#Mary Canada

[transformers-mosaic]

Transformers: Mosaic - "N.B.E.-ONE"

Earliest evidence posted on September 11th, 2007

Story - Matthew Simon Hessey Script, Colours, Letters - wadapan Art - Jeffrey Witty Edits - Mary Canada

deviantART

wada sez: Jeffrey Witty had shared his art process for this one on deviantART, but for whatever reason, the strip was never colored or lettered. I got in touch with Jeffrey to see if he could provide me the original script—and as it happened, he still had it! The story was clearly inspired by Simon Furman’s work on the Transformers: Movie Prequel comic series from IDW, but I felt like Hessey’s script itself did little more than recap the events we already know from that comic and from the film itself. As a huge fan of the first live-action movie with strong opinions on Megatron’s character, seeing as I’d be spending so much time coloring and lettering the strip, I decided I wanted to write my own version of the strip. I know that’s very cheeky of me, but after two years of working on this archive, I felt like I could have a little bit of archival misconduct as a treat. Of course, I’ve also lettered up Matthew’s original script, so you can read that version below as well and compare for yourself—which do you prefer? And after that, stay tuned for a full process breakdown and a much more in-depth commentary on the choices I made!

PANEL 1: (MEGATRON IS FALLING THROUGH THE ICE, SIMILAR PICTURE TO THE ONE OF HIM FALLING THROUGH THE ICE IN THE MOVIE PREQUEL COMIC) TEXT BOX (GREY): I am Megatron, leader of The Decepticons. I arrived on this pitiful planet in search of the Allspark millennia ago, but was denied at the last possible moment. Megatron: No! Not when I was so close! PANEL 2: (MEGATRON IS IN THE WATER, REACHING FOR THE HOLE IN THE ICE DESPERATELY) TEXT BOX (GREY): Upon my landing, the ground collapsed beneath my feet and I plunged into the icy cold liquid below, causing most of my primary systems to shut down. Leaving me only able to watch and wait as I was entombed. PANEL 3: (CLOSE UP OF THE GLASSES LYING IN THE ICE WITH THE ALLSPARK SYMBOLS ON IT) TEXT BOX (GREY): That is, until I was discovered by a biological entity. Using one of my last remaining vestiges of power, I burnt the location of the Allspark onto the creature’s visual enhancement pieces. PANEL 4: (HOOVER DAM IN THE BACKGROUND WITH A TRUCK AND A TRAILER LARGE ENOUGH TO CONTAIN MEGATRON DRIVING UP TO IT) TEXT BOX (GREY): I was moved between laboratories as these ‘humans’ experimented on me to allow their own pitiful understanding of technology to advance. But, eventually I came to be stored in a place known as ‘The Hoover Dam’. PANEL 5: (PICTURE OF THE ALLSPARK IN HOOVER DAM) TEXT BOX (GREY): It was here that for the first time in millennia I felt the call of the Allspark, it was so close that I could almost smell it, touch it even. Yet I was powerless to do anything about it. PANEL 6: (CLOSE UP ON MEGATRON’S FACE, WITH BRIGHT RED GLOWING EYES) TEXT BOX (GREY): But now, I feel my power slowly, but steadily, returning to me. Soon I will be free. Soon I will have the Allspark. And soon I shall have my revenge.

wada sez:

Whew, it’s so refreshing to step outside the confines of my usual single-paragraph commentary! This was a labour of love for me, inspired by Terry van Feleday’s singular opus of cinematic analysis, “I actually kind of appreciate the Transformers movies.” The essay on the first movie, towards its end, veers into straightup fanfiction, providing a very interesting interpretation of Megatron’s inner thoughts during his cryogenic sleep. I’ve mirrored the segment in question at the very end of this post; hopefully you can see how it formed the basis for my script.

The central conceit of van Feleday’s reading is that the cry of “I am Megatron!”, spoken in plain English, is actually addressed to the humans, a declaration of self-actualization following decades of callous dissection. In my script, I incorporate Hessey’s title into the strip diegetically, as one of many radio transmissions overheard by Megatron during his imprisonment. I wanted to gather all the epithets I could think of from the movie and its ancillary material, to build up a picture of how the humans view this impossible creature. I actually started out with way more, and pared it back because I felt it was cluttering the artwork too much!

It felt important to me to lean into the horror of Megatron’s paralysis, and to express that horror in a uniquely mechanical way. I also wanted to stay true to what I viewed as the core emotion of Hessey’s script—namely, the feeling of being so close to accomplishing a goal, yet being utterly powerless to do so.

The film implies that the AllSpark’s coordinates being seared onto Archibald Witwicky’s glasses is something that happens unconsciously, but Terry van Feleday instead interprets it as a deliberate attempt at communication on Megatron’s part.

