Prelude to the Shadow Chronciles #3 Annotations

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See the South Park eyes and the sweatdrop on the two officers in the background? This sort of comedic license occurred with frequent regularity in Sentinels under Mason, Ulm, and the Waltrips, starting in Sentinels Book Two. Two prime examples are provided. Yes, it's starting to feel a lot like classic Sentinels again, which underscores the irritating disconnect in that scene last issue where the Regent, standing on his bridge, had to be told it was being stormed by Zentraedi soldiers, and yet the obvious humor of the scene was lessened by the serious on-model artwork. Talk about your missed opportunities. I wonder if what we see here is Dogan getting comfortable with the scripts, or rather, if it's the Waltrips who are just starting to get comfortable -- after all, I hear there are sweatdrops to be found in issue #4 ...

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Rough storytelling, as I point out in the diagram of this page. Note all the jumps without proper establishing shots and the way we never see these escape pods and ships fleeing the hangar -- in fact, the first time we see any other ship besides the Tokugawa, it has already left the hangar and due to the perspective doesn't look small enough to have been inside the Tokugawa's hangar. As I've said before, it's like those old dubs of anime shows where the dialogue mentions escape pods and parachutes when the animation itself clearly shows no survivors.

The root of the problem, I think, is the rushed pacing of the book. Five issues to cap off Sentinels and get things in place for Shadow Chronicles doesn't seem like quite enough.

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The Expeditionary Force fire control officers, after hosing off Vince's overheated Cyclone, also get sweatdrops as Jean berates Vince for that darned fool stunt.

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Vince is wearing a white uniform. Next time we see him he won't be, even though he'll have no time for a change of clothes. Whoops.

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The SDF-3 is en route to Space Station Liberty. Just as Jean yelled at Vince for staying on the bridge 'til his ship's end, Rick tells Lisa she should have stayed behind on Tirol. However, she has this need to feel useful again -- looking at those leg braces she's got on, I wouldn't blame her. Rick tells her that the doctors say she'll be able to walk again soon, but since she's shown up in no cast lists for the current Shadow Chronicles animation, I have my doubts.



In the panel above Rick tells Lisa, "You've pulled through worse things, at Alaska Base." I've provided scans of the comic adaptation of the worst part of that incident for Lisa, but the more important reference to that event for our purposes comes from Jack McKinney's Sentinels Book 5: Rubicon:

Rick went to Lisa's side and helped her up. "Why, Edwards? What's it all been about? Is it Fokker? I mean, Roy told me you were a fascist from way back when--all your Neasian merc work. You wanted an army of automatons, is that it? And you saw your chance with the Invid. So why single us out?"

Edwards readjusted his headband. A look of misgiving swept across his face, but a grin was forthcoming. "It was Fokker in the beginning, Hunter. I'll grant you that. Fokker and all you SDF-1 heroes. You and your Zentraedi pals almost ended things for all of us."

"Come on, Edwards," Rick sneered. "It was the UEDC, you know that. Russo and ..."

Edwards laughed. "Go ahead, say it: Russo and who?"

Rick looked over at Lisa. "I'm sorry."

"Russo and Hayes," Edwards filled in. "Let's not forget your wife's old man, Hunter. It was his idea as much as anyone else's to use the Cannon."

"Then why blame us? Gloval was against it--we all were."

Edwards winced and put a hand to the headband. Behind him the Genesis Pit loosed a flash of unharnessed energy.

It's coming apart, Rick thought. Baldan and Teal must have made it to the brain.

Edwards glared at him and ripped away his faceplate, revealing a dead eye at the apex of two hideous diagonal scars. "This is why!" he screamed, gesturing to his face. "This is why I hate the two of you."

Rick and Lisa exchanged baffled looks.

"No, of course you don't understand," Edwards continued. "But maybe if I told you how this happened you'd begin to get the picture. You see, I was there that day, Hunter. I was at Alaska Base."

Lisa inhaled sharply. "But ... but that's impossible."

Another flash of energy escaped the Pit, but Edwards ignored it. "Oh, no," he assured her. "Not impossible. You remember where you were?"

Lisa did. She had been ordered to see about a glitch in a shielded commo relay substation. There were sights and smells she didn't want to recall ... amber light ... barely enough fallback power to keep her console functioning. Then her screen had come alive momentarily: multicolored lines of static and an image of her father's face, broken by interference. And she could see he was still in the command center, a few figures moving behind him in the gloom, lit by occasional flashes of static or electrical shorts--

"I was there," Edwards was saying. "I was there when you and your father said your last good-byes."

