The Official How To Draw Transformers #1
ISBN: none
Publisher: Blackthorne Publishing
Author: Andrea LaFrance (words), Dennis Francis (new art)
Publication Date: November 1987
Series: The Official How To Draw Transformers (4 issues)
Price: $2.00 new, expect to pay $5 or so online.
Pagecount: 28
Color: No
Breasts: No
Short Impression: How to draw two characters in one pose each, plus alt
     mode.  More specifically, how to draw them like Don Perlin does.

     It's strange how Blackthorne managed to get the license to do both this
series and the 3D series in the late 80s, when the Marvel comic was still
going strong.  My theory is that Marvel's license only covered regular
stories, and Blackthorne got in around the edges of that with the "How To
Draw" and gimmicky 3D stuff.
     Anyway, a reader sent me a set of scans of #1 (thanks Steve!) so I could
add this to my reviews.  Dennis Francis does not seem to create the finished
pieces that are the product of this book, rather they're using some Don
Perlin pieces and Francis then shows how to build up to them.  I checked
through all the relevant Perlin-drawn issues and couldn't find these poses,
but they're clearly his style.  Perhaps he picked up a few bucks on the side
by providing these for Blackthorne.
     The first several pages go on about how to draw the basic male human
figure and head, with some very skimpy advice about blocking out poses and
proportions, then it's off to reproduce Perlin.  It's almost like a set of
excerpts from an actual How To Draw book.
     This issue has two of the big things that bug me about "how to draw"
books.  One, it's really just about reproducing specific pieces, with very
little (but just enough that you know it's there) advice on how to make your
own stuff.  Two, it assumes everyone has a ream of tracing paper and/or a
lightbox.  Draw a bunch of guide lines, then trace the stuff you want onto
another sheet, fiddle around more, trace again, etc.  Tracing paper may grow
on trees, but thanks to the processing cost it's not like the target audience
of kids is going to have easy access to it.
     In short, this is a bad and incomplete guide to drawing like one of the
less accomplished Transformers artists, without any real hints about how
transformation schemes work.  Don't waste the money people are asking for on
eBay for this.