Popverse's top stories of the day

• Dune: Prophecy creators promise to bring the "complexity" and "grand scale" of Frank Herbert's books and Denis Villeneuve's movies to TV
• Marvel's TV head says there's "absolutely" a future for Jon Bernthal's Punisher after his Daredevil: Born Again appearance
• Meet the Grim Reaper of The Walking Dead TV show cast, and what goes into killing someone off in the show

Once again, we are learning how stories about robots can touch our human hearts. In a speeh nearly as tearjerking as Optimus Prime's 'Until all are one' line from the cartoons, Daniel Warren Johnson gave a touching speech just now after winning an Eisner Award for 'Best Writer/Artist' for his work on Image Comics & Skybound's Transformers series.

"When I was a little guy - 8 years old - I was obsessed with drawing Optimus Prime. And I could not get it right," Johnson said. "I tried to pause a VHS tape on some Transformers reruns, but it was a little too blurry. I tried to use box art form the toys, but it was no good because it didn't look like the cartoon. I'd be drawing over and over again, and I couldn't get it - it was so frustrating, so I started crying, of course."

Johnson remembers his mother coming in the room at that point, asking "Why the hell are you crying?" in which he cries out "Mom, I can't draw Optimus Prime!" According to the artist, his mother then explains "It looks really good to me. I can't draw Optimus Prime, and you're already doing better than me."

The 8-year-old Daniel Warren Johnson didn't believe her, saying "Mom, come on", which led to his mother busting our a pencil of her own and drawing her version of Optimus Prime right in front of him.

"... and still to this day, it was the worst drawing of Optimus Prime I've ever seen," Johnson says.

The artist/writer when on to say thank you to his mother and father, for supporting him - even to the point of forcing him to go to figure drawing classes when he was in seventh grade, despite him "crying all the way there."

Johnson also went on to thank Skybound Entertainmnt and the staff there for choosing and supporting him as writer/artist of the Transformers series, and then his long-time inker Mike Spicer - saying he "elevated my linework beyond the point I could imagine."

Get a fuller San Diego Comic-Con experience with a full rundown of our SDCC 2024 stories, as well as all the big SDCC 2024 news, how to make the most out of San Diego Comic-Con, and the real burning question: how much does it actually cost to go to SDCC?