The 2010 blockbuster movie season is officially underway with Tim Burton’s take on Alice breaking records and celebrating all things mad and fantastical. Alice is only tangentially related to Labyrinth, but this movie has long been on the radar of gobblin readers, so I thought I’d open up a thread to talk about it.

My mini review: I really enjoyed it! There were moments I felt a little giddy excitement about being swept away to someplace truly wonderful. I absolutely loved the Cheshire Cat, Red and White queens and the colors and fashions. I thought Alice herself was wonderfully cast and played, but in the middle part of the movie, I would have liked to see her assert herself more, as Alice the girl from the original story, was rather precocious and not one to just step in line with heroics. The one element that didn’t work for me at all was the Mad Hatter. (Sorry, Mandy!) He didn’t strike me as particular mad, just quirky, and those quirks I found more annoying than endearing.  I really liked the ending in the real world, which might have been anachronistic, but felt right. The movie is clearly not an adaptation, but even though it takes place 13 years later with a young adult Alice, it isn’t exactly a sequel either. Really, the story feels more like a Narnia or Oz book with the clear good guys and bad guys and the Hatter cast as more of a Scarecrow like “dear friend” role. It’s not necessarily the update to Alice in Wonderland I would have imagined, but it works and I was glad to go along for the adventure.

Okay, that’s my “short” take. What did you guys think? I’m also curious what you guys thought about the importance of 3D for this movie. I watched it in 3D, but in retrospect, I’d rather have saved the $3 and awkwardness of wearing double glasses to see it flat.  Let the Frabjous comments commence!

This last week, first time visitor Arianna asked if she was the only who felt sorry for Mizumi. Certainly the Queen of Cups hasn’t been the most benign figure since showing up in the Labyrinth, but her history with Jareth, as seen in a couple of flashbacks, definitely suggests that the Goblin King might have had a little bit of wrath coming to him. Arianna, you’re not alone — I have a soft spot for her as well!

I didn’t have Mizumi’s origin story completely worked out when writing volume 1.By the time volume 2 came out, I knew the story, but only hinted at it in that particular volume. When Tokyopop was slated to do a Labyrinth anthology, my planned contribution was going to be that story — of how Mizumi met Jareth and how their relationship came to an end. Well, that anthology disappeared into the aether, so when it came time to write the script for volume 4, this was my last chance to make sure the story was told. And the more that I thought about it, the more that it needed to be told in the book proper and not as an extra down the line, as that relationship says as much about what Jareth sees in Sarah as it says about the adversary in this series. Anyway, that scene went through several revisions and trims (as it wasn’t originally in the outline for this volume, which still went a few pages over my limit!). I’m glad this scene made it in, as it’s one of my very favorite in the entire series.

Okay, now that that setup is out of the way, you can understand why I’m so excited about this week’s preview pic. This is the page that leads into Mizumi’s flashback. It’s actually part of a 2 page spread, but you’ll have to wait a bit to get the rest of the image. Thank you, Chris, for the gorgeous design! I love Mizumi’s new coat.

In Return to Labyrinth, as with many comics, the chapter title pages offer a chance for the artist to break free from the narrative constraints, panels and balloons of the story pages and let the art sing. A while back, I previewed the Chapter 1 title page (Rough and Inked). This week’s preview art is the title page for chapter 2, Palimpsest (the title of which was revealed via word game… maybe I should do the same for chapter 3? Thoughts?) This picture doesn’t shed much light on the events of the chapter (although one cannot deny that light is shed in this pic). If we knew what the goblin scrivener was reading… perhaps it’s the script for the chapter to follow? After all, I’ve been known to draft my scripts on continuous, unbroken scrolls.

UPDATE:

In the comments, someone questioned how it is that goblins are suddenly reading scrolls left and right. Well, the truth is, they aren’t. Spittledrum and the Librarian of Prophecies can read at the 8th grade level, making them the most educated goblins in the Labyrinth. A few goblins, like Skub, can read/write at about the 1st grade level. This particular goblin can’t actually read or write, but he is quite fond of examining documents in the hopes of finding crumbs or bits of jam that might have stuck to the pages.

I wasn’t sure if I should say anything yet, but I just noticed that this was announced elsewhere, so I guess it’s safe to say — I’m contributing a story to the upcoming Fraggle Rock series from Archaia Comics. It should be out this summer, right around the same time as the final Labyrinth volume. The series is an anthology, so my entry stands alone and is just one of several stories in the issue. Once I know which issue the story appears in, I’ll post an update. This was such a fun experience, revisiting one of my favorite childhood worlds. I hope you’ll check it out!

