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.

Fellow Fraggle writer Adrianne Ambrose, who wrote two stories in the first Fraggle Rock comics run, interviews me about Labyrinth, Fraggles and life at her blog. I hope you’ll check it out.

Meanwhile, at About.com’s manga page, Deb Aoki transcribes the Digital Piracy panel from San Diego Comic-Con at which I was one of 4 panelists. I think it was a great discussion and if you’re at all interested on the future of comics/manga on digital platforms, it’s definitely worth a read. It’s so long that she had to break it into part 1 here, and part 2 here. (It’s also your chance to see pictures of me slouching!)

Next week I’ll have another guest writer piece at a major blog that fans of Labyrinth and Return to Labyrinth won’t want to miss. Now it’s time for me to set up that volume 4 discussion page, eh?

When you’re at ground zero in the seething maelstrom of hype and nerdgasms that make up the Comic-con’s main floor, it can be tough for a small publisher to stand out, but this year Archaia came out strong as a major force in the comics world with a booth that drew readers in droves. Their tentpole title for 2010: Fraggle Rock! The first volume, collected in hardcover, debuted over a month early at the show to brisk sales and rave reviews. In the event that you’re a Fraggle fan and you missed your chance to pick it up in San Diego, amazon.com has quite a consolation prize — the book is on pre-order at 49% off the cover price. That makes it cheaper than Return to Labyrinth vol. 4, plus this one is in color and hardcover. (How exactly does that work?)

At the Henson panel on Sunday, Archaia announced the full partial lineup of creators involved with the next Fraggle Rock series. That Return to Labyrinth artist Chris Lie and I are contributors is not news, but knowing who our respective partners are is. (“are is” — is that even a proper sentence?) Chris will be drawing the lead story, written by Grace Randolph, fresh off her successful run on Muppet Peter Pan. Also coming up in volume 2, a story by Joe LeFavi. Chances are, you don’t know Joe yet because this is his debut published work as a writer, but if you read Return to Labyrinth, you absolutely know his work. He’s been my story editor for the last two volumes, providing invaluable notes on my scripts in his former capacity as the head of publishing development at the Henson company. Joe’s since launched his own entertainment company, but he’s still working with Henson to ensure that the licensed stories like Labyrinth, Fraggles and Dark Crystal stay true to the Henson legacy. A greater Henson fan and expert you’ll never find. His story is illustrated by Heidi Arnhold, illustrator of the Legends of the Dark Crystal books. Small world!

The story that I wrote, titled “The Ghastly Stain,” is one of the two backup stories in the issue. It will be illustrated by Mark Simmons, someone I’ve known for close to a decade as “Mark the Gundam Guy,” as he’s worked with Bandai as script editor and keeper of the Gundam Official website ever since the venerable giant robot series debuted in the US. I didn’t realize until last year that Mark is also an incredible artist in his own right. Check out his webcomic series “Blood Bite of the Death Dragon” for a taste of his work.

The second Fraggle Rock series debuts this fall.

One other bit of news that came out of the Henson panel, Archaia will be releasing a graphic novel adaptation of an unfilmed Jim Henson screenplay entitled A Tale of Sand. This screenplay, co-written with writing partner Jerry Juhl, was created early in Henson’s career as a filmmaker and is an experimental story reminiscent of the best Twilight Zone episodes. The screenplay will be adapted word-for-word, making this the first Henson-written story to be released since his passing. Lisa Henson will be overseeing the graphic novel’s creation. I confess, I got chills when this project was announced and I can’t wait to find out who Archaia tapped to illustrate it.

Archaia did talk about The Dark Crystal comic. Concept artist Brian Froud will be providing the story and art direction, but he won’t be writing or drawing it himself. It’s going to be a prequel that explores the origins of the Dark Crystal. Augra’s heretofore unseen son will feature prominently. To hear Froud talk about the Crystal, it all sounds very cosmic and mind-bending. I can’t wait to check it out! As for Labyrinth, no details from Archaia yet about how they’ll be approaching that property.

Comic-con is officially over and there are about 100 copies of Return to Labyrinth volume 4 in the wild. For everyone else, however, the release date is still a week away. In the meantime, Tokyopop has put up a preview of the first 20 pages which you can read here. It ends pretty abruptly halfway through the chapter, but it does have a couple pretty big developments. I hope you enjoy it!

