Star Blazers (1987) #1-4 by Phil Foglio, Doug Rice, Mike Chen et al
I’m wholly unaware of what “Star Blazers” is — but I quite like Phil Foglio’s comics, so I have some hopes for this being a good comic book.
*jaws theme starts playing in the background*
We get an introduction by some guy who seems to do a recap of … something? What’s this a recap of? What we’re not being told what we’re reading: Is this Star Blazers mini-series an adaptation? And if so, an adaptation of what? Or is it a continuation of the plot that’s recapped here? Or is it a freestanding, new story set in this universe? WHAT?
It’s a pet peeve of mine — people who are so into their thing that they assume that everybody else knows everything, too… but then they go on to do plot recaps that make no sense unless you know what’s being recapped, but if that’s the audience you’re attempting to reach, the recap is worthless, because the audience already knows the plot.
So… *slow clap*.
“Around this stellar ember slowly swing cold and dusty worlds”…
“Half-heard prayers transversing eternity”… The grammar checks out, but man — that’s some leaden prose.
Well, OK — this doesn’t look half bad. But after the excessive plot recap on the inside front page, the characters here continue recapping, which seems a bit odd.
I like the bad guy. He seems fun.
Well, OK… but he didn’t claim you could see a black hole — he was talking about watching a ship spiral into a black hole. YES I”M NITPICKING A JOKE GO AHEAD AND SUE ME.
OK, so Star Blazers seems like it is indeed a Japanese animated series, and there’s been several adaptations done in book form? Hm… Oh! Space Cruiser Yamato!? Star Blazers is Space Cruiser Yamato!? I know that name, but I haven’t seen the series.
Why didn’t you say so in the first place?!
As leaden with exposition this book is, there’s little room for character building, but even worse — there’s little room to have a plot that makes any sense. I think I understand what happens here in broad terms, but I er have no idea what’s going on, really.
Foglio is credited as co-plotter and writer, but some of these drawings look awfully like Foglio drawings. Perhaps he also did layouts?
… wat
This book is a papery migraine. Things just seem to happen randomly, and nothing makes much sense. There’s several dozen characters, many of whom look awfully similar, and… wat…
There’s also a cat all of a sudden!? Were we introduced to that cat before it showed up to attack the bad guy!? WHAT?!
There’s many different ways to do adaptations — some try to make something that can be understood on its own, while others make something strongly tied in to what’s being adapted. And then there’s some people who make what I’d call a “Souvenir”, where you depict some key scenes from the original work. The idea is that the fans of the original work will buy the adaptation, and when they see scenes they like, they’ll go “hah, I remember that scene”, and leave satisfied.
I’m starting to wonder whether this is that kind of adaptation. And I still don’t know whether it’s actually an adaptation or not.
In the final issue, that guy finally deigns to explain to us what Star Blazers is. Sort of. This series has been made to “test the waters” for whether it makes sense to translate further seasons of the Japanese TV show.
And… the mini-series ends with a literal Deus not literally ex machina — the god of the evil aliens shows up and takes the invaders home. The end.
So… nothing the protagonists did during this series made any difference whatsoever.
Man, that’s a disappointing series. I guess it must have been a success of some kind, though, because Comico went on to do another mini-series two years later.
This series has never been reprinted or collected.
Back Issue #59, page #74:
THE COMICO YEARS (1987-1989)
It would be awhile before Star Blazers made its official
comic-book debut, this time as a four-part miniseries
by Comico in 1987. Comico was already publishing
Robotech, another Americanized version of a Japanese
anime, so Star Blazers probably seemed like a logical next
choice. Writer Phil Foglio and artist Doug Rice were
selected to work on the miniseries, since both were
known for being huge anime fans. Rice’s first exposure
to anime was a giant robot series called Raideen.
“It got me excited about giant robots and
anime,” Rice says. “Eventually I discovered
manga-the artwork was so dynamic
and crazy. I just fell in love with the
whole thing!” Rice adds, “I was
contacted by Comico. When I learned
they were doing a Star Blazers comic,
I went, ‘Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!'” Surprisingly,
Foglio had never seen Star Blazers at
the time, but Rice brought him up to
speed. “Doug was a lot more familiar
with the Star Blazers mythos,” Foglio
says. “He knew the setup and had
the [story] structure in mind.” Foglio
had previously worked with Rice on
Dynamo Joe, an anime-style comic about a giant robot,
for First Comics. “That was very much Doug,” Foglio
says. “I just had to come in and make it sound nice.
He was pretty much the man in charge of that, but I
had a little more creative input on Star Blazers.”
