Robotech Comics

[JB0]

30 minutes ago, Old_Nash_II said:

(Worst idea in the world, building one ship "on the back" of another...)

If I remember the old novels correctly, that was because they were cannibalizing key systems off the SDF-1 to build the SDF-2.

[Old_Nash_II]

3 minutes ago, JB0 said:

If I remember the old novels correctly, that was because they were cannibalizing key systems off the SDF-1 to build the SDF-2.

Remains the worst possible idea, after all, there are a lot of hostile elements, who could launch a kamikaze attack to destroy both since they had no defenses and..

oh.

[Bolt]

39 minutes ago, Old_Nash_II said:

Robotech: Rick Hunter #1

Well, I finally got a copy of Robotech: Rick Hunter, and now I can write this minireview.

  Reveal hidden contents

Edition begins with a short summary of the entire saga until its end and the psychological consequences of the outcome on Rick.
Below we have the cast of the edition and another flashback of what happened after the destruction of the two SDF.

(Worst idea in the world, building one ship "on the back" of another...)

After that, it moves to the present of the story and we see Rick being promoted to Major General, and thus being able to go into space after the Robotech Masters.
After the ceremony, Rick and Vince walk around the base talking about the promotion, until they are interrupted by a soldier with some of Rick's belongings, rescued from Macross City.
Suddenly, the alarm goes off, and they both head to the control room, where they see a recording of an armed Zentraedi revolt in Yokohama, Minmei's hometown, expressing that that was an attack aimed at her and that unfortunately they had no military power. to go to, since the VFs they still had were few and were being decommissioned, making way for Doctor Lang's new VF-4s.

(Ok, why Roadblock is here?)

Soon, Rick receives a notice from an announcement on a private channel, where we see Max, at the Satellite Factory, giving a summary of how things are going there in relation to Lisa. Suddenly, the transmission is interrupted by General Anatole Leonard of the Soutern Cross Army, congratulating Rick on the promotion and saying that they managed to track them to some point in Australia, and Rick says that the attack may not be due to discontent, and Max emphasizes that may be with a ship from Breetai's fleet. Leonard tells Rick to investigate, which he reluctantly accepts since both armies have a certain amount of friction. Soon Rick and VInce arrive at the hangar, where Rick has a flashback to when he was a child, with Roy and his father.
Returning to the present, Rick and his squadron made up of 4 ships arrive close to their destination, they are ambushed by a group of zemtraedi who were waiting for them, in the battle the squadron loses one of its members and Rick has yet another flashback about Roy, now in Macross a shortly before he fell into a coma and Roy was killed in action.
Rick is then alerted by Vince that they have arrived near the MacWilson Island, all destroyed, and a remaining group of Dolza's fleet, whose leader, boasts of the destruction they caused, reaffirming that they will kill Rick and that they will give the planet to the Robotech Masters.

(I will 'Drakkonize" your face!)

 

Personal opinion

Well, what can we say about the edition, for a start they try to summarize a lot of pre-reboot Robotech lore from Titan Books, so much so that they use (how can I define it) Protoverse-1 in this story, as they use the destruction of the SDF -1 and 2 (which I don't know why, it was made on the back of 1) in addition to the SDF-3 having an old design and not from Shadow Chronicles.
Apart from Roy's death, among other things that don't exist in the most recent version or in Remix.

(Max: Hey Rick, look who's back)

The "new" VF-4, despite the fighter and gearwalk mode being the same (with few details changed), the big difference is really in its Battroid form, perhaps in the copyright issue, since Macross Flashback was not acquired by HG, and This compromised its alternative form in the West.

(just remove the "flap" and we won't pay the copyright)

Brandon Easton's script is good, a little confusing due to the amount of information in a few pages in this edition, but nothing that compromises the result, whether it continues or improves in future editions, it will depend on how he conducts the plot.
Simone Ragazzoni's art is excellent, I like it, despite being a little confusing in the two combat scenes I saw in the edition, I hope it can evolve in the others.

(Action! More Action!)

Rating 8/10

 

Thanks for the review. Sounds like an ok comic, so far. 

[Seto Kaiba]

4 minutes ago, JB0 said:

If I remember the old novels correctly, that was because they were cannibalizing key systems off the SDF-1 to build the SDF-2.

Which was based on the depiction in the Robotech series by Comico Comics that depicted two Macross-class SDFs standing back-to-back in the lake. 

