TFW is here to bring you more news from SDCC 2015 with coverage of the Women in Transformers panel!

“Women of Transformers

From Windblade and Arcee to Strongarm and the brand-new Combiner making her debut at SDCC, female Transformers characters have finally gotten their due; but behind the page and in fandom, even bigger changes have been happening. Panelists include Transformers comics writers Mairghread Scott and Georgia Ball, artists Corin Howell and Sara Pitre-Durocher, Hasbro’s Sarah Carroll, and special guests.”

See the details after the break and periodically reload for the latest updates, courtesy of John Barber himself!

Key points from the panel – a new ongoing Transformers comic is coming in March 2016, titled Transformers Till All Are One, by Mairghread Scott and Sara Pitre-Durocher! Windblade Volume 2 will conclude with issue #7, but she will feature in the new book.

• Panel starting!

• Panelists: Mairghread Scott (writer on Windblade, Combiner Wars, Combiner Hunters, Prime, and Robots in Disguise), Corin Howell (artist on Windblade and Combiner Wars), Georgia Ball (writer on Robots in Disguise), Sarah Carrol (Hasbro Transformers Global Brand Marketing), Sara Pitre-Durocher (artist on Combiner Hunters), moderated by Roaslind Morehead

• Windblade Volume 2 ending with issue #7

• New ongoing series announcement!

• TRANSFORMERS TILL ALL ARE ONE

• Coming March 2016

• Written by Mairghread Scott

• Art by Sara Pitre-Durocher

• Will still feature Windblade

• Ends Windblade Volume 2

• Takes place on Cybertron

• Some characters will return

• Will be set in an iconic city

• No other details, more to come later

• General chit-chat now

• Panelists were introduced to Transformes by watching/reading the older fiction

• Talking about how they had to do world-building for Windblade

• Windblade was intended to be a “gateway series” for newer fans

• Talking about inspirations, different body types, character designs, and cities

• Character designs are intended to reflect who they are as a character and where they come from

• Victorion – they see it as an opportunity to expand the universe

• Many brands target a specific gender, but they still try and include the opposite gender

• Windblade series was focused on Windblade herself, didn’t have time to feature the rest of the cast that much

• Emphasis on gender in the franchise is to help the audience relate to the characters

• Talking about the gender debate in the fandom, and the use of pronouns. Again, they’re used to help the audience relate to the characters

• Victorion will feature in different things

• A new female Decepticon will be introduced in the future

• Fans requesting the gender to be female – happened with Windblade and now Victorion, fathers have been asking for more female Transformers to appeal to their daughters

• Victorion is a big, strong bot with many sides to her personality

• Favorite parts of creating the comics – composition, inking, working as a team, getting fan feedback

• Joke that they’d like more sleep, but the sacrifices are worth it

• Says it’s a challenge to get diversity into the brand, but the TF franchise in its current state has a lot more diversity compared to other franchises

• Says Barber took a chance putting the ladies on the comics

• Beast Wars issue/designs by Howell – Cheetor, Dinobot, Manta Ray, Sonar, Airazor, Tigatron, possibly Blackarachnia (might be part of a faction if she appears), will also be water buffalo/dragonfly beastformers

• Talking about relationships – Ironhide/Chromia, Tigatron/Airazor

• May be partly inspired by Jurassic World, as Howell saw the movie before working on the script

• Alien planet, so the beast modes may look a bit different

• (Various pieces of comic art featuring female Transformers such as Arcee, Windblade, Chromia, Nautica, Victorion, Elita One, Strongarm, etc. were shown throughout the panel)

• Done.