Gobblin.net

Last week I finished revisions on a scene for the final volume that features Jareth and Mizumi’s courtship. Mizumi mentions their affair in volume 2, but it isn’t until the next volume that we really get to see what their relationship was like. I’m not going to spill all the juicy details here, but now that the biggest piece of backstory is out of the way, I would like to talk about origins.

Prequels, even more than sequels, are dangerous ground, as they can, if badly handled, taint everything that comes after chronologically. Darth Vader is the perfect case in point. In the original trilogy, he’s a terrifying figure turned tragic hero. Apparently being turned into an evil cyborg was the best thing that could have happened to the guy, since according to the prequels, before that he was just a dick. The new Star Trek movie got it right, but only after the dreadfully dull Enterprise sucked all the energy out of the original series’ prehistory. C. S. Lewis’s The Magician’s Nephew is the earliest prequel I can think of, and definitely one of the most successful, but even that one has slightly diminished the series thanks to revisionist editing renumbering it from volume 6 to 1.

But back to Labyrinth. In dealing with anything that could be construed as part of Jareth’s “Origin Story,” I definitely wanted to tread lightly. While I’ve imagined many adventures that Jareth might have had before he crossed path with Sarah, I’m of the opinion that his relevance, if not his existence, begins and ends with Sarah. Any back story he has must reinforce that relationship – the needs that brought him into her life, if not into existence.

As I finish tying up the many threads as best I can (with much support from the awesome Joe LeFavre at Henson), I sincerely hope that this story will supplement other fans’ memories and dreams of Jareth and not spoil them. In any case, more is left in mystery than is explained concerning the distant past; like they in the Neverending Story, that is another story and will (hopefully!) be told at another time.

There were many great questions, and I intend to answer them all, but as finishing the script for volume 4 should take precedence over blogging about it, I could only get around to half the questions today. Thanks, everyone, for participating! We’ll do this again, so if there’s anything else you’d like to ask, hold on to those questions for now.

Why did Jareth have his own font in volume one?

…Because his ego is just SO BIG that we had to wait until his powers were weakened before we could shackle him to the same font as everyone else? Seriously, though, it’s a mistake probably born from the changes that happened at the publisher between volumes. In the script for volume 1, I suggested that Jareth have a distinctive lettering style – something a little more majestic and mysterious than your typical manga lettering font (sort of like how Dream has his super-distinctive style in the Sandman comics, although not so distinctive as that). For whatever reason, when volume 2 went through the lettering process, that distinction got lost. I honestly don’t know why, and the inconsistency bugs me too. I hope that in the future, if Return to Labyrinth ever gets reprinted in a new edition, that can be fixed so that his distinctive font is consistent.

At one point, you mentioned something about the ‘goblin golf course’. What was that all about?

Did you hear about that at Comic-con? I think I mentioned that scene there. Originally, in my outline for volume 2, there was a mini-golf competition with Toby, Moulin and special guest-star Hoggle. It was a scene I imagined from very early on as a quirky homage to Alice in Wonderland’s croquet game, and as a chance to see Moulin and Drumlin interact with Toby and Moppet. Unfortunately, I was already having a hard time packing the story into 3 volumes (this was before the 4th was greenlit), so this chapter had to go as it was pretty long and ultimately didn’t advance the plot much. Hindsight being what it is, I wish I could have picked up the pace a bit in volume 1 in order to find a way to keep it, but alas, it’s gone for now. I don’t want to give away more about this scene in case there’s ever an opportunity to bring it to life.

Is there any chance of Return to Labyrinth gaining an animated adaptation and if so will David Bowie be asked to voice Jareth?

I wish! The rights to Return to Labyrinth are wholly owned by the Jim Henson Company. There’s always a possibility that they could develop it for other media or they could follow up on Labyrinth in other ways. I’m not really the one to ask about that.

Is this the only Labyrinth manga series that will be done ? I remember something about side stories and such, but I’m hoping for a series that takes place after this. But one that is devoted to Jareth and Sarah.

Yeah, I did pass along the announcement that Tokyopop made at Wondercon a year and a half ago about an anthology of side stories. Sadly, I don’t know what happened to that – it seems to have dropped off the radar. Again, I must weasel out of an answer and say I’m not the one to ask about that as I haven’t been an employee at Tokyopop for over 5 years and I don’t know the status of their licenses or their releases schedules. As for other sequel stories in the Labyrinth world, there is always a possiblity, but it’s up to the Jim Henson company what other stories are told in this world. The story of Return to Labyrinth will be wrapped up in volume 4.

I have a strong feeling that the story of the exiled goblin’s earlier betrayal is kind of important to the back story. Am I right?

