Response from Sandy Frank Film!

After reading Issue #2, I sent an e-mail to Sandy Frank Film. This evening, I received a reply! Below is my letter, and then their response...

Dear Sandy Frank:

I am a die-hard Battle of the Planets fan, and have been since the show debuted when I was seven years old. Now I am 31 years old and was really looking forward to this comic. But after the first two issues, I am just about through with it. You and Jameson Brewer set parameters for this show that I was hoping would be followed in the comic, but TopCow has not at all. Some of the foul language and adult themes were ok in the first issue, and I had hoped they would go down in the second, but they went up. Dissecting cats? Keyop viciously murdering someone? Teammates backstabbing each other? This is NOT Battle of the Planets.

I hope you either order TopCow to get there act together and make this comic more like your cartoon--and adding 7-Zark-7 would be a start--or pull the license from them. They are deceiving people like myself by putting the name "Battle of the Planets" on the cover and using the member's names, but that is THE ONLY likeness to your show.

I hope you do something about this.

Thank you,

Mark Lopa
Newington, CT

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Mark,

I agree with you.

I am very please with the work that Alex Ross and the artists have done in maintaining the look of the G FORCE characters, but had made my own recommendations, on what was acceptable and what was not in the character development and the details. That was not followed in the first 2 issues.

They will move away from this approach in future issues.

Thank you for your comments and for you long term loyalty. I hope that we live up to it.

Sandy Frank Entertainment

 

I went out on a limb and bought all four covers of issue 1 even the pyscotic J SC cover. Keeop and Tiny look pure evil. And what's this I hear about a Witchblade/Princess Team Up? it sound worse than Lara croft and Witchblade.

BTW I know a very reliable scorce that can get hold of rare gatch material. If your intrested E-mail me personaly and I'll send you the link. Sorry but my scorce is a bit shy.

 

Yep, Condor Joe, a Witchblade/Princess crossover is in the works. I hear it will take place 30 years in the future so it won't disturb the current timeline. This means two things:

1. G-Force is still around 30 years later. Yeah!

2. Either Spectra or another force is still threatening Earth.

Cloud, I've been successful in not allowing Keyop's actions in Issue #2 to disturb my over all perception of him. I'm considering it a dream or something, because no matter what, Keyop would never do that.

Mark

 

Mark don't know if you got the e-mail but here is the address for those rare gatch items.

mailto:banzandy@aol.com

Please quoat drbenn2000 in your e-mail to banzandy

 

HEY MARK,

I HATE TO SAY THIS, BUT THAT LETTER YOU RECEIVED FROM SANDY FRANK ENTERTAINMENT SOUNDS TO MUCH LIKE A FORM LETTER.
IF THE SALES OF THE COMICS DO AS GOOD AS THE RELEASE OF THE DVD SETS, THEY ARENT GOING TO CHANGE ANYTHING OF THE FORMAT.
IT SEEMS THEY ARE SHOOTING TO GO MORE WITH THE ORIGINAL ANIME VERSION OF THE STORYLINE (I.E. NO LIMITS CENSORS)
I HAVENT GOTTEN A CHANCE TO READ ANY OF THE COMICS YET, AND I AM IN THE PROCESS OF GETTING THEM, BUT I FEEL THEY WILL GIVE THE COMIC COMPANY A LOT OF ROPE FOR THEIR STORY TELLING SKILLS.

JUST MY OPPINION--DONT QUOTE ME ON THIS.

 

I have to disagree with you. I enjoyed the comics - I must admit I didn't like the bringing up to date in their use of cell phones instead of their wrist communators - but apart from that they were pretty good.

When the comic was announced Ross said that it was going to be a lot closer to the original Gatchaman with some of the familar BOTP things thrown in. You must be one of the few people I have heard defend Zark, most hated him (it).

I saw Gatch before it was BOTP, and although I love BOTP, Gatch was a much stronger story than BOTP. Watching BOTP 20 years on some of cheezyness makes me cringe. I hate the fact that Zark always comes to the rescue when someone dies with an explaination that they are OK. I didn't notice it when I was a kid but you can see were all the violence has been cut.

I would really like to see Gatch released on DVD with an English dub (and subtitles for the purists).

Just my 2 cents.....

 

HEY HISS,
WOULDN'T YOU AGREE THAT MOST ANIME IS BETTER BEFORE IT IS CONVERTED OVER TO THE AMERICAN VERSIONS.
WITH THE WAY CABLE IS TODAY, THEY SHOULD RELEASE SOME OF THE OLDER ANIME IN ITS ORIGINAL FORM ON THOSE NETWORKS. THEY WOULDN'T HAVE TO EDIT ANY MATTER OUT THAT WAY, AND WE COULD ENJOY THE STORIES AS THEY WERE MEANT TO BE TOLD.
I THINK EVEN THE SCI-FI CHANNEL COULD PULL THIS OFF.

 

Well, that problem's been solved. In number four, they brought back the communicators (yea!). Great issue.
Elvin Ruler
btw, if it is a form letter, it's very interesting that they'd need one for this situation. There are either a lot of people who wrote in, causing the need for that, or it's the real thing. Either way, it's kind of cool because it does signify that Sandy Frank was not exactly pleased with what the comic was doing in the first two issues. Note that in Issue three, several of the problems were rectified, and there's nary a complaint for issue four.