Vermilion Issues #1-4

by Nathan Stout (of AccordingToWhim.com)

Welcome to my peek into the Robotech Universe in 2012 & 2013! At this point in the Robotech Timeline we are taking a pit stop after Comico issue 14 with the Vermilion mini-series from Antarctic Press. Let's 'press' on... get it?

Vermilion #1 (Antarctic Press 1997)

We start off with a much more modern 'anime' look to these comics. We have been thick in the world of Comico's 80's comic book look and to be thrust into the future of comics is jarring. It's nice, just different.

Duc Tran is our artist here and his style is 'long and skinny'. Everyone look 2 meals shy of anorexic. This is just his style and it looks very artistic... just sayin'.

The art is black and white (which I happen to like) and has a somewhat 'sketch' appearance. There is a lot of cool detail on the character's surroundings.

Page 11 shows the SDF-1 and it looks great! You know how much of a sucker I am for the SDF-1 by now...

Page 17 starts the 'Mospeada Diary' by Joe Weltjens. I don't what to say about this. It is 'written' from Scott Bernard's point of view and is simply a picture (of original animation quality) and a sentence underneath it. There really isn't much here. It is kinda wasted space. It seems they needed several pages of filler and turned it over to Joe.

Vermilion #2 (Antarctic Press 1997)

Joeming Dunn is COO of Antarctic and Ben Dunn is the Publisher. I run into Ben three times a year at Dallas Comicon and trade him Macross/Mospeads stuff for drawings. It works out well for both of us! Anyway Antarctic Press seems to have been Ben's baby and perhaps I will get him in an interview on our main According To Whim Blog one day.

Page 7 is a shot of the bridge. I love those.. and this one has a lot of outer (and inner) detail.

So this RDF guy is in cahoots with Khyron (not really a Zentraedi trait but I'll roll with it).

Ben Dixon makes a cameo on page 12!

The shots of Battlepods on 17 and 19 are very detailed and they look great!

The story stops and on page 21 is Robotech: Unsung Heroes by Brian Farrens. The art work is Joe Weltjens (like the Mospeada Diary from last issue).

The art in this piece looks more 90's 'comic book traditional'.

They call a Legioss 'Legios' so I am not sure. That happens a lot with Robotech, a name will be spelled here one way and there another.

Speaking of there is a cool shot of one on page 23!

Cool shot of Invid on page 24 and 25 too.

Vermilion #3 (Antartic Press 1997)

The story continues with Rick and Lena discovering the hidden Zentraedi ship.

On page 7 there is a shot of a restaurant in Macross and it looks fantastic, such detail! I love attention to detail at this level!

The Bridge Bunnies make an appearance on page 16. They sure are cute...

'Unsung Heroes' picks back up on page 20 with some cool shots of Invid Shock Troopers.

It's over quickly but it looks great all the way. This is some great art!

Vermilion #4 (Antarctic Press 1998)

There is some fantastic artwork throughout this comic. It is very reminiscent of Evangelion in character design with the skinny people but like I said before it's the artist's style.

The overall storyline is good enough but it might have fit better in a large one-shot or perhaps a graphic novel. It's got nice art and the 'extra' characters they added for the story don't stick out like sore thumbs (like some of the Academy stuff).

In this final story Rick and Lena foil Khyron's plans and help expose the traitors.

There is a direct attack on the bridge. We have never seen that before, cool.

Ugh, page 21...

After the story ends we see the end of 'Unsung Heroes'. Right on the first page we get an awesome shot of an Alpha in Battloid mode!

Ouch! This story ends on a super bummer of a note!