Merry Christmas

 

Middle Grade OGN Series TRANSFORMERS: WORST BOT EVER from Skybound Comet

Skybound, Image & Hasbro Announce New Middle Grade OGN Series TRANSFORMERS: WORST BOT EVER
by Brian “Smitty” Smith and Marz Jr.

The Graphic Novel Will Be the First TRANSFORMERS Book Published Under the Young Readers Imprint Skybound Comet

 

TRANSFORMERS: Worst Bot Ever: Meet Ballpoint
(ISBN: 978-1-5343-2799-3 | SRP $12.99
July 9, 2025
Skybound Comet
At booksellers, along with digital platforms including Amazon Kindle, Apple Books, and Google Play on Tuesday July 22, 2025.
The Decepticons are known for being bad...but Ballpoint is truly the worst –the biggest failure of them all. After the latest attempt to take down the Autobots goes horribly wrong, he’s kicked out of the Decepticons, for good! Will Ballpoint be able to prove his worth by defeating the Autobots all by himself? Or will he keep failing and find that being the “best” is...More than Meets the Eye?

Middle grade readers will be introduced to the misadventures of the bot who is mightier than the sword when TRANSFORMERS: Worst Bot Ever: Meet Ballpoint hits stores next July.

ABOUT TRANSFORMERS
The TRANSFORMERS brand is a global powerhouse franchise with millions of fans around the world. Since 1984, the battle between the Autobots and Decepticons has come to life in movies, TV shows, comic books, innovative toys, and digital media, bringing incredible "MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE" experiences to fans of all ages. The brand's enduring connection is made possible by its rich storytelling and characters: the heroic Autobots who seek to protect all life, and the evil Decepticons who seek to conquer the universe. The TRANSFORMERS brand is a Hasbro franchise.

ABOUT HASBRO
Hasbro is a leading toy and game company whose mission is to entertain and connect generations of fans through the wonder of storytelling and exhilaration of play. Hasbro delivers play experiences for fans of all ages around the world, through toys, games, licensed consumer products, digital games and services, location-based entertainment, film, TV, and more. With a portfolio of over 1,800 iconic brands including MAGIC: THE GATHERING, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, Hasbro Gaming, NERF, TRANSFORMERS, PLAY-DOH and PEPPA PIG, as well as premier partner brands, Hasbro brings fans together wherever they are, from tabletop to screen.

Hasbro is guided by our Purpose to create joy and community for all people around the world, one game, one toy, one story at a time. For more than a decade, Hasbro has been consistently recognized for its corporate citizenship, including being named one of the 100 Best Corporate Citizens by 3BL Media, one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies by Ethisphere Institute and one of the 50 Most Community-Minded Companies in the U.S. by the Civic 50. For more information, visit https://corporate.hasbro.com or @Hasbro on LinkedIn.

 

Movie Review: Transformers: The Last Knight (2017)

Transformers: The Last Knight (2017)

The Transformers leap into action once more in this sequel from Paramount Pictures
Rating: PG-13 (for violence and intense sequences of sci-fi action, language, and some innuendo)

Jun 21, 2017

Directed By: Michael Bay

Written By: Ken Nolan, Matt Holloway, Art Marcum
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Anthony Hopkins, Josh Duhamel, Laura Haddock, Isabela Moner, Tyrese Gibson

 Genre: Action & Adventure, Drama, Science Fiction & Fantasy

Runtime: 2h 29m

Paramount Pictures

Most everyone knows about my Optimus Prime crush, so anytime my main metal man is on the big screen I gotta go. 

What a disappointment...again. The last movie had transforming dinosaurs! How could they mess that up...but they did. It seemed like with The Last Knight, they decided to just string together lots of high quality action sequences and explosions (don't get me wrong, I LOVE action and explosions) and maybe the audience won't notice the lame-a$$ plot. Transformers and King Arthur? Really? And it is time to let Megan Fox go, Mr. Bay. Casting an adult and young adult version of her was a bit much.

The Last Knight was 2 hours and 29 minutes long...159 minutes...I was visually exhausted and bored during the big show down...and this was when my hard piece of Autobot kicked some serious Decepticon butt. O.P. (that's what I call him) didn't get a lot of screen time. A little at the beginning when the floating tentacle lady hypnotized him and then at the end when Bumble Bee's magical voice saved him... There were some kids in the audience and they laughed a lot. The humor in the first two movies was perfect. In The Last Knight all the jokes fell flat and were poorly timed.

