Comic publisher Archaia has taken on the task of creating a prequel to Jim Henson‘s  1986 classic, Labyrinth. Ever wonder where Jareth the Goblin King found those ridiculously tight pants and epic codpiece that can be see from space? Or how he got so good at juggling crystal balls? These are questions probably better left to the imagination.

Shelf Life recently sat down with editor-in-chief Stephen Christy to talk about the focus of the project.

“It’s the story of how Jareth is brought into the Labyrinth for the first time. So, it doesn’t deal with Sarah, it doesn’t deal with Toby or anything like that. It’s a very tragic story that is the opposite of Sarah’s, which has triumph at the end. We know how it’s going to end: Jareth is going to be the Goblin King … so we’re showing how he’s pulled into the Labyrinth for the first time. It’s going to be cool. We’re switching up the dynamic of it, but what we’re doing is completely true to the spirit of the original.”

Christy also went on reveal a few bigger ambitions of the project. He said he’d like to see music integrated into the work, in a way were fans can learn to play and sing along. Music was a huge cornerstone of the original film featuring David Bowie‘s buttery voice serenading us with tracks like the ever-catchy, You Remind Me of the Babe…. He also said that he’d like Bowie to be involved in some way, maybe using his likeness or having him write a song for the project. He cautions that these are just ideas that may not see the light of the final project, and that his main concern is maintaining the integrity of the source material.

We’re really taking our time with stuff. At Archaia we never want to do things the way other people do it — unless they’re doing it better than we’re doing it. We are such fans of the material that we couldn’t in good conscience just sh– something out. I hope that Jim would be happy to see how a whole generation grew up with this movie. Labyrinth was a big deal to a lot of people. We can probably count on two hands the movies that really affected us when we were kids, and I think for a lot of people Labyrinth was one of them.

Look for Archaia‘s Labyrinth prequel to release sometime in late 2012.