Roboculture

While the whole world - okay, while America and Australia rant and rave about The Shadow Chronicles, I'm stuck here talking about my Robotech experiences. And that isn't really a bad thing. Now I present to you 'Yaki' Udon: The Art of Wildstorm Part 2!

FROM THE CRAPPER

After my initial purchases of Wildstorm's Love & War and Invasion series, I was left with a bad taste in my mouth. I just bought all six issues of Love & War (at dirt cheap prices obviously), and it left me confused. The art was subpar. Why did this happen? Why was it this way? I never finished Invasion, so I also didn't know what happened to Lancer and pals. So that too confused me. Prelude was better, at least in terms of art, but suffered towards the middle.

Despite this, I craved more. I only heard about From The Stars from the website, and I realized that it was the comic I had to get. The shots you see above were from the Robotech website, and these shots really intruiged me. (At that time, I didn't know this was the FIRST comic they released, I initially thought it was Love & War) The art was positively deilghtful - with colorful backgrounds, crappy character art, and great looking dogfights.

After exploring the myriad of comic shops and bookstores around the city, my search turned out empty. Nobody carried stock for this Robojunk. Luckily, my family planned a trip to go to Hong Kong. I realized, if my country didn't have it, then HONG KONG must've carried it! They've got these incredible bookstores like Powerbooks and stuff so I was really excited. After a bit of searching, I found out that only one book store carried it. It was in that Times Square place. I went up and I asked the folks there, HEY WHERE THE HELL IS THE ROBOTECH?! (Not really), and it turns out that it was sold. Horray!!

So my journey for this frickin' Robotech book turned out empty. After a few weeks, I stumbled on a book store which allows customers to order stuff off the internet and it would be delivered there in at least 4 weeks. Wow!!! Cool!! Sign me up!! (This idea was unheard of from where I live at the time) So whaddaya know, I was able to order From the Stars from the internet without having to use a credit card. Joy!

So there. Roughly four weeks later, I got From The Stars. Yey!! New Robotech!

And then, disappointment.

I won't be discussing the faults of the story, cuz' it wasn't involving and stuff, but the art. When I first turned to the segment known as Robotech #0, man was I blown away by the style sucktitude. The mecha designs and stuff were drawn exceptionally well. Certain characters, if not drawn in a certain way, looked pretty good. But then you see Rick Hunter. Rick Hunter and Lang. Gosh, I thought, what the hell was I getting into? It looks so weird. Yes, that's all I can say. It looks weird.

The style really disturbed me, you know? Especially when the blonde monster you see in the lower right of the image. Yes, my dear readers, that thing is Roy Focker. One of the coolest characters in Robotech. Well, okay, the style isn't all that bad - but it doesn't feel like Robotech that much. I wish they got a real manga artist to do the art for the comics. Yes, I firmly believe that Robotech works best if the style of any secondary works sticks to the show. This is just too disturbing. It's like Harmony Gold's crushing my childhood memories with their so-so works. The coloring was great though, really saved the art from being total crap. Udon Crew's done it again.

Later issues were not so good. Long Vo's (main line artist for L&W and this series) style fails to capture the anime feel, with certain panels looking like a poor man's imitation of the anime. Dynamic movements of characters aren't correctly expressed in certain scenes, especially if you compare them to certain mangas I have read (I don't read a lot though) I've said it earlier, but yeah, that's my feelings for the later issue of this series.

I also noticed this from Long Vo's style (which didn't evolve from what I've seen in L&W) is that the guy uses a lot of side views. Anime and mangas don't use that many side views for certain characters, so it irked me a bit to see so many dramatic scenes using this. Maybe he got lazy or something.

Another of my biggest caveats here is one of the comic's protagonist - Claudia Grant. The way she is drawn is just horrible. She looks like a really ugly kid. It's just embarassing looking at her. I think it had something to do with the difficulty of drawing her because yeah, it is really hard to draw Claudia. But c'mon! These are professional artists! They should'a done there research!

