Tangent - Tim Eldred interview @ CBR
While ostensibly about his Armored Trooper Votoms work (the first remastered DVD box set comes out this week, and the prequel graphic novel he did for Central Park Media is being offered as a freebie if you pre-order it at their website), Invid War and Return to Macross's Tim Eldred is interviewed by ComicBookResources.com's Tony Salvaggio about his years in the trenches doing manga-flavored U.S. comics here for Salvaggio's weekly "Calling Manga Island" column. ROBOTECH is only very briefly mentioned, but it's still quite the interesting read, touching on projects contemporary with his ROBOTECH work as well as his views on the explosion of folks using the style and techniques of anime and manga these days.
If you're wondering what he's up to currently, he mentions in the interview that he's currently doing a bimonthly Star Blazers webcomic set twenty-five years in that series' future called Star Blazers: Rebirth, which can be found at that franchise's homepage, StarBlazers.com. Meanwhile, his own creator-owned sci-fi comedy comic series Grease Monkey is being released in an omnibus graphic novel edition in June. I'll have to remember that ...
posted by Captain JLS at
13:25
4 Comments:
Invid War was one of the best Robotech comics ever made. Some of my other favorites were Genesis, Malcontent Uprisings, Cyberpirates, and Sentinels of course.
By
Anonymous, at 03 March, 2006 05:02
I was talking to Tommy Yune about the Robotech novels some months back and he said that if/when the full range of the novels came back into print, "End of the CIrcle" would be among them, even though Shadow Chronicles will obviously overwrite the hell out of it. By that token, I think short of DC/Wildstorm's unwillingness to do it, I see no reason why there shouldn't be affordable digest-sized trade paperback collections of Invid War in print right now. You probably noticed me gushing about the Wolff character arc between that series and Malcontents the other day; those stories are chock full of so many other good things, but y'know, I do so love their common thread.
Cyberpirates had some really neat good points to it, but man was it ever hobbled by some crap inking after Fred Perry left for Iraq. I think it would probably be much better regarded if not for that.
Genesis has a lot of cool ideas, too, and it's just excellently drawn, but I dunno, there's a very juvenile tone about it that's bothered me since high school and the way it doesn't *quite* line up with all the other established takes on so many of these events, especially in the last issue, has also nagged at me for a long time. An entertaining series to be sure, but those little bits here and there bother the heck out of me.
And of course, Sentinels ... good solid monthly-or-so action/adventure comics. Probably the greatest failing of that abortive "Sentinels Rubicon" crap that Antarctic Press tried to feed us was that it was anything BUT that; by the end of the Waltrips' run, folks picking up a Sentinels comic expected action, adventure, clean-as-can-be art, and killer old movie serial-style cliffhangers. Spangler's works were heavy on the pathos and had a nice "war chronicle" feel about them, but the Waltrips' books always remained all about solid straightforward action and high adventure. Kind of nice that by the tail end of Prelude they gave us a hint of that flavor back, just enough of a taste that you knew, "OK, they're totally back on the ball! Except ... now it's over. That sucks." *sigh* I really hope they can return to Robotech again sometime soon ...
It'd be cool to have Eldred back, too; looking at those Star Blazers pages is like a time warp, as his art style has remained comfortingly consistent, and it looks like he's still hand lettering his work. God, that always looks so much better than this computerized nonsense we've had since the mid 1990's. Alas, I don't think we'll ever see Eldred on a new Robotech book because he's not flashy enough, not fashionable enough, and doesn't have much in the way of name recognition. Kind of a shame; with the current span of time between the Invid Invasion of Earth and the arrival of Mars Division he could REALLY put together quite the epic revamp of Invid War today. I'd *totally* buy that ...
By
Captain JLS, at 03 March, 2006 12:04
They should do reprints. We've been asking for them for ages. Meanwhile - the things we don't ask for - they keep pumping out. Like the cell phone stuff, for example. Yeah, yeah, I know . . . it's easier to make. Almost no investment required, and almost 100% pure profit to be made. But the difference is, it won't sell. :P
I think Cyberpirates is very underrated. Maybe the artwork took a nosedive, but the story was great. I thought the Terry Weston character was a great addition to the Robotech universe.
I agree Genesis was a bit juvenile, but it was a fun romp. It was nice to see the story of Zor finding Optera, in a visual form.
Sentinels . . . it goes without saying, that the Waltrips rule. :)
And if Tim Eldred came back to do another Robotech comic, I'd get excited. Really excited. Especially if Bill Spangler returned, as well.
By
Anonymous, at 04 March, 2006 03:34
Preorders are over, unfortunately. Central Park Media's Votoms site, where you *could* have gotten it, is here:
http://www.centralparkmedia.com/votoms/
They say there will be more deals in the future. so I guess, um, watch that space.
Amazon.com's got the new DVD box sets (Stage 1 out this week!) for $26.19 a pop, which is darned close to what you would have paid at CPM's site, except you don't get the metal box to put all the box sets in or the graphic novel. That is, if you just need the series. A used copy of Eldred's "Supreme Survivor" will, on top of that, set you back about $6 from a third-party seller.
By
Captain JLS, at 06 March, 2006 02:03
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