Simon Furman
Encyclopedia
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.
, and his counterpart, the colossal godlike destroyer, Unicron
. The latter was borrowed from the Transformers movie, where he appeared with no given backstory (an origin for Unicron later came in the third season of the original Transformers cartoon series). According to Furman's 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 third season of the cartoon series, where the Transformers were originally created to be robot servants of the alien Quintesson
s, who often sold them to other races.
Aside from the creation myth, mythological underpinnings can be found in several of his stories such as the Matrix Quest
storyline, where the Autobot
s and Decepticon
s search for the Creation Matrix, a powerful object constructed by Primus.
Furman's Transformers: Generation 2 plot-line in 1993 introduced the characters Jhiaxus and Liege Maximo, one of the first Transformers. Liege Maximo had killed the first Prime in order to steal the Matrix and claimed that the Decepticons descended from him. Since Transformers Generation 2 was canceled after 12 issues, the Liege Maximo storyline was concluded in the convention exclusive novella Alignment.
Over ten years later, 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. Furman often focuses his stories on responsibility. He also wrote a Maximum Dinobots mini-series in 2008.
Furman is also widely known as the co-creator and chief writer of Death's Head
. Originally created as a "throwaway character" for use in the UK Transformers series, the character instead received his own series of stories in various comics, becoming a staple of Marvel UK
comics in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Furman's other work at Marvel Comics
includes a 2-year run on original Alpha Flight
comic book series (where he served as the final writer on the series), a concurrent Northstar
mini-series featuring the Alpha Flight team member, a run on Marvel's RoboCop
ongoing series in 1991, and the 2006 Annihilation: Ronan mini-series which tied into the Annihilation
crossover. In 2006, he returned to writing Death's Head
, after a Marvel.com poll contest helped revive the character (now branded Death's Head 3.0) and was thus given a 5-issue storyarc in the Amazing Fantasy anthology series.
In June 2007
, he began writing Terminator 2: Infinity
, based on Dynamite Entertainment
's Terminator 2 license; he produced a sequel, Terminator: Revolution. In the United Kingdom, he did original strips for the first two volumes of Titan Magazines
' Transformers Comic UK
title, as well as contributing to the strips for Titan's Torchwood
magazine.
On April 9, 2011 Furman was one of 62 comics creators who appeared at the IGN
stage at the Kapow! convention in London to set two Guinness World Records
, the Fastest Production of a Comic Book, and Most Contributors to a Comic Book. With Guinness officials on hand to monitor their progress, writer Mark Millar
began work at 9am scripting a 20-page black and white Superior comic book, with Furman and the other artists appearing on stage throughout the day to work on the pencils, inks, and lettering, including Dave Gibbons
, Frank Quitely
, John Romita Jr., Jock
, Doug Braithwaite
, Ian Churchill
, Olivier Coipel
, Duncan Fegredo
, David Lafuente
, John McCrea
, Sean Phillips
and Liam Sharp
, who all drew a panel each, with regular Superior artist Leinil Yu creating the book's front cover. The book was completed in 11 hours, 19 minutes, and 38 seconds, and was published through Icon on November 23, 2011, with all royalties being donated to Yorkhill Children's Foundation.
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
writer, particularly associated with of a number of notable Transformers comics for Marvel UK
Marvel UK
Marvel UK was an imprint of Marvel Comics formed in 1972 to reprint US produced stories for the British weekly comic market, though it later did produce original material by British creators such as Alan Moore, John Wagner, Dave Gibbons, Steve Dillon and Grant Morrison.Panini Comics obtained the...
, Marvel US
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
, Dreamwave
Dreamwave Productions
Dreamwave Productions was a Canadian art design studio and comic book publisher founded in 1996 and is best known for their multiple Transformers comic book series...
, and most recently, IDW
IDW Publishing
IDW Publishing, also known as Idea + Design Works, LLC and IDW, is an American publisher of comic books and comic strip collections. The company was founded in 1999 and has been awarded the title "Publisher of the Year Under 5% Market Share" for the years 2004, 2005 and 2006 by Diamond Comic...
. He also wrote the final episode of the Beast Wars
Beast Wars
Transformers: Beast Wars is a Transformers toyline released by Hasbro between 1995 and 2000, and a Daytime Emmy Award winning full-CG animated television series spawned by it that debuted in 1996...
: Transformers cartoon, the Transformers Ultimate Fan Guide, and several convention exclusive comics and novellas.
