Europe's largest Transformers convention, Auto Assembly 2009, taking place over the weekend of 15th-16th August at the Holiday Inn Birmingham City Centre in Birmingham, England is once again expanding it's ever increasing line-up of guests...

We are pleased to announce that IDW and Titan Books comic artist Nick Roche will be joining us for his first ever Auto Assembly appearance as our TWELFTH guest!

Nick will be actively involved with Auto Assembly 2009 throughout the weekend and as well as being a part of one of our two comic panels, he will be joining our other comic guests in the guest area meeting fans throughout the weekend signing autographs. Here, you'll be able to meet Nick to talk to him about his work, and he will also be doing sketches for fans!

If that wasn't enough, he will be donating some original artwork for our charity auction and Nick will also be one of the artists involved in our art workshops taking place during the convention so if you have ever wanted to draw Transformers like the professionals, here's your chance to find out how!!

Nick isn't the only one of our comic guests to be actively involved in the convention in this way. As well as taking part in the comic panels, many of our other comic guests will be doing more during the weekend...

SIMON WILLIAMS

Simon will be providing the artwork for one of the convention exclusive postcards that will be given away free to all attendees and once again, Simon will be on hand all weekend doing sketches for fans. But that's not all... Simon will also be bringing artwork for sale, prints and more besides.

ANDREW WILDMAN

Andrew will be doing the artwork for our other exclusive postcard, doing sketches for fans and bringing some original artwork for sale.

LIAM SHALLOO

Liam will be playing host to one of our comic art colouring workshops taking place during the weekend, and he will also be bringing prints with him for sale.
 
JASON CARDY and KAT NICHOLSON

Jason and Kat will be bringing a selection of brand new prints and badges for sale and Kat will be doing sketches for fans of Transformers Animated characters. We are also hoping that they will be involved in the convention in some other way too...

Please note that there may be charges from some of our artists for sketches and some may insist that they are personalised. We will bring you more updates on our other comic guests as we get them.

Don't forget, you can find full details about the convention and the the new Auto Assembly Shop where you can buy back issues of our convention magazine, pin badges and more on the website at www.autoassembly.org.uk

We have some more MASSIVE announcements over the next few days including details of our second voice actor and much more besides so keep your eyes on all the major forums and websites! As always, we hope to see as many of you as possible in August.

Simon and Sven
Auto Assembly
 
web: www.autoassembly.org.uk
forum: http://autoassembly.proboards7.com
email: autoassembly@aol.com
tel: +44 (0)7804 951406

We received our copy of Transformers Animated issue 3 today from Titan Magazines.  The comic contains two stories as usual an introduces another new character, Crossroads.   Crossroads is a human super villain character, whom the Autobots send Prowl, Bulkhead and Afterburn after him.

The story uses an interesting "focus" technique in some of the frames, which works well, and the colouring of Jason Cardy is top notch (as always).  The drawings, by TFA artist John McCrea follow the previous issues, and there is still something odd about the way Afterburn is drawn.  The style is unique to the UK Transformers Animated comic, giving it it's own style.

Issue 3 of the UK Transformers Animated Comic is released UK wide tomorrow.

Simon Furman has updated his blog regarding issue 16 of the UK Transformers Comic by Titan Books.  The issue, which is out on the 11th September features the return of Transformers Movie Jazz!

pulse-pounding, knee-trembling, trouser-shattering (apologies to Nick Roche) TransformersSaga of the All Spark too, as that reprints/repackages the UK strips for the US market), which features an all-new UK originated strip — ‘Dark Spark,’ written by me and drawn by Jeremy Tiongson (colour by Jason Cardy). comic (though look out for IDW’s series

If you’ve been following the ‘Twilight’s Last Gleaming’/'Aftermath’ storyline you’ll know we’re knee-deep in the alternate Transformers movie universe by now, rolling out and onwards from a not-so-happy ending to 2007’s big screen opus. Well, in ‘Aftermath,’ a precious fragment of the All Spark was recovered by Skyblast and it’s now in the hands of Autobot medic Ratchet, who’s busy weighing up the pros and cons of some fairly drastic action regarding that very fragment. Sure, it might give them a much needed edge in the ongoing battle against Starscream’s Decepticons, but how high a price might they have to pay for victory? The All Spark was well and truly corrupted by Megatron’s malign influence, and any Autobot given a new lease of life, may not be an ally for long. Get ready for the return (maybe happy, maybe not) of… Jazz! Yep, ‘Autobot’ Jazz is back, and the repercussions for, well, just about everyone, will be huge! And there’s more!

More strip (Beast Wars: The Ascending, Megatron: Origin), more features, more competitions, more news and previews of the October debuting UK-exclusive Transformers Animated comic and a fantastic FREE Rotor Blaze Battle Launcher. Phew!

Auto Assembly have announced two more guests, Jason Cardy and Kat Nicholson.

Comic colourists Jason Cardy and, Kat Nicholson will be joining the likes of G1 voice actor Dan Gilvezan, TF comics legends Simon Furman, Geoff Senior and Andrew Wildman and 'Combat Colin' and 'Robocapers' creator Lew Stringer at this year's convention at the Clarendon Suites, Birmingham on Saturday 2nd August.

Simon Furman has updated his blog with a post regarding the 10th issue of the UK Transformers comic. Artwork by Jeremy Tiongson, colours by Jason Cardy. Here's a quote

"As bleak as things were looking for the Autobots (and pretty much the whole of humankind) in part 1, in part 2 things get that much worse. The Autobot counter-offensive against the ruling Decepticons looks to be derailed before it’s even started, with Bumblebee and Mikaela both hunted (by Megatron and Frenzy respectively) inside the former Sector 7/Hoover dam base and the moon-based Autobot reinforcements compromised, and Earth’s military response targeted (by Starscream and Dreadwing). Only Ratchet and Ironhide’s side of the main strike seems still to be proceeding on course, but (realistically) how long can that last? Chaos, carnage, all-out action, things haven’t been this epic since the days of Marvel UK. Whatever you do, don’t miss it."

You can read the post in full as well as see a preview image, if its been re-uploaded by then, over at Simon's blog.