Devil’s Due Studios has confirmed for Newsarama that it has acquired the license to produce Voltron comics, based on the ‘80s animated series. A creative team is yet to be assembled, and tentatively, the book will be published through Image, although details have yet to be finalized. The property was licensed through World Event Productions (WEP).
“We'll start out with ‘Go-Lion,’ and I'd like to tackle Vehicle Voltron down the line,” Deveil’s Due head Josh Blaylock told Newsarama when asked what the new comic projects would encompass. “Rest assured it will retain what made the old stories still loved by fans 18 years later.”
Voltron itself is a giant, albeit ancient, robot made up of five separate mechanical lions which are powered by both technology and magic, by the by, for those who’ve forgotten history, and now get the chance to see it again.
According to Blaylock, despite the animated series, there’s still a lot to explore with Voltron, specifically the giant robot itself. “I'm not going to try and go into having anyone over explain him, but I really want to build up that Voltron is a huge, amazing, mysterious marvel of technology and magic,” Blaylock said. “We have all sorts of ideas but we need to cross our t's and dot our i's as far as the story goes, and talk with WEP before giving anything away.”
Rather than ask the ubiquitous “another ‘80s license?’ question that’s always drug out at times like this, we shot Blaylock tossed a changeup – why another giant robot series in an industry where, to the untrained eye, Robotech = Transformers = Voltron = Giant Robo?
“I guess I look at that the same way as if you said ‘another superhero story?’ Blaylock responded. “I mean, there's a few out there, but it's hardly overkill. If you're into that stuff, you like this, if you're not, then hopefully we can make you like it. Either way, it comes down to having a strong enough fan base to support the book's life, and how much fun we can have doing it. Voltron is a book with a lot of story potential, a lot of cool art potential, and it has a built in fan base hungry to see what we can do with it.
”I guess what I don't understand, as far as people bitching about ‘retro’ titles, is what do they think Spiderman and Batman are? If you get on a popular DC title, and you revamp the character, you're not doing anything different than we are. I always compare what we do with these books to what Neal Adams and Frank Miller did with Batman.
It's just comics, people. We're having a blast creating stories about these characters we grew up with, and a lot of people are having fun reading them. On top of that, they bring people into stores who've been gone for years, and while they're there, maybe they'll run across a kick-ass issue of Ultimates or 100 Bullets or something that hooks them
into buying comics again. I apologize.
I'm no dummy, or at least I tell myself that - I know the ‘hot’ factor on these books is temporary, but if I have a chance to work on something I love, and it's guaranteed to sell well, should I say no?”
And despite the crowd of mecha-style revamps of ‘80s properties that are in a similar vein to Voltron, Blaylock said he feels there’s enough room for all. “Each property has its own special core group of fans. Some of those fans overlap. Our job is to make the stories and art so cool that people make sure to pick up our book if they're on the fence. Transformers have a mind boggling huge fan base from the years of non-stop cartoons, but Robotech and Voltron are a harder call. I think Voltron was a bigger cartoon, and I think the toy line did better over here, but Robotech's been around for years. I think they're fan bases are about the same.”
With that, Blaylock said that Voltron will most likely be the last ‘80s property the studio invests in. “All us Devil's Duers are done expanding for a while,” Blaylock said. “We're gonna hit
you with a shit load of books next year, and I would like to spend a weekend at home every now and then.”