Simon Furman

If even Swoop's toy is tiny next to Simon Furman, what chance, then, do we have?

Probably the most well-known of all Transformers comics writers, Simon Furman was editor and author for much of the Marvel UK run, and began writing for the Marvel US comic after writer Bob Budiansky left.

Since then, Furman has also written Transformers comics for Dreamwave, IDW, and 3H, and scripted the final episode of the Beast Wars cartoon, "Nemesis Part 2".

He has also written and created many non-Transformers characters, including Death's Head with Geoff Senior and "Brute Force" with Jose Delbo. He is an editor at Titan Books, which publishes collections of Transformers comics, among other material.

Furman is a highly prolific writer, and well-regarded in the fandom. As a result he is often the first, last, and occasionally only resort in penning Transformers literature, with a deep involvement a wide variety of product. Notably, he penned Transformers: The Ultimate Guide, a book which described the background of several continuities of which he was not particularly involved in crafting. This book has seen significant criticism for being biased towards comic canon (particularly that which he penned) and in places inventing continuity wholecloth without any precedent in prior fiction. In such instances it has since been assumed that Furman was filling in neglected areas of the (at the time underdeveloped) Dreamwave continuity.

Contrary to the popular opinion that he is an outspoken critic of the Generation 1 animated series, Furman has stated in an interview that loves the series, and explained that when he was involved the Marvel comic books as a twenty-something year old writer, he thought the show was pitched a little young, stories were simplistic and had huge logic flaws, but conceded that he saw them from a different perspective than the generation that grew up watching the cartoon and buying the toys as kids, and so he concentrated on his work which he believed was more 'adult' in tone. He added that in hindsight he went back to watch the series and now really enjoys it, particularly Season 2's strong character stories. When he wrote for the Marvel comics he was averse to episodes that dealt with the character back stories because they clashed with his own back stories, and also caused him to worry that he wasn't presenting the characters as intended. But now he has the freedom to take the series as viewer and admired the way they were building upon their own mythos.

In the same interview he thought the the animated movie was 'fantastic', and one of his stated reasons was that 'characters died'.

Not surprisingly, Furman enjoys drinking Corona and killing off hordes of background characters.

Fiction

Unicron Trilogy continuity

The flesh creature known as Simon Furman pleases Unicron with his accurate depiction of Unicron's omnipotent magnificence. The End

In the final issue of Dreamwave's Armada comic, Unicron used his ability to gaze across parallel dimensions into a world where he was only a comic-book character, and answer letters from readers. He was apparently unaware this issue ended with his defeat.

Titan Magazines

According to Starscream, Furman is a Maximal disguised as a "strategically shaved ape. Especially on his head." Transformers Comic issue 7

Comic Bibliography

• Marvel UK #13-21, 29-32, 45-50, 59-65, 74-88, 96-104, 113-120, 125, 130-139, 146-153, 160-161, 164-173, 182-189, 198-205, 213-332
• Marvel US #56-80
• Generation 2 #1-12
• The War Within vol.1 #1-6, vol.2 #1-6, vol.3 #1-3
• Armada #6-18
• Energon #19-30
• Perspective, from the Dreamwave Summer Special
• Infiltration #0-6
• Stormbringer #1-4
• The Gathering #1-4
• Spotlight #1-6,8,9
• Escalation #1-6
• Prime Directives #1-4 (with Chris Ryall)
• Transformers (UK) #1-Present