by Nathan Stout (of AccordingToWhim.com)
Here we go back on a stretch of Return to Macross comics. If you are totally confused about what this is then be confused no more! This is my 2012 tour of the Robotech Universe! I used SuperMecha8's timeline list to begin reading/watching my way through the events in the Robotech universe in chronological order.
It's April and I am still in the pre-lauch part of the Robotech timeline. Fist we started off with the events pre-landing of the SDF-1 on Macross Island and have been slowly moving along, watching the island become a teeming city with all the issues a teeming city has. Let's continue!
Return To Macross #27 (Academy 1995)
The first thing that caught my eye was a spelling error on page 13 (yeah, I know... nit picky).
It looks like we are rehashing the story from several issues back when Roy is asked to join the Lumerians. The woman he kinda has a thing for was killed but she left a message for the rest of her people to capture Roy and try to get him to join them again.
Last time Roy tricked them into thinking he would join them and it appears the EXACT same thing is happening again. I hope this goes somewhere different.
Return To Macross #28 (Academy 1996)
Wes Abbot is back and his stuff looks different. It looked very manga-ish before, now it seems to have a realy cartoony feeling. I guess he wanted to try a different approach or something.
Wait wait wait! What in the Mayor Luan is going on here?! What happened to the story line from the last issue?! Roy was taking Lumerian ship while getting the Lumerians to abandon it to 'fight another day'. I figured this story would go somewhere... wtf???
This issue starts out with Roy trying to get Claudia to forgive him (what's new). Infact it seems like that is all that happend between Roy and Claudia. I can't remeber one time where he wasn't getting into do-do with her.
The story jumps to a serious situatution where Roy is out searching for survivors to a crashed shuttle. Oh, there are the Lumerians!
Return To Macross #29 (Academy 1996)
Yikes! That cover art! I HONESTLY think I could have done better... I can't draw for crap! Ok, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Knowing the power of the Internets I'm sure the artist will probably read this at some point. I apologize... I'm just being picky.
Check out page 12... Roy (I guess that's him) is just a head sitting on a torso... no neck!
Oh my gosh! This is just painful! Look at Leonard on page 16!
Well before I even get to thinking about it... this comic will 100% be the stinky winner of the 1st quarter's 2012 Robotech 'worse art in a comic' award. I'm sorry if I make the artist feel bad but this honestly looks like something I drew (which isn't' saying much).
The story is coherant though (which can't be said of some of the more recent stuff). Claudia's old flame shows up on the island and it tips her affections away from Roy. It turns out her old flame is wrapped up in some shady stuff.
Return To Macross #30 (Academy 1996)
We are back to the Birchfields and man what an improvement! I complained about them before but not now...
In this issue Gloval has a flashback of his youth in the Internationaists army. Their uniforms are strikingly close to the RDF ones.
The terrorist guy can shoot smoke out of his hand... cool!
What's wrong with Admiral Hayes in the first frame of page 17? He seems to have a crick in his neck.
Page 18 has some confusing speech bubble layouts. I hate when I get all lost on what is being said becasue I don't know which one to read next.
Towards the back of the comic is the Robotech Reporter where Malibu talks about their titles and news and such. They mention the passing of Brian Daley of Jack McKenny fame. That's sad. I didn't realize that he and James Luceno were working on Galaxy Rangers, thats' one of Chris' favorite cartoons!
Return To Macross #31 (Academy 1996)
Dusty Griffin is the artist in this issue. He draws structures and vehicles very well but seems to have a hard time with the human form. Not that I'm complaining, I'm still coming off the low of RTM #29 so this guy is Lenardo Divinci to me...
There is a nice two page panel to open this comic of Invid attacking the SDF-1 (presumabily during Zor's final hours). Nice artwork! I did notice that several of the Invid look like direct copies of the art from the Roleplaying guides (which was probably a direct copy from the Japanese 'This is Animation' book for Mospeada.
Look at the guy playing the sax in the street on page 9... te he.
On page 10 there is a nod to Akira in some guy's jacket with a photo of a pill on it. Claudia is apparently having gravity issues in the same frame.
On page 16 you can see the Dadelus in the water in the top left corner of the frame. This is one of the few times you ever get to see it in the water (what it was built for). It does look like it's riding a little low there...
Anyway this issue is the continuation of the Salamander hacker and the people paying him (who just happen to be an old flame of Claudia's). Salamander is working off shore on a casino ship looking to get ahold of Admiral Hayes' itenary for his arrival on Macross Island... I'm sure they want to throw him a surprise party or something...
Return To Macross #32 (Academy 1996)
The art in this issue reminds me of some Role Playing Game books. I wonder if Dusty Griffin ever illustrated any?
Lisa has some deadly looking fingernails on page 13. Also, Admiral Hayes was named in an eariler issue and here you can see his name again. I never saw his name before these comics so I wonder if the Academy guys officially got to name him.
On page 14 Claudia comes into their (Lisa's and Claudia's) apartment in the middle of story that she is telling her beau, but the wording is wrong... I think the word 'the' is missing.
The Return to Macross series is really treating Roy Fokker like a putz. He is constantly drunk now and he acts more and more pathetic when it comes to Claudia. Poor Roy.
Return To Macross #33 (Academy 1996)
The character's looks veer wildly in this issue. Lisa looks real homely on page 7.
On story element I am digging in this particular story arc is the impending Typhoon. It is like a dark cloud (literally) shadowing everything that is happening. It menaces but at the same time it gives some reality to the whole situation.
On page 11 the 'Bree Bree' sound and the way De Salva is moving made me think that he was pulling his pants up at first! lol. I thought: 'ut oh, De Salva and Salamander are up to no good'.
Salamander seems more like a character out of Cyberpunk or NetRunner than Robotech.
Showing posts with label order. Show all posts
Showing posts with label order. Show all posts
Monday, April 16, 2012
Monday, January 9, 2012
Robotech: The Graphic Novel
by Nathan Stout (of AccordingToWhim.com)
Today's post is about Comico's 1986 Robotech: The Graphic Novel. This book was basically designed to fill in the back story that the other Comico comics (and the show) didn't cover. There is a short forward to this effect at the front of the book.
The Malibu/Eternity comics stuck surprisingly well to some of the stuff in this (the much earlier work). Zor is in the same clothes as well as the fact that he is on the base when the Invid attack the planet they are seeding. I might add that Zor's hair looks a little more normal here than the more girly look in the Eternity comic.
On page 8 there is a reference to Gilligan's Island when the SDF-1 is heading into Earth's atmosphere.
After the action that leads the SDF-1 to Earth we pickup with Roy Fokker and how he is involved in the whole matter. We are also filled in on T.R. Edwards and his rivalry with Roy.
Everything comes to a screeching halt (war-wise) when the alien ship shatters mankind's thought that he is alone in the universe.
Something that caught my eye right away was the fact that when the former enemies that battled for supremacy join up in peace to figure out what to do next, they adopt the uniforms of the Western Alliance. That is to say that the Western Alliance is wearing what we all come to know as the uniform of the RDF. I just find it interesting that something like that would happen. Military junk is all about gaining and saving face and for the NE Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere to just melt into the Western Alliance wouldn't happen, it would be too much like giving up and giving in. OK, I am reading way too much into this but hey, that what this blog is all about, right?
Back on the other side of the galaxy the Master are very impatient to get Zor's body back to Fantoma for testing and such. In the Eternity comics the Masters were on Tirol since Fantoma was supposed to have too high gravity for their small size. Here the Master are based on Fantoma. I found it a bit gruesome that they showed the decapitated head of Zor... this rocks! Later there is a dissected marine inside the SDF-1 too.
At the SDF-1 crash site the exploration team shows up and they have a very 'Robotech-like' robot, a walking searchlight to assist. The technology just seems a bit to post-arrival. It looks like something that would be built during the next 10 years of the story... just sayin'.