Seeing the movie on the big screen will let you appreciate the special effects but catch a matinee. Wait for it to show up for free on Netflix where you can fast forward. I wasn't happy with the movie but my husband gave it 3.5 sheep because of all the action. I'm not as forgiving.

2 1/2 "Going Medieval on you" Sheep

SharonS

Book Review: In Bed with the Transforming Alien Robot by Crystal Lattis

In Bed with the Transforming Alien Robot
by Crystal Lattis
Kindle Edition, 58 pages
Published November 19th 2014
Famous actress Lana Caine is tired of being objectified by men. Only Blaze, her undercover transforming alien robot housemate, seems to see her as more than just a sex symbol. She has finally realized just how much she wants him--in her life and in her body. But though they've been living together for a year as part of a top-secret government operation, Lana isn't sure of Blaze's feelings for her. If she opens herself up, will it mean rejection from the one alien she truly cares for? Or will Blaze return her love and take her on a journey that will leave them both breathless? (If alien robots actually breathed, that is.)

In Bed with the Transforming Alien Robot is a 15,000-word erotic transforming alien robot romance.

Okay, I admit I grabbed this book because of my Optimus Prime crush and I thought I would get a good laugh. But it surprised the hell out of me. First off, the writing is excellent. If it hadn’t been, I probably wouldn’t have gotten past the first chapter. The author made this believable. Secondly, while the premise was a bit silly, I became invested in the romance between Lana and Blaze. The transforming alien robots are pretty much Transformers, but they are made of a different material…something warm and firm to the touch *cough, cough.* I was also surprised that the story wasn’t just an excuse to write robot porn. The sex scenes aren’t any different than you’d find in mainstream romances.

We meet other transforming alien robots and each has their own story to be told. Yes, I am interested in reading those too. Like most short stories, the romance is a bit rushed to get the reader to the good parts, but that is the nature of the beast. If you are looking for something different and have crushed on the Transformers then grab this one.

The $2.99 price for a 58 page short is a bit much, but if you find it on sale or if you have amazon prime (it's free there) it’s worth it as a novelty read and you never know...you might find you like it and want to read the next book...which I totally did. Review coming soon.

3 1/2 "special reproductive probe" sheep

About the Author:

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Crystal Lattis/Audra North is a small but structurally complete author who lives in New England. She likes ice, enjoys scrapbooking, and has a crush on Brian Greene. In her spare time, she dreams of cybernetic meadows and machines of loving grace. Tessellations are her jam.

Movie Review: Transformers: Age of Extinction

TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION

PG-13, 2 hr. 37 min.
Action & Adventure, Science Fiction & Fantasy
Directed By: Michael Bay
Written By: Ehren Kruger
In Theaters: Jun 27, 2014 Wide
Paramount Pictures - Official Site

It begins after an epic battle left a great city torn, but with the world saved. As humanity picks up the pieces, a shadowy group reveals itself in an attempt to control the direction of history...while an ancient, powerful new menace sets Earth in its crosshairs. With help from a new cast of humans (led by Mark Wahlberg), Optimus Prime and the Autobots rise to meet their most fearsome challenge yet. In an incredible adventure, they are swept up in a war of good and.

I have never hidden my little crush on Optimus Prime. So I went to see Transformers 4 with expectation I would love it regardless! How wrong I was...it was such a disappointing movie.

First, it was unnecessarily long. You don't artistic lighting shots in a Transformer movie. 

Second, I can swallow a whole lot of bull crap in my action movies, but once you set up rules for your universe you can't change them because they were inconvenient. The "Evil" robot army was T-1000 capable. If you blew them up they would reform...until it was time for the big bad guy a** whooping. Suddenly they didn't do that anymore and could be blown up.

Third, Optimus "King Arthur" Prime. Pulling a sword from the immovable object, riding off on your dinosaur (in all fairness Arthur rode a horse, but you know what I mean). I will give props to the dinosaur transformers. I mean they came to Earth 60 million years ago so it wasn't like they could copy an 18-wheeler.

Fourth, what the heck happened to the bounty hunter's space ship prison at the end? It was kind of floating over Hong Kong with bad guys from all over the universe and the owner was dead...

Fifth, product placement shame. OMG. We aren't talking subtle. They beat you over the head with the stuff.

There are lots of other little things that bothered me, but I'll just start crying again. There are some funny scenes and the music was good.