Right now I’m still in San Diego for a few more hours. I had a wonderful time at the show. It was great to be able to meet readers in person and talk about the books, the movie and comics. There were I also had a chance to work on my sketches — still crude, but increasingly recognizable. Thank you so much Alyssa, Amanda, Asia, Kayla, Nicholas, and everyone for coming by. I’m also still giddy that Brian Froud came by the booth and I was got to shake his hand and talk about Labyrinth a bit. I gave him a Toby amulet to give to Toby, as well as a Moppet one to give to Wendy. Such a nice guy and a phenomenal artist.

I want to apologize for lack of updates this past week. It’s been rather frantic around here since returning from my Sloth-cation, and now I’m off to the airport again, this time bound for San Diego and the nerdtastic madhouse that is Comic-Con.

In case you missed the update last week, here’s everything you need to know about Return to Labyrinth and me. You can find me during most of the convention at Booth #O-08 in the Small Press Pavilion where I’ll be sharing a table with Jason Thompson of King of RPGs and MANGA: The Complete Guide fame. There I’ll be selling advanced copies of Return to Labyrinth vol. 4, as well as a limited quanitity of volumes 1-3. You’ll also be able to purchase handmade amulets featuring Return to Labyrinth art and check out the amazing plushies made by Jennifer Lin.

Aside from selling and signing at the booth, I’ll be on three panels this year.

• Thursday, 5:30-6:30: MANGA: LOST IN TRANSLATION— The manga market has taken a big slump, and when money is tight, the freelancers are the first to feel the pinch. Long-time professional freelance translators, editors, and specialists in manga, anime, and related fields gather to answer questions about the work, life as a pro, and how they’re managing in the translated-entertainment industry. Panelists William Flanagan (Kobato), Jonathan Tarbox (Fist of the North Star), Jason Thompson (King of RPGs), Shaenon Garrity (Skin Horse), Stephen Paul (Moyasimon), Mark Simmons (Mobile Suit Gundam Series) and Jake Forbes (Return to Labyrinth) will offer industry stories and Q&A. Room 3.
• Friday, 2:00-3:00 Tokyopop Panel— Tokyopop editorial staff, including senior editor Lillian Diaz-Przybyl, will announce new book publishing acquisitions and digital products, followed by a prize giveaway and Q&A session. Get the latest news about ongoing Tokyopop series, including updates to Hetalia and Priest. Room 3 (NOTE: The programming doesn’t mention this, but Return to Labyrinth will be spotlighted in the program with art previews and commentary).
• Sunday, 10:00-11:00 Techland Presents: Comics and Digital Piracy— Just about every comic book is now available online within hours of its release in stores — whether or not its publisher is selling it in digital form. Techland.com’s Douglas Wolk moderates a discussion of what’s happening in the online-comics Wild West with David Steinberger (comiXology), Erik Larsen (Savage Dragon), Deb Aoki (Guide to Manga) and manga editor Jake Forbes. Room 25ABC

That’s the extent of my involvement, but Labyrinth fans should definitely take note of Archaia’s panel on Sunday where they’ll discuss their upcoming Dark Crystal and Labyrinth comics. Brian Froud, concept artist for both films, will be on the panel as well as at the Archaia booth signing an exclusive Dark Crystal poster.

Oh, and speaking of the Dark Crystal, on Thursday evening from 5-7, Jason and I are handing our booth over to the creative team behind Legends of the Dark Crystal. Writer Barbara Kesel and artist Heidi Arnhold will be signing free posters and sharing previews of the second volume of Dark Crystal manga, due out from Tokyopop on August 3.

I hope to see many of you there! For those of you who can’t make it, I’ll get back to posting early next week with a final round of previews for Return to Labyrinth 4 as well as a contest to win a free copy just in time for the release. Until then, should you need us… er, you’re on your own.

