Robotech and REMIX by Titan Comics

[Podtastic]

20 hours ago, Protoculture said:

Naahhhh. I avoid the new Titan comics like a plague. Call me fussy, but hey, I preferred the past decade's Wildstorm brand of Robotech comics (obviously because its canonical status in offical Robotech-verse).

OTOH, a comic on Zentraedi vs Invid .... will ultimately bored the hell outta me. I mean, unless the Invid Regent spammed his Inorganics drones against the Zentraedi, the manned Invid units (Iiga armored scouts and Gurab shock troopers) are frakked against fully armored Zentradi footsoldiers. If Battlepods get in the way, that would simply means overkill already.

I could only see a slim chance stand up fight between waves after waves of Invid Inorganic drones vs Zentraedi legions, to buy time for Invid hives to make quick getaway to deep space ... that if Invid hives are lucky enough to survived the orbital bombardment by Zentraedi armada hovering above planet sealing any escape pathways. 

And even though you are naysaying the concept, the scenario in your last paragraph is still way better than what they are serving up in this horrible comic.

Not only is this comic not worth the money to purchase, its not worth the physical/virtual storage space it would take up even if it was free.

[Einherjar]

4 hours ago, hachi said:

These are units sold to the comics shops, not necessarily individuals. Still I am surprised they are more than 5 thousand. ^_^;

If the profit per book is $1 (or even less) they still earn thousands of dollars per issue sold.

I have a hard time believing that when the top comics on those lists are at almost half a million.  Also, after almost a year running these are the best estimate in sales the shops are anticipating for those genuinely interested in the comic for the long haul and eccentric completionists.

[Seto Kaiba]

10 hours ago, easnoddy said:

Not sure...almost like theres a downward trend...

I hate Robotrekkers. They buy literally any garbage HG throws at them. This company/issue could have been solved a decade ago through bankruptcy. 

Seems to be a pretty clear downward trend to me... though I expect they were hoping switching back to the original Macross VF-1 design from their ugly fanart one was supposed to arrest the slow slide.

The numbers are about where I'd expect them to be for Robotech... there's only ever been about six thousand or so devoted fans keeping the brand ticking along when it comes to merchandise.

 

 

7 hours ago, Podtastic said:

That's not being without personality. My fave episodes of Clone Wars were those with just mainly the Clone Troopers and no/little Jedi.

As has been noted previously... your tastes are unconventional to say the least.

 

7 hours ago, Podtastic said:

Did I dream the interactions between Myria and Khyron, Mririya and Azonia, Azonia and Khyron? Even Grel and Geraro had personalities.

Interactions that revolve pretty much exclusively around jockeying for professional position and the occasional bout of irritation over not following orders... as characterization goes, it's so thin you can see daylight through it.

 

7 hours ago, Podtastic said:

No I have not actually, I an painfully aware that others like the bog standard  humans for some reason.  But must I care?

If you were writing a new Robotech story?  YES. 

The goal is to produce a story that people would actually want to read/watch, after all.

 

7 hours ago, Podtastic said:

No the Odeons do have a sort of blaster. What do you mean either BTW,  did all the Invid annihilation cannons get stolen?

Robotech's official continuity puts the introduction of ranged weaponry in the Invid forces after the invasion of Earth.  Most of the Invid mecha with ranged weaponry were developed on Earth during the occupation in response to armed resistance by humans, some based on reverse-engineered human technology.

 

7 hours ago, Podtastic said:

So how about we make the Invid mecha as they were depicted in the Prologue of the first RT novel - ITO size, armour etc ?  I think the Invid can be made formidable with a few strokes of the pen.

The Robotech novels are non-canon... and historically haven't been well-regarded by Robotech fans.  That'd be a great big "Nope" for any current Robotech production.

Officially, the Invid were a peaceful and generally unthreatening species prior to the razing of their second homeworld by the Robotech Masters.  It's not clear if they even had technology before the Masters attacked them, let alone mecha and starships.  (The Regess's interest in evolution and the Regent's obsession with conquest were both supposedly products of coming into contact with the Robotech Masters.)

Mind you, it's also not clear in the official Robotech continuity that the Zentradi even existed back then...

