After Jareth kidnapped the child, he offered Sarah a challenge: solve the Labyrinth and save the child. While suffering through dangers unknown and hardships unnumbered, Sarah met an assortment of inhabitants of Labyrinth who helped her solve the Labyrinth. They fought to the castle beyond the Goblin city and were prepared to take Toby back. But when she finally found Toby…Jareth was there. Eventually, Sarah defeated him and rejected his love. Jareth’s plan failed and Sarah safely escaped with Toby.

Jareth was devastated from his loss. But he was patient. He waited, and watched Toby became a teenager. Then the Goblin King decided to make his move again. This time, he brought Toby into the goblin world but with a new twist. He would announce Toby as heir to the Goblin Thrown!

You might be thinking that I’ve lost it at this point. You might say “David, you’ve started writing Labyrinth fan fiction!”! But you’d be wrong and I’d say “It was my way of telling the story from the film and explaining how the new manga is tied into it”. Then we’d all laugh. Then we’d sing the ‘Dance, Magic, Dance’ song.

Now if you haven’t read my Return to Labyrinth Volume One review first, I suggest you check it out then come back here. It’s now time for sanity to return, so lets talk about volume two!

The manga

As an Ãœber-Fan of Labyrinth, I was pretty critical of the initial volume of the Return to Labyrinth manga series. There’s some good news this time – many of the things that bugged me have been improved or remedied. Overall, the art is better and the pacing is quicker. It’s beginning to feel more like the familiar Labyrinth world of the film, but it’s also new.

Story

Return to Labyrinth Volume 2 is pretty much ‘all about Toby’. He’s beginning to adjust to his new role as leader of the Goblin Kingdom. It turns out there’s a lot of bureaucracy involved! Toby also starts to learn magic from a new (cough*evil*cough) character, Mizumi, queen of the Moraine Kingdom. She’s a powerful sorceress whose past is directly linked with Jareth (but I won’t spoil it). Toby’s fate is now tied to Mizumi and Jareth, which creates all sorts of problems…most of which Toby doesn’t even know about! Meanwhile, there’s more mystery involving Moppet’s identity, some sword-fighting, goblins cooking gross stuff and other surprises.

Cover Art

The cover art is once again illustrated by Kouyu Shurei. Her stunningly-rich style has perfectly captured the relationship between icy-cold Mizumi, Queen of the Moraine Kingdom and Toby, the newly appointed ‘King of the Labyrinth’. The Wiseman is also prominently featured on the cover, which surprised me at first (I was expecting Jareth) but you’ll find out why once you read it. Unfortunately, Jareth the Goblin

Interior Art

Interior art duties are again handled by artist Chris Lie. This time around, Lie’s line work seems more crisp and focused. It feels like he’s a little more comfortable with the Labyrinth universe and he gets a lot more of the little things right than in volume one.

Characters

Last time I detailed a few character design likes/dislikes. Since this is volume two, I figured it would be neat to highlight a few things I’ve liked/disliked about certain characters rather than repeat the same stuff rather than specifically focusing on their design.

Likes

• Toby – Our main character. In volume one, I was shocked to see Toby as a teenager. Now that I’ve had some time to let my brain process that idea, I’m cool with it.
• Jareth The Goblin King – Jareth is (as usual) awesome.
• Mizumi, Queen of the Moraine Kingdom – She’s a rather neat addition to the cast and she helps us peer into Jareth’s past
• Sarah – After a rather disappointing appearance in volume one, Chris Lie makes up for it this time.
• Moppet – Even though several readers don’t like Moppet, I’ve liked her since she was introduced in the last volume. Her mask reminds me of the masquerade scene from the film, which was quite magical. She’s still a mystery (to me), but I’m sure she’ll be revealed as being pretty important to the story.
• The Wiseman – Perfect. There are even several funny gags with his bird-hat (just like the movie!)
• Spittledrum, the Goblin Mayor – He’s more relevant this time around, so I’m cool with him now too.

Dislikes
I don’t have so many dislikes this time around. The plot was well-paced and I really enjoyed the story. I still have a few for the list, though:

• Hoggle – He was essential to Sarah’s success in the Labyrinth. I’ve been nothing but disappointed in his manga characterization. Why is he essentially useless here?
• Mizumi’s daughters Moulin and Drumlin – While they serve a purpose (to torment Toby), I think they’re a little too cartoony for the Labyrinth universe. Plus, why do we need more humanoid people in the story?
• Hana and her trusty steed Stank – They don’t advance the plot much, since this story is pretty ‘Toby-centric’. Which is fine, but I’d really like to know if she’s gonna find here wings!
• Goblins – Maybe it’s just me, but does anyone else feel like some of the goblins would never fit in a world created by Jim Henson and Brian Froud? Many of them are too cartoon-like in appearance.

Conclusion

Overall, volume two of the Return to Labyrinth manga was very enjoyable. It was a real ‘page turner’ and I rather impressed with the plot. Since this part of the story didn’t have to re-introduce all of my favorite characters, I was able to enjoy it a lot more. My favorite scene was in the “Museum of Toby”. I think you’ll see what I mean.

Good news: Return to Labyrinth has been expanded from three to four volumes! There’s currently no set street-date for volume three, but I suspect that it will hit sometime next summer (2008).

Rating

Return to Labyrinth Manga Volume 2 gets 3 outta 4 gummies!