Honestly I wouldn't waste your money at the theater unless you have kids that want to see it, but there is a good deal of language. Wait for the DVD.

2 "sad little" sheep

Sharon

Interview: Comic book and YA Writer Dan Jolley

Hello Dan! Welcome to the Flock. Gef is our go to comic reviewer and the only guy on the I Smell Sheep staff. He wanted to ask some very thoughtful and serious questions about comic stuff. He has no idea I am dropping in on his interview to ask my type of questions <G> Easier to ask forgiveness, right? His thought provoking questions are first…then mine, sorry ahead of time.

Gef's Review issue #1

Gef: Bloodhound saw its resurgence last year with Brass Knuckle Psychology released as a graphic novel through Dark Horse, after quite a few years since its original debut through DC. Now, we have this new five-issue series, Crowbar Medicine. I assume the working relationship with Dark Horse has been agreeable thus far?
Dan: It has indeed! It’s funny, Dark Horse was one of the first companies I sold anything to, waaaay back at the beginning of my career, right around the time the last dinosaurs were dying out. I did a few projects for them, but when both of the editors I knew there left the company, I pretty much did too. So I hadn’t worked for Dark Horse for about fifteen years. Then I got the chance to do some promotional comics to support the video game Prototype 2 (I was lead writer on that game), and the game studio approached Dark Horse, and all of a sudden I was back in the saddle with them, so to speak. That opened the door again, and I showed them Bloodhound, and they really went for it. Bloodhound is a much, much better fit at Dark Horse than it ever was at DC, and they really just let me tell whatever story I want to tell, so yeah, it’s been great.

Sharon's 5 sheep review of Prototype mini series

Gef: It seems like Bloodhound is one of several series to be resuscitated in one form or another, Joss Whedon's Serenity and Rob Thomas' Veronica Mars springing immediately to mind. Was Bloodhound's resurgence prompted by some outside force that got your wheels turning, or have you been clamoring for this for some time?
Dan: I don’t know that I’d say I’d been clamoring, but I definitely had not let go of the property in my head. It took a while to get the rights back from DC, but I finally reclaimed the property outright, and I was determined not to do it any disservice if I ever took it back to comics. So when Dark Horse offered to reprint the original series, and then do a whole new mini-series--AND had the budget to hire back the original creative team--I knew the time had come. Honestly, I don’t know that I’ll ever truly step away from Clev and Saffron. If there aren’t more comics, I’ll most likely start writing Bloodhound novels.


Gef: Despite his lack of superpowers, Clevenger seems like the LAST guy you want to mess with in this universe. Is there something particularly appealing to the idea of an "ordinary" man curbstomping superpowered foes? Sure, Batman does it, but Clevenger pulls it off minus all the nifty toys.
Dan: Definitely. The older I get, the more appealing I find telling stories about just plain ol’ people. I think about some of my favorite movies and TV shows, for instance, and I love stuff like Sling Blade and The Usual Suspects and The Wire. Not a hint of anything genre in any of those--just people faced with extraordinary (often extraordinarily bad) circumstances. I first designed Bloodhound to fit into the DC universe, and it’s really easy for an ordinary human to be a massive underdog in that world, when you’re facing people who can set your face on fire with a thought. So my goal, in creating Travis Clevenger, was to build a non-powered guy who could stand up to superhuman criminals. So Clev is big and intimidating, but the things that really set him apart are 1) he’s really smart, 2) nothing intimidates him, and 3) he takes a lot of punishment without giving up. (Practically every case he solves ends with him in the hospital.) But those are qualities anybody can have. You don’t have to be an orphaned alien with magic jewelry and billions of dollars to be intelligent and determined.

Gef: Up here in Canada, we can't help but marvel at the fetishism of firearms down south, and reading Crowbar Medicine, it's hard not to notice the gun control debate as an undercurrent with the ability to gain superpowers made available to everyday Americans. An AR-15 is one thing, but shooting fireballs out of your fists is quite another. When introducing politics like that into a comic book, are you tempted to offer your personal biases as the viewfinder or do you strive for a "fair and balanced" approach?
Dan: Well, first off, I don’t actually see much difference between an AR-15 and the ability to shoot fireballs out of your fists. Both can cause massive destruction and loss of life, and both can be horribly misused. That’s the thing that I find so profoundly disturbing about the gun situation in this country: you’re giving people the power of life and death. It might as well be the freaking avada kedavra spell from Harry Potter. You put an object in your hand, point it at someone, twitch your finger and a human being dies. Now, I know there are responsible gun owners out there. Do I, personally, think anyone should have guns outside of the military or the police? No. But I know there are people who respect them and know how to use them. My problem lies with all the bone-stupid homicidal lunatics who have the same access to that power of life and death as anyone else.
But that’s my own personal bias. Crowbar Medicine does have a point, yes, and if I’ve done my job properly, it’ll come through, but the last thing I want to do is just flatly tell someone what they should think. No one wants to be lectured to. So my goal with this mini-series is to entertain, and engage readers emotionally, and present them with a set of circumstances that, given the world it’s set in, could plausibly happen. They can draw from that whatever conclusion they want.


