Return to Labyrinth v. 1-4, by Jake T. Forbes (story) and Chris Lie (art); manga, fantasy; v. 1: 208 p., v. 2: 192 p., v. 3: 192 p., v. 4: 208 p.I picked up the first volume of this years ago, and never continued the series. But I saw that it's been completed, so I thought I'd give it another try.
Let me start this review by saying that Labyrinth is one of my favorite movies of all times. I've seen it so many times that I can recite most of it by heart, and am currently on my fourth purchased copy of it (after wearing out several VHS copies and losing one DVD). So I might be a little biased when it comes to someone mucking about with this story.
Return to Labyrinth picks up 15 years after the movie, with Sarah having given up on her childhood dreams and a teenage Toby getting pulled into the world his sister once knew. The story that unfolds over these four volumes is Toby's story, not Sarah's, and I'm having trouble telling of my disappointment with this series is due to the lack of focus on the characters I loved from the movie, or is it's something else. I never felt like I bonded with Toby and his friends; most of the time, I was wishing for more of Jareth and Sarah, whose story was only a minor part of the whole. I hoped the conclusion would at least wrap things up in a satisfactory way, but even there things felt rushed, and didn't conclude in a way I liked. Overall, I was a little let down with this book.
A final note on the art: The covers for these books are wonderful, and capture the images from the movie to a T. However, the actual art is much more simplistic and cartooney, and I often had trouble differentiating characters or following action sequences.
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