If we're going with video game based comics, I'll throw out Swordquest by Thomas, Conway and Perez...



-M

I was about to say that I must have been the wrong age for this kind of thing by just a few years, because I couldn't think of anything from the late-60s to mid-70s, when I was at the age you were into toys. For example, we had GI Joe toys - well actually, cheap knock-off imitations of them, but I knew about GI Joe from the Christmas catalogues - but the GI Joe comics hadn't yet started at that time, and I never felt enugh nostalgia for them to be attracted when they did come out in the later 70s (was it?).

But then I remembered:




I can't say now after all this time which issues of the apparently very short-lived Hot Wheels series we had in the house but this is the only cover that looks vaguely familiar. I was really into the Hot Wheels toys in those years, and remember reading more than a few car-racing based comics. Something about Alex Toth's artwork, which I only came to know and recognise years later, makes me think that this was one of them, though I'd have to find and read it again to have a firmer idea.

By the time things like Rom and GI Joe and so on came out their toy-based origins wouldn't have been something to entice me. But though I ignored it back when it came out, I do plan to give the Micronauts a try one of these days, since I've always liked Michael Golden's art - and if I found out that Steranko or someone drew a GI Joe comic I'd be all over it!

Transformers was the first comic series I tried to collect regularly and Transformers #3 was the first Spider-Man comic I ever read.

I think G.I. Joe #24 drawn by Russ Heath and G.I.Joe Yearbook #2 drawn by Michael Golden were as good as it got.  I think J. Scott Campbell once cited the latter as his favourite comic of all time, not that that's much of a recommendation.

Rom and Micronauts never made it over here at this side of the ocean, so the comics were never published here and I can't tell anything about it. I'm interested in reading the original Rom, the recent reboot did nothing for me, probably because they couldn't use his cast and villains.

So I'm being very mainstream here with my 3 choices:

1. Transformers: The first comics were a bit iffy; (designs of some characters changed, the dutch translation insisted on calling Optimus Prime "Jetfire" for the first 4 issues. Then running into a problem when the actual Jetfire was introduced next issue), but Simon Furman's run was one of my favourite comics as a kid. Especially Grimlock became a much better character. I've not read most of the comics that came after they left Marvel, until they ended up at IDW. I read some of the new series through Humble Bundle (IDW's Phase 2 mostly, Phase 1 was still too much like the old comics) and found them to be really good comics. No longer bound to be toy commercials, the new creative teams got the establish the Transformers as a species: how do they procreate, how do they deal with being nearly immortal, what are their religions, philosophies and politics, why did the war start between Autobots and Decepticons, what happens if the war ends, were there Transformers that didn't fight in the war. All questions that are answered in the IDW comics.

2. Masters of the Universe: Never read the first DC version, but I have read many of the mini-comics, the Marvel comics (Star) and the comics published in the UK and in Italy by Panini. All of them had their own take and had differences. Star were toy commercials, most of the mini's were as well, but some of the mini-comics were really good. The Panini comics also had little to do with the toys and had some interesting stories were He-Man's victories came at a cost or were not victories at all. As a kid I picked elements of each that I loved. Dan Abnett's recent run in DC Comics did the same: it took elements of all these various comics, cartoon, toyline (even including some prototype toys that were never developed) and turned it into a coherent story that I loved (though I was disappointed by the last few issues).

3 G.I. Joe: only read the Marvel issues (loved how Larry Hama was really impressive in creating so many different characters that all filled their role. I love even the silly ones like the accountant that dresses up like a bird) and the IDW (Humble Bundle again and again comics that I found just plain good comics.) IDW: Dixon went overboard with making Cobra too dangerous. I understand that the cartoon made them sometimes laughably incompetent, but the story were a single Viper (the most basic grunt in Cobra's army) went toe-to-toe with Snake Eyes, the martial expert was too much. I hated how supercompetent Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow became in the Devil Due's comics that I tried to the point none of the other characters were of any use when either of those two were involved, but there is a line between nobody can beat Snake Eyes and the lowest grunt is a match for the expert. I loved IDW's The Last Laugh and the followup comics. Disliked Fred van Lente's reboot afterwards; IDW may have been getting too dark, but van Lente turned it into a not particular funny comedy book. Normally I like his work, but this was just a bad match.