The Comico Comics series did that as a way to rationalize/explain away some particularly problematic dialog in the Robotech TV series.  Robotech mentions the SDF-2 at the same point the original Macross does, but proceeds to conflate the command center built inside the SDF-1 with the bridge of the SDF-2 thereafter including when the Macross it hit and is listing, and is referred to as if it were the SDF-2 in the final episode.

It's one of the all-time Robotech plot holes, so much so that it had its own section in the robotech.com FAQ back in the day.

[glane21]

On 9/14/2023 at 1:02 PM, Old_Nash_II said:

I read CO yesteday and was cool. Much DYRL outfit and try a decent plot (Much more than most material that exists in comics, because that Mordecai... OH frag WTF was that thing?)

Hey, thanks!  I worked hard on that book.  

[JB0]

1 hour ago, Old_Nash_II said:

Remains the worst possible idea, after all, there are a lot of hostile elements, who could launch a kamikaze attack to destroy both since they had no defenses and..

oh.

That's fair.

...

But at least they didn't level the city with their shields in the process?

[Swann]

Yeah these are real releases 

[Swann]

[Swann]

[Swann]

They gave Lisa Hayes the Chyna look.

[Swann]

[Swann]

That pink thing reminds you of a DILD......

[Swann]

[Swann]

Danzig in Robotech comic books

[Seto Kaiba]

Every time someone starts dumping images from old Robotech comics I feel like we're watching some clerk of the court lay out the prosecution's exhibits at the comic industry's equivalent of the Hague.

[Swann]

[Big s]

That’s like a collection of some of the ugliest artwork ever allowed in comics.

[F-ZeroOne]

I have to ask - there were a lot of these things. I know the comics market in the 90s was kind of its own universe for a bit, but there can't have been that many "Robotech" fans buying these? Was it just that people were so starved for anime related content (I mean, I know I picked up a few), a hardcore of dedicated fans, a "If we don't release something every couple months we lose the licence!" thing, or what?

[Old_Nash_II]

58 minutes ago, F-ZeroOne said:

I have to ask - there were a lot of these things. I know the comics market in the 90s was kind of its own universe for a bit, but there can't have been that many "Robotech" fans buying these? Was it just that people were so starved for anime related content (I mean, I know I picked up a few), a hardcore of dedicated fans, a "If we don't release something every couple months we lose the licence!" thing, or what?

Yep, much these comics, remember some fanzines from my youth in my country.

I believe they put some announcement in events or magazine like this: 

Do you know how to draw anything at all understandable? Come publish your art in our magazine.

Because, Man, WTF was It?

[Seto Kaiba]

24 minutes ago, F-ZeroOne said:

I have to ask - there were a lot of these things. I know the comics market in the 90s was kind of its own universe for a bit, but there can't have been that many "Robotech" fans buying these? Was it just that people were so starved for anime related content (I mean, I know I picked up a few), a hardcore of dedicated fans, a "If we don't release something every couple months we lose the licence!" thing, or what?

Robotech never had a very large following, but the fans it did have were pretty starved for content after the series ended.

With no new animation coming after Robotech: the Movie's failed its North American test run and Macek mismanaged Robotech II: the Sentinels into an early and shallow grave, a fair number of its fans moved on but the (awful) novelization of the Robotech TV series and the Robotech comics filled the void for those who remained.  

Because Robotech was a relatively obscure property, the comic book publishers willing to pay for a license were inevitably the small independent publishers that were frequently struggling to survive.  The inherent instability of the publishers and the quality issues caused by their limited resources combined with the inevitable diminshing returns that any long-running property would experience to create a decade-long gradual decline in quality from its mediocre beginning that was puncutated by cancellations and sharp drops in quality whenever the license changed hands.  

It's not that people were starved for anime content... it's more than Robotech fans were starved for Robotech content, and they drifted away from the franchise gradually as the quality of the new material got worse.  The Robotech fans around now are the ones who either stuck with it to the bitter end or rediscovered the franchise during its short-lived renaissance in the early 2000s.  These small publishers didn't need enormous circulation to turn a profit, so the then tens-of-thousands of Robotech fans were enough to get by.

For their part, Harmony Gold was probably just trying to get some value out of the licenses they'd paid quite a bit of money for after attempts to continue animated Robotech had fallen through in '86 and '87.  The heyday of Robotech comics was '88-'98, and their terminal decline was bookended by the next Robotech animated failure: Robotech 3000.  That was when they decided to burn the whole mess down and start over, and the questionable legal advice they got while doing so was what led to their falling out with Macross's owners and attempts to stop Macross licensing starting in '01.  That was the point when Harmony Gold's maintenance of Robotech became about having something out so they could demonstrate use in order to hang onto their Macross trademarks.

