太空堡垒: 来自群星

绘本小说 后记
作者: Tommy Yune


AFTERWORD

Everybody's jumping on the '80s bandwagon.

Back in broadcasting heyday of the mid-'80s, before the age of gigantic megamedia corporations, after-school television programming exploded in a smorgasboard of cheap, slick and colorful "Japanimation." Pounded out by Asian animation studios as fast as our eyeballs could soak it in, parents were appalled by the mayhem, but we kids loved every minute of these half-hour animated commercials that drove us right into toy stores. Of course, we were penniless students back then, with our disposable incomes governed by the fiscal mercy of our parents. Now, the children of the '80s have grown up and moved on to respectable careers (well, most of us), igniting a nostalgic boom driven by our innate need to collect all the toys of our youth that we once couldn't.

Sometimes revisiting that old favorite cartoon is a bittersweet experience. All too often, we're giddy with excitement as we shove a shiny new DVD of that beloved animated classic into our hi-fi home theater sys-tem. And then there's the reality check, as our grown up minds must weigh thoughts usually torn between "What the heck was I thinking!?" or "Man, I swear I remembered it looked better than this crap!" Out of all the typical kid-vid series, there seems to be one that many of us didn't outgrow... Robotech.

The Adventure of Getting Robotech on the Air

In March 1985, the NBC airwaves in New York began broadcasting an action-packed episode titled "Boobytrap." For many future anime fans, this first episode of Robotech would be a life-changing experience. From the breathtaking action sequences to the surprise cliffhanger ending, audiences everywhere were instantly hooked. Mere months earlier, another harrowing adventure was taking place across the continent in Hollywood.
Harmony Gold had acquired the international rights to a new 36-episode series from Tatsunoko Productions called Macross. The networks balked at airing Macross-it was too short. At that time, television stations required a syndicated series to have a minimum of 65 episodes. The fact that the story was serialized made airing more difficult because networks liked the flexibility of broadcasting the episodes out of order. The merchandising was already becoming fragmented with Revell jumping the gun with Macross transformable models sold under the Robotech brand and Hasbro marketing the trademark VF-1 as "JetFire," the flagship of their Transformers line. A snap decision was made to partner with Revell to use the Robotech trademark and then merge the Macross series with two other series from Tatsunoko based on the concept of transforming combat vehicles, Southern Cross and Mospeada.

Harmony Gold's creative team, which included Carl Macek, Steve Kramer and the late Robert Barron, set out on a whirlwind task to re-edit these three anime series into one. The resulting science fiction epic was more complex and linearly serialized than anything that had ever aired since the daytime soaps, but it had 85 episodes.

Call it a genius. Call it serendipity. Call it a fluke. Whatever you call it, all of us bought it-hook, line, and sinker. By the time then the last episode hit, we had endured through 85 half-hours of exhilaration, drama, and bizarre love triangles. We had built ourselves up for closure of epic proportions. We didn't get it. Many of us sat dumbfounded as young lieutenant Scott Bernard took off to the stars in search of the lost fleet of the Robotech Expedition. It couldn't just end there...

While spin-offs such as the Sentinels started to emerge, many of us fans learned the convoluted story of how Robotech came to be. Some wondered, if the concept of Robotech was borne out of a puff of inspiration in an editing room, was it real? Well, the fans made it real. It's as real as the question in our minds: is there more to the story?

Robotech in Comics...and the Future

One of Robotech's longest running successes has been in print. |t is a remarkable full circle that Robotech has traveled by finally returning to DC Comics through the WildStorm imprint after nearly 20 years in comics. Back in 1984, when the Robotech brand was being jointly developed by Harmony Gold and Revell, the now-defunct Comico had licensed the hugely successful adaptations based on the 85 television episodes and DC got stuck with...adaptations based on the model kits. Well, I'm glad to say we're finally making things right. Through WildStorm Productions, we are now launching the best new line of Robotech comics ever published. For those of you who look back on your nostalgic childhood - and that gaping hole in your collection - WildStorm is also reprinting the classic comic adaptations of the original Robotech episodes in compact trade paperback format.

Of course, that brings us to the future of Robotech. Though we're pleased to start at Macross Island, the first epicenter of the Robotech Universe, we're not stopping there. We'll be visiting familiar stories that have never been told, such as the valiant adventures of Lisa Hayes' lost fiancé Karl Riber on the first Mars Base. From there, we look forward to working with WildStorm Productions as we embark on a brand new chapter in the Robotech saga beyond the open-ended conclusion of the original television series.

Thanks for being with us for all these years and we look forward to many more together.

This is a good time to be a Robotech fan.

Tommy Yune - Creative Director
Harmony Gold USA - Hollywood, CA