I mean, look at the shot of Claudia (left, below), and compare them with Haruhiko Mikimoto's interpreation of Claudia (left). I don't know but I think there something edgy and sexy on Mikimoto's Claudia. When I look at Long Vo's interpretation, its just, sad. Claudia in From The Stars looks like a kid. And a very ugly one at that. None of the spark and sexiness of Claudia seen in the show can be found in this comic. It's just awful and painful to see Roy falling for this kid. Of course, this relationship look cool in Do You Remember Love, but here, it's like meh.

Before I forget, Lisa Hayes, in the last few panels of the comics looks crap. Some shots (if you haven't noticed) make her look like a plastic doll, but this time I think it's the Udon Crew's fault. Too much shininess in her face.

The jet fighter scenes are okay, but that's not saying much. The VF-1 are as usual, not very sexily drawn, and certain lines used by the artist are a little too thick. The dogfights here are a little better that the ones I've seen in Love & War, but I wished there was a more natural flow of action. Studying manga and the flow of action in the more action oriented stuff would've helped tremendously. Some sequences look a little awkward and not as intense as I had hoped. I don't know, I can't explain it, but whatever. You don't have to agree with what I said anyway.

Seeing as I keep criticizing Long Vo's work, I might as well talk about the good. Some characters, like young Rick, are not bad. They're drawn in Long Vo's anime style, but if that's the best the style's gonna be, then Rick looks good.
Seeing Edwards for the first time is interesting too. I mean his biceps are unnatural and Guile-ish, but seeing as I've read Prelude first, seeing young Edwards was nice. I mean, wow - the guy's got a tan. Donald Hayes looks great here. Nicely drawn, no problems here. So I guess what I'm saying is that at least, no matter how weird certain characters look, at least they look the part. Not like the freaks we see in Robotech #0. Aw man, that's just not right.

Which brings me to that same old point wherein Robotech shouldn't really be drawn any style else except anime. I mean, its nice if they're drawn differently (like someone's interpretation), but I would really like them to be relegated only to still art pieces. Similar to what was done in Robotech: Art 2. Can anyone imagine a whole comic series dedicated to Robotech Teddy-style? Yeah, gross. (I'd scan it, but it would ultimately be a waste of webspace)

So now I've reached the point where I just say, wow. I mean, it makes me wonder - why didn't they get an authentic manga artist from the start? Oh well. My only fear now is when Long Vo himself would magically appear and start criticizing MY art.

YEAH RIGHT! HAHAHA! I have such a low readership, the possiblity of that ever happening would be like Harmony Gold making a new Southern Cross comic! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!

But yeah, as as I fan, I expected more from the art, and I suppose as an insane fanboy, I could say this crap.

MIRACLES DO HAPPEN

Now that I'm finished saying stuff about Long Vo's awkward anime style, I'll start talking a bit about other Udon Crew stuff. While I don't have any specifics on what the Udon Crew has worked on, I have seen their account in a popular art site and boy, am I impressed. Now these are the guys I aspire to be. As an artist.

Captain JLS recently pointed out to me that these guy's more notable work include stuff for a Street Fighter and Thundercat series.

They've got some really, really good stuff drawn by these incredibly talented line artists. I mean, there is just so many beautiful stuff that the Udon Crew worked on. Many of their coloring and line art are so vibrant and dynamic it just blows my mind. It really makes me wonder why Harmony Gold didn't find a much better artist for something like Love & War.

Oh wow. The color palette used is just so varied and awesome. What's really funny is that these guys handled a ton of properties like some Capcom properties like Darkstalkers, you have Starwars, Battle of the Planets and tons of stuff I've never heard of until now. What's really drivng me crazy is that the more I look at the art of these extremely talented guys, the more I lament on Robotech. I mean, Love & War looks like shit compared to the stuff these guys come up with. How did that happen considering they're from the same studio?! Deadlines? C'mon, I think half the comics Udon makes are always under strict deadlines too. Darn. Why did they get Long Vo? *Sigh* I guess I'll never know. Oh well! At least I can admire the beauty of the stuff these guys made. Wow. This now makes me wonder why Prelude of the Shadow Chronicles used such dark and ugly colors, but whatever. But the art there was okay.

