Andrew Wildman

Dale Gribble Rusty Shackleford Andrew Wildman, self-portrait.

Andrew Wildman's artistic association with Transformers began when he did several covers for the Marvel UK comic. His first strip work came in issue #198, which was scripted by Ian Rimmer from a plot by Simon Furman. He thought it was just going to be a minor job like BraveStarr or Real Ghostbusters...^[2]

After Furman took up writing for the Marvel US version of the Transformers comic, Wildman came aboard 13 issues later, simultaneously penciling the cover and interior of #69. He would pencil the book to the end of its 80-issue run, only skipping #75 (which was illustrated by Geoff Senior). His style was noted for its fluid 'people in costumes' approach to the robots, partly to show off how he could potentially draw superheroes (artists got rent to pay!) and partly to fully show that the Transformers were emotional people. A big influence here was Barry Windsor Smith's work on Machine Man^[3] (which coincidentally was a back-up strip in Marvel UK's Transformers).

After Transformers, though the collaborations between Wildman and Furman would continue on and off over their years at Marvel, Wildman would go off on his own for lengthy stints, such as pencilling Larry Hama's G.I. Joe and Peter David's Spider-Man 2099.

Simon Furman and Andrew Wildman would be brought together again years later for BotCon 1997's convention comic, "Ground Zero". Wildman was also tapped to do the box art for that year's exclusives, Fractyl and Packrat. Wildman did the package art for BotCon 1998's Antagony and Vice Grip as well, and later supplied colors for 2000's "Terminus".

The two Britons stayed together following their creative reunion, subsequently forming Wildfur Productions as a joint venture.

While Andrew Wildman was not quite as active as Simon Furman in the 2000s Transformers comic revivals, he was still a visible presence. On the British side of things, he provided the retail covers to all of the Titan reprints of Generation 1 comic material, and pencilled eight of the nine issues of Panini's short-lived Armada comic series. Over in North America, he pencilled the The War Within: The Dark Ages miniseries for Dreamwave Productions, and has done several covers for IDW Publishing's Infiltration.

While at Marvel, Wildman worked extensively with inker Stephen Baskerville, whose talents greatly complemented Wildman's own. After not working together for some time, they briefly reunited for the final issue of the Panini Armada comic.

Everything old became new again with the production of The Transformers: Regeneration One — IDW's modern-day continuation of the US Marvel comic. Wildman teamed not only with Simon Furman again, but also with Stephen Baskerville for the production. This came about after Wildman worked on several covers for IDW, intended as his "absolute final goodbye note" to the franchise and with no plans to do interior work, until he learned that work would be with Simon and finishing the old run "with real gravitas". ^[4] He dropped out from #92 but returned to draw part of the grand finale.

In recent years, Wildman has founded a UK-based charity organization, Draw The World Together; done storyboards for episodes of the revived Doctor Who; written and drawn the graphic novel Horizon, which got plaudits from Dave Gibbons and everything^[5]; and, for fun, life-drawing sketches and naturalistic paintings.

Interiors

Marvel UK

• The Transformers #198, #199, #215, #216, #217, #218, #225. #228, #234, #240, #241, #242, #248, #255, #257, #260, #262, #265
• Destiny of the Dinobots! from Transformers Annual 1990

Marvel US

• The Transformers #69, #70, #71, #72, #73, #74, #76, #77, #78, #79, #80
• Generation 2 #2

3H Productions

• Ground Zero
• "Terminus" (colours)

Panini

• Armada #2–#9

Titan

• Transformers #3

Dreamwave Productions

• The War Within: The Dark Ages #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6

Devil's Due

• Black Horizon #1, #2

IDW Publishing

Before. After.

• Transformers: Movie Prequel Special "Interlude", "Planetfall" (pages 10–22)
• The Transformers: Regeneration One issues #80.5-92 and pages 1–10 of #100

Covers

Marvel UK

Covers

• The Transformers #183, #185, #186, #187, #193, #198, #202, #203, #205, #206, #208, #210, #211, #230, #238, 240, #243, #245, #250, #259, #266, #286, #307, #315, #317, #323, #325, #328, #331

Marvel US

• The Transformers #69, #70, #71, #72, #73, #74, #76, #77, #78, #79, #80
• G.I. Joe and the Transformers trade paperback

3H Productions

• Ground Zero
• Terminus (CGI artwork)

Titan

• Paperback covers for Transformers: Primal Scream, Transformers: Matrix Quest, Transformers: All Fall Down, Transformers: End of the Road, Transformers: Dark Designs, Transformers: Rage in Heaven, Transformers: Beginnings, Transformers: New Order, Transformers: Cybertron Redux, Transformers: Showdown, Transformers: Breakdown, Transformers: Treason, Transformers: Trial By Fire, Transformers: Maximum Force, Transformers: Dark Star, Transformers: Last Stand.

Dreamwave

• The War Within: The Dark Ages #1 Dynamic Forces exclusive cover

Devil's Due

• Black Horizon #2 cover B

IDW

• Infiltration #1 cover B and Retailer Incentive cover C, #2 cover C, #3 cover C, #4 cover C and Retailer's Exclusive cover A, #5 cover C, #6 Retailer Incentive cover A
• Transformers: Movie Prequel issue #3 Retailer Exclusive cover.
• The Transformers Covers B issues #2-7.
• The Transformers: Regeneration One all Covers A, plus issue #100 convention exclusive cover and the 100-Page Spectacular cover A.
• The Transformers Classics UK covers.

Other

• Metrodome Headmasters DVD art, along with exclusive post cards for The Transformers for Season 2 Part 2 and Season 3 and 4 sets.
• BotCon 2009 Skyquake bio card art.

Gallery

• Extended Andrew Wildman gallery

Convention appearances

• BotCon 1997
• BotCon 1998

Other trivia

• Wildman cheekily nodded to his Ghostbusters work when he outright drew three of them into "Race with the Devil"!

Visual gags

Quite the wag in his Marvel career, Wildman frequently drew amusing Easter eggs into his artwork:

• His cover to issue 186 includes a dustbin and milk bottle outside one of Metroplex's doors.
• A toaster Transformer is seen being built by Aunty in issue 198.
• His cover to issue 205 features another appearance by a toaster, as well as a cute little un-Transformers-y robot (dubbed "Teenytron" by the letters page).
• Issue 217's horrifying close-up of zombie Starscream depicts him with exposed wires reading messages like "HELLO!" and "MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE!"
• A control panel on the Ark in issue 242 reads "YOUR[sic] MAD".
• The artwork for U.S. issue 74 features multiple gags on the page 4-5 splash—including Apeface peeling a banana, Triggerhappy getting distracted, and a background Autobot taking aim at Soundwave—as well as ladies and gents restroom signs under Unicron's left pec.

References

External links

• Draw The World Together
• Wildfur Productions, original properties by Andrew Wildman and Simon Furman.
• Wildwords, Andrew Wildman's blog

Interviews

• August 2011—Auto Assembly (with Simon Furman, Nick Roche and James Roberts)
• August 2012—Auto Assembly (with Simon Furman, Stephen Baskerville, John-Paul Bove and Jason Cardy)
• August 2013—Auto Assembly (with Simon Furman, Stephen Baskerville, John-Paul Bove, Jason Cardy, and Geoff Senior)
• August 2014—Auto Assembly (with Simon Furman, Stephen Baskerville, John-Paul Bove, and Jason Cardy)