“Yesterday’s” Comic> Robotech: Academy Blues #4

I was going to make a joke about “air mail” until I realized they spelled Karl’s name wrong on the cover. It’s the same artist!

Robotech: Academy Blues #4

Academy Comics Ltd (December, 1995)

“The Calm Before”

WRITER: Robert W. Gibson

ARTIST: Frances Birchfield

Lisa takes notice of the man following her around when she stops in at the diner to tell Lori they’re still being debriefed and won’t be in for lunch. This time United Earth Government officials are coming to discuss the recent security problems between the Faithful, the Nationalists, and I would wager the Lemurians as well as other issues as of late. Lori’s also had someone watching the diner. Lisa is able to get a pic of her shadow and Roy recognizes him as Robert Hyser, who was recently shipped out but security has no record of him. A decision is made regarding security as of late and thanks to a comment between Roy and the lady commodore Claudia gets mad at Roy again. When he chases her out he’s met by Hyser, who wants him to make like everything is okay with his shadowing Lisa until security is upgraded. In his winded state Roy loses the fight by the time Lisa and Rolf find him.

What they got right: I’d say Macross Island is overdue for a security overhaul given all the stolen mecha in the other prequel comics. We have a decent mystery as to what Hyser is up to.

What they got wrong: Birchfield needs to work on her fight scenes, and that’s coming from someone with that problem too. (At least she draws people hugging better than I can.) I don’t know who the letterer is since there’s no credit. It’s either Birchfield or Gibson but whoever it is needs work. The word balloons are often not placed where it’s easy to follow where it fits in the conversation. The phone ring noise is a buzzing and shouldn’t be in a word balloon. There’s a lot of exposition from the radio that I’m not sure is necessary to the situations on Macross Island. And what did Claudia get mad about this time? There is more to her character than being jealous about Roy getting attention from fangirls.

Recommendation: Most of the problems with this issue are technical. The story itself isn’t bad but will only be of interest if you’ve been following the prequel comics.