THE TRANSFORMERS issue #10 is called "The Next Best Thing to Being There!" and had a cover date of November 1985.  The cover promises the "Dawn of the Devastator!" and showcases Devastator taking on several of the Autobots who feature in this story.  Kyle Baker's name is on the cover but it's arguably not his best work.  Something I've noticed about a lot of issues of the G1 comic book is that the cover art is horrible, even though the cover is supposed to catch the eye of a prospective buyer.  You would think an effort would be made to make the cover art *better* than the interior art, but this is very rarely the case with TRANSFORMERS.

Ricardo Villamonte is the penciler for this issue, a newcomer to TRANSFORMERS, with Brad Joyce inking the art (he would later go on to ilustrate several Big Looker storybooks).  Janice Chiang did the lettering for this issue, and her handwriting is very pleasing to the eye.  She enjoyed a brief run on the book around the late 20's and early 30's issues, and I associate her lettering with the comic almost as strongly as Rick Parker's.  

Our story opens with Shockwave gloating about the creation of a new generation of Decepticons, with the disembodied head of Optimus Prime waxing regretful about his unwilling role in the affair.  A running gag in this story involves two enslaved aerospace plant workers named Gabe and Ferdy, who serve to make cheeky editorial remarks about events as they unfold.  (They showed up last issue, and were the ones who unwittingly helped Soundwave, in tape deck mode, get into the aerospace factory.)

We watch as the new Decepticon brain modules are encoded, brought to life with the programming from the Creation Matrix.  The brain modules appear as tiny rectangular shapes in this issue, not the small pea-sized spheres that we'll see them as later.  But, the notion that Transformer brains are incredibly small owes its origins to this story, and it's an idea Budiansky would consistently use in later stories.  In real life, the more technology improves, the more it reduces in size, so in this manner Budiansky's vision for the Transformers was strangely portentious.  This story was written during a time when the most sophisticated, powerful computers were still the size of a small room, so the idea that a technologically sophisticated life form could have such a tiny processor was well within the real of science fiction.  It's arguably not nearly such a fantastic notion today, given that most of us carry portable computers in our pockets barely larger than an index card.

The factory robots at the aerospace plant begin to assemble the Constructicons, and we catch a glimpse of Scavenger's head before it's mounted on his frame.  (Gabe and Ferdy are, as ever, on hand to crack jokes about one of them getting his moustache singed.)  Once they're completed, the six Constructicons (Scavenger, Mixmaster, Long Haul, Bonecrusher, Scrapper, and Hook) are immediately sent to work, carrying out the orders programmed into them by Shockwave.  Scavenger appears to speak for the group, which is kind of an odd choice given his typical characterization as the most pathetic and puppy-like of the Constructicons.

Budiansky was largely at the mercy of Hasbro when it came to which toys were introduced into the comic book and when.  With that said, I like the idea that Shockwave ostensibly created them to be the literal architects of the Decepticon empire on Earth.  He specifically mentions that they were created to construct Decepticon bases, which makes perfect sense given the Decepticons' lack of a workable stronghold at this point.  So far, they've dwelled within a nuclear power station that they cut apart and pieced together backwards, and now the Blackrock aerospace plant (a move borne out of neccessity more than anything else).  I guess it's not surprising that Shockwave just wants a proper place to live.  (They don't even have a ship to live in like the Decepticons from the cartoon.)

Meanwhile, at the Ark, the Autobots are giving G.B. Blackrock a tour of their own home and former spacecraft.  The Autobots have resolved to hide their presence on Earth as much as they can, unlike the Decepticons, who seem to thrive upon causing panic and mayhem.  Jazz is undergoing repairs from his battle with Circuit Breaker, while Sunstreaker lays on a repair table, unconscious and woefully incomplete.  Jazz comes right out and says what we've all suspected for a while—that Sunstreaker is probably out of commission for good.  (The artwork in this issue is so weird.  Jazz is drawn in this entire sequence with disturbingly tiny yellow eyeballs directly underneath his optic visor.)