 

6 hours ago, JB0 said:

The SDF-3 is their Megaroad-1, after all.  People hate to accept that a story has come to an actual conclusion.

That, I would argue, is the catch... their story didn't come to an actual conclusion in Robotech the way it did in Macross.

Robotech ended it on a cliffhanger TWICE in the space of the 1985 TV series.  Once with Rick and Lisa declaring their intent to go into deep space aboard the SDF-3 on a mission to the Robotech Masters homeworld (the subject matter of the canceled Sentinels series) and once with the SDF-3 inexplicably failing to return from that mission with the rest of its fleet at the end of the series.

They resolved the second cliffhanger and immediately substituted another by having the ship be found and immediately go missing again in Shadow Chronicles.

There's never been closure to their story arc in Robotech, and nobody seems to have the heart to tie off the whole bloody stump of a story arc.

[Knight26]

I asked my local shop how many issues of the comic they actually sold.  Aside from the first issue, they have sold none, and the ones that did sell were just folks who buy the first issue of any comic.  They even have some Robotechies that visit the shop who won't touch the things.

[easnoddy]

This comic, like all things harmony gold, should wither and die on the vine.

[Seto Kaiba]

On 8/29/2018 at 3:04 PM, Knight26 said:

I asked my local shop how many issues of the comic they actually sold.  Aside from the first issue, they have sold none, and the ones that did sell were just folks who buy the first issue of any comic.  They even have some Robotechies that visit the shop who won't touch the things.

That's one of the weirdly consistent things about Robotech stuff that ends in in regular retail stores... these things just sit on shelves collecting dust.  

My local game store has copies of the 2nd Edition Robotech RPG that've been collecting dust on the shelves for a decade.  I got the last several books in that series for free simply after the owner made the decision to stop carrying the line and write it off as a loss.

[RavenHawk]

Apologies in advance if this has already been discussed, and I didn't find the conversation, but:

I just picked up the Titan editions of the Macross Archives volumes 1 & 2 (found them for a decent deal). I loved these comics as a kid, lost the handful I had in a flood some time back, and hope that, if I endorsed the sales of the early editions then there would be a better chance of getting the New Gen and Sentinels ones.

I cracked open the first volume today at lunch, and saw this:

 

 

Macross Archives 3: 11/18

Sentinels Archives 1: 2/19

Sentinels Archives 2: 5/19

Sentinels Archives 3: 8/19

Sentinels Archives 4: 11/19

 

Does anyone know if there has been any word on what the plan is?

Are they skipping Masters and New Gen entirely, or are they thinking that chronologically they need to get through all of Sentinels before they start releasing those?

The motorcycle freak in me mainly wants New Gen and Invid War...

[Knight26]

Latest issue is out, and they are back to the fan design valkyrie.  God this comic is bad.  I had to bleach my eye with Macross the First to save myself.

[Seto Kaiba]

53 minutes ago, Knight26 said:

Latest issue is out, and they are back to the fan design valkyrie.

Hm... I wonder if someone in authority told them off for tracing from photos of Macross toys?

 

53 minutes ago, Knight26 said:

God this comic is bad.

Don't tell me you opened this dreadful tome expecting quality work.

FFS, the One Word Warning of Crap Quality is right there on the cover: "ROBOTECH".

[Knight26]

16 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Hm... I wonder if someone in authority told them off for tracing from photos of Macross toys?

 

Don't tell me you opened this dreadful tome expecting quality work.

FFS, the One Word Warning of Crap Quality is right there on the cover: "ROBOTECH".

I take the pain so the rest of you don't have to.  Relax, I ain't paying for it.

[TehPW]

3 hours ago, Knight26 said:

I take the pain so the rest of you don't have to.  Relax, I ain't paying for it.

and you, poor sod. We salute you, for that effort.

[RavenHawk]

Are these really this bad? I haven't been even slightly tempted to even leaf through one of these or read a preview, since they look awful and just uninteresting to me, but then again, we've had some awful Robotech comics in the past too.

My limited experience has been:

Comico: loved them as a kid.

Eternity and Antarctic: though they look terrible when they came out, read some many many years later and found some enjoyable elements, but mostly the art and storytelling seemed like bad fanfiction. The kind of stuff that should have never been approved for professional publication.

