MISC. MANGA, *Emeraldas

Unlike the current American reprint of the original 70s manga, Emeraldas was a comic book mini-series spinoff of the Captain Harlock line by Eternity Comics in the 80s. As part of Malibu Graphics, Eternity had adapted other anime and manga titles for an original American publications, such as Lensman and Robotech. This was a self-contained story that takes place in the Captain Harlock U.S. comics.

Pirate Queen Emeraldas flies her space zeppelin to the world of Eden, and rescues the runaway Miantir, who is going back to her scientist father that terraformed the planet which is currently being becoming less and less inhabitable do to their engines breaking down. Aside from having to contend with rival pirates, and the possibility of being captured by the Illumidas race who control the Earth, Emeraldas must conflict with her own scorn towards men, while learning to trust others in return.

Even if you hadn't read any of the American Captain Harlock comics, or the original Japanese source material by Leiji Matsumoto, Emeraldas does stand on its own as a decent space opera. It was written by Eternity Comics regular Robert W. Gibson, and drawn by Ninja High School creator Ben Dunn along with Tim Eldred. There is currently no collected trade paperback of this particular comic, and hard to say if Marvel still owns the rights to it when they bought out Malibu in the mid-90s, but still worth tracking down for a look in your local bargain bin.