Gef: Bloodhound has a great look to complement the writing. How did the collaboration with Leonard Kirk, Robin Riggs, and Moose Baumann come about? Who takes the lead in that aspect of the book, you, Leonard, or one of Dark Horse's muckety-mucks?
Dan: Originally, Drew Johnson was supposed to draw Bloodhound, but before he could do more than a few character sketches he got yoinked away and given Wonder Woman. So I spent the better part of a year fleshing out the characters and the world and writing scripts all on my own, while my editor, Ivan Cohen, looked around for the perfect art team. He finally came back to me, months later, and said, “How about Leonard Kirk?” I was all for it, and I basically just trusted Ivan to fill out the rest of the team as well. So Ivan can take credit for assembling the Bloodhound artists.

The way I go about writing scripts is that I try to put in every bit of description that needs to be there, and none that doesn’t. I’m not of the Alan Moore school where, if you’ve got a scene in a library, you list all the titles on the shelf; I’ll just say something like, “They’re standing in an old-fashioned, very well-stocked library,” and let the artist interpret it from there. So once I knew Leonard had the right feel for the characters, I was basically able to just write the scripts, hand them over and watch Leonard and Robin and Moose do their magic. I have immense trust in their art and in Rob Leigh’s letters.

Gef: What other irons are in the fire for you through 2014?
Dan: Starting this month, I’ve got a six-issue Terminator mini-series coming out from Dark Horse, called “Enemy of My Enemy,” drawn by the hugely talented Jamal Igle and Ray Snyder. I’m also starting a couple of new projects at companies I haven’t worked for before, so that’s really exciting, but it also means I can’t say anything about them yet. (Typical for freelance work.)

*hands Dan a Moon Pie and some Kool-Aid. Cracks knuckles*

Sharon: Not only do you write horror comics, you also write young adult fiction and graphic novels. You have a YA series called Alex Unlimited about a young girl. Tell us a bit about the series and how you tap your inner girl?
Dan: Mmmmmm, Moon Pies…
Um. Yes! Alex Unlimited. That’s a story about an eighteen-year-old girl who works for a secret government agency, and who has the ability to summon different versions of herself from alternate realities. She can pick and choose, too, so whatever situation she’s in, she can find the version of herself best suited to handle it. Need a nuclear bomb disarmed? Alex can find a nuclear physicist with bomb squad training. Need an ancient language deciphered? She can summon an Alex who’s a brilliant linguist. The problem is that all of these alternate versions are super-smart, beautiful, tough, and talented, while Alex herself is a scrawny, thoroughly mediocre girl (at least in her own opinion). So she’s always stuck being her own sidekick.

Alex Unlimited started out as a pitch for a comic book at dear departed Tokyopop. Not only was it supposed to be a comic, but the main character was also originally a boy. Tokyopop loved the concept, but asked me if I’d be willing to change the protagonist to a girl. I said “sure.” Then they had trouble settling on an artist (Mike Norton did some character sketches, and I really wanted to work with him on it, but for some reason I don’t remember, Tokyopop didn’t go for it.) Eventually I just said, “Would you rather I just write this as prose?” They agreed, and suddenly I was a YA author.

I had no idea at the time how I was going to write a young female protagonist, but as my (now ex-) wife pointed out, apparently my inner child actually is a thirteen-year-old girl. Everything just sort of came naturally, and the books got a lot of praise from actual teenage girls who identified with Alex. Honestly, I don’t think it’s a male or female thing, I think I just wrote the character from the perspective of someone who spent a lot of time as a teenager being insecure. I do know a lot about that. 