Cob the Exile’s prior betrayal was very foul indeed. Dark stuff. Some would call him a backstabbing Judas, others a misunderstood Snape – it was that serious! Undergarments were involved. Foul undergarments… fouled undergarments. Probably best not to get into that right now… if ever.

And just because I know everyone wants to know this… What is the name of the goblin that keeps eating my missing left socks?

It was Cob the Exile! He’s the nasty sock-stealer!

I was wondering if you and Chris Lie choose what goblins to use (in the background or otherwise) from Mr. Brian Froude’s notes for the movie? Because I bought a copy of Goblins of the Labyrinth and Candlewic was in there, though he’s undergone quite the makeover since then… Or are they all just thought up on the top of your heads?

You are right that Candlewic is the only goblin whose name is taken from the Froud/Jones book – he struck me as the perfect goblin stick-in-the-bum swordsman. The other goblins in the manga were conceived of by me and designed by Chris as suited the story. In the case of Goblins with names (Spittledrum, Skub, Maelgrot, etc.), I’ll provide some description, but all those background goblins are 100% Chris. 

Does Toby EVER get his history paper back? I don’t know if that’s spoilerific or not, but I really just had to ask… I know how vexing it is when you can’t find your homework! Poor Toby!

You’ll have to wait and see! Toby’s real world existence definitely plays a role in the final volume.

One of my favorite parts of the movie was the Escher room… Will we see any more of it in the story, or any other optical illusions? I know there have been a few throughout the series (and I loved them, by the way), and I’d really like to see more.

I think you’ll be pleased with volume 4.

Wasn’t there a contest for someone to be featured in the book as a Goblin? :\ Or am I just high on something (like a Peach) and I came up with that myself?

Indeed there was! Reader “Sarah” won the contest by providing the best guess for what the volume 3 cover would look like. I contacted her and we came up with a name for a goblin that will appear in volume 4.

How much of your day-to-day wardrobe is Labyrinth-inspired, or otherwise Bowie-fied?

When I started writing Labyrinth, I wore baggy pants with a 36” waist. No I squeeze into 31 inchers! I try not to stare (too often) at the crotchal region, but I presume that with such a dramatic tightening of pants, there is probably a higher probability of seeing the occasional… Yeah, probably best not to talk about this anymore.

What is Jareth’s favorite Morrissey song”

“I Hate it When Our Friends Become Successful”

In today’s New York Times, there’s an interesting article on e-reading consumers resistance to books priced above the $9.99 standard price point that Amazon has established. What surpised me is that in the case of new releases otherwise only in hardcover, Amazon is paying the same $13 price to publishers and is selling at a lost to encourage people to pick up readers. The idea of a $9.99 e-book, at least for new releaes, is NOT something publishers seem keen on:

“The concept that because a book is an e-book it should automatically be priced significantly lower than a paper book is one we don’t agree with,” said Carolyn Reidy, chief executive of Simon & Schuster. “What a consumer is buying is the content, not necessarily the format.”

As a Kindle 2 owner, I confess that I balk a little when I see books priced above $9.99. Even that price seems high at times, as when buying a 150 page YA book that retails for half the cost of a standard hardcover. As a writer, however, the arguments against cheap e-books are all too compelling. After all, only 12.5% of a book’s cost goes into manufacturing the physical goods and distributing it. The rest goes into paying the writer, editors, marketing staff and the general overhead for keeping the publishing engine running. 

Certainly much of that engine can run more efficiently in a digital age, whether its writers handling much of their own PR, or reforming the wasteful system of returns that sends countless books to landfills or shifts them between warehouses.

But putting aside the actual costs of producing a book, there is still the intangible concept of “value” that publishers can’t control. A book placed on a shelf is a form of self-expression; an e-book on a kindle is private. A book can be gifted, shared or sold; an e-book is a one-time license. Even if 99% of books are only read once (if that) by the original purchaser (I’m pulling that number out of my ass, but who knows, maybe i’ts close to accurate), that perception of value is hard to let go of.

This concept of persistant value isn’t just a monetary thing, either. A physical book will generally stay in print for as long as it is viable to keep up the costs of manufacturing and destributing to demand. When books lose their audience and fall out of print, they become scarce. Old books, even if demand is low, become “rare.” Each object has its own history. There’s no reason for rare e-books to exist. There’s no reason for e-books to go out of print! In this reality, every book has equal permanance. At the same time, the quality bar for what constitutes a thing worth of permanence is thrown out the window. This is a good thing! It is wonderful that forgotten authors can be rediscovered, reanalyzed and even remixed (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, anyone?) 

