| Simon Furman | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Simon Christopher Francis Furman (1961-03-22)22 March 1961 (age 64) Carshalton,Surrey, England |
| Area | Writer, Editor |
| Pseudonym | Chris Francis |
Notable works | Transformers,Death's Head |
Simon Christopher Francis Furman (born 22 March 1961[1]) is a Britishcomic book writer who is best known for his work onHasbro'sTransformers franchise, starting with writingMarvel Comics'sinitial comic book to promote the toyline worldwide, as well as foundations for bothDreamwave Production's andIDW Publishing's takes on theGeneration 1 minifranchise.
Furman was born inCarshalton,Surrey, and had no tertiary education.
Furman is best known for his work onThe Transformers comic byMarvel Comics. Furman took over as the writer of the Marvel USTransformers comic after its earlier writerBob Budiansky decided he had had enough of the comic. Marvel UK, Furman's employer at the time, invited Budiansky over to the UK, and Furman was chosen as Budiansky's successor over a lunch atCovent Garden inLondon.[2]
Furman started his run in the US comic cautiously at first, but later invented an origin story for theTransformers that involved an ancient struggle between the colossal godlike creator, Primus, and his counterpart, the colossal godlike destroyer,Unicron. The latter was borrowed from theTransformers movie, where he appeared with no given backstory (a conflicting origin for Unicron later came in the third season of the original Transformers cartoon series). According to Furman's origin story, The Transformers were a creation of Primus as a warrior race who were to be the last line of defence against Unicron. This origin differs from the third season of the cartoon series, where the Transformers were originally created to be robot servants of the alienQuintessons, who often sold them to other races.
Aside from the creation myth, mythological underpinnings can be found in several of his stories such as theMatrix Quest storyline, where theAutobots andDecepticons search for theCreation Matrix, a powerful object constructed by Primus.
Furman'sTransformers: Generation 2 plot-line in 1993 introduced the characters Jhiaxus andLiege Maximo, one of the first Transformers. Liege Maximo had killed the first Prime to steal the Matrix and claimed that the Decepticons descended from him. Since Transformers Generation 2 was cancelled after 12 issues, the Liege Maximo storyline was concluded in the convention-exclusive novellaAlignment.
Over ten years later, Furman was brought in by the now-defunct independent comics publisherDreamwave to write some of its Transformers comics, including "The War Within", a six issue prequel set on Cybertron before the Autobots and Decepticons took their battle to Earth. It spawned two sequels – "TWW: The Dark Ages" and "TWW: The Age Of Wrath" (uncompleted). His work on the Armada and Energon titles were also received better than the anime series from which they were based on. Furman was to have continued on with Dreamwave, but its contentious closure resulted in the premature end of the Energon and The War Within titles.
Furman has released a novella/comic serial,The Omega Point, which was available only at conventions.[citation needed]
Furman collaborates with regular Marvel UK Transformers artist,Andrew Wildman, as WildFur Productions.[3] Their most recent collaboration was on theMacromedia Flash online, interactive comicThe Engine: Industrial Strength, which they produced with UK New Media expertAdam Jennings.
Away from Transformers, Furman wrote aDoctor Who audio adventure forBig Finish.The Axis of Insanity features the Fifth Doctor, and was published in 2004. He also contributed a number of stories starringJudge Dredd to theDC titleJudge Dredd: Lawman of the Future, as well as one-off stories to Dredd's home title2000 AD.
Furman wrote a new continuity of "Generation 1" Transformers comic books forIDW Publishing. Furman likes to tell his stories realistically with maps helping out his locations.[4] Furman often focuses his stories on responsibility.[5] He also wrote aMaximum Dinobots mini-series in 2008.[6]
Furman is also widely known as the co-creator and chief writer ofDeath's Head. Originally created as a "throwaway character" for use in the UKTransformers series,[7] the character instead received his own series of stories in various comics, becoming a staple ofMarvel UK comics in the 1980s and early 1990s. Furman also wroteDragon's Claws for Marvel UK, and this title crossed over withDeath's Head.
Furman's other work atMarvel Comics includes a 2-year run on originalAlpha Flight comic book series (where he served as the final writer on the series), a concurrentNorthstar mini-series featuring the Alpha Flight team member, a run on Marvel'sRoboCop ongoing series in 1991, and the 2006Annihilation: Ronan mini-series which tied into theAnnihilation crossover.[8] In 2006, he returned to writingDeath'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 theAmazing Fantasy anthology series.[9]
In June 2007, he began writingTerminator 2: Infinity, based onDynamite Entertainment'sTerminator 2: Judgment Day license; he produced a sequel,Terminator: Revolution.[10] In the United Kingdom, he did original strips for the first two volumes ofTitan Magazines'Transformers Comic UK title, as well as contributing to the strips for Titan'sTorchwood magazine.
On 9 April 2011 Furman was one of 62 comics creators who appeared at theIGN stage at the Kapow! convention in London to set twoGuinness 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, writerMark Millar began work at 9am scripting a 20-page black and whiteSuperior comic book, with Furman and the other artists appearing on stage throughout the day to work on the pencils, inks, and lettering, includingDave Gibbons,Frank Quitely,John Romita Jr.,Jock,[11]Doug Braithwaite,Ian Churchill,Olivier Coipel,Duncan Fegredo,David Lafuente,John McCrea,Sean Phillips andLiam Sharp,[12] who all drew a panel each, with regularSuperior artistLeinil 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.[11]
In 2019 Furman started his own company, Forged By Fire Productions, for the purpose of publishing a comic,To the Death (co-created withGeoff Senior).
In 2020, his comicBrute Force became the subject of an episode ofMarvel 616 onDisney+. Actor and comedianPaul Scheer sets out to have it adapted into a television series for the streaming service, resulting in a 2 minute pilot animated by6 Point Harness. Furman himself is briefly interviewed by Scheer to explain his reason for working on the comic in the first place.
Comics work includes:
