This post is coming to you during the afternoon of Christmas Day 2025, so with all of the turkey, ham, roasties, stuffing, sprouts and chorizo, maple carrots, roasted parsnips, bacon wrapped cocktail sausages, mushy peas, apple sauce, cranberry sauce and gravy in your stomachs (just me?) you’re not going to be able to move for a while. That means it’s the perfect time to lie down with our latest Christmas annual and it’s the first in a new series. In 1985 there was something of a momentous book sliding down chimneys across the country with the rotund fella, all wrapped up in a simply gorgeous piece of John Ridgway art.
Well, it would become momentous with the gift of hindsight at least. This is the first ever Transformers Annual from Marvel UK, co-produced by Grandreams. Basically, Marvel provided the editorial content while Grandreams handled the publishing side of things. Their offices were in the same building and after a few years Marvel would handle everything themselves. This first Transformers Annual was released in the autumn of 1985 for the Christmas market. Ian Rimmer had taken over as editor of the comic a few months before its release but this book had already been completed and edited by the comic’s launch editor, Sheila Cranna.
While it contains some silly fillers the likes of which we’ve seen in other licenced annuals it’s the stories that really stand out. They are superb! In fact, this series of annuals became known for having some of the best stories Marvel UK produced. The strips packed a lot into their smaller page counts and the prose stories were often the best parts of the books, even establishing key parts of Transformers lore. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, does this first annual ease us into the greatness to come?
Nope, it goes full throttle right from the off with some lovely atmospheric scenes of the army meeting the Autobots for the first time, and even the appearance of Ronald Reagan doesn’t dampen proceedings. Plague of the Insecticons is written by Transformers mainstay Simon Furman (Death’s Head, Dragon’s Claws, To the Death) with art by Mike Collins (Doctor Who, Darkstars, American Gothic) and Jeff Anderson (Judge Dredd, Swiftsure, Zoids), and the gorgeous colours are by Gina Hart (Rogue Trooper, Rupert Bear, Doctor Who).
In much the same way as the live-action movies have integrated the governments of the world into the Transformers universe, here their involvement also makes sense. However, the Insecticons have infiltrated proceedings due to their diminutive size in insect form (prepare for ludicrous mass shifting into huge robot modes). Optimus Prime thinks back to how the secret could’ve gotten out and it boils down to human error, one unscrambled call while Soundwave was monitoring. As they emerge they scream that they’re Autobots and attack the troops, who then turn against Prime.
This was the debut of the Insecticons here in the UK before they appeared in the American comic. They make quite the impact, announcing how they’ll obey their great leader Optimus and destroy the neighbouring city! But as the otherr Autobots chase after them, Prime heads off in another direction. His gut tells him the Insecticons feel restrained (half destroying a city is restraint?), guessing that as new warriors they must be being controlled by a third-party until they master their abilities.
This doesn’t stop him from joining the fight. For the only time in the comic he sends Roller (the small vehicle that resided inside his trailer in the toy) to help out even if it means he has to split his concentration (here Roller is a remote device, not an autonomous vehicle). He finds Ravage with a remote device and ends up tricking one of the Insecticons, Bombshell into planting a cerebral shell on Ravage’s body. These devices made it possible for Bombshell to control the mind of whoever he wished, but here his own mind was being controlled by Ravage, and thus a vicious cycle plays out in the final pages. Wonderful stuff.
The second, shorter strip is And There Shall Come… a Leader! with writer and colourist remaining, joined by John Stokes (Fishboy, L.E.G.I.O.N., The Invisibles) on art and Richard Starkings (The Sleeze Brothers, The Real Ghostbusters, Transformers: Generation 2) lettering. This tale takes us back millions of years and across space to Cybertron and Prime’s first battle as Autobot Commander. Most of the story is taken up with him awaiting the nod from the grand council of Autobot elders, led by Emirate Xaaron (an original UK comic creation who would eventually become a toy), to okay a strike against Megatron.
Up until this point it would seem the Autobots had been holding a defending position, their dedication to peace forbidding them from leading an attack. They’ve engaged in battles but only in response to the Decepticons and under the auspices of the outdated, elderly council. I love how it all comes down to politics in a kid’s book. It’s initially strange to see the toys so accurately drawn instead of the modified comic/cartoon versions but in the end it makes it feel lovingly quaint. With lots of the readers no doubt receiving Transformers for Christmas in 1985 I’m sure it made them happy to see their toys in action this way.
As the Transformers annuals continued, the prose stories would soon become the stand outs, giving us more in-depth characterisations; taking their time to delve into each with their inner thoughts, more intricate or dare I say intimate/personal storylines and even important new pieces of Transformers character lore that would become canon throughout the various incarnations of the franchise for decades to come. This book’s stories may be smaller in scope but they’re no less fun and produce some great images in the mind as you read. Most likely written by Simon, the art is by John Ridgway and coloured by Gina, their illustrations used to highlight key moments. They’re gorgeous and add a great deal to each tale.
Missing in Action sees Tracks incapacitated and left for dead in his car mode, only to be stolen by two small-time bank robbers who see this abandoned Corvette Stingray as the perfect getaway car. The story culminates in a small alien robot-obsessed boy stumbling upon him and getting entangled in a bank robbery that goes horribly wrong, the building exploding in flames and partially collapsing. The rescue scene with Inferno (who looks even better when drawn toy-accurate like this), Grapple and Hoist is a thrill to read.
Hunted! starts off well with one of my favourite Deceptions, Ravage stalking a human expedition leader in the jungles of South America (gloriously illustrated by John, too) and there’s some nice chemistry between Prowl and Bumblebee, as well as some genuine comic timing in the narration. In the end though, it all comes to a sudden end with a resolution that’s far too easy, almost like the writer had suddenly realised they were running out of their word count. But it’s still fun.
There are some corners of the internet that take these tales of transforming sentient alien robots far too seriously, who complain about where the annual stories fit into the overall story arcs. Given how each comic tale could last a month or two in real life but in the fictional world take place over a couple of days, that leaves an awful lot of time in-between in which anything could happen with the characters before returning to the status quo for the next exciting instalment. So I say just go with the flow and you’ll really enjoy this book.
Stories aside, this first of seven annuals also includes the usual kind of filler material we’d find in most other Grandreams annual. There are basic profiles, mazes, word searches and the obligatory dice board game. Given the quality of the strips and prose these basic pages seem out of place. The stories have depth and didn’t talk down to the young readers, so don’t let the fillers put you off.
Then, just to add one more surprise to this children’s comic book, it has a downbeat ending. The Insecticons story has an Epilogue right at the back of the annual in which it’s clear Optimus Prime and the President are on the same side, but have misunderstood each other. The resulting endgame could have dire consequences. If anything, all those silly filler pages only make moments like this all the more powerful.
There’s something special about reading a comics annual at Christmas and I’m thrilled at the prospect of reliving these every December for the next six years. While the toy-like images and the puzzle pages do age it, it’s storytelling and gorgeous art belie the fact it was 40 visits from Santa ago that this slid down the chimney to eager children across the UK. It’s a superb start. It’s a cliché to say it, but there’s definitely more to this book than meets the eye.
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