Introduction

Search for Treasure Under the Sea had to have been written by someone. That someone was none other than writing luminary Dwight Jon Zimmerman. A quick websearch reveals that he worked on Marvel Comics Presents, some Spidey stuff and various books and bits and pieces. He's worked as both a writer and an editor. As far as I can tell, though, Search For Treasure Under the Sea is one of his earliest pieces of work.

Carlos Garzon, one of the artists on Search for Treasure appears to be an inker, having worked on a handful of Spidey issues, Flash Gordon (!) and a few other bits and pieces.

Joe Giello, the other artist on the book I could find very little on, but it appears before he did Search for Treasure he worked on at least one Batman book as an artist.

In my copy of Search for Treasure Under the Sea there is another uncredited artist who did a bunch of interesting work. You see, my copy of Search for Treasure is second hand, and was previously owned by a creative little colourist who refused to sign his name to the book. So, while most of the images in this little archive are black and white, some will be in glorious full colour to hi-light the talents of our mysterious, uncredited colourist. Whoever you are, I salute you.

Part One: Introducing Our Cast

Before the story proper got underway Search for Treasure Under the Sea was kind enough to give a few pages of roll-call to first they introduced the various Autobots who would be appearing in the story. Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Wheeljack, Cliffjumper, Brawn and Hound. They also introduced the two human sidekicks, Spike and Sparkplug.

Here's an example of how nice it is to have a colourist on the  project. Even though they're billed as Spike and Sparkplug in this story they're drawn like their comic counterparts, not their cartoon ones. Our mystery colourist even went so far as to giving Spike a pink shirt, just like the comics' Buster. (Okay, he also gave Spike purple hair, but the guy was obviously a kid.)

The art here is incredibly toy-art based, except for Optimus Prime. It appears that the artists may have had Optimus Prime character models, even if all they had for the other Autobots was box art.

Having introduced the Autobots, they of course went on to introduce the cast of nefarious Decepticons. The character blurbs here are very informative. Megatron is so moody that he actually gets meaner when he transforms. Starscream and Thundercracker are mean too, but Ravage is super-sneaky (especially when he's a jaguar) and Laserbeak? coward! Rumble and Soundwave didn't even get that much characterisation.

Again, there's only so many character model sheets these artists were given. Starscream's certainly, and an early Megatron charcter model sheet (notice the shape of Megatron's head, and that his Fusion Cannon has a handle and trigger). Ravage, Laserbeak, Soundwave and Rumble, however, are completely taken from their box art.

Now that the cast has been introduced, there's a pop quiz to see how much attention you were paying.

Brilliant as he is as a colourist, the previous owner of this book wasn't that great at working out who was who. There's no way to tell if he got Starscream and Thundercracker right, but we do know he struggled a bit on a few of the others.

Part Two: The Saga Begins

It's the Decepticons, as always, who get things rolling. "The Decepticons must rule the Earth!" snarls Megatron. Brilliant, he's got a goal, now what kind of plan do you think the Decepticons will be putting into motion?

That's right! Megatron's plan for conquest is capitalism!! And who said that the original Megatron was an idiot? Capitalism is the perfect way to take over the world, just ask Bill Gates. Unfortunately, Megatron's grasp of geography is not so good. That coast you're pointing at, Megatron is the middle of Alaska! Fortunately, one can forgive his intellectual shortcomings, because he definitely has the power to crush generic robot toys, doesn't he?

Part Three: A Spy in our Midst!

As Megatron plots his capitalist conquest of the world, I know what you're all wondering? Who can stop this proliferation of free trade?! Only one group, the highly suspect commies known as, the Autobots!

Bumblebee, hiding outside what appears to be the Decepticons' townhouse, was the perfect Autobot to overhear the plot and tell Optimus Prime and the others exactly what's going on. Unfortunately for him, it appears he has smoke coming out of his back tyres. That's the sort of problem one really needs to see to.

Soundwave, of course, knew that Bumblebee was there. Why he waits until the Autobot is driving away from the Decepticon town house to tell Megatron is beyond me. As for Bumblebee, his report on the Decepticons' activities ("The Decepticons are going to try to rule the earth!") seems a little bit like 'old news' to me.

Part Four: The Fantastic Voyage

I know what you're thinking at this point, how the heck are the Autobots possibly going to stop the Decepticons? After all, the Decepticons are going to the coast of Alaska to get sunken gold. We've seen the cast of characters, neither Seaspray or Broadside are anywhere to be seen. How the heck are the Autobots going to get to the Decepticons when they're out at sea.

It's pretty fortunate that Wheeljack just happened to be building the Titanic at the time.

I have no idea what to say about this sequence. Ravage jumps, out of nowhere, onto the ship. Then he jumps through a hologram. Obviously that sorta thing gives Ravage the willies because he promptly retreats. Weird.

Part Five: 10,000 Bumblebees Under the Sea (or Bumblebee Finally Gets to Use a Tech Spec Power.)

It's really funny. Bumblebee is one of those characters who appears in everything in Generation 1. Yet despite that, Bumblebee never got used to the full potential outlined in his tech specs. In fact, according to Bumblebee's tech specs he is the only aquatic Autobot in the first year. That's right, Bumblebee's tech specs state that he's an undersea specialist.

