Now that the fourth volume of Return to Labyrinth is out in the world, bringing the series to an end, you might be wondering what’s next for the series and for gobblin.net.
I’ll start with Return to Labyrinth, as that’s the easiest question to answer. With volume 4, the series is concluded. There definitely won’t be a volume 5. Whether or not there will be a continuation of any stories established here is entirely up to the Jim Henson Company. So is that it, then? Nothing more to say on the books? Not exactly.
If it were up to me, I’d love to see the books bound up in a 1 volume edition. After all, it’s a lot easier to keep it in stock at stores and libraries if there’s only one book to keep track of instead of 4 sequential volumes. In the event that that happens, I would love an opportunity to add back in a few “deleted scenes,” such as the musical number with the Tessellation Lizards, the “Second Door” from the penultimate chapter of volume 4, and the afore mentioned croquet scene that better established Moulin and Drumlin early on. I’ve got a stack of errors that slipped through, such as switched dialog balloons, sloppy sentences, inconsistencies, and a few oddball things like Sarah’s hair mysteriously going white in vol. 4 (if you were confused by that, I can assure you, I was too!) Maybe see about a new piece of cover art or other color illustrations too.
Will that happen? I don’t know. But I’ll keep you posted.
Now onto the website. For the past 3 years, I’ve run gobblin.net mostly as a Return to Labyrinth community site. I’m extremely grateful to everyone who’s visited, engaged, and contributed to some great discussions. Absolutely, I intend to keep blogging here, but Labyrinth will become less and less of a focus.
I’m also going to remove the discussion pages when I revamp the site. I’ll keep commenting until that day, and I’ll try to answer any specific questions that people might have. Why remove those pages? Quite simply, the Labyrinth universe belongs to the Jim Henson Company, and its fans. I consider myself one of the latter, and I did my services for the former, but the intersection of those roles is at an end. For the last three volumes, I’ve been sort of a one-man marketing machine on this series, on my own time and dime, because I believe in it and because I genuinely love to talk about Labyrinth with fellow fans of the film (even if sometimes we disagree in our interpretations). With this series wrapping up, I think it’s time to hang up my hat as a Labyrinth community manager and focus on talking about new stories.
I sincerely hope that Return to Labyrinth will spark discussion for years to come around the web. If you’re looking for a place to post your reviews, I encourage you to use amazon.com and goodreads. And if you have any questions about the books, you’re always welcome to email me at jakeforbes [at] gmail [dot] com. I’ll still post about Labyrinth when it’s relevant, and I hope you’ll continue to share your thoughts in the comments. As I’ve mentioned in the past, the only thing I personally consider “canon” in the Labyrinth world is the movie itself, with the novelization, art books and the manga series I wrote being part of an “expanded universe” to take as you will. That said, I’ll be thrilled if I come upon fan-fics or art featuring Moppet, Moulin, Skub or other characters that I had a part in creating. Whatever you take away from Return to Labyrinth, I hope you can enjoy it on its own terms without letting it detract from your own dreams.
So, for a few more days at least, business as usual. Just don’t be surprised if you come back to gobblin.net sometime next week and find Jareth missing from the banner. He and the rest of the Labyrinth gang will be in the archives… should you need them.
A single volume would be a great idea! Perhaps the font problem from volume one could be fixed. I liked having Jareth in his own font, but I also like consistency.
Yeah, that font thing bugged me too and is on my list. At this point it would probably be easier to change vol. 1 instead of the other 3.
I have reframed from commenting for awhile but feel the need now.
Jake, from beginning to end I can see your heart has been in to this project with every part of your essence. You are a true fan and it comes out in every part of the books.I have always felt you have been given guidance and insight from the Henson people from the begining and to the end.
Their path has now become their own and yours is now new. In my opinion I felt the ending came to an ending that had to become more open for the other endevors of the Henson company. I feel that you may have had a different conclusion but no matter. You and I agree on one thing, Jim Henson was the” MAN” I always felt he was Hans Christan Anderson from a past life.
You have never once failed to pull all the fun and love of the Labyrinth world together.
I read your posting and felt a great breeze of new beginnings for you and all of the people who support you.
I will support you as a writer, and every project you do because to me the past few years of this website and your interaction have been so important to me. Not because of just Jareth and Sara, and Toby, but because of the love I felt you have carried for this universe and its charactors.The depth of your intellegence, strength of your mind and the compassion of you spirit make you truely a gift to the world of art and fantasy.
If you can share it with all of us for this long then I am excited to see where your next adventure will take us!!
I have spent the past year reading everything fanfiction, watching a ton of anime, reading manga, and still I have always have found time to make sure I listen to you and your insights by checking in on this website.. I will miss this universe and all that is Jake but welcome the new horizons you will show me and anyone else who will continue to follow you and your journey.
Thank You!!
I’d better save that banner as a memento – it’s the 80s in a convenient number of pixels
I’d like to see a single volume collection/”expanded edition” of ROTL too.