[shazam]

The Official How To Draw Robotech 🤔

Those Robotech comics look hideous. If these comics did not have the "Robotech" name attached they would never see the light of day. 
 

Edited October 20, 2023 by shazam

[Old_Nash_II]

I admit that after reading this work, I did the Prime facepalm

[Seto Kaiba]

22 minutes ago, Old_Nash_II said:

I admit that after reading this work, I did the Prime facepalm

Ah, good old Academy Comics... the first Robotech licensee to lose the license due to being just plain incompetent.

But not the last.

[Old_Nash_II]

6 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Ah, good old Academy Comics... the first Robotech licensee to lose the license due to being just plain incompetent.

But not the last.

I found it a bit... Confusing.
The story's chief scientist practically created an SDF out of nothing, and headed to another galaxy without any difficulty.
While on Earth they had to cannibalize the SDF-1.

Not to say it's completely nonsense, I would use it as the basis for a game similar to Macross 30 on Ps3

[Seto Kaiba]

8 minutes ago, Old_Nash_II said:

Not to say it's completely nonsense, I would use it as the basis for a game similar to Macross 30 on Ps3

It's not completely nonsense, it's just so close to it as to make no odds.

Clone and Mordecai are two of the titles I point to when I need to demonstrate why Robotech comics only ever retread old ground... because when you ask Robotech licensees for original content, that is the kind of garbage you get.

(At least, until Titan Comics proved you could screw that up too...)

[Old_Nash_II]

Yes, precisely, HG was so stuck with the original that it forgot that it needed to change in order to attract new consumers, but it just didn't know how to do it right. As in the Titan reboot, where it uses old material just to justify the multiverse, which if not well constructed, leaves the work too confusing.
They have good material, but they refuse to use it correctly.
and as they don't know how to do it correctly, they revisit the past to insert things that only confuse old and new fans more. As in the case of the current one, Rick Hunter, who uses material that was "left aside" when he migrated to Wildstorm.

[Swann]

2 hours ago, shazam said:

The Official How To Draw Robotech 🤔

Those Robotech comics look hideous. If these comics did not have the "Robotech" name attached they would never see the light of day. 
 

Just like the Matchbox action figures too.

[Seto Kaiba]

21 minutes ago, Old_Nash_II said:

Yes, precisely, HG was so stuck with the original that it forgot that it needed to change in order to attract new consumers, but it just didn't know how to do it right.

While that's a reasonably sound point, it's not the one I was making.

The Robotech setting and story only works because it can lean on the much stronger writing in Macross, Southern Cross, and MOSPEADA.

Take it outside the confines of that firm Japanese OSM foundation and try to build on the parts of the story that are uniquely Robotech and the whole thing goes to sh*t basically immediately.  Why?  Because those are the weakest parts of the story.  The parts that are positively riddled with inconsistencies, shot through with plot holes, nonsensical if you think about it even a little, painfully dated and cliche, or just plain bad writing.

Barring a brief moment early in the development of Sentinels, Robotech has never had access to great or even good writers.  If the writers have to build on that nonsense as the foundation of their story, well... garbage in, garbage out.

That's why HG decided to burn the whole thing down and start over.  So they could minimize the extent to which they built on that poor foundation.  They made a strong start in partnership with Wildstorm.  Their main problem from that point forward was that they couldn't afford to hire actual writers with their pittance of a budget, so what they ended up with for their new series pilot was a fanfic-tier script that takes entirely too much from the then-recent Battlestar Galactica remake and a second and third act outline that reads like a mockbuster version of Do You Remember Love?.

 

21 minutes ago, Old_Nash_II said:

As in the Titan reboot, where it uses old material just to justify the multiverse, which if not well constructed, leaves the work too confusing.
They have good material, but they refuse to use it correctly.

Titan Comics... I'm not convinced that wasn't a pisstake for its entire run.

If it wasn't, then it devolved into one with amazing swiftness.  Its entire final story arc and inclusion of references to previous comics and other failed Robotech properties was one massive Take That! aimed at Robotech as a whole.  The end is almost a Neon Genesis Evangelion-level deconstruction of Robotech as a whole, with each failed property presented as yet another iteration of a neverending cycle of miserable failure from which nothing is learned and nothing is gained because the same mistakes are made every time.  The one and only way out?  Abandoning slavish devotion to Robotech's failed concepts and ideas and striking out in a different direction.