Lisa looked terrified by the revelation. "But I thought ... I was the screen go dark. I was sure--"

"But you never bothered to check!" Edwards seethed. "Neither of you!"

Rick, too, was recalling that day. He remembered maneuvering his Skull Veritech through a confining space of exploding power ducts and ruptured energy mains; using the Guardian's phased-array laser to burn a circular hatch through a thick shield door; Lisa rushing into his arms from the end of a short interconnecting passsageway.

"Edwards," Rick said quietly, "I--"

"You what, Hunter? I saw the two of you leave ... She was on your lap, wasn't she? Such a cute pair. Meant for each other." Edwards's face contorted as the headband drove something unseen into his mind. He wedged his fingers underneath it, as though to keep it from constricting his scalp. The Pid belched a mad torrent of flames.

"Edwards!"

"I called out to you, Hunter ... I crawled across that molten glass terrain on my belly praying for you to hear me." Edwards tore the sensor band from his head and collapsed to his knees in pain. He turned to glance at the Pit and motioned to it with the Badger. "You left me in hell up there, and now I'm going to do the same for you. Now move, both of you." (176-178)

I'm sure that's especially interesting reading for those of you who've already read issue #4, which explicitly points out how Edwards' "origin" is very much the same in Prelude's take on things.

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Lisa outright says to Rick, "... don't get too comfortable on that bridge, mister. That's MY chair you've been sitting in." Again, since Lisa hasn't been confirmed as a character appearing in the upcoming initial Shadow Chronicles animation, I'm wondering about her continued claim on that chair ... if something in the final issue will render that claim null and void.

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See both forms of Janice's new body, as Lang tinkers with it and turns the holographic human image on and off. As a side note here, notice that in the comics (and, for that matter, in the original proposed TV series), Janice's human form was merely a holographic facade, whereas in the novels ... well, I'll let this passage from World Killers speak for itself ...

The raiding party stared, aghast, at the thing that had been Janice Em.

Her skin has become transparent, and the blood vessels and musculature of her face could be seen. Her eyes emitted an eerie light; what there was of her expression seemed flat, unblinking and un-Human.

Jack found that he had instinctively raised his submachine gun. "Wh-what are you, a zombie?" He felt stupid even saying it.

Her voice, when it came, had much of Janice's tone and manner. "No; I am an Artificial Person, built in the Tokyo research megaplex. I've acted as Dr. Lang's eyes and ears on the Sentinels mission."

Lron's broad, thickly furred chest rumbled. "I don't like such things--androids running around pretending they are alive!" (57)

Then again, McKinney's Janice has to have some sort of holographic emitter -- Edwards' final scene in Rubicon features him believing Janice to be Minmei, then she reveals herself and carries him into the Genesis Pit as Optera dies. (I expect this scene would be extra familiar to folks who've already read issue #4 of Prelude ...)

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Janice has been watching Dr. Lang. After observing the holographic human image, Janice says, "It would also appear from the image that the name you gave me was not a coincidence after all, was it?" Lang confirms this, which reveals to us that he's got some enigmatic new backstory. I wonder how soon we'll get the payoff for this little tidbit, given that Lang will also not be returning for the Shadow Chronicles animation by all accounts. Between this and the Dr. Zand bits -- by the way, he's not in this issue -- it sounds like we've got enough new backstory bits for an ongoing series, but we've only got the two issues left to resolve the main storyline, and we barely seem to have enough time each issue for even that.

Oh, and remember this -- Lang gives a lot of credit to Veidt and the Haydonites for their assistance on Janice's new body.

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Dr. Miles Cochrane, formerly of the Army of the Southern Cross, to Rick: "We're working as fast as we can to retrofit older ships with Shadow Technology. However, our engineers are being hampered by the new security measures that have been keeping many of them in the dark." If the engineers don't even know what they're doing, no wonder Scott Bernard and his allies knew nothing of the Shadow Technology until they were filled in by intelligence agent Sue Graham in episode #83, "Reflex Point." Rick tells Cochrane that this is a lesson taught by Edwards' betrayal, and shows how the events in space have come to darken the Expeditionary Force, and Rick in particular ... indeed, you could say that it has draped them deeper in shadow ...

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Louie tells Rick, "... though I'm still trying to wrap my head around all the scientific principles behind this new technology." Contrast this remark with ...