And with all due respect Mr. Forbes, the conclusion to this series still left some questions behind:
1) What exact role/purpose were the two “Tesselation Lizards”, as you call them, supposed to fulfill in the plot of ROTL?
2) If Mizumi absorbed both Moulin and Drumlin back into herself, how come we see them again in the Epilogue playing croquet with Hoggle, Ludo, and Didymus?
3) We’re told that while Toby was in the Labyrinth, nobody in the “real” world even remebered he existed. I’m assuming that when he returned, everyone’s memories of him were restored, but did anyone even notice that he’d been gone for at least weeks?
4) Did Toby still get in trouble for (not) cheating on that test in Volume One?
5) Who was that girl on that park bench Toby was talking to at the end of the series?
6) And how come Moppet never got rid of that mask of hers by the end of the series? (I still think she would–and does–look much better without it!)
Alex, let me see if I can help:
1) The lizard’s role is unfortunately under-developed because their final scene got trimmed when the script went too long. I hope to be able to bring the scene back at some point in the future.
2) For the purposes of this story, Moulin and Drumlin are gone, but they live on in Toby’s dreams. “should he need them,” they could always find a way to return.
3) In the movie, Sarah was gone for many hours, but only a couple of hours passed in real time. I figure Toby would have woken up just in time for school the next day.
4) For now you’ll have to decide for yourself. Maybe there will be a chance to show that scene in the future.
5) Okay, that’s one of the “errors” that I wish I would have had the chance to catch. In the first chapter of the volume, there’s a girl who looks like Moulin in the cafeteria. The girl at the end is supposed to be the same girl. In both cases, it’s not supposed to look exactly like Moulin, but just close enough to suggest that maybe she inspired the likeness. (the girl at the end is reading “Cloud Atlas” but you can’t really make out “cloud”). I hate explaining this, as it was supposed to be mysterious, but unfortunately it’s just inconsistent — I hope there will be a chance to fix it.
6) You could say it’s like her safety blanket. She’s more confident with it on.
At this point, I worry I’m hyping this mythical “cut lizard scene” too much… Really though, the scene was always my parallel for Chilly Down — weird and cool, but not particularly plot-driven. Understandably, the build up with the ultra-truncated payoff doesn’t do the trick.
I prefer to think Moulin and Drumlin survived, with Mizumi recreating them (or just Drumlin, as we can’t be 100% sure Moulin was killed — Spittledrum survived his stabbing after all, plus Mizumi leaves without absorbing her). For one thing, I love the characters. For another … well, I wrote my massive crossover fic during volume 2 so I didn’t know what was gonna happen, LOL.
I thought the lizards were … weird, but you did a great job of not creating too many Big-lipped Alligator Moments (fans of Nostalgia Chick, anyone?).
I just can’t stop gushing about this enough (to the irritation of certain types of fans, LOL). You stayed true to the film through and through. Even by seemingly using Mirrormask concepts as well (like seeing what’s going in the real world every once in awhile instead of just ignoring the whole thing and having characters seemingly be ablations of others, like the Dark Princess chick and the heroine), you fleshed some things out but didn’t turn it into a Bog of Inane Details. One thing I’d like to see is something like my Origins: Wolverine DVD, which is a (barely) animated, voice-acted version of the comic.
I’m so glad to hear that you enjoyed RtL on its own terms. I know the conversation online often focuses on Jareth and Sarah, but it’s the ensemble aspect that I most enjoyed in writing this series and it really makes me happy when people talk about the other characters too. It’s the little moments like Stank in the garden, Toby and Moppet in the museum, Moulin and Didymus at the fencing lesson, and Skub and Spittledrum’s blossoming friendship that I’m most proud of. For all the fan-fic focusing on Sarah and Jareth, whenever I watch the film, it’s the creatures I’m drawn too. Maybe it’s just because I’m a guy, but I’m jealous of Sarah because she gets to hang out with Didymus and Ludo, not because Jareth tempts her with his bulging… ego.
I’m there with you, Jake, and I’m of the lady persuasion. But then again, I typically hate fairytale romances for all the standard reasons. The goblins rule and Sir Didymus is my idea of a prince! No funny stuff implied
Thank you for making us continue the dream this long, Jake. I really felt at the ending of the comic something very similar to when the movie ends. It feels just like it should be, even if our imagination wants to takes us to different infinit directions. When reading it, I could only hear my economic class teacher saying in my head:” There is a choice and the option price (or the opportunity price)”. I think it goes well with the philosophy of Toby when he said that they have to make their own path, in a way. I really laugh when I saw the goblins lifting Jareth at the end! They were so adorable!
And I must had that I was more than impress with the quality of Chris’s work! It seemed like he owned the characthers in him and their expressions featured even more their emotions!
It had to be something to draw all of those dress and suit in this comic!
Thanks again for this living dream and your openness to us, other fans!
Why, now I think I’m going to go rewatch the movie!
