This story features the introduction of Trypticon, in his only featured appearance, and also the return of the Dinobots!

THE TRANSFORMERS issue #27 is entitled "King of the Hill!" and was printed on January 13, 1987 with a pull date of April 1987.  Budiansky wrote the story; Don Perlin penciled the art; Akin & Garvey provided inks; Janice Chiang did the lettering; Nel Yomtov colored the art.  After bouncing around a bit during the early stories, I like that they managed to settle into a regular team that provided a consistent visual look.  With Akin & Garvey providing the embellishing for the TRANSFORMERS UNIVERSE profiles, any art inked by them basically made the characters look like their profile illustrations come to life.  

The front cover (unsigned, at least on my copy, but it seems to be Herp Trimpe again) features Trypticon in all his glory, rampaging through a forest, and he's absolutely massive.  The Dinobots are tangling with him but they're dwarfed by his sheer size. Trypticon has got Slag in his clutches (this never happens in the actual story) and Grimlock is taking a bite out of Trypsy's rear haunches.  The sky is deep orange and ominous, and makes for a really visually striking cover.  Oh, and there's some girl running for her life, because why not.  

This issue was on newsstands at the same time as G.I. JOE AND THE TRANSFORMERS #4, which concluded that mini-series.

The story opens with a paleontology professor and two of his students on a nature trek to look for dinosaur fossils.  One of the studens, Rachel Becker, has discovered dinosaur-like footprints in the ground, and asks her teacher to verify her findings.  She suspects it could be the footprint of a stegosaurus or a triceratops, but the professor, Robert Paaswell, realizes the edges of the footprint are too straight, pointing towards a likely manmade hoax.  When they spot a distinctly pteranodon-like shape soaring through the sky, however, they begin to wonder.

Elsewhere at a truckstop diner, a driver's fuel tanker is poached right before his very eyes by the same creature.  It's Swoop, collecting fuel for his fellow Dinobots.  Stealing energy seems more like a Decepticon sort of thing to do, but the Dinobots need to refuel somehow, and ever since they walked out on the Autobots (back in issue #19), they've been on their own.  Swoop has been periodically spying on Autobot activities, though, enough for Grimlock to know that Optimus Prime has been killed.  Grimlock sees the power vaccuum as a potential opportunity.

At the Decepticons' new island base, Shockwave is contacted by Ratbat from Cybertron.  He identifies himself as a fuel auditor, and wants to shut down the space bridge in order to conserve energy.  It's a bit odd to see Ratbat speaking in the comics, given that he didn't talk at all in the cartoon.  The cassettes and their ability to speak has always been inconsistent.  Ravage could talk in both early comic issues and cartoon episodes until he started growling exclusively.  Buzzsaw and Laserbeak also spoke in issue #1 but quickly stopped after that.  There's no rule stating Ratbat can't be a speaking character, but it just seems weird.

Anyway, Shockwave argues that they need the space bridge to send energy back to Cybertron, but Ratbat says what they've received hasn't equaled the amount of energy spent using the bridge.  Shockwave then asks for Ratbat to send his deadliest Decepticon warrior to attack the Ark. Once the Decepticons have the Ark and its resources, they'll be self-sufficient.  Ratbat reluctantly agrees.

Meanwhile, at the Ark, Perceptor has called together the high-ranking Autobots in order to determine who should replace Optimus Prime.  The group he's summoned includes Ratchet, Jetfire, Blaster, Hot Spot, Silverbolt, and Omega Supreme.  Ratchet served as leader in Prime's absence, so his presence makes sense.  Jetfire makes a little less sense, given that he was a Decepticon by birth, and is still very young and incredibly naive.  But, he had a big Hasbro toy, and he actually was described as the Autobot leader by some peripheral media, so I guess there's that.  Hot Spot and Silverbolt are the Protectobot and Aerialbot team leaders, so I guess they get to be there by default.

Each of them takes turns stating traits they think a new leader should possess, but then Grimlock shows up and says that since he's the strongest, he should take command.  He argues with the Autobots about it, who aren't about to elect him leader just because he demands it.  Grimlock storms off in a huff.  He hasn't given up on seizing command that easily.