Graham changed discs; technical readouts now filled the holo-field, replacing the space footage. "The Protoculture generators of the new-generation VTs have been redesigned to include a fourth-dimensional configuration that renders the Shadow Fighter invisible. The Nichols drive, it's called." (Symphony of Light, 152)

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As Louie gives Rick the grand tour of Space Station Liberty, Rick sees some ships he doesn't recognize. Louie tells him that they're heavily armored colony ships, built in response to the outbreak of hostilities after the original Pioneer Mission, and that the first will be called the Ark Angel. Due to the darkness of the panel, we don't actually get to see the Ark Angel ... this has been a recurring problem with this series. Is it the printing process? The paper stock? Or an overzealous colorist? In any case, it's annoying.

Honestly, this use of the name "Ark Angel" makes a lot more sense than the Haydonite vessel from the comics or the arbitrarily renamed SDF-7-class ship from the novels (its name first mentioned only in passing during the beginning of the battle for Haydon IV -- page 83 of World Killers if you want to see for yourself). It suggests, y'know, an ark, like Noah's weathering the storm that wiped out all life that wasn't aboard it. Clearly these armored colony vessels are a case of the REF preparing for the worst ...

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Louie points out a fleet of old Angel-class colony ships, unused, being mothballed to make way for the Ark Angel class. Clearly the Expeditionary Force has been rather busy out here at Liberty for all these years. In general shape these Angel-class ships bear a striking resemblance to the Neutron-S missiles that the Expeditionary Force, led by General Reinhardt, nearly used on planet Earth in the last episode of the Robotech TV series.

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Edwards has the survivors of the Tokugawa brought before him at one of the Invid hives on Optera. Vince cuts to the chase in classic Robotech style: "What have you done with the rest of my crew? And where is Minmei?" (emphasis mine) Boy, you'd think she's the most important person in the world. Worth noting, she hasn't been seen in two issues' time, and still never from the front.

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Edwards explains himself. "Do you see this? All of this is at my command! The entire Invid army on Optera, their resources, their technology! Mine ... to command!" Vince asks what he's going to do with it. "To retake Earth from alien occupation, of course! Why else do you think I've done all this? Everything I have done is because of the Earth! To protect Earth!" Boy, this in stark contrast to Edwards at the start of Sentinels Book II, where he calls the Earth a "pitiful planet"! I guess Rick was right about him all along -- remember, in Prelude #1, he said, "He thinks he's the only one who can protect Earth by destroying every potential enemy rather than building alliances." Vince accuses him of betraying Earth and the Expeditionary Force, but Edwards believes it is the Expeditionary Force that has betrayed Earth by failing to protect it from Invid occupation. Look back to the second issue of Robotech: Invasion. Lancer says: "According to the Gloval Initiative of 2014, one of the long-term goals of the Robotech Expedition is the advancement of colonization to preserve the human race. Going back to fight over a planet with a compromised ecosystem appears to be a contradictory use of expeditionary resources ... ma'am."

Ah, nice how all these series interlock like this. Obviously there is some truth to Edwards' words here.

Edwards continues: "Therefore, I no longer owe that shortsighted and ineffectual organization my allegiance ... but neither have I given it to the Invid. You didn't really think I had joined that overgrown snail, did you? It was simply a means to an end, an unsavory but essential step in my plan."

Well, there's one thing that's consistent about Edwards.



See?

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Edwards draws a clear line through his plans for his captives. In the wake of the Regent's death, Edwards plans to use the Regent's Invid forces to combat the Regess' army on Earth and retake the planet. (Clearly this plan wouldn't have worked in the old Sentinels scenario -- at least the one from the novels & comics -- because the Regess doesn't invade Earth until after the Sentinels campaign and the war with Edwards' forces.) Vince asks why Edwards didn't bring the plan before the REF council. "The council? That bunch of acquiescing diplomatic idiots who turned against me? Who would rather "make peace" with every alien menace that comes along than fight for our rightful place in the universe? Who would leave the destiny of humankind to the mercy and whims of alien races? This I cannot allow!" On the one hand, Edwards comes off as a sort of "human supremacist." Recall that tolerance and understanding are key themes of the original three generations of Robotech -- by the end of each generation, important members of the enemy aliens' societies have turned around to the goal of peace between mankind and their own people. The human race might "win," but romance between characters of different races blossoms, and those aliens who remain stick around to help humanity rebuild. And yet, on the grand scale, Edwards isn't so daft not to trust aliens given the fabulous track record so far with the Zentraedi, Masters, and Invid. And furthermore, the script is very specific to have our "heroes" continue to go on and on about the help they've been getting from the Haydonites and Karbarrans, in sharp contrast with Edwards' attitude.