Additional Reading

Along the way, I stumbled upon a few cool items of interest for Labyrinth fans. There’s the usual Return to the Labyrinth at Tokyopop. But there’s also some pretty cool Labyrinth fanart:

• http://chrissydelk.deviantart.com/art/Labyrinth-Guest-Art-59799014
• http://owling-byrrd.deviantart.com/art/Strangers-For-Now-22952248
• http://owling-byrrd.deviantart.com/art/Within-You-22699366
• http://owling-byrrd.deviantart.com/art/Its-Only-Forever-22952143

If you’re obsessing over Labyrinth (like me), check out these places too:

• The original Labyrinth trailer
• Labyrinth creator Jim Henson
• Labyrinth concept designer Brian Froud’s website
• Wikipedia’s write-up of the Labyrinth film

So what did you think of Return to Labyrinth Volume 2?

Return to Labyrinth Manga – Story by Jake T. Forbes, Art by Chris Lie, Published by Tokyopop.

Story

The Return to Labyrinth manga takes place several years after the events of the film. After a brief flashback from the movie, we meet an older Tobey (he’s now supposedly 13 years old). Toby is portrayed as a troubled teenager who is interested in acting, has pretty bad luck, gets into trouble a lot and has issues with his mother. His sister Sarah (who is in her 30s) isn’t a big part of his life – and is strangely missing from most of the story. Writer Jake T. Forbes has recently stated that Sarah will play a larger roll in additional volumes.

The first chapter of volume one follows the film in several ways – mainly by mirroring Sarah’s issues with her parents, herself and Toby. By playing up Toby’s problems, it makes things easier for Jareth to lead him into the Labyrinth. When Jareth The Goblin King finally shows up, the story really begins to feel more like the film!

After entering the Labyrinth and The Goblin Kingdom, Toby meets several new characters – such as the faerie ‘Hana’ and the furry creature ‘Stank’. Writer Jake T. Forbes has balanced these introductions with old favorites from the film, such as the oddities of the Labyrinth and it’s unusual cast of characters.

Thankfully, some of my favorite characters Hoggle, Sir Didymus (with Ambrocious) and Ludo begin to make their appearances. There’s even the goblins with the bitey poles in the background! Jareth pops up here and there, which makes it feel a lot like the film too. There are several points in the story that really connected with the film – all involving either Sir Didymus, Jareth or Toby. Unfortunately, there are several points where I was pulled out of the story entirely (as I mentioned before – Labyrinth is one of my favorite films).

The main scene I was the most disappointed with is a scene at the ball (towards the end of volume one) when Toby meets Hoggle, Ludo and Sir Didymus for the first time. When they realize that Sarah never mentioned any of them, Ludo says “Sawah Friend. Sawah…Gone.” That really depressed me. Actually, in the panel before, Hoggle says “I guess she just…didn’t need us.” That seemed really sad and unlike Hoggle’s character from the film. I guess that’s just a little bit of ‘deconstruction’ that the writer felt needed to be added. After that, the story perks up again.

Art

The cover art, by Kouyu Shurei is truly amazing. She’s really captured the spirit of The Goblin King Jareth and his Labyrinth. The cover also provides nice distinctive portrait of Toby, the main character of the story. The warmth of the colors remind me of the Labyrinth theatrical poster and the level of detail is simply amazing.

I was expecting the cover to be a preview of the interior art. Once inside, I quickly realized that this wasn’t the case. Instead, the artwork is by Chris Lie, whose art is a loose combination of western and manga style. While a very competent artist, I was expecting a much tighter manga style. I initially picked on every little element that looked wrong, but after re-reading the manga, I’ve decided that the artwork takes some time to warm up to. I still have some problems with ‘grown-up’ Sarah though. Why does she look like a slightly hipper version of Velma from Scooby-Doo?

Character Design

The character design left me with mixed feelings. While it’s great to see old friends again, I was kinda distracted by some of the interpretations of familiar characters (as I said before). Perhaps it’s because I’ve seen the film so many times – or that I’m looked at Brian Froud’s art so much!

Likes:

• The Goblin King Jareth. He looks like he stepped directly out of the film and into the manga.
• The new characters such as the faerie Hana and her trusty steed Stank.
• The goblin/human character Moppet – she wears a masquerade ball mask and her identity is unknown, which is pretty interesting!
• The world of Labyrinth. The Goblin city and kingdom look great!

Dislikes:

• Sarah. She is unrecognizable with her short hair and glasses. I was expecting her to look like a mature version of herself (or actress Jennifer Connelly)!
• Hoggle looks weird to me – I’m not sure why. Sorry!
• The goblins. I think they look too ’soft’. They’re like this weird Ralph Bakshi style mixed with a tiny little bit of Tim Burton. Missing ingredient? Brian Froud!

Conclusion

Overall I enjoyed the story but was disappointed by several elements. The biggest disappointment was the absence of Sarah throughout the story (and her character design). What could have been an excellent opportunity to include both brother and sister in an epic adventure ends up something a little less epic (so far – I realize there’s more story to tell). Since we hardly knew Toby in the Labyrinth film (he was a baby), I have a disconnect to his ‘grown-up’ (13) character. As a baby (and Sarah’s brother) it was easy to feel sympathetic to him in the movie – he was helpless and constantly in danger (of being turned into a goblin). In the manga, he seems to be able to take care of himself – even with the bad luck.

There are several good things in volume one. The story was fresh and pretty exciting. It’s interesting to pick up the story years after the events of the film took place. It’s also nice to revisit old friends again. Jareth is awesome. Toby has potential. Overall, I think even with the hits and misses of Tokyopop’s Return to Labyrinth manga, the story kept me interested. I think I’ll follow Toby, Jareth the Goblin King and company further into the Labyrinth and see how all of this turns out for them!