NYCC 2026: Robert Kirkman Describes The Unexpected Ways Fans Influence The Energon Universe
by Gary Catig
Robert Kirkman is the architect behind Skybound’s highly successful Energon Universe. He was there on day one writing the surprising reveal in Void Rivals #1. He continues his work on Void Rivals today along with also writing Transformers. Recently we spoke with Kirkman and artists Conor Hughes and Jason Howard at New York Comic Con 2026 about their respective comic series.
Part of the reason the Energon Universe is so popular is because it features fan favorite characters that tug at nostalgia. The creators of the comics aren’t any different. Howard shared his feelings illustrating the different Transformers:
“It’s fun. It is. It’s also a little challenging. Transformers have a distinct, especially in the G1 look, have a distinct boxy appearance. The challenge is keeping that while making them fluid and moving and robot feeling. It is fun to be like, I literally had this toy as a kid and would play with them, and now I’m drawing them. I’m looking up reference to make sure I get the details right and I’m seeing images of the box art and things like that from those toys. It’s cool.”
The Energon Universe is making an impact in pop culture. So much so, that creative collaborator Hasbro has begun making toys from the comic books. In the past there have been Autobot Jetfire, Agorrian Darak, and Zertonian Solila, Optimus Prime with Megatron Arm, and Shredhead. Kirkman shared that readers can expect even more on the way.
Transformers, G.I. Joe, M.A.S.K., Rom the Space Knight, and Micronauts all have a rich mythology and lore across different mediums. When the creators do their research for future narratives or character designs, Hasbro provides many resources including style guides, PDFs, size charts, and other references.
However, some of the ideas come from a surprising source: the fans. And, they do it in some unexpected ways.
Kirkman explained:
“I’ll be completely honest, the Wikipedia, or Transformers Wikis, and stuff that the fans have done really help us keep track of things. I’m always going to different things and doing research on websites, finding things. Lists of Cobra-La monsters. Lists of obscure G.I. Joe characters. The fans really are a tremendous resource for us making sure that we’re up to speed on various aspects of different iterations of Transformers and G.I. Joe. I’ve said it before but Predacon showed up in Void Rivals because I saw somebody online that was like, Robert, you should use this guy. I was like, yeah that guy’s cool as hell. I’m going to use that guy.”
He continued:
“I literally started writing him in the issue like maybe two weeks later, three weeks later. Then I saw him online after and he said, hey I wonder if this was me? It was you! It was. Then Predacon led to Lobotomaxx. Yeah, I was just like oh my gosh, I vaguely remembered that Star Brigade had done some alien stuff. But I hadn’t seen that stuff in years so it wasn’t top of mind. I’m always looking for aspects to put into Void Rivals that are familiar to fans because Void Rivals has so much new stuff. Having this treasure trove of space stuff that existed in the Star Brigade alone is very useful for me. So it’s possible that we’ll see more at some point.”
