Simon Furman
Simon Furman | |
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Born | Simon Christopher Francis Furman |
Nationality | British |
Area(s) | Writer, Editor |
Pseudonym(s) | Chris Francis |
Notable works | Transformers, Death's Head |
Simon Christopher Francis Furman is a British comic book writer best known for his work on the Transformers robot superhero franchise.
Companies
Furman's convention exclusive novella/comic serial, The Omega Point, includes an apocalyptic End of Days scenario for the Transformers, and a quest by one of the heroes to ask for help in the land of the dead.
Simon Furman still collaborates with regular Marvel UK Transformers artist, Andrew Wildman, as WildFur Productions.[1] Their most recent collaboration was on the Macromedia Flash online, interactive comic The Engine: Industrial Strength, which they produced with UK New Media expert Adam Jennings.
Away from Transformers, Furman wrote a Doctor Who audio adventure for Big Finish. The Axis of Insanity features the Fifth Doctor, and was published in 2004. He also contributed a number of stories starring Judge Dredd to the DC title Judge Dredd: Lawman of the Future, as well as one-off stories to Dredd's home title 2000 AD.
Furman is currently writing a new continuity of "Generation 1" Transformers comic books for IDW Publishing. Furman likes to tell his stories realistically with maps helping out his locations.[2] Furman often focuses his stories on responsibility.[3] He also wrote a Maximum Dinobots mini-series in 2008.[4]
Furman is also widely known as the co-creator and chief writer of Death's Head. Originally created as a "throwaway character" for use in the UK Transformers series,[5] the character instead received his own series of stories in various comics, becoming a staple of Marvel UK comics in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Furman's other work at Marvel Comics includes a 2-year run on original Alpha Flight comic book series (where he served as the final writer on the series), a concurrent Northstar mini-series featuring the Alpha Flight team member, a run on Marvel's RoboCop ongoing series in 1991, and the 2006 Annihilation: Ronan mini-series which tied into the Annihilation crossover.[6] In 2006, he returned to writing Death's Head, after a Marvel.com poll contest helped revive the character (now branded Death's Head 3.0) and was thus given a 5-issue storyarc in the Amazing Fantasy anthology series.[7]
In June 2007, he began writing Terminator 2: Infinity, based on Dynamite Entertainment's Terminator 2 license; he produced a sequel, Terminator: Revolution.[8] In the United Kingdom, he did original strips for the first two volumes of Titan Magazines' Transformers Comic UK title, as well as contributing to the strips for Titan's Torchwood magazine.
On 9 April 2011 Furman was one of 62 comics creators who appeared at the IGN stage at the Kapow! convention in London to set two Guinness World Records, the Fastest Production of a Comic Book, and Most Contributors to a Comic Book. With Guinness officials on hand to monitor their progress, writer Mark Millar began work at 9am scripting a 20-page black and white Superior comic book, with Furman and the other artists appearing on stage throughout the day to work on the pencils, inks, and lettering, including Dave Gibbons, Frank Quitely, John Romita Jr., Jock,[9] Doug Braithwaite, Ian Churchill, Olivier Coipel, Duncan Fegredo, David Lafuente, John McCrea, Sean Phillips and Liam Sharp,[10] who all drew a panel each, with regular Superior artist Leinil Yu creating the book's front cover. The book was completed in 11 hours, 19 minutes, and 38 seconds, and was published through Icon on 23 November 2011, with all royalties being donated to Yorkhill Children's Foundation.[9]
Bibliography
Comics work includes:
- Scream! No. 3 (1984)
- The Transformers (UK) #13–21, 29–32, 45–50, 59–65, 74–88, 96–104, 113–120, 125, 130–138, 146–153, 160–161, 164–173, 182–189, 198–205, 213–332
- Doctor Who Magazine #111–113, 117, 130–135, 140
- ThunderCats (UK) No. 10, 30–35
- Action Force (UK) No. 1, 2, 8, 14–17, 24–27, 47–50
- Action Force Monthly #2–6, 8–10, 14
- Dragon's Claws #1–10
- Death's Head #1–7, 9, 10,
- Death Metal #1–4
- The Transformers (USA) #56–80
- Brute Force#1–4
- RoboCop #12–23
- Sensational She-Hulk #24–27
- Alpha Flight #110–112,114–130
- What If...? Vol.3 #51,53,54,59,64–66,72,74,76
- Transformers: Generation 2 #1–12
- Northstar #1–4
- Transformers: The War Within vol.1 #1–6,vol.2 #1–6,vol.3 #1–3
- Transformers: Armada #6–18
- Transformers: Energon #19–30
- DOLL (English translation)
- Necrowar #1–3
- Transformers Summer Special Energon story
- The Transformers: Infiltration #0–6
- The Transformers: Stormbringer #1–4
- Beast Wars: The Gathering #1–4
- The Transformers: Spotlight vol.1 #1–5, vol.2 #1,3,4, vol.3 #1,2,4,5
- Amazing Fantasy # 16–20
- Toxic Crusaders No. 1
- Jetix Magazine (Writer for the Power Rangers SPD comic strip)
- The Transformers: Escalation #1–6
- Transformers: Movie Prequel #1–4 (with Chris Ryall)
- Terminator 2: Infinity #1–5
- Transformers Comic UK #1-current
- The Transformers: Devastation #1–6
- Beast Wars: The Ascending #1–4
- Beast Wars: Sourcebook #1–4 (with Ben Yee)
- Annihilation: Ronan (4-issue mini-series, Marvel Comics, 2005)
- The Transformers: Revelation #1–4
See also
Notes
- ^ "wildfur productions". Wildfur.net. Retrieved 26 December 2010.
- ^ "Simon Furman creating history Q&A". TFormers.com. Retrieved 14 October 2006.
- ^ Singh, Arune (19 October 2006). "Simon Furman keeps rollin out with "Transformers" at IDW". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved 16 February 2007.
- ^ Furman Talks “Maximum Dinobots” Archived 11 March 2014 at the Wayback Machine, Comic Book Resources, 9 December 2008
- ^ Furman, Simon (2006). "Freelance Peacekeeping Agent Open For Business (or how Death's Head came to be)", Death's Head Volume 1, Panini Publishing, ISBN 1-905239-34-3
- ^ Furman on Ronan The Accuser[permanent dead link], Newsarama, 17 February 2006
- ^ Pniccia on Death's Head 3.0 & Amfan Things to Come Archived 29 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine, Newsarama, 21 November 2006
- ^ "Furman on Making Dynamite's Terminator Revolutionary". Comic Book Resources. 20 October 2008
- ^ a b "Kapow! '11: Comic History Rewritten On The IGN Stage". IGN. 14 April 2011
- ^ "Guinness World Records at Kapow! Comic Con". Guinness World Records. 9 April 2011
Bibliography
- Simon Furman at the Grand Comics Database
- Simon Furman at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)
- 2000 AD profile
External links
- WildFur Productions
- "The Engine: Industrial Strength" Online Comic, written by Furman
- Simon Furman convention appearances on AnimeCons.com
- Simon Furman Interview at www.sci-fi-online.com