All hail the Udon Crew! May they be commissioned to do another Robotech comic that will look like the stuff these guys are churning out recently! (As of Feb. 8, 2007)

*ADDENDUM* 

I just saw some art by Long Vo for Street Fighter. Not bad. Why did the guy draw Robotech so badly? *Sigh* Still, get someone else to do the art. 

As long as there has been Wildstorm's Robotech comics, there will always be Udon Studios. The Udon crew have delighted many a Robotech fans for years with their colorful art which sadly was coupled with uninspired storylines written by certain people I will not name.

While the first sentence of the blurb I wrote above doesn't sound like me... Well it is me. I really like the coloring of these Wildstorm comics! These are the things that really inspired me to get into the fanfilm making industry (it's now an industry?) But, in true MedMapGuy fashion, I will nitpick a few things I have found more than a little annoying in their work.


Truth be told, I actually started gaining an interest in Robotech in 2005 when I found the (whoa!) Love & War comics issues 1 to 4 and Robotech: Invasion issues 1 to 3 in a... bargain bin. I started asking the salesladies there when were these issue delivered, how come I've never seen them until now, etc. It then hit me that they were made roughly around 2003 or 2k4. There were no stocks left so I was left with these measly issues. I first opened Love & War and wow was I surprised! Dana Sterling! thought, whoa! This would be a Southern Cross comic! And then disappointment. Anyway, I'm getting off-topic. I'll be typing a no holds barred review of the Robotech comics in the future.

So for now, I will be critiquing (or complaining, however you want to look at it) the Wildstorm's comics's art from the chronological events of my owning them. So we'll begin with Love & War, Invasion, etc.

MAKE WAR

I wasn't a regular visitor of Robotech.com back then, and it was a year later that I learned the existence of From the Stars. So all the while, I believed that the simpleness of the art of Love & War meant meant that it was the first comic to be released by the newly revived Harmony Gold.

I have to admit, the art impressed me, in the beginning. But that's because I watched the series only once at the time and I scarcely remember all the nuances in the Macross Saga's animation, and the Japanime feel of it all. I eventually watched the Macross Saga DVDs after reading through the entire story about Max Sterling and Ben Dixon's recruitment to the United Earth Forces.

My interest in the series piqued at this point, I started going through the comics again, just for the heck of it. I began to notice that there is certain style in the lineart that I do not like. It just doesn't feel like anime, it feels like an American trying to draw anime, and kinda ends up looking like a pale imitation to it. There is something not natural to some of the poses by certain characters - that look crooked, are either too thin, or unhuman like. Hair and noses for certain characters look atrocious. Certain characters look so especially bad, especially Captain Henry J. Gloval, who for some reason the artist fails to get right even once. He looks looks emaciated, c'mon Udon - you can do better than this.

The cracks began to reveal themselves. All in all, it wasn't very good.

The second feature of the comic (comic cover above, left mose), is a story based on Shao Pai Long a.k.a. Little White Dragon. I won't comment on the inadequacies of the story itself, but I will praise the art, which is really quite nice. It's someone's take on the Macross characters, and it looks nice, and a breaks away from the uninspiring art of the first feature.

Another of my biggest caveats of this entire series is that their line artists can't seem to make the VF-1 Valkrie look sexy! C'mon, this is one of the coolest sci-fi fighters in history and they make it look fat and bulky! How pathetic is that? I have always hated this about the series, because if you look at the show, or certain anime films like Macross: Do You Remember Love? The VF-1 looks just fucking awesome. The sleekness is missing in the drawings of the Udon people. So, for the love of God, don't let these guys draw the VF-1. It's a bastardization.

