Dinobot Hunt!

Part 2

Issue 48, 15 February 1986.

Written by: Simon Furman
Art by: Barry Kitson (pencils), Marc Griffiths (inks)
Colours by: Jeff Anderson
Letters by: Annie Halfacree
Cover art: Jeff Anderson

Plot: Windcharger, Gears and Cliffjumper make up B-team, sent into Northern California in search of Sludge. Thanks to spying by Laserbeak, though (last issue), and interrogation of a human, the Decepticons are also on the trail. Sludge, meanwhile, has calmed down and made a new friend, reporter Joy Meadows - who's convinced she has the story of the century on her hands.
Meanwhile, the Autobots find themself blamed for the trail of destruction the Decepticons have been blazing looking for the Dinobots. After escaping some water police, they find Sludge, who's been taken out by the Decepticons, who then take out the three Autobots themselves.

Brill!: Sludge is obviously the softie amongst the Dinobots - unless riled, as after the Decepticons assualt Joy, they find him almost impossible to subdue as he turns on them.

First appearances: TV reporter Joy Meadows, a friend to Sludge and inevitably involved in Transformer affairs.

Miserable glitches: Cliffjumper's glass-gas gun has been rechristened his 'glass gun' (which sounds a bit like an accident waiting to happen), and now actually fully turns things to glass instead of simply making them brittle. (Still, turning the police boat to glass was pretty funny.)

Back-up strip: Iron Man.

Notes: This story would later be reprinted in issue 7 of Transformers Collected Comics and later in Titan's Transformers - Dinobot Hunt trade paperback.
Obviously as far as the story is concerned, the Mini-Autobots are of no less standing than their full-sized brethren. Cliffjumper, Gears and Windcharger form a team here quite capably without any bigger Autobots joining them.

Comments: Maybe Transformers do know about sex after all. Cliffjumper can't help but stifle a laugh when Windcharger and Gears end up in an (ahem) compromising position in the swamp. And not only the little death but the big one in this issue - in a rare uncompromising view of mortality, we see the blood-leaking corpse of a human whom the Decepticons interrogated then wasted as they sought their prize. We often hear about the danger to the locals and the idea of human casualties (usually from Optimus Prime), but it's rare that we really see it happening.
I heard somewhere that Barry Kitson really doesn't like drawing Transformers much, which is a shame because this issue shows off that he's quite good at it, especially helped along by Marc Griffiths' inking.