Out in the woods, Rachel Becker and the others are sleeping in their tents, or at least trying to.  Rachel is still consumed with the flying creature she saw earlier.  When a bright light shines into her tent, she investigates and discovers the space bridge, which has activated to transport the deadly warrior that Ratbat has delivered to Earth.  Trypticon emerges, crushing the trees and everything else in his path.

This is an early design for Trypticon, different in a number of ways than the final version that would appear in the cartoon series.  It's possible that Full-Tilt, the small auxiliary robot that came with the Trypticon toy, hadn't been named yet when this issue was written.  In this story, Trypticon does have a little sidekick at his disposal, but the character is named Wipe-Out, and he's drawn exactly like Tailgate only he's colored blue.  (Full-Tilt never appeared in robot mode in the cartoon, but Trypticon usually went around wearing him in car mode on his chest.  In this issue, Trypticon continues to wear a car on his chest even as Wipe-Out is operating independently.)

Trypticon soon locates the Ark, transforming to his massive battle station mode in preparation to destroy it.  He sends Wipe-Out for reconnaissance, and he's a babbling little bootlicker who can't stop singing Trypticon's praises.  (There's a lettering mistake on page 12 when Wipe-Out calls him "Tyrpticon," with the "y" and "r" transposed.)  Trypticon launches a sonic scrambler that disrupts the Autobots inside, prompting them to investigate.  Perceptor is barking orders, so he's evidently the de facto leader, at least until such time as they can decide whom to formally elect.  (Perceptor has also fallen into a speech pattern of using unnecessarily verbose terminology, often requiring another Autobot to translate to simpler language.  He's likely inherited this trait due to the way he spoke in The Transformers: the Movie, which has informed the character to a degree.)

Grimlock has rounded up the other Dinobots and his plan seems to be to storm the Ark and take command, but then they take notice of the battle outside the Ark.  Rachel, too, is watching the battle unfold.  She catches sight of Grimlock, willing herself not to run.  They don't exchange words, but Grimlock is surprised when she doesn't immediately run away.  Wipe-Out sneaks up behind her, and she doesn't notice his approach until he transforms.  (He makes a "WHIRRR" sound when he changes to robot mode, which is definitely not the transformation sound effect from the cartoon.  Maybe he's really a GoBot.)  

Grimlock isn't thrilled about the prospect of the Autobots getting slaughtered.  The other Dinobots seem to be enjoying watching the carnage unfold, but at the rate things are going, there won't be any Autobots left for Grimlock to take command over.  Wipe-Out delivers Rachel to Trypticon, and Grimlock recognizes her from their encounter in the woods.  Trypticon describes her as "appetizing" and seems intent on eating her, but then Grimlock leaps on top of Trypticon.  "Get your teeth out of my head!" Trypticon roars as he throws Grimlock aside.  He prepares to tear Grimlock apart with his jaws, but the other Dinobots rush to the rescue.  "Hey, no chewin' on the boss!" Sludge quips, and then they're on the attack.  

The Dinobots attack from all sides.  Snarl destroys Wipe-Out, sending him flying into pieces with one good whack of his tail.  Trypticon is taking a beating, but he brings the full force of his firepower to bear and promises to end the Dinobots.  Just then, however, Ratbat has decided Trypticon has used too much energy for this mission, and recalls him to Cybertron.  Trypticon dutifully obeys.  It's a bit of an unsatisfying resolution to the encounter with the Dinobots, and it's unclear just who would have won had the fight continued.  This is also the last time we'll ever see Trypticon in the comic.

I mean, it kind of makes sense.  Trypticon is a super-powered character, and he would have won the war for the Decepticons in no time flat if he'd been allowed to remain an active member of their forces on Earth.  Clearly, that wouldn't have worked for storytelling purposes.  At least Budiansky didn't fall back into the usual habit of making Trypticon an ineffective buffoon like almost every new character added to the comic.  In this story, he's awesome and powerful and terrifyingly effective.  And, for thematic reasons it's cool that he got paired off against the Dinobots.  You'd expect that he would have fought Metroplex, but Budiansky never ended up using Metroplex in any capacity.  

Anyway, in the aftermath of the batle, Grimlock recants his claim to Autobot leadership, but the other Autobots aren't so quick to dismiss the idea.  They all agree that he displayed multiple qualities during the fight against Trypticon that make him the right robot for the job, so he is designated the new leader of the Autobots right there on the spot.