend to make me look good :).

Q: Is it possible that we may one day see a sketchbook of your War Within designs, or mabe samples online?
A: Hopefully, maybe for the TPB, I also want to put in bonus materials, like extra pages and such, maybe an epilogue.

Q: Is this a dream come trye to work on the War Within?
A: Most definately, it's such a responisbility to try and alter very recognizable and beloved characters and still keep their essence intact, I was worried people'll be demanding for my head on a stick when the first design sketches came out, but thankfully, people are happy with them :)

General Questions

Q: What about the Transformers most appeal to you?
A: Basically, the notion of an anicent rave of mechanical beings on another planet is very intriguing, they're not mechs or remotes, but actual sentient creatures.

Q: Is there a Transformer that you most identify with?
A: Fortress Maximus probably, we're both Pacifists, but I'll fight if needed.

Q: Do you do commission work?
A: Not anymore, I'm too busy :P

Q: Macromasters was great, from the kitbashes you designed down to the artwork. Unfortunately, we never got to see how it ended. Is there any chance that we may one day be given the ending?
A: If Dreamwave gives me a chance to continue it, I'd probably go back and revise it, redraw the whole thing, but basically update the story.

Q: Now that you've gotten published and the industry has taken notice, have you gotten any offers from other companies?
A: No, not that I'm looking for any offers, I'm quite happy with Dreamwave/Hasbro and TF, but I'd consider anything that comes my way.

Q: Is there a dream project that you would love to work on, besides the Transformers?
A: I'd like to do Ghostrider, maybe Batman but that's highly unlikely...I'd also like to do Ironman, perhaps redesignthe armor so it'll look like armor and not shiny spandex

Q: Are you going to do any future Transformer related stuff?
A: There's always those Armada Box arts, posters and such, but I'm also trying out toy designs (look for them in 2004 ;) ) maybe another TF series, hopefully an ongoing one.

Q: When Dreamwave hired you, did you move to Canada to be closer to the base of operations, or do you just send your art to them to finish and color them?
A: I'm still based down here in SoCal, I'd like to go up there one day, even just to visit. Most of my artwork gets sent in by Fed-Ex some are scanned and sent online.

Q: Give me your opinion on the current state of the Transformers, from Armada, Heroes of Cybertron, and the reissues.
A: Armada toys are great, not very poseable but they're still fun toys. The comic's great too, the cartoon, however, I can live without. God bless Takara and the reissues, it'll save me a fortune getting the bots back,(I lost most of mine in a fire when I was younger) now, they just need to reissue Grand Max and Overload. I'm not a fan of non-transforming TFs. I mean, what's the point?!

Q: What do you think of the fandom?
A: We're about as nutty as Starwars fans or Trekkers, which is a good thing...I think.

Q: Anything you'd like to say that I didn't ask?
A: Yeah, but you didn't ask me :D

Well now, that was a treat. Hope you guys enjoyed it! Once again, I'd like to thank Don for answering the questionnaire, and I'd like to also thank MegatronG1 and Raevir for their help in coming up with some questions! Hoo hah!