Congratulations to Chris Lie, who  is contributing to the series. As far as I know, he’s working with a different writer. Can’t wait to see your Fraggles, Chris! (Although we got a peek in RtL volume 1 with Traveling Matt’s cameo)

When Alice in Sunderland came out a few years back, I always intended to pick it up. After all, it’s by Brian Talbot (Luther Arkwright, Tale of One Bad Rat, Sandman), a comics luminary every bit as brilliant as Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore (but who, since he draws his own stuff, is far less prolific). Plus it clearly references one of my (and everyone else’s) favorite classic stories, Alice in Wonderland. For whatever reason, I never picked it up at its release, but with all the new Alice in Wonderland posters around town promoting the movie, I was suddenly reminded of this book’s existence. However Tim Burton’s Alice turns out, I have it to thank for getting me to pick up Sunderland.

Only tangentially about Carrol’s book, Alice in Sunderland is the biography not of a person, but of a place. It spins a web of facts, legends and coincidences that show the wonderful way that history and geographical identity are born. The Alice portion involves the importance of Alice Liddel’s (the “historical” Alice) family in Sunderland’s history, Carrol’s long stint living there and the things that might of inspired him, and the way that Carrol’s classic novels have had a profound impact on so many aspects of art and culture since their publication.

The book is also an amazing use of the comics medium, with Talbot blending B&W drawings, painting, collage and fumetti to tell his very meta tale. The artist himself takes the form of several narrators, playing with time and toying with the reader, while the subject of his unusual biography toys with him. The closest thing to it I’ve encountered in book form would be Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics, and in fact, Talbot takes the occasional detour from the Sunderland/Alice stream to comment on the history and form of comics, or just appropriate others’ styles out of sheer whimsy. But no matter how much Talbot strays, everything manages to turn back in on itself. This is a comics masterwork.

Whether you’re a fan of all things Lewis Carrol, interested in groundbreaking comics, or just find the idea of history as a living thing to be cool, please do yourself a favor and check out Alice in Sunderland. It’s a demanding read, but well worth your time!

This week’s preview page is a sketch from chapter 3 featuring a gaggle of goblins in the mess hall. One of my favorite things about watching the series reach is conclusion is seeing the ensemble cast of goblin characters come together. Even in this rough state, I can recognize 9 named goblins from the last three volumes. I’m especially happy to see the hyperbolically named Thousand Horned Horlack return, as I think he’s probably the most distinctly Muppet-like character in the series. It’s easy to imagine him hanging out with Grover and Cookie Monster, enjoying a plate of snickerdoodles (or a Tuber Medley with blue sauce if they should dine at Skub’s rather than Sesame Street).

Next week’s preview — a look at the the Chapter 2 title page!

One of my favorite things about working at Tokyopop back in the early days of Sailor Moon comics and SMILE magazine was the fan art. Since we published it in the magazines every month, people sent a LOT of it. Once a week or so, I’d go through the week’s fan mail and sort out the art, the inquiries needing response and the constructive criticism. We had a bulletin board in the kitchen where we’d pin up some of the fan art so everyone could see (I wonder if they still do that?). It’s so much fun to see the different takes on characters, the creativity that went into the designs, and the ability to share a tangible connection with your readers.

Anyway, occasionally a reader will send Return to Labyrinth fan art my way, so I wanted to share a few pics with gobblin readers.

Read more…

When we last saw Esker, the muscle of the Moraine Kingdom, he had just been sent by Mizumi to hunt down and eliminate Moppet. This image of Esker comes from very early in the book during his hunt. The heavy lines and sinewy body are in sharp contrast to the way most of the Labyrinth cast are depicted. There’s something almost Mike Allred-y about this panel, and I love it. Nice work, Chris!

Over on the Adult Swim games website, there is a brilliant homage to that uniquely ’80s intersection of rainbow fantasy and dancefloor melodies — Robot Unicorn Attack! The gameplay is simple, but sort of addicting (for about 10 minutes), but what makes me want to keep playing is the brilliant use of Erasure on the sound track. Oh, and if you do well, silver dolphins will join you in your star-bursting blaze of unicorn glory.

Do check it out.

And if you get hooked on the song, it’s “Always” by Erasure and it can be yours in seconds for 99 cents.

A while back Chris shared a sketchbook pinup of “Young Jareth.” Now Chris has finished drawing the chapter in which this version of the Goblin King features prominently. Here’s a peek!

Sometime soon I’ll do a count of how many pages feature Jareth in this volume. I have a hunch that it’s more than the previous three volumes combined.