Wildstorm: Gave them a shot; enjoyed a few here or there, though substance was severely lacking, mostly out of nostalgia, but overall wasn't worth the money.

These are even worse?

[azrael]

9 minutes ago, RavenHawk said:

These are even worse?

You are welcomed to read the comics online. Google "free comics" or "read comics online" and puke to your hearts content. Read back in this thread for previews...

[Chronocidal]

As bad as everything is visually for the overwhelming majority, I can't deny I'm curious what sort of shenanigans they're pulling with the storyline, and where they plan to go with it.

 

[Seto Kaiba]

7 hours ago, Knight26 said:

I take the pain so the rest of you don't have to.  Relax, I ain't paying for it.

Surely there are healthier ways to inflict pain on yourself if you're determined to suffer.

Like flagellation... or solving the Lament Configuration.

 

 

4 hours ago, RavenHawk said:

Are these really this bad? I haven't been even slightly tempted to even leaf through one of these or read a preview, since they look awful and just uninteresting to me, but then again, we've had some awful Robotech comics in the past too.

It's subjective... in the sense that Robotech fans whose slavish devotion to the franchise has led them to ignore thirty-odd years of progress in anime, science fiction, and comic books could conceivably mistake it for quality, if only that the art is clearly more professional than the amateur-hour garbage that was the standard under Comico, Academy, Eternity, and Antarctic.

Everyone else seems to be more or less on the same page when it comes to regarding the comic as singularly unlovely art coupled to cringeworthy writing in a sad attempt to do a gritty reboot of Harmony Gold's adaptation of Super Dimension Fortress Macross.  There's a not-unreasonable suspicion that someone on the art staff has a dental fetish, going for a photorealistic art style was a huge mistake, and their stolen "original" VF design is pretty damned hideous.

 

 

4 hours ago, RavenHawk said:

Eternity and Antarctic: though they look terrible when they came out, read some many many years later and found some enjoyable elements, but mostly the art and storytelling seemed like bad fanfiction. The kind of stuff that should have never been approved for professional publication.

Harmony Gold shares your assessment... they actually publicly disowned all the old comics as low-quality garbage that resulted from their failing to exercise proper quality control over licensee works back in 2006.

 

4 hours ago, RavenHawk said:

These are even worse?

Art-wise?  Yes... it's painful to look at.

The writing is as cringe-inducingly bad as you'd expect from Robotech.  All too often the dialog is painful in a "teenager watching your dad try to use modern slang and do it wrong" sort of way.  

 

2 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

As bad as everything is visually for the overwhelming majority, I can't deny I'm curious what sort of shenanigans they're pulling with the storyline, and where they plan to go with it.

Everything in the comic is pretty obviously derivative... and they've already more or less spoiled the ending by revealing that the SDF-1 is part of a bootstrap paradox and keeps going back in time, crashing on Earth, getting restored, launching, and going back in time.

[RavenHawk]

58 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

 

The writing is as cringe-inducingly bad as you'd expect from Robotech.  All too often the dialog is painful in a "teenager watching your dad try to use modern slang and do it wrong" sort of way.  

 

This is being written by Simon Furman currently, right?

Explains a lot. A writing style that was appropriate and popular three decades ago, but hasn't evolved all that much since, as falls into laziness whenever he thinks he can skate by on pure nostalgia (in my opinion)... as evidenced by the barely-readable Transformers: Regeneration One a few years back.

(Don't get me wrong, I absolutely loved his stuff when I was in middle school)

[TehPW]

Perfect.

[JB0]

Awww, I thought a new issue was out and we were due another round of laughing at the bad art and writing.

Edited November 17, 2018 by JB0

[505thAirborne]

1 hour ago, JB0 said:

Awww, I thought a new issue was out and we were due another round of laughing at the bad art and writing.

+1

[tekering]

Actually, the art has very much improved... except on the cover.  

[Dynaman]

Never brought out Krusty before but...

Edited November 18, 2018 by Dynaman

[anime52k8]

It's like a cheap Gary Panter knock off. it's almost compelling in how ugly it is.

[505thAirborne]

[JB0]

Thaaaaat's some pretty special art.

[Old_Nash]

6 hours ago, JB0 said:

Awww, I thought a new issue was out and we were due another round of laughing at the bad art and writing.