A year or two from now, I’ll probably have enough blog posts to fill a book or two. That content is free now, and theoretically will remain free and accessible for perpetuity (yikes, that’s scary when you think about it). In recent years, blogs migrating to print has been a lucrative publishing niche, whether it be dooce doing a biograpy, stuffwhitepeoplelike, or any number of webcomics turning traffic into print advance. What happens in a reading reality where ebooks are the norm? Let’s say I’m an aspiring genre author and I want to get some advice from a veteran.I could pay $10 for Stephen King’s On Writing, or read old blog entries by John Scalzi.  Right now, King’s book is a self-contained unit of some 200 pages that isn’t likely to fall out of print physically or digitally anytime soon. Scalzi’s articles, however, have the benefit of a back-and-forth report with readers and the Z-axis of time to give them added value. I wonder, how would someone with no prior prejudice for print over digital equate the value of those works, and what will that mean for the future of publishing? It doesn’t seem that far-fetched to have blog archives (perhaps edited an annotated) start appearing alongside traditional “books.” 

The obvious answer to all these questions most likely involves a tiered system. Whether the value is placed on time (read it first!), depth (read it ALL, ie bonus features), merit (read the BEST), duration (read it once or read it forever), or more likely, a combination of the above, will probably shake out in the next few years. It will also be interesting to see how much pricing and tier flexibility there will be. 

In the meantime, I just have to believe that working as a writer, refining my craft and coming up with new stories that (hopefully) people will want to read, will continue to be a viable career… at least for the next 30 years. After that, it’s somebody else’s problem.

A year or two before starting Return to Labyrinth, I wrote the first couple chapters of a Labyrinth sequel novel, purely with no intent to do anything with it. This secret fan fic also starred Toby Williams, but in this version, he was only about 7 years old and living with Sarah (who was a grad student) after his parents died in a plane crash or some other tragedy. In this version, Sarah was having a hard time balancing being a single mother with pursuing her dreams. Goblins started stealing Toby’s toys and eventually tricked the boy into entering the Labyrinth. Presumably Sarah would have followed and many fantastic adventures would have ensued; I never got past the toy stealing.

In retrospect, I can see the foundation for a good story in that aborted fan fic with the Labyrinth offering a fantasy metaphor for dealing with loss and rebuilding family. At the time, I was still too easily distracted by “wouldn’t it be cool if…!” and was completely blind to the meaty human potential. So in 2005, when the opportunity came to pitch an original manga-style sequel to Labyrinth, the only aspect of my earlier scribblings to be preserved was having Toby as the protagonist.

The ch-ch-changes to story and character didn’t stop there, however. With each volume, I would guess that 50% of what I originally envisioned for the next volume stays more or less in tact with the other 50% emerging in the process, whether due to serendipitous discoveries in reviewing what came before (yes, even I get surprised by reading the finished books!), critical choices about how better to serve a character’s development, or based on feedback from the Jim Henson company.

As most of the changes are driven by character development, I find that the “unplanned” 50% ends up informing the next volume more than the originally drafted half. The events in volume 3 (and especially volume 4! Like that scene where…) are a far cry from the events at the end of my first series outline. At the same time, however, I think Toby is becoming more Toby-y, Moppet more Moppet-y and everyone else is more themselves than they ever were in the beginning. As RtL is the longest project I’ve ever been involved with creating, I don’t know how common this process is (versus a stricter adherence to an original outline) but I certainly enjoy working this way.

The waiting is over, Return to Labyrinth volume 3 is out, and thanks to all of you, it appears to be quite a hit! For most of the week, RtL3 has been the #1 manga release on amazon.com (it’s neck and neck with the latest Fullmetal Alchemist). It’s so exciting, gratifying and humbling to see this series growing in readership with each volume. It was the great feedback for volume 2 that allowed the series to get a little extra breathing room with four volumes instead of three. Thank you so much, gobblin readers and the anonymous other readers who have kept this series alive and thriving! It is your feedback and support that push me to be a better writer. I couldn’t do it without you!

I also want to thank you all for keeping the series alive between releases, with your videos, artwork, fan fics, costumes and avatars. Hopefully volume 3 has enough new dramatic and visual hooks to inspire more creativity from the Labyrinth community. The Labyrinth film is such a wonderful celebration of creativity — thanks for keeping that dream alive!

Until next time,

Your Humble Gobblin Scribe

Good news in my inbox this morning. Every last detail of Return to Labyrinth 3 has been approved by Henson and the book is off to the printers! A big thank you to Bryce P. Coleman for picking up the editing reigns on volume 3 and bringing ‘er home, despite tough circumstances.

