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The alien invasion began almost coincidentally. A mammoth interstellar fortress ripped through the fabric of hyperspace on a collision course with the Earth. Whether by chance or some obscure twist of fate, this alien vessel was drawn toward the unsuspecting planet.

Robotech: The Macross Saga

Regular series / 1984 - February 1989
Based on episodes 1-36 of the 1985 TV series produced by Harmony Gold in association with Tatsunoko Prod. Co.

THE LOWDOWN

In the year 1999 A.D., a 1200-meter alien space fortress plunges through hyperspace from parts unknown and plumetts into the Earth's surface, coming to rest on a small island in the South Pacific called Macross. The arrival of this visitor from the stars ends nearly a decade of global war, and unites the people of Earth in a way that nothing before ever had or ever could. Ten years of painstaking restoration and dedicated research at the hands of the United Earth Government's newly-formed Robotech Defense Force--named for the ship's mysterious alien technology--result in the launching of the rebuilt starship, known as the Super Dimensional Fortress One, in July of 2009.

By a strange twist of fate, on the day of the SDF-1's planned maiden flight, a genetically engineered alien force known as the Zentraedi arrive in Earthspace to lay claim to the ship and its secrets for their creators, the Robotech Masters. During an attempt to evade capture, the fortress is accidentally flung across the solar system to the near side of Pluto. Now the SDF-1's young crew and its 70,000 accidental civilian passengers are forced to fight their way back to their homeworld.

BACKGROUND INFO

The Macross Saga made up the first thirty-six episodes of the Robotech TV series, and at the same time its adaptation was the first Robotech comic book series, published by the very first licensee Robotech (as we know it) ever had, Comico The Comic Company.

The comic series started in 1984 as an adaptation of Super Dimension Fortress Macross, the 1982-83 hit Japanese animated TV series, which was being released on video in the U.S. as Space Fortress Macross by Harmony Gold USA. However, during the period between the publication of issues one and two of the comic book series, Harmony Gold's plans changed. Rather than a somewhat faithful adaptation of the Macross series on video (certainly more faithful than previous anime dubs of the era, such as Battle of the Planets and Voltron), now Macross would be combined with two other anime series--Southern Cross and MOSPEADA--to create a new American TV series called Robotech. Names and terminology changed, and Comico now had two more comic book series to produce.

Robotech: The Macross Saga, as the Macross adaptation was now called, became the flagship title of the Robotech line, and as such seemed to garner the most attention from its publisher. The first three issues were written by Robotech's story editor and producer, Carl Macek. The artwork for the first issue was drawn by Macek's wife, Svea Stauch, and later issues were drawn by future Robotech Masters artist Neil Vokes, New Generation artist Reggie Byers, and finally the man who would become the series's regular artist, Mike Leeke. On the story end, Jack Herman first took care of the adaptations following Macek's departure from the writing, but it would be Markalan Joplin--who took over in issue seventeen--who would truly bring the series to greatness. Herman's scripts tended to hew closely to the source material, a plus for a series built on a fairly stringent continuity, but Joplin started bringing in details from the novels--following the novels' release, of course--and twisting events and dialogue from the at times poorly-scripted TV series to make more sense emotionally and continuity-wise.

It is a shame that Joplin died following the completion of his script for issue thirty-six of The Macross Saga, the expanded final issue of the series, which was interestingly completed prior to that of issue thirty-five. Comico editor Diana Schutz eventually finished the script for issue thirty-five, "Season's Greetings", the last Comico Robotech comic to be written. Ever.

A few months prior to the publication of the final issue of The Macross Saga, Eternity Comics started cranking out their own black and white Robotech story adaptations--adaptations of the unfinished Robotech sequel TV series The Sentinels. The Comico era was over, and a few years later, Comico would be over, too. But that's another story for another time ...

The Macross Saga #11

THE MACROSS SAGA

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