Coloring is nice and bright, and nicely captures the show. Now there was better lineart to go with it, then we're talking!

INVASION: THE COMIC THAT COULD

After Love & War left a bitter taste in my mouth, I moved on to Robotech: Invasion. I have to say, it was quite a surprise (in terms of art)! More detailed lineart, great looking characters which don't deviate too much from the show. I really don't have much to comment about this series. The covers featuring that Japanse guy who did the original Genesis Mospeada Climber were a little odd, but once I had researched his work a bit, I began to appreciate his wispy, weird style. I unfortunately don't have issue 4 and 5 so I cannot comment on the art for those comics. I've asked some folks to scan some pages from that comic, but no dice. Maybe Harmony Gold's lawyers are lurking somewhere in the Shadows?

INTO THE SHADOWS

And now we arrive at the 3rd series I ever owned - Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles. Again, it was only then that I learned the existence of this new production called "Shadow Chronicles"! Back in those days, Robotech was a good place. Official interviews with Carl Macek, Mari Ijima were conducted and were posted on the front page, tracks of the new soundtrack were out. Robotech felt alive no matter how you saw the franchise at the time.

Going back to TSC as The Shadow Chronicles is affectionately known, the name is just... silly. Crap even. And the name Prelude to the Whatis certainly did not help. It was just a bad title that was way too long. If you open the comics, they have their own specific story names, but it's not in the cover because again, Prelude to the blah blah is such a frickin' long title. You get me? HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Not surprisingly, the art is excellent. In fact, I would have to say that this is the pique of what Udon Studios is capable of doing. The characters and fighters look excellent overall to a point where it might actually be bland. But moving on, certain redesigns of characters are sorta weird. You can't imagine my reaction when I saw this bloke who claimed he was Rick Hunter. What a fugly design. It is extremely hard to draw because I have tried. Remember, I am making a Robotech Shadow Chronicles fanfilm, and this 'Rick Hunter' takes an incredible amound of effort to get right. I also stood in awe at the design of Cladua Grant's cousin or sister (whatever), Jean. What the fuck is that ribbon doing in her hair?

Okay! The design is not all that bad, its a little cute, I have to say, and perhaps they wanted to give her a signature accessory the way Dana was with her black headband thing. But a ribbon. Wow.

Look, the fact that these two characters jump in the scene (remember, I don't know what happened at the end of Sentinels) in spandex. FUCKING SPANDEX. Sorry for swearing, but that really was my reaction. It was like watching the Sentinels all over again.

The we have the new Vince Grant. The old Vince Grant (who was shoe-horned in Love & War), looked like any other anime character drawn in signature Udon style (at the time). Now he looks absolutely scary. I mean, this shrimpy design from L&W evolved into a muscular macho man. Oh, and please, don't let me comment on this... Oh fine I will:

The guy is even creepier than the villain (Edwards, person to right). Can you believe it?

Let me blow it up for all you folks out there in Robotech land. THE GUY IS FUCKING CREEPY. I actually feel really bad for the T.R. Edwards. And for some reason, Udon can't seem to get this guy's face consistent. He almost always looks different in each panel. Unless the design of this guy is based on Clay Face, then I see a big problem.

The drawings of the mutated freakazoids in the final parts of issue 4 and 5 of the series are really... funky. Wow! Robotech had aliens, but this is getting ridiculous! Robotech erotica perhaps? Because the main villain Edwards turns to a tentacle monster. A clever reference to Japanese culture. Kudos Udon!

But all in all, the art is good. It also lives up to the Shadows moniker with most of the later action sequences involving Shadow units being very, very dark and drab. Almost every variation of black is used to excellent effect. Black never looked so colorful.

End of Part 1. More on my later Robotech comic acquisitions and stuff about Udon Studios! Thanks for reading!