Simon Furman

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Simon Furman

Occupation Writer
Nationality British
Writing period 1984 onwards
Genres Science-fiction
Subjects Transformers, Death's Head

Simon Christopher Francis Furman is a comic book writer, particularly associated with of a number of notable Transformers comics for Marvel UK, Marvel US, Dreamwave, and most recently, IDW. He also wrote the final episode of the Beast Wars: Transformers cartoon, the Transformers Ultimate Fan Guide, and several convention exclusive comics and novellas.

His first published work appeared in 1984 in Fleetway's weekly comic, Scream! issue 3, writing the opening episode of "Terror of the Cats". He currently writes Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Transformers for Titan Magazines in the UK and the US Transformers comic line published by IDW.

He has also used the pseudonym Chris Francis on occasion, most notable when editing Marvel UK's Transformers in order to keep his role separate from writing some of the stories.

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[edit] Work

Furman's writing is notable for his use of pseudo-religion and lore as an underpinning theme to the Transformers mythology. He invented an origin story for the Transformers that involved an ancient struggle between the colossal godlike creator, Primus, and his counterpart, the colossal godlike destroyer, Unicron. The latter was borrowed from the Transformers movie, where he was never given a backstory. According to this origin story, The Transformers were a creation of Primus as a warrior race who were to be the last line of defense against Unicron. This origin differs from the cartoon series, where the Transformers were created to be robot servants of the alien Quintessons.

Aside from the creation myth, mythological underpinnings can be found in several of his stories, such as the Matrix Quest storyline, where the Autobots and Decepticons search for the Creation Matrix, a powerful object constructed by Primus.

Furman's Transformer: Generation 2 plotline introduced the Liege Maximo, one of the first Transformers, a person who killed the first Prime in order to steal the Matrix. The Decepticons, he says, descend from him. Since Transformers Generation 2 was cancelled, the Liege Maximo storyline was concluded in the convention exclusive novella Alignment.

Furman was brought in by the now-defunct independent comics publisher Dreamwave to write some of its Transformers comics, including "The War Within", a six issue prequel set on Cybertron before the Autobots and Decepticons took their battle to Earth. It spawned two sequels - "TWW: The Dark Ages" and "TWW: The Age Of Wrath" (uncompleted). His work on the Armada and Energon titles were also received better than the anime series from which they were based on. Furman was to have continued on with Dreamwave, but its contentious closure resulted in the premature end of the Energon and The War Within titles.

Furman's convention exclusive novella/comic serial, The Omega Point, includes an apocalyptic End of Days scenario for the Transformers, and a quest by one of the heroes to ask for help in the land of the dead.

Simon Furman still collaborates with regular Marvel UK Transformers artist, Andrew Wildman, as WildFur Productions. Their most recent collaboration was on the Macromedia Flash online, interactive comic The Engine: Industrial Strength; which they produced with UK New Media expert Adam Jennings.

Away from Transformers, Furman wrote a Doctor Who audio adventure for Big Finish. The Axis of Insanity features the Fifth Doctor, and was published in 2004. He also contributed a number of stories starring Judge Dredd to the DC title Judge Dredd: Lawman of the Future, as well as one-off stories to Dredd's home title 2000 AD.

Furman is currently writing a new continuity of 'Generation 1' Transformers comic books for IDW Publishing. Furman likes to tell his stories realistically with maps helping out his locations.[1] Furman often focuses his stories on responsibility.[2]

Recently, Furman wrote the Annihilation: Ronan miniseries for Marvel Comics, a series focusing on the character Ronan the Accuser that ties in to the Annihilation crossover.

His new series Terminator 2: Infinity started publication in June 2007. In the United Kingdom, has been doing original strips for Titan Magazines' upcoming Transformers title., as well as contributing to the strips for Titan's Torchwood magazine.

[edit] "Furman-isms"

Long-time readers of Furman's work have noticed several recurring dialogue and action clichés, referred to as "Furman-isms." These include, but are not limited to:

  • A character shouting "Got to..." (in an attempt to stave off a disaster) and then dying.
  • Variants upon the phrase "Better to fight and die, rather than live with the knowledge that I ran!" (This Furman-ism showed up three times within the space of ten issues of the original Transformers series).
  • Specific sound effects, such as "SHEEEEAK!" for injured characters, and two-letter onomonopeaic grunts to represent exertion (most notably seen in The War Within).
  • The phrase "It's over -- FINISHED!".
  • Conversely, the phrase "It never ends, does it?"
  • Upon receiving a power-up or improved form, the character proclaims to another "You won't believe the things I can do now!"
  • Use of minor characters as dramatic cannon fodder, offing sometimes dozens of named characters in a single issue (most notably seen in the Transformers: Generation 2 comics).
  • A focus on a select group of Transformers, especially Grimlock, Nightbeat, Galvatron, Thunderwing and Bludgeon.
  • The phrase "Leastways, I think so."
  • The phrase "cut and thrust".
  • The phrase "surplus to requirements".
  • Often Furman will depict his lead characters on the cusp of choosing a more disaffected, dispassionate path which can be inconsistent with their established persona.
  • Similarly, his characters struggle to reconcile necessary, difficult decisions for the greater good against more myopic yet compassionate concerns. As with the "Better to fight and die" cliché, this often appears frequently within a short publishing time, often afflicting the very same character i.e. Optimus Prime.
  • Whilst frequently, and perhaps too openly, struggling with such indecisions, it is normally left to a subordinate to show Furman's Autobot leaders the error of their ways and correct course of action. This idiosyncrasy is seemingly ubiquitous in all of Furman's figureheads including Optimus and Rodimus Prime, Emirate Xaaron, Grimlock, Springer and Roadhandler, among others.
  • Down to earth--literally!
  • "This little story has a sting in the tail!"

[edit] Bibliography

Comics work includes:

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Simon Furman creating history Q&A. TFormers.com. Retrieved on 2006-10-14.
  2. ^ Arune Singh. "SIMON FURMAN KEEPS ROLLIN OUT WITH "TRANSFORMERS" AT IDW", Comic Book Resources, 2006-10-19. Retrieved on 2007-02-16. 

[edit] References

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