It's another year of Transformers and Halls and Fames!  And yet again, there's a Beast Wars guy in the fan-selected nominees!  I'm gung ho for 2010's Dinobot and I enjoy 2011's Waspinator, but I have to tell you, Beast Wars Megatron is genuinely my favorite Transformers character of all time.  And once Hasbro let us know that even though they auto-inducted "Megatron" for the first year of the Hall of Fame, it didn't mean we couldn't fan-nominate the young upstart who took his name, traveled into Earth's past, and blew off Optimus Prime's head!

So I'm voting BW Megs.  There won't be a storyline or anything pushing for him this year like I did for Dinobot, but I just thought I'd let you know the voting has begun.

(Though if Sky Byte wins instead, I won't be pissy or anything.)

Waspinator won the Fans Choice Transformers Hall of Fame thingy. You can't blame me for it this year!

One of the best people in the world, Dave Kellett, is up for an Eisner Award this year!  His collection of Sheldon comics about literature has been nominated for "Best Humor," and dude deserves a win.  He's not only a best peoples, but he's also a fantastic cartoonist.  A cartoonist's cartoonist.  A god among men.

You could get lost in his eyes.

If you're eligible to vote in the Eisner Awards (meaning, you're a cartoonist or graphic novelist of any stripe), you're invited to download a PDF of his Literature book for free.  Y'know, just so you know that, come voting time, you're making the right choice.

In the realm of somewhat less important voting, Hasbro's assembled the Transformers Hall of Fame votes they've received from the Various Internets into a list of final five nominees.  You can start voting on them now at transformers.com!  Be sure to click their graphics so you can read their profile.  I am not going to tell you to vote for Waspinator.

Howdy folks!  We decided to push on through the night on our way back instead of staying the night half-way, so we're all home again a bit early.  Since this morning, I've been trying to get back into the swing of things, especially with tomorrow's book signing event!

Throughout the con, I got the same two questions from folks a number of times, so I thought I'd take the time to answer them here:

1) Did you know about the Shattered Ravage toy?

I'm not one of the dudes who decides on BotCon figures, so it was those folks who put the set together and realized that the little jaguar that comes with the Hound mold should be SG Ravage.  They didn't ask permission or anything, nor should they have to - I don't own Transformers, Ravage, or the Shattered Glass concept!  Only the character conceit is mine.  But apparently my little Twitter character had endeared himself to lots of folks, so BotCon jumped at the chance to do him.  (And eBay seems to be favoring him at the moment over most of the others, so woo!)  I'm honored and humbled that I own a little Transformer that I created.  It's a new feeling for me!

But no bio card.  I may have to fix that somehow.

2) How do you feel about Dinobot winning the Hall of Fame?

I still don't believe that it happened!  This should not be real.  When they announced he was the winner at the dinner, there was some very happy swearing, and, as I had been filling myself with alcohol the whole night, I stood up on my chair and put my fists up into the air.  I was off in the corner so hopefully nobody saw.

People attribute the victory to me, but I don't believe that.  If I could order you folks around so easily, I'd be a heck of a lot richer!  No, folks voted for Dinobot because he strikes an emotional chord.  My linking and pleading wouldn't have worked unless there was a pull for Dinobot to begin with.

Not that I won't take credit if it suits my purposes.  Ha ha ha.

No, seriously, he did!  He won the Transformers Hall of Fame!  Even though there was Soundwave involved!  Holy mother of crap!  It's insane!

I take full credit.

(Hey, Bob Forward, if you read this, you totally rule.)

EDiT: The first thing I did after writing this blog was email Beast Wars co-editor (and "Code of Hero" director) Bob Forward was email him about Dinobot's deserved win.  I got this response from Bob Forward, which he wrote for public dissemination:

I think it's fairly well known that Dinobot was my favorite character.  He wasn't perfect, he had some very human failings, but he never stopped trying. He had ideals that he tried to live up to, and when he didn't, no one could give him more grief than he gave himself.  From the very beginning, his greatest ambition was to to die nobly in battle and have a glorious funeral.  That the battle would be one of atonement for his own betrayal, and the saving of innocents that he had unwittingly helped place in harm's way, was something he could never have anticipated and certainly would not have chosen.  But when the die was cast and his duty lay before him, he faced it without flinching and did what had to be done.  Even writing about him changed me, made me examine my own everyday choices in a new light, and I believe I became a better person because of it.  Others who watched the show have told me that they still hold themselves to a higher standard than they might have otherwise, simply because of Dinobot.  He lived a warrior, he died a hero, and to those who now honor his memory by electing him to the Transformers Hall of Fame, I'm sure he would extend his humble gratitude.

If you've been wondering where this week's strips have come from, this should be an informative video!

Wednesday's strip was so hella long because cutting up the action into a week's worth of updates wouldn't have felt like it was in the spirit of the source material.  Dinobot tearing through everyone takes up maybe 30 seconds, tops, and it's a dense 30 seconds.  So I decided to pile it all into one strip so it kept the same feel.  Action sequences are kinda dumb when metered out six panels at a time, anyhow.  You lose all the excitement.

At any rate, hope you enjoyed my tribute to Dinobot.  There's a short epilogue on Monday, and then we'll be back to the usual in the days thereafter.  I promise Ghostbusters, Batman, Mario, Optimus Prime and even Superstar Funana!

Today is the last day of the Hall of Fame voting.  Throw one more Dinobot vote onto the pile, would you?

The Transformers Hall of Fame voting, as expected, began early yesterday.  In addition to the four automatic fictional robot inductees and the five fictional robot nominees we're voting on, four real-life creative folks are being inducted this year:  Bob Budiansky, Peter Cullen, Yoke Hideaki, and Kojin Ohno. The one I'm most excited for is Bob Budiansky.  Everyone remembers him as that guy who wrote 50 issues of the comic before Simon Furman took over, but few realize that he's the guy who named and characterized the first several years of Transformers.  He named Jazz, Starscream, Megatron, and everyone else, and he was also responsible for those Tech Spec numbers and bios on the backs of all the packaging.  In many ways, he is Transformers.

Fun thing we learned today.  Transformers.com says we can vote once every day for the three weeks the poll will be up.  What they don't mention is that you can also vote once per computer you own.  And once per browser.  Interesting!  Remember, Dinobot, though honorable, wouldn't necessarily frown on such an action.  He'd be open to cheating, so long as everyone was offered the same opportunity to cheat.  It was just the heavily one-sided battles he frowned upon.

Now, since this voting is going on for three weeks, I, uh, don't expect to have Dinobot-related content throughout.  That'd be annoying to both you and me!  But here, have art I drew of Dinobot if he transformed into a more up-to-date velociraptor.  You know, with feathers.