John Barber

John Barber is a freelance comic book writer and former editor in chief of IDW Publishing.

Before working for IDW, Barber published his own comics and also worked for Marvel, editing Wolverine comics and gaining familiarity with wrestling an erratic continuity. He then wrote all of IDW's Dark of the Moon comics, as well as three prequels to the movies to reconcile Chris Ryall, Simon Furman, and Chris Mowry's stories, Alan Dean Foster's novels, the films themselves and character bios!^[1]

He began his run on the 2005 IDW continuity as the author of the ongoing comic title The Transformers: Robots in Disguise, and was editor of RID's sister ongoing, The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye. In the process he waged a ceaseless war against continuity gaffes and errors, turning the most forgettable goofs into key plot points. He was also the co-writer of Transformers vs. G.I. Joe and continued his run from Robots in Disguise in the Optimus Prime title, all the while writing various other one-shots and side-projects. As of 2026, John has writing credits on 189 issues for IDW, making him the second most prolific Transformers writer of all time and maybe winning out on page count.

Barber was succeeded as senior editor by Denton J. Tipton, and as Hasbro Books Group Editor by Sarah Gaydos.^[2]

He later took over as editor in chief after Chris Ryall's departure before ultimately departing IDW in December 2021.^[3]

Writer

• Transformers: Sector 7
• Transformers: Foundation
• Transformers: Rising Storm
• Transformers: Dark of the Moon Movie Adaptation
  • Transformers: Convergence (text story)
• Cyberglyphics pack-in comics
• Transformers: The Death of Optimus Prime (with James Roberts)
• The Transformers: Robots in Disguise
• Transformers: Fall of Cybertron
• The Transformers Spotlight: Thundercracker
• The Transformers Spotlight: Bumblebee
• "Full of Fire!"
• "Dark Cybertron" (with James Roberts)
• Transformers vs. G.I. Joe (with Tom Scioli)
• The Transformers: Punishment
• Transformers: How to Ride a Dinobot!
• Angry Birds Transformers
• "Combiner Wars" (with Mairghread Scott)
• The Transformers: Redemption
• "The Thirteenth Day of Christmas", from The Transformers Holiday Special
• The Transformers: Titans Return (with Mairghread Scott and James Roberts)
• Revolution (Main story and the The Transformers tie-in)
• Optimus Prime
• Revolutionaries
• Schick Hydrobot and the Transformers
• Rom vs. Transformers: Shining Armor (with Christos Gage)
• The Transformers: Salvation
• Transformers: Bumblebee Movie Prequel
• Transformers: Unicron
• Star Trek vs. Transformers (with Mike Johnson)
• Transformers vs. The Terminator (with David Mariotte)

Convention appearances

• BotCon 2012
• BotCon 2013
• BotCon 2014
• SDCC 2018

External links

• John Barber's Twitter feed
• John Barber's page at The Comics Nation (archived)
• Press release of John Barber's promotion

Interviews

• March 2011—The Underbase
• July 2011—The Underbase
• July 2011—IDW forums
• July 2011—San Diego Comic-Con (Part 1, Part 2) (with Chris Ryall, Denton J. Tipton, Mike Costa, Livio Ramondelli, Carlos Guzman, Tom Waltz, and Brandon Kale)
• November 2011—The Underbase
• February 2012—The Underbase
• May 2012—CBR (with James Roberts)
• September 2012—Ain't It Cool News
• October 2012—Newsarama
• October 2012—Comicosity
• 2012—transformers2015
• November 2012—Facebook
• January 2013—Multiversity Comics (with James Roberts)
• May 2013—The Underbase (with Andrew Griffith)
• October 2013—Newsarama (with James Roberts)
• February 2014—Iacon Underground (with James Roberts)
• March 2014—Free Comic Book Day (with Tom Scioli, incomplete mirror)
• March 2014—Comics Alliance (with Tom Scioli)
• March 2014—CBR (with Tom Scioli)
• April 2014—IDW (with James Roberts and Mairghread Scott)
• June 2014—TransMissions
• June 2014—BotCon (with James Roberts, Mairghread Scott, Andrew Griffith, Saren Stone, and Livio Ramondelli)
• June 2014—Transmissions / The Underbase (with James Roberts and Mairghread Scott)
• July 2014—San Diego Comic-Con (with Mairghread Scott, Livio Ramondelli, Agnes Garbowska, Tom Scioli, Michael Kelly, Bobby Kernow, and Jim Zub)
• August 2014—Newsarama (with Mairghread Scott)
• December 2014—Comics Alliance (with Tom Scioli)
• February 2015—Women Write About Comics (with Mairghread Scott)
• February 2015—CBR (with Mairghread Scott)
• May 2015—Pixelated Geek
• February 2016—Newsarama
• March 2016—TransMissions (with James Roberts)
• July 2016—Comics Alliance (with James Roberts and Mairghread Scott)
• August 2016—Den of Geek (with James Roberts)
• August 2016—CBR (with Fico Ossio)
• September 2016—PREVIEWSworld
• December 2016—Comicosity (with Kei Zama)
• December 2016—CBR
• July 2017—TransMissions (with Alex Milne and Josh Perez)
• August 2017—Moonbase 2
• August 2017—Flickering Myth (with Steve Kurth
• November 2017—Action and Adventure
• March 2018—Free Comic Book Day (with Alex Milne)
• May 2018—TransMissions (with Alex Milne) (transcript)
• May 2018—The Beat
• June 2018—PREVIEWSworld
• July 2018—Moonbase 2
• August 2018—Action and Adventure
• March 2019—IGN (with Michael Kelly)
• May 2020—WonderCon@Home (with David Mariotte, Sam Maggs, Brian Ruckley, and Simon Furman)
• August 2020—Bluefin Brands (with David Mariotte, Sam Maggs, and Anna Malkova)
• August 2020—TransMissions (with Andrew Griffith)

References