It probably would still be running if not for the licensing handover to Funimation Crunchyroll and the agreement with Big West.

 

21 minutes ago, Old_Nash_II said:

and as they don't know how to do it correctly, they revisit the past to insert things that only confuse old and new fans more. As in the case of the current one, Rick Hunter, who uses material that was "left aside" when he migrated to Wildstorm.

That's called "fanservice"... which is all this new comic line is.  They've given up, now that they have to compete against Macross in the west they're just focused on publishing the feel-good stuff for the remaining fans because the alternative is trying to compete against Macross on merit... an unwinnable fight.

[Swann]

7 hours ago, F-ZeroOne said:

I have to ask - there were a lot of these things. I know the comics market in the 90s was kind of its own universe for a bit, but there can't have been that many "Robotech" fans buying these? Was it just that people were so starved for anime related content (I mean, I know I picked up a few), a hardcore of dedicated fans, a "If we don't release something every couple months we lose the licence!" thing, or what?

1993 to 2001 was boom period. In the States only.

[Swann]

4 hours ago, shazam said:

The Official How To Draw Robotech 🤔

Those Robotech comics look hideous. If these comics did not have the "Robotech" name attached they would never see the light of day. 
 

What the F is that? Was it written by Anne Rice?

[F-ZeroOne]

Thanks for the replies, all. In the UK, "Robotech" was never really a thing, at least as far as I'm aware (possibly the closest comparison would be "Star Fleet/X-Bomber", which was so popular in the UK and Europe the UK company that handled the property seriously considered trying to make a sequel, and were only prevented from doing so when a fire destroyed many of the props and it would have been too expensive to begin anew; as far as I know though "Star Fleet" was never a thing in the US). I knew it from the Palladium RPG and comic books. Every so often one would encounter a cheap compilation video branded "Robotech", and I think one of the early satellite broadcasters here may have ran it for a time, but to the best of my knowledge it never really made any impact unlike in the US.

I guess there may have been a little bit of a crossover appeal with "Battletech" fans just because of the whole "Unseen" designs thing...   

[Seto Kaiba]

6 hours ago, F-ZeroOne said:

I knew it from the Palladium RPG and comic books. Every so often one would encounter a cheap compilation video branded "Robotech", and I think one of the early satellite broadcasters here may have ran it for a time, but to the best of my knowledge it never really made any impact unlike in the US.

It didn't make much of an impact in the US either.  Even though the US was its home market, Robotech was just another kid's show with mediocre ratings and an unsuccessful toy line that was forgotten by almost everyone within a year or so of going off the air.  It probably would have been forgotten almost entirely outside of its tiny cult following if not for the impact Harmony Gold's threats of litigation (some justified, some not) had on other properties like BattleTech/MechWarrior, Transformers, and Macross.

That's why the Robotech comic license skipped the industry leaders and went directly to the smaller independent publishers.  It just didn't have the brand recognition to be picked up by a major publisher.  The RPG license landed at Palladium Books for similar reasons.

The one market where Robotech somehow made a lasting impact was South America, which is odd given how much of its media was developed for a North American audience.

[jenius]

Feels kind of hollow when a guy on an English language Macross site probably pressing 50 years old says Robotech didn't have much of an impact. 

[shazam]

41 minutes ago, jenius said:

Feels kind of hollow when a guy on an English language Macross site probably pressing 50 years old says Robotech didn't have much of an impact. 

It depends on where you live in the world. Robotech is not a widespread phenomenon across the globe. As far as comics go, Robotech comics are not popular at all. I have found more manga and anime in comic stores since the 80's than finding Robotech comics. A great deal of the time I found more Battletech books/products in comic stores and news agents without seeing any sign of a Robotech comic.

 

Also having Hobby Japan magazines circulated in comic stores helped spread anime before it was popularized for western viewers. 

Edited October 22, 2023 by shazam

[Big s]

3 hours ago, jenius said:

Feels kind of hollow when a guy on an English language Macross site probably pressing 50 years old says Robotech didn't have much of an impact. 

I get what he’s saying though. When I was growing up everyone remembered go bots or transformers or GI Joe and voltron , but if you remembered Robotech, you were kind of a rarity. Even when the show was first airing a lot of the kids I knew compared it to a soap opera and didn’t like it. After it aired and meeting people in the gaming community( which was another odd ball rarity of a group), there were many that swore that Macross was a ripoff of battletech. That brought up many arguments from me and only an even smaller group of people. It was pre internet and finding information to back up your side of an ultra nerd argument wasn’t that easy.