+2

[Old_Nash]

4 hours ago, tekering said:

Actually, the art has very much improved... except on the cover.  

 

[Old_Nash]

FOR THE GHOST OF SIMON FURMAN!!!

Titan Comics, Contact me. I work for free.

[JB0]

3 hours ago, Old_Nash said:

FOR THE GHOST OF SIMON FURMAN!!!

"I'm not dead yet!"

*insert Monty Python here*

[RavenHawk]

The cover is terrible.

The interior art actually isn't all that bad (well, relative to some of the previous Robotech comics we've gotten over the years).

Simon Furman's writing on this is just awful. I mean, it's been going downhill for about a decade now, but I had such fond memories of his stuff from the '90s. I'd say that it was just the difference between reading his stuff as a teen then, and an adult now, but I've re-read some of that older stuff and it is still fun and better written. He seems to just be phoning this stuff in, skipping entire sections of storytelling, etc.

[Seto Kaiba]

5 hours ago, RavenHawk said:

The cover is terrible.

The cover honestly looks like parody artwork.

 

5 hours ago, RavenHawk said:

The interior art actually isn't all that bad (well, relative to some of the previous Robotech comics we've gotten over the years).

... ouch, talk about damned by faint praise.  

 

5 hours ago, RavenHawk said:

Simon Furman's writing on this is just awful. I mean, it's been going downhill for about a decade now, but I had such fond memories of his stuff from the '90s. I'd say that it was just the difference between reading his stuff as a teen then, and an adult now, but I've re-read some of that older stuff and it is still fun and better written. He seems to just be phoning this stuff in, skipping entire sections of storytelling, etc.

It's Robotech... for all we know, this is him writing his heart out and it's crap because the source material he's working from is crap.

Garbage in, garbage out... right?

[RavenHawk]

51 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

It's Robotech... for all we know, this is him writing his heart out and it's crap because the source material he's working from is crap.

Garbage in, garbage out... right?

You can take garbage plot points and garbage characters, and still write a coherent conversation between the characters, or still have one scene make sense relative to the one that went before it. That's not the case here. It's like there was a draft written, with sections marked "Fill in later... Add scene here... put a sentence here...", and then he said, "Meh, people will buy it for nostalgia no matter what, why waste the time?"

[Seto Kaiba]

11 hours ago, RavenHawk said:

You can take garbage plot points and garbage characters, and still write a coherent conversation between the characters, or still have one scene make sense relative to the one that went before it. That's not the case here. It's like there was a draft written, with sections marked "Fill in later... Add scene here... put a sentence here...", and then he said, "Meh, people will buy it for nostalgia no matter what, why waste the time?"

... sounds to me like he's doing a fine job replicating the Robotech creative process then.

Even Harmony Gold will, somewhat shamefacedly, admit that the 1985 Robotech TV series has loads of random, contextually inappropriate, and seemingly nonsensical lines that were just thrown in because someone on staff felt a scene needed more dialog.  You'd swear the (re)writers and voice actors thought they were getting paid by the word.

Between the dated, stilted dialog that reads like the writer was coming off a heavy dose of dental anesthetic and all the liberties taken with stealing designs and whole plots from other franchises, it feels like a right and proper tribute to the spirit of Robotech.

[peter]

On 11/17/2018 at 4:38 PM, tekering said:

Actually, the art has very much improved... except on the cover.  

Christ almighty, WTF.....

 

Did they forget to draw Daedalus?

Edited November 19, 2018 by peter

[RavenHawk]

42 minutes ago, peter said:

Did they forget to draw Daedalus?

I was too distracted by Azonia's pencil-thin mustache to notice.

Can't... look... away...

 

[Seto Kaiba]

1 minute ago, RavenHawk said:

I was too distracted by Azonia's pencil-thin mustache to notice.

Can't... look... away...

Is that what that is?  I thought they drew a mouth like a へ and accidentally gave her a fish mouth.

I'm mildly more put off by the way her breasts appear to be attached directly to her collarbone... though that cover has enough off-putting stuff already like Rick Hunter looking like a drugged-up Elijah Wood, Breetai looking like a background character from Forging Ahead! Cromartie High School, or Roy looking like a young Willem Dafoe doing a bad Tom Cruise cosplay...