It wasn’t so long ago that action figures, trading cards, plushies and posters were regular impulse buys on my trips to the comics shop or convention. Animation cels and special edition books, I ate them up too. Yup, I had the collecting bug pretty bad for a while there and if I hadn’t curbed the habit, I’d probably be broke and up to my neck in blister cards and boxes (True fact – I have box of unopened Star Trek: TNG action figures under my grandma’s house). There are still a few nerdy collectibles that I cherish, like my Sandman bookends and Harley Quinn production cel, but most of the rest of those collectibles I passed on to the next generation, donating to my cousins or other friends/family with kids. (I haven’t seen Toy Story 3 yet, but I have a feeling I’ll relate all too well).

Even though I’ve kicked the collecting habit, I still get a vicarious thrill looking at cool toys and treasures at stores and online, and ever since I started working on Return to Labyrinth, I’ve dreamed about seeing merch made for characters that I created. RtL as an intellectual property belongs entirely to the Jim Henson Company, so whether or not official merch is ever made is entirely up to them (and should it happen, I’d get no royalties anyway, but I’d still like to see it!). In the meantime, with the series ending, I wanted to do something special for my inner-collector to mark the occasion. In this era of etsy and blossoming DIY geekery, there’s no reason to let that stop me! And so I scoured the webs for an independent artist who could help make my dream a reality.

The artist I ended up working with is Jennifer Lin, aka Meowchee, a new but super-talented member of the Japanese-style plushie community (like those chibi stuffed dolls you see at the back of any anime/manga/otaku store). She has a blog and a deviantart page. Why did I pick her? Because of her amazing Jareth plushies, of course! She’s made him in several costumes, each more impressive than the last.

For my commission, I asked Jennifer to make Toby from the volume 2 cover and Moulin from the cover of volume 3. Moulin’s costume is pretty clearly presented on the cover, but for Toby, Jennifer had to do a fair amount of extrapolating, and I love what she did, adding a design based on Jareth’s amulet to the back of his vest. Moulin is definitely my favorite, with her adorable raincloud companion Nimbus and trusty book! (Both accessories feature magnets so that they’ll snap to moulin’s hands). I also asked for one of her “Magic Dance” Jareths. So cute!

These are one-of-a-kind commissions, so I’m afraid I can’t sell them to you, but I will have them at the booth at Comic-Con (Booth O-08 in the small press pavillion), so if you’ll be in San Diego next week, do stop by to give them a hug. Of course, you’re welcome (encouraged even!) to commission plushies of your own from Jennifer. Details and price estimates on her blog.

While I’m so excited to see and hold these pro-quality Return to Labyrinth dolls, I won’t be keeping them. They’re gifts for the wonderful folks that helped make Return to Labyrinth happen. And maybe, just maybe, someone will see them and decide to make some official merch.

UPDATE: Additional pics and commentator from the plushies’ creator at Jennifer’s blog.

In the gift shop at the Aviarios Sloth Sanctuary near Cahuita, Costa Rica, an educational DVD cover reads “Sloths: Hardly a Deadly Sin!” It’s true, there is nothing sinful in the unhurried lifestyle of these jungle beasties, but they certainly bring out the vices in me. Envy for those sloth handlers who get to hold the sloths at the rescue. Lust to stroke the fur of the baby two-toed. Greed, in that I want ALL THE SLOTHS! And now you can add Pride to that list; Pride that I met the sloths whereas you, most likely, have not. Gluttony? I confess, one of my earliest questions about sloths is why they didn’t become a staple of the tropical dinner table. Apparently they just taste nasty. And as for Wrath, can there be any greater antidote for that vice than this precious mug?

I don’t remember exactly when I became obsessed with sloths, but I can assure you it was long before the advent of youtube. It probably began with my childhood fascination with Ice Age megafauna. For some reason, these not-to-distant ancestors of todays horses, cougars and armadillos seemed infinitely more bizarre to me than dinosaurs. (Apparently I’m not alone in feeling this way, as right now, the Academy of Science in San Francisco is holding an exhibit called “Extreme Mammals” that is largely devoted to just that question of why we silly humans get so caught up on crazy horns and teeth and overly extended limbs.) Megatherium, the largest of the ground sloths, and the tank-like Glyptodon were particular favorites.

Maybe I’d researched it, or maybe it was just taxonomic intuition, but as I formed my internal grouping of animals into “favorites” and “everything else,” a pattern emerged. On the “favorites” side, every species of the order Xenarthra. This grouping of animals includes all types of Sloth, armadillo and anteater. Let’s call them the Silly Snooters. Even though they’re technically found on separate branches of the evolutionary tree, Aardvarks and Pangolins also make the cut.

