RETURN TO LABYRINTH Manga My opinion

[Stix]

I'm more interested in the story than the artwork, I can see where everyone is coming from, but Toby has just been made Goblin King, for heaven's sake! Is no one else excited about reading the next installment?

 

[tanuki]

I am! I'm looking forward to Vol. 2 (it comes out in April).

With the manga, however, there is a middle ground. If volume 1 sold very very well, but sales crashed to almost nothing with volumes 2 and 3, the decision-makers might realize people DO want Labyrinth stuff, but we DON'T want cheap and lousy Labyrinth stuff. A sales crash between vol. 1 and vol. 2 would say to Tokyopop and others who are watching that the interest was there, but this product failed to meet our expectations.

No!! Bad idea!! One of the Tokyopop editors posted on their forum not long ago to say he would like to do a new Labyrinth manga project once RtL is complete -- IF RtL sales are good.

But if the first manga series doesn't do well, I doubt they would do any more. The editor said he had an interesting idea and was quite enthusiastic, so it'd be a shame if he didn't get to do it. And that would also mean goodbye to any hope of new Labyrinth books done with new artists or writers who might be more to your individual taste.

 

[crazed gonzo fa]

I'm still waiting to hear news about the Mirrormask manga.

 

[Infinity Sirius]

A Mirrormask manga? I've never heard of that happening. Where did you hear that rumor?

 

[crazed gonzo fa]

I heard it when all this news about JH fantasy mangas came out. It supposed to be prequel explaining how the dark princess escaped from her mother and got the mirrormask.

 

[tanuki]

I'm still waiting to hear news about the Mirrormask manga.

That, too, may depend on how sales of RtL go.

 

[Infinity Sirius]

I looked at amazon.com to preorder Vol.2, but it says the second book won't come out till October 7, 2007!

 

[tanuki]

Uh oh. I hope that's just a mistake. The plan was for #2 to come out in April and #3 in October.

 

[SuzieChan]

(even if that isn't Bowie...
is it a female Jareth?)

Laszlo, what you're talking about is called bishounen - it's a term which is often used to describe feminine looking males in manga. Bishonen characters are quite common in, what's called, a "girl manga" or "shoujo manga", and are very popular among young female readers.

Here's a page from Return To Labyrinth
http://www.andylyth.co.uk/labyrinth.jpg

And here's a page from the Dark Crystal prequel
http://www.andylyth.co.uk/darkcrystal.jpg

Looking at those two images you can really tell which one is the top and which one is the flop.
I agree with many of you. "Return to Labyrinth" manga (or should I rather say "amerimanga" for this piece doesn't even deserve to be called a manga) is far from what I've expected it to be, since I've seen the cover. The drawings look bad (to say the least) - they look like some sketches done by an amature. The style of the comicbook itself looks awful compared to the cover. I'd like to give some advice to Tokyopop: please go and find some better mangaka to do that kind of job. There are many kids out there (especially on deviantart and many other art-related pages), who make much better looking pieces and would surely love to work on such kind of project.
Thank you very much to all of you: thanks to you I've saved some money ^_^.

About the "Legends..." preview: the style is far better then the one in the "Return to the Labyrinth" - the drawings don't look as if they were some half-baked pencil sketches. The piece has much more Froudness in it - I've been to see the artwork on Max Kim's website and I got amazed by all the details in them: I especially liked the drawing of the SkekSo the emperor (mainly his outfit ). I really can't wait 'till it's going to be released: I'm definatelly gonna buy myself a copy.

 

[tanuki]

According to the latest official update, the artwork for Labyrinth #2 will be much improved. They're listening...