Meanwhile, the annual Bookscan Graphic Novel Report debate still rages on over at The Beat. While most of the commentary tends to focus on superheroes, art comics and Naruto, I was pleased to see that in the actual list, Return to Labyrinth vol. 1 and 2 did very good numbers last year, even though there was no new volume. The series clearly has legs. Who would have guessed that a little sequel to a cult-classic fantasy film would turn into one of Tokyopop’s biggest hits? Thanks to everyone who’s picked up the book, and thanks for your patience in waiting for volume 3. We’re almost there!

And one last thing — Chris Lie, the talented artist of Return to Labyrinth, has a new website for his studio. Check it out to see what he’s been up to when he’s not drawing goblins.

UPDATE: Finally Amazon has the proper cover for Return to Labyrinth 3. Now you can see it with the logo and everything!

Every so often I troll youtube for Labyrinth clips, and today I found this lovely pencil animation and original comic book stills piece by Aiijuin. The Jareth and Sarah dancing scene looks absolutely beautiful! And the creator gives a shout out to the Return to Labyrinth manga at the end, which is incredibly humbling and encouraging. Thanks for sharing your work with us, Aiijuin!

It’s been a while since I shared any behind-the-scenes Return to Labyrinth writing dirt, so it’s high time I change that. Let’s talk about music, okay? After all, the music is one of the reasons why Labyrinth is such an enduring film. From the moment the Labyrinth manga series was just a seed of an idea, I knew that music would have to play a pivotal role. In Volume 1, I chickened out and left music to a merely instrumental role (which in a graphic novel means a few musical notes in the background). In volume 2, movie soundtrack lyrics pop up in two key scenes (one comic, one dramatic), and the Wiseman spouts classic rock wisdom. It isn’t until volume 3 that I took the plunge and dared put lyrics in Jareth’s mouth. It could be the best thing in the series, or the the thing that puts me on the outs with Labyrinth fans once and for all. Fingers crossed it’s more of the former.

My first pass on writing a Jareth song were decidedly silly. Those lyrics actually found their way into the “Goblin King’s Revenge” story, so most readers here have probably alread seen them. The song is decidedly broadway/Disney Musical in structure, which works in the context of the silly story it’s in now, but wouldn’t work for the decidely darker chapter that the final song appears in.

The final song, which you’ll have to wait until May to read, I’m afraid, is much more informed by Bowie (at least it is in my head). This is a song sung by the Jareth of “Within You,” only with longing that has crossed into resentment. It’s called “Shadows of  a Dream” (which has nothing to do with this blog), and I hope you’ll like it in spite of the doujinshi-esque name. I wish I had the skills to set the lyrics to music. Maybe next year, some enterprising reader will do just that!

Volume 4 will have at least one musical number, this one inspired not by the Jareth/Sarah relationship, but by the nonsense logic of Lewis Carrol and M.C. Escher. It’s the manga equivalent of “Chilly Down.” I haven’t gotten farther than a few random notes, but hopefully I’ll figure out how to pull it together over the holidays. Of course, the lyrics are only half the challenge — somehow Chris will have to draw a chapter inspired by this:

Writing a book set in the Star Wars universe — even a young adult one — was an incredibly intimidating experience. As somone who has read and edited “shared universe” fiction before, I know just how tricky it can be to tow the canon line while trying to stay fresh and relevant. I will always love Star Wars, if only for the Empire Strikes Back, which is possibly my very most favorite film (the art direction of Bespin and Williams score for this film are cinematic perfection, and the actors were never better), but truth be told, I’ve only dabbled with the franchise in recent years, sticking mostly to video game incarnations. I was terrified that when The Way of the Jedi came out, it would be torn apart like an ewok in a Rancor cage by fans more intimately versed in all things Star Wars. How happy I was, then, to find out that the folks at TheForce.net really liked it!

Way of the Jedi is a well designed adventure that is true to the spirit of Star Wars. Depending on the choices you make, enemies can become allies, and vice versa. You can win by engaging in a starfighter dogfight, leading your army of clone troops to victory, turning your friend back from the dark side, engaging in a lightsaber duel, or even just negotiating with hostile aliens. By choosing different paths, you can learn different things about the characters. And of course, Way of the Jedi includes many entertaining ways for your character to fail on his mission.

The book was so much fun to write, so I’m glad that star wars fans young and old are enjoying it. The best compliment  the book received, however, came from a girl who was happy that the main character isn’t called out as a boy or a girl. Hooray for gender-neutral 2nd person fiction!