His first published work appeared in 1984
1984 in comics
-Year overall:* The independent publishing boom continues, as Antarctic Press, Continuity Comics, Deluxe Comics, Matrix Graphic Series, and Renegade Press all enter the arena...
in Fleetway's weekly comic, Scream!
Scream!
Scream! was a British weekly comic anthology with a horror theme, running from March 24, 1984 until 30 June 1984, published by IPC Magazines....
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.
Career
Furman invented an origin story for the Transformers that involved an ancient struggle between the colossal godlike creator, PrimusPrimus (Transformers)
Primus is the "benevolent" godlike entity in the fictional Transformers comic universe who fought against the Chaos-Bringer Unicron. The Lord of the Light, Primus is the being who created the Transformers to help him defeat Unicron.-Primus and Unicron:...
, and his counterpart, the colossal godlike destroyer, Unicron
Unicron
Unicron is a fictional character from the Transformers universe and toyline. Created by Floro Dery, he was introduced in the 1986 animated film The Transformers: The Movie as the film's main antagonist. Unicron is a prodigiously large robot whose scale reaches planetary proportions, and he is also...
. The latter was borrowed from the Transformers movie, where he appeared with no given backstory (an origin for Unicron later came in the third season of the original Transformers cartoon series). According to Furman's 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 third season of the cartoon series, where the Transformers were originally created to be robot servants of the alien Quintesson
Quintesson
Quintessons are fictional aliens from the Transformers universe. Within the TV series, they are the creators of the Transformers, although in most other fictional universes featuring the Transformers, they have no such status...
s, who often sold them to other races.
Aside from the creation myth, mythological underpinnings can be found in several of his stories such as the Matrix Quest
Matrix Quest
The Matrix Quest is the official collective name for issues #62 through #66 in Marvel's Transformers comics, written by UK writer Simon Furman. Each chapter of the story pays homage to a classic movie or book....
storyline, where the Autobot
Autobot
Autobot, a faction of sentient robots from the planet Cybertron, are usually the main protagonists in the fictional universe of the Transformers, a collection of various toys, graphic novels, paperback books, cartoons and movies first introduced in 1984. In all but one Transformer story, the...
s and Decepticon
Decepticon
The Decepticons are usually depicted as the antagonists in the fictional universes of the Transformers stoyline and related comics and cartoons, and the enemies of the Autobots and the University of California Davis Aggies...
s search for the Creation Matrix, a powerful object constructed by Primus.
Furman's Transformers: Generation 2 plot-line in 1993 introduced the characters Jhiaxus and Liege Maximo, one of the first Transformers. Liege Maximo had killed the first Prime in order to steal the Matrix and claimed that the Decepticons descended from him. Since Transformers Generation 2 was canceled after 12 issues, the Liege Maximo storyline was concluded in the convention exclusive novella Alignment.
Over ten years later, Furman was brought in by the now-defunct independent comics publisher Dreamwave to write some of its Transformers comics, including "The War Within
Transformers: The War Within
This article is about the comic book series. For other uses, see The War Within .Transformers: The War Within is a series of comic book mini-series written by Simon Furman and published by Dreamwave Productions featuring Generation One characters with brand new pre-Earth designs.The series focuses...
", 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
Andrew Wildman
Andrew Wildman is a British artist, best known for his work in comics, mainly for Marvel Comics. Wildman cut his teeth on Marvel UK's titles in the late 1980s, including Galaxy Rangers, Thundercats, The Real Ghostbusters and, perhaps most notably, Transformers...
, 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
Adam Jennings
Adam Jennings is a British actor, producer and film director best known for his theatre work. He was born in Rochford, England....
.
Away from Transformers, Furman wrote a Doctor Who audio adventure for Big Finish
Big Finish Productions
Big Finish Productions is a British company that produces books and audio plays based, primarily, on cult British science fiction properties...
. The Axis of Insanity
The Axis of Insanity
The Axis of Insanity is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who.-Plot:...
features the Fifth Doctor, and was published in 2004. He also contributed a number of stories starring Judge Dredd
Judge Dredd
Judge Joseph Dredd is a comics character whose strip in the British science fiction anthology 2000 AD is the magazine's longest running . Dredd is an American law enforcement officer in a violent city of the future where uniformed Judges combine the powers of police, judge, jury and executioner...
to the DC
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
title Judge Dredd: Lawman of the Future, as well as one-off stories to Dredd's home title 2000 AD
2000 AD (comic)
2000 AD is a weekly British science fiction-oriented comic. As a comics anthology it serialises a number of separate stories each issue and was first published by IPC Magazines in 1977, the first issue dated 26 February. IPC then shifted the title to its Fleetway comics subsidiary which was sold...