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Remember that scan about Edwards' motives where he calls Leonard a fool? Here's another difference between Sentinels Edwards and Prelude Edwards: "Supreme Commander Leonard was ridiculed and vilified by the council for his hard-line stance against aliens, only to be proven right. THEY ARE NOT TO BE TRUSTED. The Earth has been victimized too many times by poor leadership." And Supreme Commander Leonard wasn't poor leadership? Oh, I know there's a contingent that believes he was right in his actions, but he always struck me as a bit of a blunt instrument. Anyway, this moment makes me curious about what these two were up to after Edwards escaped Alaska base and as the world started to go on the mend. Obviously Edwards made it aboard the SDF-3 and Leonard rose to lead the defense forces, but in the new landscape I wonder how their ascent played itself out.

Edwards continues: "The justification is to keep the human race in a position of absolute dominance over the galaxy, and to never let the Earth be conquered by an alien force ever again. And if I have to use alien technology to do it ... I will!" That's an interesting contrast with his old pal Leonard as portrayed in The Zentraedi Rebellion:

"Is that prudent, given what we might be able to learn from the captives? Perhaps you're unaware that I've had extensive experience interrogating the Zentraedi. Not in the field, it's true, but some of the same laboratory techniques can be applied. In any case, who knows what the Scavengers may have in the way of usable mecha or Protoculture. And we don't want that destroyed, do we?"

Leonard glanced at Zand, his broad, hairless brow deeply furrowed. "Don't mention that infernal word to me, Professor. I find it as offensive as taking God's name in vain. It has long been my wish that the hardware of the Southern Cross could be fueled by something other than that alien evil." He nodded his chin at Zand. "Maybe you could brew something up for us--something Human-grown." (232)

Can't help but be amused by Leonard's phrasing here in the wake of Edwards' monologues -- "alien evil." The thing is, Edwards makes sense in terms of keeping Earth defended eternally from alien invaders, but his talk of human dominance veers a bit too close to a sort of racist dogma for comfort. Wasn't so much of the first two generations of Robotech centered on the idea that Zentraedi and Tirolians are people, too?

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Edwards demonstrates the Genesis Pit for Vince, Jean, and Karen's benefit. We never saw the Genesis Pit on Optera in the comics, but the visual of the Optera Pit is strikingly similar to the Pit on Praxis that the Regess was working with in Sentinels Book II.

An Invid knocks a "redshirt" into the green bubbling liquid -- and out comes a many-eyed, many-fanged monster. This is the same use that Edwards found for it in the novels, and the same use the Regess was using the one on Praxis for in Robotech II: The Sentinels Book II #6. (Unlike Edwards, who has his experiments tossed carelessly into the pit, the Regess had an elaborate structure built atop the Pit that lowered the subject in.) And yet, as Edwards explains, the primary purpose for the Genesis Pit is supposed to be experiments in evolution -- hence the prehistoric beasts roaming beneath Praxis in Jason & John Waltrip's "Amazon World" one-shot comic and the prehistoric animals that Scott Bernard, Rand, and Annie LaBelle ran into beneath the Earth's surface in Robotech TV episode #69, "The Genesis Pit."

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Rick Hunter and the Expeditionary Force more or less silently land on Optera. Despite descriptions of an uninhabitable atmosphere last issue, Rick charges out without a helmet on in CVR-3 battle armor in his old VF-1J Vermilion One colors, demanding Edwards be taken in alive.

To Be Continued ...

Rambling Man (Part 1)

Still in the middle of scanning and rewriting for the issue #3 commentary ... I promise, it'll be up before the new year. ^_^;

In the meantime, you can listen to me rambling with Lt. Tylor, as well as some recent Robotech news and such in the latest RDF Underground podcast. Of course, if not for the fact that he billed part two of the interview as being in the next episode of the podcast, I wouldn't know I was in there, because it's absent from the list of episode contents, and as I said, I'm not listening to the episode ...

