James Roberts

I've mentioned Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye a few times here and there on this blog and it's not going to end any time soon. Especially given that I actually met the writer a few months back. That was a great day.

I knew he was doing a signing in Manchester but I wasn't originally planning on going. None of my friends who like the comic were available, and it meant getting a train to Manchester to do it. That decision was nearly finalised in the morning after I woke up from a terrible nights sleep. During the day we had the 'Save Huddersfield A&E' protest, and it was only after getting lunch that I decided I had to do it. I had to go and meet James Roberts.

And yeah, it was a great decision. He's one of the nicest people in comics I've ever met (and I've met John Alison so that's saying something!), and has such a love for what he writes. It's incredible to see. It was also really nice to meet more fans of the comic. After I eventually got to the end of the queue I got a couple of issues signed as well as my toy of Whirl.

From a writing perspective, Roberts is really unique, especially as a TF writer. He writes his characters with a far more human approach than many of the other writers, and has such a strong grasp of continuity it's somewhat baffling. The man's a genius. He also has an incredible attention to detail and his original scripts are nearing on 50 pages long (I'd know, he sells annotated copies of them). Trawling through the scripts is a surreal experience, filled with microscopic elements all pulling the story together. It's a marvel to behold.

Coming towards final year, I imagine his work is going to become fairly relevant as I move towards my massive final year project. He's one of my few regular inspirations that hasn't come into play yet, so I'm expecting it to happen soon. It's going to be fun.