.
Furman is currently writing a new continuity of "Generation 1" Transformers comic books for IDW Publishing
IDW Publishing
IDW Publishing, also known as Idea + Design Works, LLC and IDW, is an American publisher of comic books and comic strip collections. The company was founded in 1999 and has been awarded the title "Publisher of the Year Under 5% Market Share" for the years 2004, 2005 and 2006 by Diamond Comic...
. Furman likes to tell his stories realistically with maps helping out his locations. Furman often focuses his stories on responsibility. He also wrote a Maximum Dinobots mini-series in 2008.
Furman is also widely known as the co-creator and chief writer of Death's Head
Death's Head
Death's Head is a fictional comic book character, a robotic bounty hunter appearing in the books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer Simon Furman and artist Geoff Senior for the company's Marvel UK imprint...
. Originally created as a "throwaway character" for use in the UK Transformers series, the character instead received his own series of stories in various comics, becoming a staple of Marvel UK
Marvel UK
Marvel UK was an imprint of Marvel Comics formed in 1972 to reprint US produced stories for the British weekly comic market, though it later did produce original material by British creators such as Alan Moore, John Wagner, Dave Gibbons, Steve Dillon and Grant Morrison.Panini Comics obtained the...
comics in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Furman's other work at Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
includes a 2-year run on original Alpha Flight
Alpha Flight
Alpha Flight is a fictional superhero team published by Marvel Comics, noteworthy for being one of the few Canadian superhero teams. Created by John Byrne, the team first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #120 ....
comic book series (where he served as the final writer on the series), a concurrent Northstar
Northstar
Northstar is a fictional character, a superhero who appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. He is the twin brother of Aurora. Through his mutation, Northstar gains superhuman powers, which he uses for the betterment of society...
mini-series featuring the Alpha Flight team member, a run on Marvel's RoboCop
RoboCop
RoboCop is a 1987 American science fiction-action film directed by Paul Verhoeven. Set in a crime-ridden Detroit, Michigan in the near future, RoboCop centers on a police officer who is brutally murdered and subsequently re-created as a super-human cyborg known as "RoboCop"...
ongoing series in 1991, and the 2006 Annihilation: Ronan mini-series which tied into the Annihilation
Annihilation (comics)
"Annihilation" was a 2006 crossover storyline published by Marvel Comics, highlighting several outer space-related characters in the Marvel Universe. The central miniseries was written by Keith Giffen, with editor Andy Schmidt.-Publication History:...
crossover. In 2006, he returned to writing Death's Head
Death's Head
Death's Head is a fictional comic book character, a robotic bounty hunter appearing in the books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer Simon Furman and artist Geoff Senior for the company's Marvel UK imprint...
, after a Marvel.com poll contest helped revive the character (now branded Death's Head 3.0) and was thus given a 5-issue storyarc in the Amazing Fantasy anthology series.
In June 2007
2007 in comics
-January:*January 10: Superman & Batman vs. Aliens & Predator released.*January 24: The Boys is canceled with issue #6.-February:*February 2: Newsarama reports that The Boys has been picked up by Dynamite Entertainment....
, he began writing Terminator 2: Infinity
Terminator 2: Infinity
Terminator 2: Infinity is comic book series by Simon Furman and Nigel Raynor, published by Dynamite Entertainment. It is set in 2009, after the 2004 Judgment Day depicted in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines...
, based on Dynamite Entertainment
Dynamite Entertainment
Dynamite Entertainment is an American comic book company that primarily publishes licensed franchises of adaptations of other media. These include adaptations of film properties such as Army of Darkness, Terminator and RoboCop, literary properties such as Zorro, Dracula, Sherlock Holmes, Alice in...
's Terminator 2 license; he produced a sequel, Terminator: Revolution. In the United Kingdom, he did original strips for the first two volumes of Titan Magazines
Titan Magazines
Titan Magazines is the magazine-publishing division of Nick Landau's Titan Publishing Group. Titan also owns several Forbidden Planet specialist comics and collector stores .Titan Magazines' publishing director is Chris Teather.TPG also owns Titan Books,...