Wow, has it really been that long already? I thought volume 4 was great. And I must say, the ending was well played out. As a Jareth and Sarah fan I was hoping she’d stay with him, but that would’ve been wrong. Just like the film Inception, we can’t live in our dreams, only hold them close to our hearts and never forget them. Sarah writing a novel about her adventures was a nice touch as well. I was happy to see all the characters from the movie return too (Hoggle, Ludo, Didymus, etc) as they’ve been mostly absent since volume 1. And the gobblins carrying Jareth at the end was priceless. I bet they all got quite a beating for that!
Just a couple questions from me:
1. Did Moppet survive or did she get absorbed back into Sarah after she said “I’m free”?
2. What happened to Esker and Candelwic? I don’t recall them ever being killed. Perhaps stuck on kitchen duty with Skub for a couple centuries?
A combined volume would be a great idea, hopefully you’ll get the go ahead. Would be nice to see the other scene’s that didn’t make it through and to complete the role the lizards played. Thanks for clearing up the issue with Sarah’s hair, I had wondered what was happening – I just figured her dream self was a blond like moppet!
Overall, I think my favourite part’s have been the development of the goblins as characters and the humour they brought to the story. I never had any real problems with the art, it only got better as the series progressed. Story-wise it would have been nice to get some insight into the ‘baby taking’ as I always figured this was Jareth’s job and if I could add/change one thing I’d have liked to see the owl outside Sarah’s window at the end, echoing the film and giving us Jareth and Sarah fan’s more to go on while still leaving it subjective. But that’s just my opinion.
I’m really grateful that you took this series on, I saw Labyrinth back in 1986 when it came out, so I’ve been waiting a long time for some kind of continuation of the story. I think looking back at the series as a whole it’s something you can be very proud of and by the looks of things your work has opened the door to further Labyrinth stories still to come. Thank you Jake!
I thought it was a great volume and despite people on Amazon continuing to complain about the art, I think the art’s improved.
There was something that bugged me about the ending and after some thought I realized that it was the fact that the driving conflict could have been avoided if Jareth had asked Sarah to help him maintain the Labyrinth with her will 15 (15, not 13, right?) years ago. But then I thought it wasn’t in his nature to just ask that, so the drama was created by character flaw. Is that what you were thinking?
I was affected by Moulin’s death. It was kind of pointless, but I got that that was the point. And given that she was an ablation of regret, fitting in a tragedy way.
Bravo, Jake! I really enjoyed this series. Glad you’re leaving the site up too, albeit with a different focus.
I am also curious to see what Archaia does with this beloved property. Though if they are really smart, your phone will be ringing soon….
Well, I’m talking with them about Fraggles at least!
What about that Labyrinth anthology idea that never happened at Tokyopop? Might Archaia be interested in something along those lines? They seem to be taking the anthology approach with Fraggles.
You may think you’re through with Jareth, but the Goblin King may not be through with you…
Just wanted to say: I’ve been following this series since volume one, and I was extremely impressed with this latest (and last) installment. I think you stayed true to the spirit of the original in every way–the ending was exactly what I would have wanted for the series (although upon reading your comments above, I really would have preferred the girl at the end to look like Moulin, that was a fantastic idea). Your expansion of the universe couldn’t have been more welcome in my book, and every one of your original characters was wholly charming and memorable. Kudos for doing what few others could have, and making this experience truly special.
First off, let me thank you for giving the fans a continuation of this story – something I honestly never thought I would see! I enjoyed every volume, and the characters had so much personality, making the news ones just as lovable as the ones from the film. The ending left a tiny bit to be desired, and it is open-ended for some potential other stories, but overall RtL was a great expansion of the Labyrinth universe. The little details were quite nice as well, from the song (I could practically hear the melody, and the words were beautiful), to the return of some favorites like Hoggle.
There was a lot of emotion as well, and while the relationship shown between Sarah ad Jareth may not have been what all fans were hoping for, I loved every second of the screentime (paneltime?) that they shared together. Jareth’s personality was captured perfectly as well. That said, thank you again so much for this excellent work, and that bundled volume sounds like a wonderful idea!
Wow, this was an amazing series! I enjoyed it so much all the way through. It kept the essence of the movie while also introducing a fantastic new storyline and characters. I really liked the ending, thank goblins Sarah didn’t end up with Jareth, but I love Moulin and refuse to believe she actually died. No really, I though of an escape plan for her and…yeah, but anyway, it was pretty epic how Mizumi just gave up in the end.
There is now a fan club on DeviantArt.com dedicated to the Return to Labyrinth manga. It has games and a fan art gallery, if anyone wants to check it out.
http://return-to-labyrinth.deviantart.com/
Julia,
A very belated thank you very much for the kind words. I’m so glad you found the books and enjoyed them. It’ll be 25 years this summer since Labyrinth came out and it’s still such a magic experience, and it’s been such a joy to tell new stories in that world.
-Jake