I liked the idea of portraying this relationship between Megatron and the scientists, where they are unknowingly creating this horrific impression of human nature. With that interpretation in mind, Megatron’s characterisation after awakening in the film reads less menacingly, and honestly much more favourable towards the human characters such as Sam. I think that’s the real power of transformative works, to recontextualise an existing story and allow you to view it through a new lens.

In the final panel, I had to cheat a little with the script; obviously, the intention is that Megatron is frozen, which is why we have this extreme closeup; the omission of his mouth literally depicts him as a mute. I wanted to recontextualize the panel as being the exact moment where he’s breaking free, speaking for the first time on this planet. I hope you found it effective.

As for the colours... the first thing I wanted to point out was that Jeffrey appears to have inadvertently horizontally squished his art while inking it! Still, this was the highest-resolution version of the art, so I just rolled with it. So if you noticed that the cube in particular is very malproportioned, well, now you know why!

 I deliberately used very different tones between the left and the right columns, to help guide the reader’s eye down the page first; the lettering also straddles the panels to help in this respect. I do like Jeffrey’s composition, using the full height of the page to create this feeling of falling. The second panel in particular is very simple and effective, definitely the best in the piece.

In the first panel, I initially gave Megatron much cooler hues, but I revised it once I realised it was supposed to be referencing a specific sequence from the prequel comic, where Megatron’s armor is given a white-hot glow from re-entry; it’s this which melts the ice beneath his feet.

Anyway, here’s the extract from Terry van Feleday’s essay...

Imagine you just had the worst day of your life.

Well, it wasn’t really a day. Hours and days have no meaning for you. You have lived far too long to follow such microscopic temporal distinctions. You built an empire, and lived to see it dying. What can a day matter? A year?

How about a thousand?

Your planet was dying. Your species was dying. What can a king do, when his children are dying because there is nothing to eat? You knew the answer: The Allspark. You hung onto that fairy tale even as your followers declared it absurd, taking off immediately, all alone, as soon as there was a sign of it. No delays; Without the Allspark, everything you ever knew and loved would slowly wither away and die. And all you needed to do was move to a completely insignificant planet it found itself drawn to and pick it up. You would be more than a leader, you would be a hero, a savior. There would be no more need for war, no more fear of death and hunger, and no more dying younglings.

And then everything went wrong.

The moment still constantly plays before your eyes. You break into the planet’s atmosphere, and it nearly destroys your sensors. That vivid feeling of total disorientation, the hard, sudden impact, and the cold darkness that closed around you as the cavern froze around your unmoving body. You weren’t ready to die. You thought back to your planet, your people – you still had to save them. Had to. What would they do without you? The people saw their leader off, promising them to bring back utopia. Knowing you wouldn’t return would shatter their morale completely.

The years start piling on. You try to move, try to melt the ice, try to do anything, but the world only seems to become colder around you. Ten years. Fifty years. Five hundred years. Unable to move, with only your own thoughts and worries to give you company. Your mind can’t take it, and your sanity falls apart. Everything you thought and wished for slowly shatters into pieces, leaving only hate and chaos behind. Eight hundred years. Thousand years. After a while, you simply stop counting.

Then you hear a crash from the ceiling.

Through your delusional fever dreams, you aren’t sure if it is real or not, or what is truly happening. A tiny creature descends upon you, clearly primitive, shouting in rough, poorly-coordinated language, but perhaps not too dissimilar to you. You failed to bring the cube to your people – but maybe, maybe there is some slight chance that he can. So you tell him where he can find it, the only way you can right now. You rest a bit more easy. Perhaps it is time to rest after all.

But, more small creatures start filling your cavern. They begin chopping away at the ice that binds you, clumsily, but surely. They want to free you. For the first time in millennia, you feel just that little bit more warm - finally you will be able to return, to not be a useless statue, but the great hero you were destined to be. Your silent cheer fills your own head as the humans, as they call themselves, with great difficulty, raise you out of the cavern and put you onto a transport.

They seem bewildered with you. Curious. A little too curious, perhaps. As grateful as you are, you have a mission to attend to, and they will only get in the way. You are defrosted enough to stand up.

Panicked shouting erupts among the small ones. It seems they hadn’t expected you to still be alive. You notice too late the all-too-familiar cold creeping up your body, and suddenly you cannot move again. They froze you!

Burning rage fills your heart. What do they think they’re doing!? They lock you underground again, and, to your horror, begin to force parts of your body open, dissecting you alive.

You start picking up on their language, and slowly begin to understand what they’re saying. They’re just using you to expand their technology. These primitive insects have attached themselves to you like filthy parasites, using your suffering to create for themselves more meaningless conveniences. You should be their god. You wanted to save your own kind, but instead, you are treated like a chunk of garbage. And as a final injustice, the insult to the injury, they did not even treat you to a proper name.

Needless to say, as soon as you are free, someone will pay.