The story takes place right after the end of the Comet
from Zordar’s attack. “We wanted to wrap up the Comet
Empire story in a way that seemed logical,” Rice says. Earth
is depicted as still suffering from the aftereffects–with
many having been killed by Zordar’s dreadnaught, Earth’s
gravity being upset by the presence of the Comet Empire
city, and fragments of the moon raining down upon the
planet-while everything seems to be back to normal in
New Voyage. “When it comes to science fiction, we try to
take the science a little more seriously,” Foglio says. “It
gives you more scope to the disaster.” It turns out that
there is more to the Comet Empire, as an entire fleet led
by the fanatical General Radnar attacks Earth while it’s
vulnerable. “The Comet Empire that was destroyed in the
series was just the center of the Empire,” Rice explains.
“If it’s an empire, there has to be a lot more of them out
there.” Radnar is a devoted follower of the Empire’s
goddess, Arishna, and intends to avenge Zordar’s defeat
by offering Earth as a sacrifice to her. Radnar manages to
take over the Argo while it is being repaired and takes
Desslok prisoner on his way back to Gamilon, so Wildstar
must work with the Gamilons to reclaim both him and the
Argo. Radnar’s plan to use the Argo’s Wave-Motion Gun
to destroy the Earth is halted by Arishna herself. She
reveals that she is displeased with the Empire’s evil ways,
so she destroys Radnar’s fleet and recreates Earth’s moon.
Back Issue #59, page #74:
Fans generally enjoyed the story, although the art-
work-particularly the coloring-was not as well received,
especially by Rice. “[Comico] promised me the moon to
make it look good,” he says. “We talked about it at length
… I sent them copies of the manga pages to show them
how to get the anime-style to look … authentic.” Instead,
the first issue featured the blue-skinned Gamilons being
colored green. “When I saw the first issue, I almost died!
I was actually ashamed to have my name on it,” Rice
laments. “It was the first major assignment of my career,
and I couldn’t get over how bad it was.” When asked to
comment, former Comico administrator Bob Schreck
says, “I really don’t recall much about that series other
than we did publish it and were very proud of the job the
creative team did and how the books looked and read
once released.” Rice sums up the experience by saying,
“I learned a bitter lesson about maintaining creative
control on a project with people you don’t know.”
Oh yeah, I noticed that the aliens had different coloured skin, but I just assumed that that was part of the plot somehow. 🤷
Back Issue #59, page #76:
The first Star Blazers miniseries sold beyond Comico’s expectations,
but a follow-up series was not released for two years. No one seems to
know the reason for such a long delay, although it is possible that
Comico may have only negotiated the rights to produce one miniseries
and had to re-negotiate a new deal for a second one. Whatever the case
may be, Foglio and Rice were not asked to return … at least, not at first.
“We turned in the first one and heard absolutely nothing—good,
bad, or indifferent,” Foglio says. “It was a big surprise to us when
Comico announced another one. They didn’t tell us anything.”
The second miniseries ran for five issues and was to be written by
Markalan Joplin with art by Harrison Fong and Bill Anderson. However,
Joplin died of AIDS complications after writing the first issue. “Markalan
Joplin was entrenched in the Star Blazers and Robotech camp at Comico
when I came on board,” says Star Blazers (and BACK ISSUE) editor
Michael Eury. “I remember him fondly. He understood the material and
universe, which helped me as editor, since I was unfamiliar with the
concept. As his condition worsened, his pace slowed down, but he kept
the lines of communication going. A professional until the end.” With
Joplin gone, Comico asked Foglio to replace him. “I said, ‘Sure, if I can
work with Doug!” Foglio explains. “I enjoyed the series and the
characters, but Doug was very much the expert on Star Blazers.” Rice adds,
“I had voiced my ire to the Comico people and they didn’t appreciate it.
So, as far as I was concerned, I was never going to hear from them
again-that was the end of it. But then, they contacted Phil to do the
second series … and he got me involved. I’ll work with Phil on anything!”
The Comics Buyer’s Guide #687, page #2:
The first issue of Comico’s
Star Blazers mini-series will
ship April 17, said Administra-
tive Director Bob Schreck.
The full-color, four-issue
series will contain new stories
written by Phil Foglio, pencilled
by Doug Rice, and inked Mike
Chen. The full-process color will
be painted by Tom Reilly.
Foglio and Rice work on
Dynamo Joe, Chen inks Robo-
tech The Macross Saga, and
Reilly does coloring on Jonny
Quest.
Based upon the animated TV
series of the same name, this
mini-series will utilize the show’s
characters in a never-before-told
story conceived by Foglio and
Rice exclusively for Comico.
I’m unable to find any reviews of this mini-series — not on kwakk.info and not on the intertubes. So I guess it’s not really fondly remembered by anybody? Which is slightly odd, since these things usually have fans…
You can pick up the series moderately cheaply, but not as cheap as some Comico series.