During my first trip to Costa Rica, two years ago, goal #1: see some sloths! This was before sloths went viral and I had no idea that we were staying just a couple of miles from the Sloth Sanctuary, so it was wild sloths or nothing. My wife (then girlfriend) kept claiming to spot them, but wherever she pointed, all I saw was a distant dark lump that could just as easily be a wasp’s nest or a leaf. As far as I was concerned, if you can’t see a face, it doesn’t count. Finally, we did see one very young sloth clinging to a tree in Cahuita National Park, but the way it was perched there at eye level right near the trail, completely unmoving, there was something suspicious about it. I’d seen better wildlife on the Splash Mountain ride at Disneyland. The monkeys (howlers and Capuchins) brought their A-game, but the sloths… frankly, they were just being lazy.

So when we left for Panama and Costa Rica last month, I tried to keep my sloth expectations (my slothspectations, if you will) in check. Of course we’d see some sloths — the Sloth Sanctuary was on our itenerary! — but I was still holding out for a sloth spotting moment that would rekindle my childlike fascination with the furry doofuses. Boy, did this trip deliver the goods! Everywhere I looked, there was a sloth dangling from a branch. We saw young sloths and old sloths, sleeping sloths and feeding sloths. We caught an extremely rare scene of a sloth climbing down from a tree with surprising grace and speed. While zip-lining through the canopy, we looked down from one treetop platform to see a sloth happily grazing on the branches below.

And then we visited the Sloth Sanctuary. Founded some 18 years ago after local children brought an injured sloth to a family-run eco lodge, the Sloth Sanctuary now houses dozens of injured and orphaned sloths and is a center of sloth research and education. The center’s goal is to one day rehabilitate as many sloths as possible back into the wild, but they are still trying to figure out how to give human-reared orphans the skills they need to survive on their own. The star of the sanctuary is Buttercup, the sloth who started it all. She spends most of her days lounging in a hanging wicker chair and grinning at her adoring fans. When she reached her three-fingered arm towards her longtime guardian, it felt like seeing ET and Eliot touch fingers in the flesh, right before my eyes.

My slothspectations were been blown away. Perezoso — you’re number one in my book. As for you, Silky Anteater, why you gotta be a stranger?

Top Ten Extreme Sloth Facts!

• Sloths don’t drink! They get all of their water from the leaves they eat.
• Sloths have enormous stomaches, with up to 2/3rds of their body weight attributable to stomach contents.
• Sloths only poop once a week. For reasons not fully understood, they always climb to the ground to do their business.
• Three-toed sloths have two extra vertebrae in their neck which allows them to turn their neck 270 degrees.
• Sloths can survive falls of up to 90 feet!
• Thanks to their extremely slow metabolism, Sloths are second only to Wolverine in their super-healing powers.
• Sloth genetalia are hidden inside a pouch tucked way up inside the body so that it’s impossible to tell a sloth’s sex at birth.
• Sloth moms usually give birth to a single baby. When there are twins, one of them is abandoned as the mom can’t survive with two babies clinging to her.
• There’s a species of “Sloth Moth” that lives its life in the sloth’s fur and lays its eggs in the sloth’s poop.
• The earliest ground sloth fossils date back 35 million years.

Return to Labyrinth volume 4 doesn’t officially debut until August 3, but if you’re going to be in San Diego for Comic-Con International on July 22-25, you’ll be able to pick up a copy before anyone else! I’ll be in Artist Alley, sharing a booth with King of RPGs and Manga: The Complete Guide author Jason Thompson. We’ll be there all four day selling  and signing our respective wares, including all four volumes of Return to Labyrinth.

I’ll also be offering Return to Labyrinth pendants, lovingly crafted by Seattle artist Jenna Abts. Each one features a unique picture behind polished glass or a resin casting, with felt backing and a sterling silver bail. They’re really quite goreous! Here’s a peek:

Also on display, but sadly not for sale, hand-made plushies of Jareth, Toby (volume 2 cover costume) and Moulin. These are one-of-a-kind commissions, but I would love to see them made available. (Comic-Con Agenda item #1 — find someone to manufacture plushies for everyone!). I’ll post pictures of the plushies after the con.