In other audiovisual entertainment optimized for portable devices news, Robotech.com is pushing a free download of the first episode of the iffy 1990's Gatchaman OVA. Steve Yun claims in the article that they're experimenting with content delivery, but y'know, I think despite the fact that we've seen it all a thousand times before, something like, oh, "Boobytrap" would be a better thing to post free on a freakin' Robotech website.

While considering this on the way to work today, I thought what a cool thing it would be if, once everything's sorted out -- or, better, as soon as possible -- they'd post, like, the first five to ten minutes of Shadow Chronicles on-line. Or hey, maybe that clip with SFX & music that they showed at that recent convention -- the L.A. Comic Book & Sci-Fi Con, was it? If it's suitably impressive and spreads throughout the vast interweb like wildfire, y'know, I think it could go a long way to putting the new animation in the back of a lot of minds so that when the DVD is finally released, those people will go, "Oh, hey, I've seen part of that! That was COOL!" And then hopefully they'll buy it.

Probably not anything that hasn't floated through the HGUSA offices, but hey, that's what was flitting through my mind this afternoon.

Look, I've even got the Sentinels comics sitting out over here ...

But before I post up the much belated notes on the third issue of Prelude, take a look at this snapshot from the past.



The reason this has been sitting on my computer some years now is because it was the first time I remember seeing the steaming cup icon in the corner, which was the direct result of yours truly saying on the Robotech.com forums, during a discussion of what kind of real world Robotech artifacts we fans would all want saying, "Yeah, those high end Veritech pilot helmets you're talking about would be cool and all, but geez, how about something a little cheaper, like oh, say, coffee mugs just like those seen in use by the SDF-1 bridge crew in the TV series." Notice that the main page features a poll about what people want out of their Robotech coffee mugs. They weren't out yet, but hey look, there it is in the corner.

(Of course, that's not the only mark that, in some way, I've left on the corner graphic. I'll get to that during a particularly dull week ... like, oh, sometime in February.)

I'd actually been thinking about an SDF-1 coffee mug for a couple of years prior. (If you click on that, do a search for the name "scwonkey" and scroll up a little bit.) In fact, I remember the first time I ever saw "The Long Wait" complete and uncut (remember, the first time I'd seen Robotech in many, many years it was on the old FHE 100 minute/6 episode tapes) I thought, "Oh man, what I'd do for one of those mugs to drink my coffee out of. And bear in mind that I was, like, thirteen at the time ... yeah, I became a caffiene addict at a young age.

The other thing I come away from this screen grab with is the realization that it's been so long since Toynami started making Robotech toys -- look, the super-poseable Veritechs are being promoted there -- and we still don't have any Hovertank figures. Just a damn crying shame, I tell you ...

Hmm ... 1st review of Prelude #4 I've seen ...

From Dave Van Domelen's weekly comics capsule reviews ...

Robotech Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles #4 (of 5): DC/Wildstorm - When
your Invid drones are getting sweat-drops because of the plot, it may be time
to rethink the storyline. Mildly recommended. $3.50/$4.75Cn

Okay, my interest is piqued ... oh, and as for my much-delayed notes on #3? All I'm gonna say is my Christmas break just started. Hmm, I wonder how I'm going to spend Thursday morning ...

Bad night. Sleep now. Type later.

Search: Robotech The Movie Toys

I was just looking through my visitors to the blog this evening and noticed that one person wound up here by looking for "Robotech The Movie Toys." That got me thinking ... I know I saw pics of a new transforming Megazone 23 Garland (a.k.a. Mark Landry's MODAT-5) toy some months back. Whatever happened to that?

Well, here at Zinc Panic is an article saying that Max Factory was supposed to put out a Max Gokin (die-cast metal) Garland the past summer, but that didn't materialize. Yamato also has a Garland in the works, which an article on Toybox DX concerning this year's Summer Wonderfest out in Japan here says should be out no earlier than this coming summer '06. The same article says the Max Gokin has no release date.

Feast your eyes on a prototype of the Yamato one, in an image nicked from Toy News International's coverage of the event.



I've read that the Max Gokin is the same size, and both should be about the size of a bulky 3 3/4" G.I. Joe motorcycle -- I know somewhere I've seen a shot of the cycle mode being ridden by a Takara Microman figure, which is approximately the size of an 80's G.I. Joe. Mind you, I can't find this picture, but trust me ... that's about the scale we're looking at.

Okay, so I'm off to grab some grub, then I'll get back and get to work on the in-depth stuff on Prelude #3, seeing how #4 comes out, err, tomorrow ...

