Der Inhaber von He-Man.org und Präsident von MVCreations kommt ins Schwitzen. In gleich zwei Interviews beantwortete er neugierige Fragen rund um He-Man.

Val Staples, ein Mann der an vorderster Front im Bereich Masters of the Universe zugegen ist, kommt langsam ins Schwitzen. In gleich zwei verschiedenen Interviews nahm er sich die Zeit und beantwortete die Fragen der Reporter. Das erste Interview führte Ian Ascher von www.digitalwebbing.com.

Interview with Val Staples
by Ian Ascher

Jumping right into things, it's obvious you've been a big He-Man fan from day one since you own www.He-Man.org the largest He-Man site on the web.
What was it that drew you to the character? Captured your imagination?

Val: The first time I saw Masters of the Universe was in an old store of the now defunct BEST retail chain. I had made excellent marks on my report card, and was allowed to pick an inexpensive toy as a reward (a rare treat in my household). For some reason, my eye was drawn to the Masters of the Universe line. I think the packaging, the color, the concept, etc, all lured me in. After that, I begged mom and dad for more. And come Christmas, sure enough, I received more toys to add to my collection. The ideas behind the characters indefinitely powered my imagination. I would play with the toys for hours on end, and then use them as models for illustration. Imagine my thrill when I learned there was a cartoon!

What was it like obtaining the rights to do the comic? What kind of competition did you face and what do you think you had over everyone else (website excluded) that made Mattel say "you're the guy"?

Val: We definitely exerted more passion and knowledge about the brand than anyone else who went after the license. People seem to think our involvement with He-Man.org was our edge. I wish I could say it was, but we relentlessly sought the license for almost a year with as little as a peep of interest from Mattel. The event that turned the tide in our favor was a promo comic for a 2 pack that hit the shelves in August in Target. Mattel asked various publishers if they could complete the 14 page book in the month deadline. We are talking writing, pencilling, inking, coloring, lettering... the whole shebang. After finding they were out of options, they gave us a shot. And we took aim carefully. We completed the project on time, and changed the opinions of many of those working at Mattel about what we were capable of. Even Target doubled their orders on the promo comic/figure 2-pack after seeing the comic. This, packaged with more insistent proposals, resulted in our success with obtaining the license. Following our near-completed-deal-turned-sour-in-minutes on the Transformers license, we were ecstatic. Mattel is one of the most difficult licensors to please, so we feel extremely confident about tackling any project.

When the comic hits the stands, what can fans of the cartoon show expect?
Have the characters and story moved forward like Blaylock's G.I. Joe and Pat Lee's Transformers or is He-Man going to remain in more of a traditional mold for kids just discovering the character?

Val: Well, first off, just make sure you never call this Staples' Masters of the Universe. This is a team project, and everyone from penciller to letterer works equally hard. We want everyone to get the credit they deserve.
It's difficult to describe. The comic is essentially a reboot of the old story. It follows in league with the new cartoon, with designs based on the toys. But the new cartoon and toy line are based heavily on the old story. I can't think of any original element that has changed. So, this should be a comfortable product for old fans, and an easy way for new fans to learn about all aspects of the story.

Without giving too much away, what can we expect from the first couple of issues?

Val: The initial mini-series deals with a piece of Skeletor's origin and a prince who is growing accustomed to his new found powers.

Being such a large fan of the characters and stories, do you find that writing the new series yourself is a bit daunting or has it come easy for you?

Val: The writing itself comes easy. But, the challenge of trying to appease all the different fans (classic fans, new fans, non-MOTU fans, etc) is unnerving. I'm constantly tweaking dialogue, worried that it may be too much at first, or not involved enough. We are starting off at a moderate pace. We want the first issue or two to be easily recognized by fans of the old cartoon, just minus the camp. As things progress, we'll pull fans into the direction for the new story. At the same time, we'll begin to provide more gusto for fans who might not have normally read a MOTU comic because they fear it is just another story with a moral at the end of each issue (which it is not). We want this comic to stand out as an entertaining story, not just another 80's nostalgia driven comic.

By the time people read this on Digital Webbing, the Cartoon Network will have aired the new animated He-Man movie and the series will be in full swing. Do you have to follow what is being shown in the cartoons or are you allowed to follow your own creative path?

Val: We have to follow the basic premise presented in the cartoon. But clearly we aren't going to sit there and do the equivalent of an adaptation. This will be its own story.

How long do you have the license for and does it include use of spin off characters like She-Ra or characters from the Masters of the Universe movie?

