Yes, You CAN Go Home Again…

My very first comic book writing assignment was closing the book on MVCreations’ Masters of the Universe. At the time that I was hired to write the script, the entire creative team had no idea that it would be the final issue. And then things came to a dramatically screeching halt. It would have been different if the comic had been bad or the artwork sub-par but Masters was typically one of the first books I would read out of my weekly comic book bag. I was a fan long before I was an employee.
And then that magical day came and I was granted an opportunity. I’m not going to say that I hit the ball out of the park but I like to think that I certainly stepped up to the plate. I like to think that I did the team (and the fans) proud.
This working relationship would later go on to more assignments with MVCreations that were very fulfilling and challenging as a writer but they just were not the same. I was really licking my chops and hoping for an opportunity to dig deep and carve a niche in the He-Man mythology. I had a story for Two-Badd that would have knocked peoples socks off! But then it all disintegrated away.
Because of the frickin’ lawyers.
It was a hard hit to get back up from and, at the time, I didn’t know where my next assignment would come from. So there was a lot of regret revolving around Masters of the Universe. It seemed like I had missed an opportunity that I could have done so much more with. And those always tend to gnaw at you…
And then, back in April of 2008, everything changed.
Unfortunately, because of my Non-Disclosure Agreements, this is the first time I am able to talk openly about this. But now, the cat is out of the bag. So, here goes.
Because of a good working relationship with Val Staples and the gang over at MVC, I was approached to do a He-Man revival… kind of. When a television show is produced, writers have to work a serious amount of time ahead to keep schedule with animation and the actual production of the show. So the idea was to produce a comic book based on one of the un-produced cartoon scripts. And this would be packaged in with the DVD release of the third and final volume of the Masters of the Universe cartoon series.
This was a pretty big deal for me. I should have checked it earlier, as the DVD was officially released on August 5th. However, as of 8/9/08, this DVD ranked #489 in all DVD sales at Amazon.com. And Amazon sells thousands of DVDs. Thousands. I did a quick check and top sellers were pre-orders for things like Iron Man, Indiana Jones, and TV shows like Heroes and Prison Break.
So my job was to adapt the cartoon script into a comic book that would be penciled by Emiliano Santalucia. Now, let me just take a moment here. I know that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What is beautiful to some may just be mediocre to others but there is certain art that I really respond to. Jim Lee, Mike Turner, Art Adams, Al Rio, Ed Benes, J. Scott Campbell, and this is just naming a few.
But Emiliano’s artwork was just perfect for the He-Man series. The two were made for each other. A guest penciller named Fabio Laguna was brought in for my issue of Masters and we have worked together on multiple projects since. I am not knocking his artwork in any way but I really wanted to see what Emiliano would do with a Ryan Foley script. To me, it would be like writing Spider-Man for Todd McFarlane or JLA for Howard Porter. Certain projects are born for certain people. And I really regretted not being able to work with Emiliano. And then the cosmic tumblers all clicked into place.
So I just got my copy of the DVD from the video department at Reasor’s. The art on the comic is fantastic and I am really looking forward to going back and revisiting all the “Snake Men” episodes of the series.
Part of me is still hoping against hope that the comic could make some sort of triumphant return but I think that is my heart talking instead of my head. Still, it was so great to back into that world… if only for one last issue.
Plus, it is pretty darn cool that a comic of mine has reached such a wide audience. I don’t know what the sales counts are on the series but if they are in the Top 500 at Amazon, sales have to be pretty good. How weird will it be to be able to walk into my local Wal-Mart and say, “Hey, a comic I had a hand in is on that shelf”? I know it is just one little comic on a little DVD but the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Maybe I will get to do an autograph signing on an animated series for The Praetorian at some point down the line. You never know…