Inside the SDF-1 the team is attacked by Bioroid troops (Tirolian clones) and not Zentraedi. I found this strange since Tirolian clone troops (oops there's Star Wars again) were for Tirol and it seemed like Zentraedi troops were for Fantoma and outer space stuff. Maybe it was Comico's attempt to tie the Southern Cross story into the Macross story more. If you didn't understand that last bit then read this old blog post where I explain what Robotech is made of (at least the 2nd paragraph).
On page 41 the team activates a screen in Zor's quarters and they get their first glimpse of a humanoid alien life form. This is actually a cool moment. Imagine coming upon something like that. To know that there are aliens out there and they look just like we do. This is a cool concept and moment. An Invid is also shown in the message, once again probably to tie in the New Generation part of Robotech.
The last 3 pages of the Graphic novel quickly sum up the 10 intervening years between the first exploration of the ship to launch day; July 1st, 2009. I am guessing that Malibu felt that those 3 pages would make for some good comic books when they wrote Return To Macross years later.
Today's post is about Comico's 1986 Robotech: The Graphic Novel. This book was basically designed to fill in the back story that the other Comico comics (and the show) didn't cover. There is a short forward to this effect at the front of the book.
The Malibu/Eternity comics stuck surprisingly well to some of the stuff in this (the much earlier work). Zor is in the same clothes as well as the fact that he is on the base when the Invid attack the planet they are seeding. I might add that Zor's hair looks a little more normal here than the more girly look in the Eternity comic.
On page 8 there is a reference to Gilligan's Island when the SDF-1 is heading into Earth's atmosphere.
After the action that leads the SDF-1 to Earth we pickup with Roy Fokker and how he is involved in the whole matter. We are also filled in on T.R. Edwards and his rivalry with Roy.
Everything comes to a screeching halt (war-wise) when the alien ship shatters mankind's thought that he is alone in the universe.
Something that caught my eye right away was the fact that when the former enemies that battled for supremacy join up in peace to figure out what to do next, they adopt the uniforms of the Western Alliance. That is to say that the Western Alliance is wearing what we all come to know as the uniform of the RDF. I just find it interesting that something like that would happen. Military junk is all about gaining and saving face and for the NE Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere to just melt into the Western Alliance wouldn't happen, it would be too much like giving up and giving in. OK, I am reading way too much into this but hey, that what this blog is all about, right?
Back on the other side of the galaxy the Master are very impatient to get Zor's body back to Fantoma for testing and such. In the Eternity comics the Masters were on Tirol since Fantoma was supposed to have too high gravity for their small size. Here the Master are based on Fantoma. I found it a bit gruesome that they showed the decapitated head of Zor... this rocks! Later there is a dissected marine inside the SDF-1 too.
At the SDF-1 crash site the exploration team shows up and they have a very 'Robotech-like' robot, a walking searchlight to assist. The technology just seems a bit to post-arrival. It looks like something that would be built during the next 10 years of the story... just sayin'.
Inside the SDF-1 the team is attacked by Bioroid troops (Tirolian clones) and not Zentraedi. I found this strange since Tirolian clone troops (oops there's Star Wars again) were for Tirol and it seemed like Zentraedi troops were for Fantoma and outer space stuff. Maybe it was Comico's attempt to tie the Southern Cross story into the Macross story more. If you didn't understand that last bit then read this old blog post where I explain what Robotech is made of (at least the 2nd paragraph).
On page 41 the team activates a screen in Zor's quarters and they get their first glimpse of a humanoid alien life form. This is actually a cool moment. Imagine coming upon something like that. To know that there are aliens out there and they look just like we do. This is a cool concept and moment. An Invid is also shown in the message, once again probably to tie in the New Generation part of Robotech.
The last 3 pages of the Graphic novel quickly sum up the 10 intervening years between the first exploration of the ship to launch day; July 1st, 2009. I am guessing that Malibu felt that those 3 pages would make for some good comic books when they wrote Return To Macross years later.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)