Val: We have the license for 3 years. Unfortunately, we can't say anything about the future of She-Ra right now. But don't be surprised if you see something from Princess of Power in the near future!

Are there any other licenses you would like to pursue a'la Josh Blaylock getting Micronauts after G.I. Joe or is Master of the Universe the one and only for you?

Val: We have a couple other licensed properties being finalized right now, actually. But I'm not sure when they will be announced. We are only pursuing properties we enjoy as fans. We also have several creator owned projects in the work for next year.

Last question... and it's kind of an odd one. My friend and I always wondered why Eternia had all this amazing technology and no glass in any of the windows anywhere. What's up with that?

Val: The Palace was equipped with force field deflectors installed in each window that transmitted a subtle field across the surface to deflect insects and small creatures. But, the tension was reduced to the point that a person could stick their hand or arm through the field without suffering any injury.

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Das zweite Interview, führte G. Willow Wilson von www.KomicWerks.com

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Interview with Val Staples
by G. Willow Wilson

Val Staples is a veteran comics creator, best known as a colorist for Chaos and Image. After leaving HiFi Design, Val acquired the rights for the comic adaptation of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, which he now writes.

Tell us how you first became professionally involved in the comics industry.

Val: Oh goodness . . . that's a whole mottled story. I guess in a nutshell I'm primarily known as a colorist. I did some professional coloring in the industry for Chaos and Marvel, and then I went on to work with HiFi Design for a year. After that, I left HiFi to go freelance, and right as I was leaving we landed the license for Masters of the Universe. So the timing on that couldn't have been better.

How did MV Creations come about? What were some of the first projects you took on?

Val: MV Creations has been around since 1996. It was my own company, but we never really stressed it as an entity. We pursued projects on the side, independently, and used the MV Creations name in conjunction with them. But we never pursued it as a standalone studio or publishing house. So when I became tired of just coloring and working with my fellow artists in such a small capacity, I felt the need to actually expand the MV line, and we mustered the collective strength of everyone involved and became a standalone entity. We approached licenses with that viewpoint.

So after you came to the conclusion that you wanted to focus on MV Creations, did it become more of a coherent studio?

Val: It's still sort of a satellite thing. There's a core studio, and we have an actual office space that we're moving into here in Lynchburg Virginia next week. Most of the members are across the country or across the globe. We don't require anybody to be in-house because we've tailored our roster to include people we know can work on deadlines. We know what people are capable of, so this is more comfortable for them.

We have to ask. . .what did it take to be the lucky studio to score the rights to the Masters of the Universe relaunch?

Val: Well, Masters of the Universe wasn't the only license that we pursued, but Masters of the Universe was the one that we were most interested in. We had established a relationship already with Mattel, because we owned He-Man.org, which is the number one fansite online. A lot of people think that having the site gave us an edge, and it definitely made us more familiar with the process involved in working with Mattel, and proved that we had extensive knowledge of the property. So we kind of walked into the game with that under our belts, but Mattel still wasn't giving us much of a focus, because one of the major studios chasing the license was DC Comics. Which made things complex, because the cartoon was being released on Cartoon Network, which is a Time-Warner company, and of course Time-Warner also owns DC Comics. Our hope was dwindling because everything sort of tied together for DC. But we didn't give up, and we put all our resources and artists toward it. There came a time when Mattel was doing a promotional comic for a two-pack that's coming out this August; a He-Man-Skeletor two-pack, and they needed a promotional comic done for the two-pack. They went to several studios, and none of them could meet the deadline, which was very strict. So they came to us and we jumped on it because we thought this might be our only chance to work with Masters of the Universe in comic form, because we feared DC would walk away with the license. We cranked it out on a really hectic schedule. Things went smoothly, and Mattel was pleased with the result. Not too long after that, we got the license.

I take it you were a fan of the original He-Man?

Val: I think that kind of goes without saying. I was a huge fan. I can say confidently say that I am one of the foremost experts on all things Masters of the Universe. There was something about it. The first thing I was introduced to was the toy line-after that, I just kind of fell in love with the fantasy-sci fi myth elements of it. It was great how they sort of blended all these things together. It didn't hurt that I was heavily involved in art from a young age. I was really into the anatomical elements of the cartoon and the toys-muscle structure and that sort of thing. The colors were also so brilliant. I collected all the toys, and the cartoon had a real moral impact on me because the messages were so strong in every episode. A lot of people found that aspect cheesy, but that impacts a child growing up. I never gave up on it. I was a geek. I tracked down rare toys, the whole thing. I'm a huge fan.

