Robotech: The Macross Saga #9

History

The Comico Robotech line launched in 1985 as a direct episode-by-episode adaptation, with the first three issues scripted by Robotech producer and story editor Carl Macek himself before Jack Herman took over as the series' primary writer. The artwork for much of the run — including issue #9 — was produced by Mike Leeke, who became the series' regular penciler; the production workflow was notably unusual in that most issues were drawn by the artist working from animation tapes of each episode, with dialogue and captions added by the writer after the fact. The cover on #9, like virtually all issues in the run, features a wraparound design, a consistent visual identity choice Comico maintained across the line. The entire Comico run was later collected and reprinted in trade paperback form by WildStorm/DC in the early 2000s, and again by Titan Comics beginning in 2018, though the WildStorm program was cancelled after four of the planned six volumes.

Trivia · 7 facts

• First comic-book appearance of Zentraedi spy trio Rico, Bron, and Konda — per Grand Comics Database data cited across multiple collector databases.
• Adapts the 'Miss Macross' television episode, in which Commander Breetai dispatches the three spies to investigate a mysterious cultural broadcast — a beauty pageant — intercepted from the SDF-1.
• Story by Jack Herman; art by Reggie Byers and Tom Poston; cover by Mike Leeke — making it one of the few issues in the run where the interior art team differs from the cover artist.
• The issue also includes in-story appearances by Jan Morris (the professional actress who loses the pageant to Minmei), with the full bridge crew — Claudia Grant, Lisa Hayes, Kim Young, Sammie Porter, Vanessa Leeds — and Captain Henry J. Gloval all present, alongside Roy Fokker, Ben Dixon, and Max Sterling.
• Lynn Minmei's victory in the Miss Macross contest is a narrative milestone: it formally establishes her public celebrity within the SDF-1 community, a status that becomes central to the story's later 'culture as weapon' resolution.
• The Comico series as a whole was reprinted in trade paperback by WildStorm/DC Comics (2002–2003, four volumes released of six planned) and again by Titan Comics beginning in 2018, with issue #9's content included in the second WildStorm volume and the first Titan Archives collection.
• Comico's production method for the series was to have artists draw from animation episode tapes, with the writer adding script and captions afterward — a workflow that kept the adaptations closely tied to the broadcast episodes while still allowing small dialogue refinements.

Cast · 17 characters

Full credits

Key issues in Robotech: The Macross Saga