Jason Thompson will be selling copies of King of RPGs volume 1 (a must read if you’re into any variety of gaming) and offering sneak peeks of the anticipated second volume, due out in 2011 from Del Rey.

Finally, please check out kingofrpgs.com for a glimpse of the King of RPGS/Return to Labyrinth banner that Jason is preparing for the booth. Comic-Con 2010: Where anything is possible (as long as it’s in the GM’s sourcebook). I hope to see you all there!

With just over a month until Return to Labyrinth 4 launches, I’ll be unplugging from the internets and sallying southward to Panama and Costa Rica to unwind with my good friends the Capuchins, Golden Anteaters, and of course THE SLOTHS! This will be my second trip to Costa Rica, but my first time visiting the now-famous Sloth Rescue. Surely you’ve seen this by now? Even if you have, let’s watch it again!

Meet the sloths from Amphibian Avenger on Vimeo.

I won’t be around to participate in the comments until July 8th, but there are a few scheduled updates, so be sure to drop back by from time to time for your weekly preview pic as well as a very exciting announcement on Tuesday (6/29).

Pura vida!

For about three months now I’ve been volunteering with the local branch of the Friends of the Library. If there’s a library in your community, they probably have a Friends organization too. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the FotL (I’ll be honest — while I’ve heard the name since I was a kid, I didn’t really understand until I started volunteering), let me try to explain.

Libraries themselves are government funded, but like most services, they face tight budgets and they wouldn’t be as robust an institution without a little extra help, both in volunteering and donations. Lots of people in the community want to help in spirit, either by donating books or buying books second hand. Friends of the Library basically facilitate that. When you “donate your books to the library,” it is very unlikely that your books will end up on library shelves. There are just too many books floating around, and most of them aren’t books the library needs more of. Most donations are either sold at Friends of the Library sales, or are distributed to other non-profits. San Francisco, one of the bigger FotL communities has two full-time stores selling the newer and more popular donated books at around 30-40% of the cover price, as well as weekly dollar sales throughout the summer and a HUGE (500k books) sale in the fall with everything priced at $5 or less. We move a LOT of books, most of that work being done by volunteers. And at the end of the year, the SF Friends donate a million and a half dollars to the library and literacy programs.

Libraries are all about access to books. The Friends of the Library program is focussed on redistributing books as efficiently as possible. In my novice experience, it’s a lot like a used book store (in fact, I work with a lot of fellow used book store veterans), only as a non-profit and community service, we aren’t picky and choosy in the way that a store can be. If you sell your books to a used bookstore, they might pick out a handful of the books that they think they can sell. Friends of the Library takes EVERYTHING. Sometimes that means you get a musty box of old marked up text books, more often than not you get yesterday’s best-sellers, and sometimes you get truly special gems. Like last week, we received a 503-year-old copy of Dante’s Inferno. The book was printed in 1507 and the pages were still as crisp and white as anything on the new book shelves, only this book will likely outlast today’s books as the cloth paper is so much more durable than the pulpy paper used today. A book like that won’t go on sale for $5 — the Friends sell the rarest books online at market values — but with so many books out there and more being donated every day, your odds of finding something cool and special go up every year. Of all those hundreds of thousands of books being donated, the vast majority will end up in the hands of a new reader, and that’s a wonderful thing.

Bottom line, it’s a tough time to make money selling old books (for profit), but it’s a great time to be a fan of old books!

So as long as we’re talking book people, here’s this week’s preview pic of bookworm Moulin and her m/other:

On a final book note, I have an enthusiastic recommendation for any gobblin readers out there who are even marginally interested in sci-fi or computers. Robert J. Sawyer’s www: Wake, a Hugo nominee for best novel, published last year, is both a can’t-put-downable page turner and a fascinating exploration of the emergence of consciousness in humans, apes and computers. This is the rare book that can make even the most Luddite reader feel like an equal amongst a cast of geniuses, with plenty of science lessons woven into the narrative that never feel intrusive or condescending. And best of all, it’s just the first book of a trilogy. The second volume, www: Watch, is out now but I’m still waiting on my copy from the library. Or I could just up and buy a copy and donate it when I’m done…