Huffer is supposed to be working on some ultra-frequency monitoring equipment, but instead he's been tinkering with the trans-dimensional radiowave scrambler.  Huffer's feeling a bit homesick, but this will enable the Autobots to contact planet Cybertron for the first time since the Ark crashed..  (This is a characterization that is perfectly in synch with Huffer's toy biography.  Once again, Budiansky's true and original vision for the characters rings true, which cannot always be said of the television series.  If anything, Mirage seemed like the one who was homesick in the cartoon.)

Bumblebee is out spying and reports on some goings-on at the aerospace plant.  Laserbeak emerges to attack the army soldiers who are stationed outside, dropping missiles that alter the molecular structure of their metallic weapons and equipment, causing it to melt.  The attack is a diversion, allowing the Constructicons to escape the plant unnoticed.  Prowl orders Bumblebee to keep tabs on the construction vehicles.

Inside, Shockwave reveals that the next Decepticon he plans to bring to life is Jetfire.  We see the incomplete form of the white-and-red jet, but he's drawn with a rounded fuselage and pointed nosecone, looking more like the Jetfire toy by Hasbro.  When we see the final character later on, he will have taken on the squared-off shape mandated by the character's forced redesign.  (Hasbro had originally licensed the Jetfire toy from Bandai.  Takara didn't like the idea of a competitor's toy appearing in the cartoon, so they asked that Jetfire be redesigned for the show.  In the cartoon, he was renamed Skyfire.  In the comics, the character also adopted this alternate design, but he retained his original name of Jetfire.)

Elsewhere, at the Witwicky household in Portland Oregon, Sparkplug is finally coming home from the hospital after what seems like months.  Sparkplug is expecting a backlog of cars in the garage waiting to be serviced, so he's shocked to discover that not only was Buster taking care of the family business, but he even took on some additional customers.  Sparkplug is delighted, but he doesn't realize the only reason Buster has accomplished this is because he's developed some kind of telepathic control over machines, all thanks to the Creation Matrix that Optimus transferred to his mind..

This issue introduces a truck driver named Bomber Bill, who we meet at a truck stop, chatting it up with the local greasy spoon waitress.  He's been on the road for a while now, but he's eager to get back home to his wife and kids.  When the Constructicons show up and gobble up all the trucks for use as raw materials, Bomber Bill alone stands ready to confront them and take back his truck, Bessie.

I know that Budiansky created human sidekick characters specifically with their ability to play off the Transformers characters.  For example, Circuit Breaker, with her ability to short-circuit electronic devices, makes a powerful and dangerous villain against a group of robots.  On the heroic side of things, we have Sparkplug, who is an auto mechanic and a worthy ally to the Autobots, who all turn into cars and trucks and would need a friend like that to keep them in good working order.  Introducing a trucker character also kind of makes sense, especially if you consider the public's perception of truckers in the early- to mid-1980's.

Truck drivers were like modern-day cowboys, masculine and rugged, known for their plaid shirts and swaggering bravado.  When this issue was written, 1970's film like Smokey and the Bandit were still on the forefront of the American consciousness.  Songs like "Six Days on the Road" and "Convoy" romanticized the truck driver's lifestyle, as well as TV series like "Movin' On" and "B.J. and the Bear."  Trucker culture surely informed the selection of the Transformers characters within the toy line to some extent.  A semi-truck, and all of the mythology that it evokes, would have been the natural choice for the heroic Autobot leader.  Despite Optimus Prime himself transforming into a tractor trailer truck, Transformers as a franchise never really leaned heavily into trucker culture until this story.  And now we start to get an idea of why this is a Huffer spotlight story.

Bomber Bill follows the Constructicons' trail until he encounters a convoy of Autobots, described as Hound, Bluestreak (not parsed as Blue Streak in the narration boxes, as his name usually appears in Marvel Comics), Sidesswipe [sic], and Ironhide.  Despite this, the characters we actually see are Jazz, Ironhide in Ratchet's colors, and Hound in Brawn's colors.  When Bomber Bill sees a final vehicle, trailing slightly behind the others, he leaps in front of it.  

The truck turns out to be Huffer, and he and Bomber Bill seem to find kindred spirits in each other.  Both of them just want to return home, and both of them are in pursuit of the Constructicons.  Bomber Bill is shocked to learn that the truck can talk, but with some trepidation, he eventually climbs inside the empty truck cab so they can both give chase.