After three months on the wait list, I finally got my library copy of Neal Stephenson’s Anathem. Twenty pages in, I was ready to concede that XKCD nailed the book with a graph:

Thankfully I kept pushing through. It’s not the pretentious or misguided imagineering of the sort that sent Clive Barker’s initially brilliant Imajica into a pear-shaped spiral. No, Stephenson is decidedly in the Lewis Carrol world of word play, only in a more nerdy, less whimsical mindset. This is a book for people who like words, and if you feel the need to apologize for the language to justify the book (as many bloggers and online reviewers seem to do), then I think you’re missing the point.

Generally speaking, I don’t mind a few made up words here and there (I must like them or I’m a total hypocrite, given how I sprinkle them in Return to Labyrinth), as long as the words feel like the people in that world would actually use them in normal conversation (which is where I thought Imajica gets a fail). J.K. Rowling does this brilliantly for the most part. Stephen King is a talented jargonsmith (Lobstrocities = portmanteau perfection), but sometimes he seems a little too gratuitous with his faux-mots (does anyone in the world of the Dark Tower NOT carry their gun in a “Docker’s Clutch”?)

Anybody care to nominate a best or worst book for made-up words?

I’ll withhold final judgment on Anathem till I’m finished, but for now, I’m glad I stuck it out.

Also for bookophiles, definitely check out this list of the year’s best book covers.

Also, also, update: Oh, crap. I pre-ordered The Tales of Beedle the Bard, Collector’s Edition months ago, and promptly forgot about the order until I just received a shipping notice. The deluxe binding better be worth the pricetag!

This weekend I dug into the script edit for the 20th volume of Fullmetal Alchemist. The series is noteworthy for me as:

1. It’s the highest number of volumes that I’ve been involved with editing/adapting a manga series
2. It’s the last translated manga series I’m still involved with
3. 20 volumes is quite an achievement for a monthly series that has long since passed its anime heydey
4. The series amazes by continuing to get better and tighter with every volume!

Any anime fan who’s followed the scene for the last five years is probably quite familiar with this ongoing tale of angst and alchemy, but if you’ve only experienced Fullmetal in its animated form, you’re really missing out. The manga, still going strong in Japan and the US (courtesy of Viz), diverged from the anime back in volume 9.

In the anime, characters opined on the horrors of war and unchecked primal sins, but in the end, the characters managed to remain firmly in the innocent realm of adolecense. Evil, in the anime, remains a very fantastical thing. Characters serve symbolic roles as shockingly adult themes are gracefully skirted around, but I never felt like Ed and Al’s world was really… real.

The manga take on the Elric brothers’ journey deals with many of the same themes, but instead of bringing the world down to the level of its teenage protagonists, it challenges the characters and the readers by keeping the world distinctly adult. It isn’t just the gritty take on war and genocide (volumes 16 and 19 are largely dedicated to flashbacks in which entire cultures are wiped out). Even though Fullmetal is a shonen manga from a teen magazine, characters like Roy Mustang, Scar, Izumi Curtis and, at long last, Van Hoenheim, are as richly drawn as the adults in a seinen manga mangazine. The series never panders — it’s just great drama.

The manga-ka, Hiromu Arakawa (a woman in a man’s world) coninues to amaze with art that continues to improve in detail, but remains grounded by its focus on character. Even as the scope of the series grows more epic, her art style becomes more intimate. Hers are the most soulful eyes I’ve seen in a shonen series

I’m credited as rewriter on this series, but mostly, I consider myself more of a copy editor and caretaker. The translator, Akira Watanabe, does an absolutely incredible job. It doesn’t really need a “rewrite” in the sense that some other translations I’ve worked on do. There’s an occassional stiff line, and sometimes he uses a combination of words that are a little too verbose to fit in small balloons, but really, my role is more like a chisel than a sledgehammer, which is how it should be.

Volume 17 of Fullmetal Alchemist is the latest volume to be published in English. This volume takes place almost entirely in the frozen base of Fort Briggs. We get our first showdown (or is should that be slowdown) with Sloth, the sixth of the Homunculi, as well as a first glimpse at a new foe (who if you do the math with the seven deadly sins, you can probably identify). Volume 18 is a solid installment, but it’s volume 19 that really answers questions that longtime readers have been wondering for years now. Van Hoenheim’s backstory is incredible and casts many events of the last few volumes in a whole new light. Volume 20 is shaping up to be even better, as we get to see the undoing of one of the remaining Homunculi, as well as a return to Prince Lin (aka Greed 2.0). When after a hard days work I find myself eager to find out what happens next, I know I’m a part of something great. Arakawa-sensei, my hat goes off to you.