' Transformers Comic UK
Transformers Comic UK
Transformers Comic is a British Comic published monthly by Titan Magazines. It often features strips re-printed from American comics and graphic novels. The first issue was released in July 2007 to tie in with the film...
title, as well as contributing to the strips for Titan's Torchwood
Torchwood
Torchwood is a British science fiction television programme created by Russell T Davies. The series is a spin-off from Davies's 2005 revival of the long-running science fiction programme Doctor Who. The show has shifted its broadcast channel each series to reflect its growing audience, moving from...
magazine.
On April 9, 2011 Furman was one of 62 comics creators who appeared at the IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
stage at the Kapow! convention in London to set two Guinness World Records
Guinness World Records
Guinness World Records, known until 2000 as The Guinness Book of Records , is a reference book published annually, containing a collection of world records, both human achievements and the extremes of the natural world...
, the Fastest Production of a Comic Book, and Most Contributors to a Comic Book. With Guinness officials on hand to monitor their progress, writer Mark Millar
Mark Millar
Mark Millar is a Scottish comic book writer, known for his work on books such as The Authority, The Ultimates, Marvel Knights Spider-Man, Ultimate Fantastic Four, Civil War, Wanted, and Kick-Ass, the latter two of which have been adapted into feature films...
began work at 9am scripting a 20-page black and white Superior comic book, with Furman and the other artists appearing on stage throughout the day to work on the pencils, inks, and lettering, including Dave Gibbons
Dave Gibbons
Dave Gibbons is an English comic book artist, writer and sometime letterer. He is best known for his collaborations with writer Alan Moore, which include the miniseries Watchmen and the Superman story "For the Man Who Has Everything"...
, Frank Quitely
Frank Quitely
Vincent Deighan, better known by the pen name Frank Quitely, is a Scottish comic book artist. He is best known for his frequent collaborations with Grant Morrison on titles such as New X-Men, We3, All-Star Superman, and Batman and Robin, as well as his work with Mark Millar on The...
, John Romita Jr., Jock
Jock (artist)
Mark Simpson, known by the pen name Jock, is a British comics artist, best known for his work in 2000 AD and on The Losers.-Career:...
, Doug Braithwaite
Doug Braithwaite
-Career:Braithwaite started out working on British comics, like 2000 AD and A1, but is best known for his Marvel Comics work on the Earth X sequels, Universe X and Paradise X , as well as for The Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe and Punisher: MAX #13-18, with Garth Ennis...
, Ian Churchill
Ian Churchill
Ian Churchill is a British comic book artist, who has mostly worked in the American comic book industry.-Career:Churchill's early work included stints on Supergirl, Uncanny X-Men as well as the Deadpool: Sins of the Past limited series, in addition to a lengthy stay on Cable, the latter gaining him...
, Olivier Coipel
Olivier Coipel
Olivier Coipel is a French comic book artist, known for his work on books such as House of M, Legion of Super-Heroes andThor.-Career:...
, Duncan Fegredo
Duncan Fegredo
Duncan Fegredo is a British comic book artist born in Leicester in 1964.-Career:Fegredo first managed to get into comics after showing his portfolio around UKCAC in 1987 and meeting Dave Thorpe. Together they worked on a strip for a short lived British magazine called Heartbreak Hotel...
, David Lafuente
David Lafuente
David Lafuente is a Spanish-born comic book artist. As of 2009 he works for Marvel Comics as the artist for Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man. He currently resides in London.-Career:Lafuente was discovered by Marvel Editor C.B...
, John McCrea
John McCrea
John McCrea is a comic book artist best known for his collaborations with writer Garth Ennis.-Career:...
, Sean Phillips
Sean Phillips
Sean Phillips is a British comic book artist.He is best known in the American comic book industry for his work on DC Comics' Sleeper, WildC.A.T.s, Batman and Hellblazer.-Career:...
and Liam Sharp
Liam Sharp
Liam Roger Sharp is a British comic book artist, writer and publisher.-Early life:Liam Sharp was born in Derby at St. Mary's Hospital to parents Roger and Linda Sharp. He has a younger sister, Kerry, and younger brother, Rien. He went to School at Brackensdale Junior then infants school, before...
, who all drew a panel each, with regular Superior artist Leinil Yu creating the book's front cover. The book was completed in 11 hours, 19 minutes, and 38 seconds, and was published through Icon on November 23, 2011, with all royalties being donated to Yorkhill Children's Foundation.
External links
- WildFur Productions
- "The Engine: Industrial Strength" Online Comic, written by Furman
- Simon Furman Interview at www.sci-fi-online.com