[biophonies]

when I drew this comic 3 years ago I had NO idea how far it would reach. I'm happy to finally share a corrected version with proper abbreviations, and even MORE state names of indigenous origin ♥️

however, the goal of this comic was to inspire people to do your OWN research on indigenous history. To question everything we have been taught, and everything that has been pointedly left out. This erasure, this “forgetting”, of history is not just of the past… it is happening now. - Across so-called Canada, the US, and US-occupied islands, native women are victims of murder at 10-12x the rate of non-native people, and are the most likely to go missing without being searched for by the law. - Native reservations have the highest rates of poverty in the US, with over HALF of tribal homes with no access to clean water (with more joining this list by the year) - Native people are 6-10x more likely to be unhoused than the rest of the population, and native teens suffer suicide rates higher than any other demographic. This list of modern day genocide goes on (thank you for compiling @theindigenousanarchist <3) and yet take a look at those environmental stats!

Native people manage to do SO much for the planet as a whole - thanklessly - and with all this stacked against them. Don't even get me started on kin fighting in south america. Could you imagine if there was help? #landback is resistance to genocide, and it is the key to saving our warming earth.

So look into it and the other hashtags, cuz a cartoon goose ain't a substitute for a proper education. Love to my grandparents who always kept a map of tribal territories of turtle island on their wall, to speaking on our Tsalagi & Saponi heritage. Love & solidarity forever, happy research, and happy #indigenouspeoplesday

LANDBACK.ORG

(Also, if you care to support the artist, I'm publishing a book ! and writing another - a fantastical afroindigenous graphic novel - that I post exclusively about with tons of other art on my patreon.)

[savagegood]

enemies to lovers? and they were teammates - and roommates? men’s sports have nothing on women’s sports

and this particular guy... cry harder (imagine if women's sports had the funding, visibility and accessibility men's sports are gifted):

[ourravenboys]

women’s hockey continues to be the gayest and most entertaining sport

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Buffy Sainte-Marie, a musician known for decades of Indigenous activism, says she's always been honest that she doesn't know where she is from or who her birth parents are ahead of a CBC News report that raises questions about her claims to First Nations ancestry.

"I don't know where I'm from or who my birth parents were, and I will never know. Which is why to be questioned in this way today is painful," Sainte-Marie said Thursday in a statement.

"To those who question my truth, I say with love, I know who I am."

Full article

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

[calix-onar0ll]

I think we can all agree that Poolverine/Deadclaws is canon and confirmed. That Honda Oddyssey really opened our eyes.

[hunterrrs]

a canadian hockey icon… and sidney crosby

also mpp talking about sid wanting to know about how things are going in women’s hockey:

“It’s always unbelievable for me to watch Crosby. How still at this age how dominant he is, but also off the ice, when we’re able to have a conversation, he actually cares where we’re at as a program, where we’re at as a league. He’s actually interested in that.”

[moodboardmix]

The Slate Residence, Ile Bizard, Montreal, Quebec, Canada,

Blouin Beauchamp Architectes,

Designer, Marie Lévesque,

Landscape architect, Guillaume Perreault,

Photos Raphaël Thibodeau

[umlewis]

"Mary McGee. A true trailblazer and pioneer in motorsport ✊ Mary started her racing career in sports cars in 1957, before switching to motorcycle racing Inspired to try desert racing on the advice of her friend and Hollywood icon Steve McQueen, Mary was the first woman to race the Baja 1000 and is the first and only woman to finish the Baja 500 solo Mary was a special guest of @lewishamilton for Sunday’s Canadian GP 🙏" - june 10, 2024 📷 @.mercedesamgf1 / instagram

[boydzoe]

WOMEN'S WORLDS 2024 CHAMPS!

[doingdathockey]

Have you ever interacted with a player from the NHL and had a moment where they’re meeting you, they’re fanboying about getting a chance to meet their favorite Canadian hockey icon?

I don’t think so but every time I have the chance to just be part of a conversation with an NHL player, and I’ve had a chance to meet Sidney Crosby and Jonathan Toews. Those are players that I’ve always admires throughout my career, but the way they are too, that’s something that really stuck with me. Not better than you. They wanted to know about how it’s going in women’s hockey. They wanted to know about our part of life as well. And that’s something that’s so much more meaningful when you have a chance to talk to these unbelievable hockey players and you see them on the ice and you see how they perform.

And it’s always unbelievable for me to watch Crosby. How still at this age how dominant he is, but also off the ice, when we’re able to have a conversation, he actually cares where we’re at as a program, where we’re at as a league. He’s actually interested in that. (x)

[prokopetz]

I need to subject everyone following this blog to exactly what CBC Radio thought was an appropriate wakeup call for everybody who had their alarm set to 7:15 this morning.

[justbackgroundnoise]

How many team Canada players can fit in the cold tub?

[christophermtaylor]

The Ring, Montreal

[365filmsbyauroranocte]

"Your fake tattoo is really well done."

Les faux tatouages (Pascal Plante, 2017)

[soffecoeur]

Testing day, Hockey Canada camp, September 2024