In the cartoon he gets shortchanged in this area. Everyone in the cartoon can operate under the water. In the comics, where underwater specialisation seemed more important Bumblebee still never got to flex his "I'm the underwater guy" muscles. Search For Treasure Under the Sea is the only case I know of, of Bumblebee being chosen for a mission because he's the only Autobot who operates well under water.

At this point I bet you're a little confused. First you had to work out that difficult undersea puzzle. Whale, seaweed or treasure chest? But that little test of wits is nothing compared to the mindboggling weirdness on the next page. Bumblebee sees a cassette tape and player on the sea floor and automatically thinks, "I bet Buster would like that casette and casette player!"

Bumblebee you're not thinking this through!! Even if we put aside the weirdness of you thinking that cassette player and tape are a perfect gift for your human friend... your human friend is named Spike!! Maybe Bumblebee isn't the underwater specialist we thought?

Robots in disguise, right? I think this is taking it a little bit far. What's that? You think they could take it further... just wait a few pages. Until then, here's a little maze for you to work out. Don't worry, hard as it is, the previous owner of the book already filled it out.

Okay... that's a little weird. Usually in these books when you "lead a character through a maze" it's the good guys, not the bad guys. You'd think if you were really on Bumblebee's side you'd lead Soundwave and Rumble right into the giant octopus. (And no, it doesn't say "a special maze Megatron made to tool the Autobots". It says "fool the Autobots", it's just my copy has some f damage.)

Part Six: The Lair of Evil

Let's recap for a moment. Megatron, in a moment of brilliance decided that the best way to conquer the earth is capitalism. Can't disagree with him there, but I gotta question his idea to get gold from the Alaskan gold rush. But even if we accept that part of the premise of the story...

Why was there so much pirate booty laying around after the Alaskan gold rush?! Sitting like Smaug on his mound of treasure, Megatron doesn't even contemplate the fact that the Alaskans digging up, then sinking to the bottom of the ocean Black Beard's treasure. No, he's more worried about how the heck they're going to get all this gold out for sale.

Phew. Fortunately that truck arrived right on ti... wait a second!! There's something mighty suspicious about that truck!!

I'm not even going to ask how the Autobots discovered the Decepticons' undersea base, drove there, then got inside without anyone knowing. It probably has to do with the fact that Megatron had his communications officer sitting on the bottom of the ocean waiting for Bumblebee. Good thinking Megatron. I mean, c'mon man! Why weren't you suspicious?! A truck comes driving into your secret lair and you tell the others to load it up with gold?! You're a twit! Even a 4 year old can tell that's Optimus, dammit!!

Okay, I'm vented.

Part Six: Air Attack!

Megatron isn't a total ninny. Sure, he left his most useful operative languishing on the bottom of the ocean. Sure, he can't tell Optimus Prime from any other random truck that might have driven into his hidden lair during the night. But at least when he's in trouble he knows to call in the air support...

I'm not sure when the Decepticons ended up in Idaho. I suppose that they could really be just near the coast in Alaska. The maze you helped Soundwave and Rumble through might have led to a lair on land. That doesn't look to me like Alaska, though.

It's a good thing Megatron has air support to blow his own hidden base to smithereens. It's that kind of planning that makes me really respect him as a leader. Oh well, surely it's all worth it if he kills a few Autobots, right?

Part Seven: The Final Battle!!

This is it, the final exciting moments! At last, some of the more obscure cast members will have a chance to shine, in an all-out scrap for supremacy. Capitalism versus socialism, the final showdown. Who will win? Well, first the Autobots need to get out of the Decepticons' hidden base so they can fight them.

In a brilliant piece of colouring here, we have Cliffjumper (who like Bumblebee before him is smoking at the tyres) coloured as Bumblebee. This could be a mistake, or it could be a deliberate reference to the fact that Cliffjumper was released both in red and yellow. The fact that Thundercracker seems to be coloured as Action Master Thundercracker lends credence to this theory. It's hard to tell. Maybe one day our mystery colourist will get in contact with us, and tell us. 

Fortunately, even though the climactic battle is upon us there's time for a totally inane little puzzle. Unlike all the other ones in the book they didn't even try to fit this last puzzle into the story.

And here it is, the turning point in the battle. The Decepticons' mightiest weapon comes into action. The Earthquakes of rumble! This is bad news for the Autobots, surely. In fact it's so intimidating that Laserbeak is taking off...

Yep. Definitely the turning point in the battle. Rumble has such bad aim with his earthquake that even Laserbeak is being dragged down!

"The Decepticons will be back! But, we will stop them because we are the Autobots!" Amen brother. What an inspiring way to end a masterpiece of Transformers fiction.

Part Eight: The Wrap Up

So there you have it. A glorious story, incredible art, and the bonus of randomly coloured pages. Okay, so it's not perfect, but it is very interesting isn't it?

Would you believe slightly interesting?

Errr... here's the answers page, in case you weren't able to work out some of the puzzles by yourself.

[THE ARCHIVE] [MAIN PAGE]