*sigh*

I CAN'T STOP POSTING!!! AIEEEEEEE!!!

A text message magically appearing on my cell phone a moment ago informed me that the next RDF Underground Podcast interview (coming in a couple of weeks' time -- my chat's going to be broken up over two episodes, apparently) is going to be with my good pal, former Emissaries pubisher guy Evan "The Cassman" Cass. The message also implied that practically every other word he says to Tylor will be "Emissaries," which is a kind of nice bit of synergy, since there's going to be an issue of that very fan publication coming out sometime within the next week or so for Christmas.

Expect a whole week of tantalizing excerpts from the giant-sized holiday issue of ye ol' fanzine here the week after it arrives in subscribers' hands.

Tangent - New work by one of my favorite Robotech aritsts!

Sooner or later I'm going to post up a super-exhaustive, heavily illustrated piece on this blog explaining why I think Return to Macross artist Wes Abbott is awesome -- probably early in the new year. In the meantime, I can tell you that Abbott's new work from TokyoPop, Dogby Walks Alone, is coming out June 13, 2006. The story concerns a silent amusement park mascot, a man in a sleepy-eyed dog suit, going on a quest to track down the murderer of his beloved queen. While the premise sounds a little out there, looking over the preview pages at the TokyoPop website (see 'em here -- just click "READ CHAPTER" and the preview will open in a new window), the work gives off the same crackling energy as his decade-old Return to Macross pages, despite the wildly nutty premise. Certainly there's much greater polish here, but I'm surprised to see that the art retains the same sort of animated excitement that he brought to the adventures of Roy Fokker & Co. on Macross Island.

Back in late June, Newsarama's Matt Brady inteviewed Abbott about Dogby here, where you can see lots of character sketches as well.

So, um, hey, people at DC/WildStorm ... any chance that we could see a "Return to Macross: War of the Believers" digest-sized trade as a tie-in of sorts?

Oh yeah, I did do that ...

Some of you may have noticed on the sidebar the list of Upcoming Releases -- upcoming videos, toys, games, and comics from the worlds of Robotech and Macross. Among those is an import game for the PS2 called Another Century's Episode 2, which you can see videos of here. It's 3D mecha action game from the people who brought us the Armored Core series of games, featuring a whole raft of robots licensed from a broad cross-section of mecha anime series -- including, of course, the classic VF-1 Valkyries from Macross.

Mind you, it's never coming out here in the English-speaking world -- several of those mecha shows, like Metal Armor Dragonar and Blue Comet SPT Layzner haven't a chance in hell of being released in the States on account of them being too old, and sorting out the English rights to all the remaining series would be a hell of a hassle -- but if you can run import PS2 games, it's probably worth checking out. I have played the first game in the series and didn't much care for it, but then I couldn't even beat more than a single stage of Armored Core 2 after something like five hours, so it's probably not for me.

But still, boy does it look neat ...

Yipes.

Just finished being interviewed over the phone by Captain Tylor from RDF Underground, in which I, as usual, ramble incoherently and come off as a total doof. So you definitely want to listen to that. I could certainly blame it on being distracted by the ever-present echo coming back on me, but it's probably not that -- it's just that I'm a nervous wreck of a person, y'know. Fun.

I'll definitely post up the link when it's up, mostly on the basis that I know I didn't finish a couple of those trains of thought. But there's no way you're actually going to get me to listen to the interview ... uh-uh, no way no how.

This Isn't A Secure Line ...

From this blog's visitor logs ...



(IP address blurred out because, well, it's a good idea.)

Meanwhile, last night a "quick trip" out shopping turned into a long trip, and I've got plans for tonight. I could surprise you all with new notes and pictures and such tonight, but, err, don't count on it, okay? Saturday. We'll say Saturday.

Dude, that's just weird ...

It's a Robotech-themed celebrity "news" blog ... like if Entertainment Tonight suddenly had all their correspondents dress up in Veritech pilot uniforms. Uh-huh.

Link snatched from BeaucoupKevin, one of my fave cranky/snarky comics blogs.

Boy Am I Slow ...

First, catch up with a special remix of my verbal notes on Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles #2 produced by Odyn.


MP3 File

Then, give a listen to my first pass notes on Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles #3, which came out, yes, about a month ago. Sorry 'bout that. In fact, Prelude #4 should have been out tomorrow, but it looks like the book is running behind schedule and will be out December 21st. Hopefully this means less awkward errors and less weirdly-shaped heads. Oh, and yes, my cellphone is my medium of transmission, so the audio quality is kind of bad. Hey, when I can afford a decent microphone, I'll get one ...


