Thursday, April 29, 2010
I was stunned.
Carl Macek, the man responsible for bringing us the timeless master piece of "Robotech" passed away on Saturday April 10th. The shame of it is he was the victim of a sudden heart attack, while at a play...
in front of his wife.
Damn, that sucks so bad.
"Robotech" captivated me as a child. I watched it with my mom. Yep, even my mom watched it because when you get past the transformable robots and space battles you find a riveting story of love and peace. The show tackled such topics as war, love, incest, alcohol abuse, racism...the list could go on and on. For it's time, to see topics like that present in an after school cartoon was amazing and controversial.
The action in the show was stunning as well. Absent were the "Good Guy, Bad Guy Bullets" of the likes of "G.I. Joe." People actually died in this show. War was shown for what it really is, costly and insane.
I can't thank Mr. Macek enough for bringing that kind of realism and honesty to a cartoon and making me interested in some very important issues as a child. He connected the west to the east and brought us all to an awareness of just how unrivaled Japan is at telling stories through pictures.
Now my son watches it... and he digs it.
In Junior High the "Robotech" saga got even more epic for me with the advent of The Role Playing Game. Man those were good times and the books themselves were exhaustive on "Robotech" fluff and filler.
I hate it when someone who did something cool and visionary dies like this. A violent death for a great guy... friggin lame.
So, in honor of Carl Macek please watch the opening credits of "Robotech" here and have a moment of silence for a man that influenced television, comics and gaming with a powerful force all his own. His work will live on as he has now risen "To The Stars."
Rest In Peace: Carl Macek (1951-2010).
4 comments:
Man, that is a bummer. I was never a huge fan, but you can't deny the influence his series had on everything to come afterwards.
I love those missile contrails!
RIP. Great series.
Very sad news, indeed. I loved Robotech as a kid and like you enjoyed playing the RPG as well, which was probably one of my earliest sci-fi gaming experiences as I must have been around 12 or 13 years old. Hearing the music from the opening credits is instant nostalgia and I still remember how sad I was about Roy Fokker. RIP, Carl Macek.
Gyro: Yes the missile swirling towards their targets is awesome. So awesome in fact that when I watched "Top Gun" as a kid I was disappointed at the F-14 Tom Cats missile capabilities. That movie didn't have shit on a veriteck :)
sonoftaurus: You nailed it bro... "Great Series."
Papa JJ: No joke right? Roy Fokker's death left me in shock as a kid. No other show dared to do that up to that point. "Transformers the Movie" dared to measure up to that standard but G.I Joe never could. Remember that farce? Duke gets speared through the heart with Serpentors snake spears and what happens to him... he falls into a coma?
Epic fail...
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