Furman Turns Japanese!

By John Freeman on June 28, 2009

After years of writing Transformers stories for the UK and US, writer Simon Furman has finally broken into one of the most notoriously difficult comic markets: Japan.

This is no small achievement: very few Westerners have broken into the world of Japanese manga publishing in recent years. (Off the top of my head so early on a Sunday I can only think of Sean Michael Wilson right now)

Simon’s first all-Japanese writing credit comes courtesy of Million Publishing (Japanese site), publishers of the Transformers: Generations 2009 magazine series.

“Volume 3 of said publication features an all-new two-page comic strip story written by me with art by fan favourite Guido Guidi,” Simon reveals via his blog.

“Interestingly, and with a kind of uncanny synergy, the story idea I initially submitted to Million Publishing employed elements from the two previous manga strips (in Transformers: Generations 2009 #1 & 2), to such an extent we were able to fuse everything together in a way that continues and wraps up that storyline. I hadn’t even seen those strips, let alone understood them, when I first pitched the idea to Million, so it all fitted together oh so very neatly.

•Transformers: Generations 2009 vol 3 is out later this year. More info via Simon’s blog

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.