MP3 File

The written/scanned image-filled edition will be up Thursday night. (It would be Wednesday except, y'know, King Kong comes out Wednesday ...)

I kind of wanted to talk about the new Macross DVDs that ADV is doing, but I think Darkwater is doing a pretty thorough job here, so go look at that the minute you're done torturing your ears with the sound of my voice.

Broken Promises and Corporate-Speak

Sorry I haven't managed to get the light notes on Prelude #3 up ... I've been quite busy making secret plans and dark pacts with a friend of mine, as well as managing eBay auctions and packing up and sending off said eBay auctions to keep food on the table -- or more accurately, to keep pointless junk like Transformers and comic books on the table. Not a whole lotta fun, let me tell you. We'll shoot for later tonight to get this business closed.

Speaking of business nearing completion, Kevin McKeever gave the following bit of buzz to AnimeOnDVD.com:

"Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles is currently in the final stages of post-production and will be ready for release soon in 2006. Harmony Gold is committed to bringing our fans an entertaining film with the highest production values possible. To that end we have increased the length and scope of the production to include the latest sound and distribution formats such as High Definition video.

For the past year Harmony Gold has been weighing various offers from highly respected distributors for Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles. As part of these negotiations, Harmony Gold has mandated certain marketing and distribution goals (based on fan and market research) to be met for any such agreement. Once a distribution agreement is signed and a release date set we will immediately let our fans know."

Now if that isn't carefully-worded, totally uninformative corporate-speak, I don't know what is. But it's better than dead silence, which is what we've been getting from the folks at HGUSA as of late. Oh, and it does tell us we're getting the movie "soon in 2006," which is less specific than the original solicitation for Prelude #5 ("January's Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles DVD release," it said), but it is the first confirmation outside of that retracted blurb (remember, it was rewritten, sans release date and reference to the "hideously mutated General Edwards," on the Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles website) that we're looking to '06 to see the finished film. So, um, I guess that's something.

I guess for you high-end video and surround sound folks this is good news, but personally I couldn't care less about any of that stuff -- I just want my damn DVD, and if all this "punching up" of the material is between me and my DVD ... well, I guess I'll just squint angrily at you all, I dunno.

More later, I hope -- fingers crossed, all.

Also ... just read Darkwater's recap of news spilled at the L.A. Comic Book & Sci-Fi Convention, and all I've got to say about it is, having been to three Shadow Chronicles panels myself, it certainly sounds like a fairly typical Shadow Chronicles panel, in terms of people being vaguely evasive and oh-so-careful with their words. Mind you, there actually were some new tidbits -- they're recording pick-ups now (last-minute rewrites, improvs, etc.) and they've got Alexandra Kensworthy back to redub the Regess's dialogue, which is a big *whew* ... that's one less recast to deal with.

Oh, and apparently the finished animation, with music & SFX is awesome. Lousy stupid stinking living out in the midwest with work and bills and stuff ... *grumble, grumble*

A few quick notes ...

Sorry I've been quiet. Not much going on, and I've been busy with grandiose plans (more on those in the coming weeks & months) and selling off the fringes of my giant collection of stuff on eBay -- old Dragon Ball figures and comics I don't need anymore, mostly. Things I don't care too much about.

As our dear friend Darkwater pointed out at The (Unofficial) Robotech Reporter, the Macross English dub cast list is up, and nary a classic Robotech voice can be found there. I'm not so familiar with ADV dubs -- the only one I ever sat through all of was Evangelion, and that's because I was watching that in those pre-DVD days when it was either spend $20 on a dubbed VHS tape or $30 for a subtitled VHS tape and I was a teenager with, like, no money -- so I have no clue how this is going to sound based on the cast list. Indeed, the only thing I can say is, err, Tiffany "Asuka" Grant as Laplamiz/Azonia?! That strikes me as more than a little weird, though I suppose I can see her as the character during the reconstruction era. Perhaps when I have some time I can shuffle through some of my DVDs and investigate the matter further ...

Speaking of doing things and having time and such ... err, yeah, I promised some audio, didn't I? I think I'll try and squeeze that in tonight and then shoot for the text by Sunday night. As I said, that shouldn't take much time. There's really not a lot to talk about in Prelude #3.

Image nicked from RightStuf.com.