One of the greatest images in Transformers history.
Earl Norem (1923?-) is an artist who worked on many comic book projects throughout 1960s, 70s, and 80s. He is most known for fully-painted covers to comics such as The Savage Sword of Conan. However, Norem has painted for a wide variety of genres and properties, including He-Man and Star Wars.
Norem's Transformers work consists of four Marvel Big Looker storybooks, some of which were later adapted into read along storybooks by Kid Stuff:
- Battle for Cybertron
- The Great Car Rally
- Car Show Blow Up
- The Story of Wheelie, the Wild Boy of Quintesson
Norem's style is colorful, expressive, and dynamic. His Transformers work in particular is unusually error-free and self-consistent, especially for licensed Transformers art in that era (1984-86). One quirk of his Transformers artwork is that all the Autobots display "eyes" in their headlights while in car mode. Additionally, he consistently portrays Optimus Prime with a mouth rather than a faceplate.