#but if they fail to present vital infirmation or if said info is in some place outside of the story i have to hunt for

[lord-squiggletits]

I'm definitely not a member of the crowd comics cater to because the way they're published actually drives me bonkers.

Like, the two other media franchises I've ever loved nearly as much as transformers (Warcraft and the Star Wars sequels) were both almost criminal in their constant retconning and placing of vital lore information in books and shit that were completely separate from the actual story medium (a video game and movies respectively). I hate that shit. My philosophy towards media is that someone should be able to boot up the video game, start on book 1, watch movie 1, etc and just consume the freaking media without having to make constant detours to read author interviews, consult a wiki, find and read some random novel, etc etc. The story should be IN THE MAIN SERIES COMPLETELY and any side materials should only be window dressing that adds depth without becoming something absolutely essential that you won't understand the main story without. And of course I appreciate it when that story is actually a story and I'm not punished for caring about the lore by companies constantly retconning shit and making me feel like trying to understand the story is pointless since I know things will just get retconned next update anyways (looking HARD at you World of Warcraft).

So it's kinda ironic that I ended up getting into a comic series for Transformers. It just drives me a little nuts how comics have multiple authors, so I can hardly make story/thematic analyses because I can't assume the authors planned for certain future plot points, and there are constant retcons and dropped storylines, so I have to just ignore things or make them up in order to come up with coherent plot/character rationales, and if I REALLY want to understand the story I have to hunt for author interviews and behind the scenes factoids to explain why the hell something was dropped or suddenly changed mid story.

It just feels like a super hostile medium for anyone who isn't the 5% of die hard fans who will spend hours researching and combing through in-universe and real-world material to get the best reading of the story. The source material is just incredibly obtuse to read as a continual narrative sometimes without knowing something from cut content and author interviews. IDW1 isn't a series I could imagine casually picking up off the shelf and being able to understand things from just reading it.

I know some people say that comics isn't about reading 100% of the story and you can/should just pick the parts you like to consider canon, but I'm not really a fan of that approach. :/ I guess since I spent the majority of my life being a die-hard novel reader, I kind of expect continuous narratives in a simple 1-infinity format where the story is planned out and doesnt get published until it's been edited to shit for continuity and quality. I guess comics just aren't for me.