Sharon: That is an incredible premise (grabbing an alternative ‘you’) would make a great TV show for either SyFy or Disney and helpful in household chores.
Dan: Funny you should mention that! ...Wait, let me check my NDA...oh. What I meant to say was, "Thanks, I really appreciate that." *ahem*
Sharon: Be sure to keep us updated on...nothing ;)

Sharon: When switching between the adult horror comics and the action YA stories, do you need to clear your head so you don’t have Travis (Bloodhound) wanting to get a facial or Alex decapitating an annoying version of herself?
Dan: Yeah, it’s kind of a mental gear-switching thing. It happened a good bit when I was writing the video games Transformers: Fall of Cybertron and Prototype 2 at the same time. The urge to have Optimus Prime refer to Megatron as a “motherf***ing son of a b****” got pretty strong.
Sharon: That would be so hawt…I mean cool…


Sharon: OMG! You wrote the Transformers games. Everyone here knows I have an unnatural attraction to Optimus Prime. You wouldn’t be able to hook a girl up? Maybe just get me an interview…make him declare his love for me in the next game?
Dan: I don’t know about hooking you up, but I am an awfully big Optimus Prime fan myself. I had a massive fanboy moment when I went out to L.A. to help with some of the voice recording sessions for the Transformers Prime game. Peter Cullen was there, and let me tell you, that guy is basically the voice of my whole childhood. He was Venger on the Dungeons & Dragons, cartoon, he was Eeyore in Winnie the Pooh, he was Commander Hawkins in Voltron (which I wrote for a while as a comic book for Devil’s Due), and there he was in the booth, recording Optimus Prime dialogue THAT I HAD WRITTEN. It was surreal. I got a photo.

*and now Sharon has a photo too! (do NOT judge me!)*

Sharon: I would have been all “say my name!” (You probably don’t get the Barron’s reference from Karen Marie Moning’s Fever Series, but let’s just say I would melt into a puddle right there) I had no idea he did Eeyore…that is disturbing considering the thoughts I have about that voice…
Dan: When you said, "Say my name," I immediately went to "Breaking Bad." ;)

Sharon: What is your guilty pleasure? Listening to Miley Cyrus? Eating French fries dipped in chocolate milkshakes? Dressing like Freddie Mercury (who rocks by the way!)
Dan: Sometimes I do find myself listening to some really horrible pop songs. It has a lot to do with the rhythm, I think; when I need to come up with ideas, I like to drive around aimlessly and listen to loud, aggressive music, stuff like Disturbed and White Zombie and Avenged Sevenfold. It does something good for my brainwaves. But now and again something like Katy Perry or Ke$sha or Lady Gaga finds its way in, and I’m thinking, “Ugh, Lady Gaga, time to change the channHEY THAT’S A CATCHY SONG.”

(Also, who DOESN’T like French fries dipped in chocolate milkshakes?)
Sharon: I knew I liked you. I have a driving play list with all of the above on it. I keep a notebook in my car because all my best ideas happen when I drive.

Sharon: At Christmas time do you have to endure Holly Jolly jokes? My daughter is named Holly. She feels your pain if you have.

Dan: Oh, not just at Christmas! I mean, definitely at Christmas, yes, but it’s not limited to that--I get a lot of Jolly Green Giant (don’t know if you have that Up North -- it’s a brand of canned vegetables), and Jolly Rancher (don’t know if you have that Up North, either -- if not, it’s a kind of candy), plus near where I grew up there was a restaurant called The Jolly Ox. It was a pain in the keister when I was a kid, all the way through high school, pretty much, but as soon as I got to college it was like someone flipped a magical switch somewhere. Instead of poking fun at it, I started hearing a lot of people say, “Wow, that’s such a cool name!” So now I’m fine with it. I was at the airport not long ago, and the TSA guy looking at my ticket said, “Are you JOLLY today?” And I grinned and said, “Yes I am!”
Sharon: Gef is from Canada. I am from NC, hence the Moonpies. I have a case of double decker ones in my pantry. True story.


Sharon: Thanks for much for taking the time to talk with us. Grab a weapon from the box, we’re going to give you a tour of our dungeon. Just don’t make eye contact with Jake…our dragon…

About the Author:

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I'm Dan Jolley. I write novels, comic books, children's books, video games, and the occasional screenplay.

Currently I'm working on my creator-owned comic book Bloodhound as well as a new Terminator mini-series called "Enemy of My Enemy," both at Dark Horse Comics. (You can read the first issue of BLOODHOUND for free by Clicking Here.)