How is the new He-Man-your He-Man, I suppose-different from the original?

Val: He's really not that different at all. There's an updated look, and the sword is different, but that's not really my area of expertise. It's a reboot. When the Four Horsemen pitched it, it was really a continuation of the original storyline. Mattel knew it had an anniversary coming up, and they knew they had a hot property on their hands. The Four Horsemen just had fantastic stuff to bring to the table-the sculptures were just beautiful. It continued from there, and they found from child testing that it was really popular, so they decided to do a reboot and start a new story from scratch. Everything about it is modeled very heavily on the original series. Even the cartoon is basically a reboot, being reintroduced to a new generation. The comic revolves around the classic elements, so things are going to be familiar to old fans. They won't feel like they've missed a beat. It won't be a continuation persay, but we'll be telling tales that work in parallel to the original stories

What do you think is behind this recent 80's nostalgia craze that's been going around? You mentioned GI Joe and Transformers-why is everybody clamoring for all this 80's stuff?

Val: Someone described it to me this way: a lot of 20-somethings are out of college and working and have disposable income, which they can spend on various products. They're looking for ways to relive their youth. It happens with every generation; 10 years ago they were trying to reload the 70's and ten years before that, the 60's. It just happens. As every generation grows up, it tries to hang out to things from its youth. This generation introduced toys as an acceptable collectible, so it's more commonplace for 20 or 30 year olds to go out and buy toys to keep on their office desks and so forth. This has opened the door for companies like Hasboro and Mattel to reproduce these toys and gear them towards a collectible market of adults as well as a new generation of kids.

Do you find the recent 80's relaunches to be at all gimmicky? Do you think they're really going to result in creative progress?

Val: Well, it really depends on how you look at it. I've seen a lot of arguments that nostalgia comics are bad, and the reason is that they sort of recirculate fans instead of bringing in new ones. But that's not the truth. I've had numerous retailers tell me that they get people who haven't bought comics in years come in to buy these nostalgia comics because it reminds them of stuff they were into as a kid. The truth is in the numbers-if you look at the numbers since GI Joe began, sales haven't really moved beyond a minute increase. So far we can't really say that these comics are improving the industry in a huge way, but they certainly aren't hurting it. If anything, it's helping create more exposure. I'm sure to a point it is gimmicky, because people will pick up 80's properties simply because they know they'll be popular. And that is a damaging mindset. But you have people like Dreamwave who are doing Transformers because they are Transformers fans, just like we are Masters of the Universe fans, and that's a good thing. It's not like it's a corporate attitude where someone is sitting behind a desk and pushing a product because they know it'll make money-that's damaging. But when you have fans who care about the products and want to put out something of quality that people will be interested in, then that can only be beneficial. We're pushing really hard to cross-promote comics. We're even cross-promoting the comic with the video game. We don't want this to be just a nostalgia craze, we want people to read comics.

Why do you think Image and Dark Horse, two publishers known for their more mature, gritty material, have taken on so many of these 80's relaunches?

Val: I think it's just smart business. They see it as an opportunity to get more exposure, and they know there's already a fan base for them. Just because you publish a certain genre of books doesn't mean you should be pigeonholed by that genre. They're just trying to bring in new readership, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. If Marvel and DC had done it, they would be accused of the same thing, even though many of their books have more of a PG rating.

Do you think that the marketing craze associated with these relaunches-they toys and the video games like you mentioned-are a sign that, as one columnist put it, comics are "going the way of Starbucks and MTV?" In other words, are the actual comic books getting lost in a mountain of other stuff?

Val: You mean as far as merchandising goes? I hate to think of it like that, because all these things do is help promote comics as a whole. You're looking at an industry that is dying, as far as sales go. It really bothers me that people complain about this kind of thing, because everybody should be doing what they can to help the industry. Marvel has been one of the frontrunners doing what they can to promote sales, and I commend those efforts. True enough there are wall scrolls and toys and calendars and books and posters, but that's always been the case. Merchandising has been around for comic books since the late 80's. Pushing comic books through other forms isn't negative because it gets the comic books out there whatever way possible.

Switching gears a little bit, we here at KW deal mostly in digital, as opposed to print comics. As someone who's on the cutting edge of what's popular in comics right now, what do you think of the phenomenon of online comics? What is and isn't working in it as a medium?

Val: You know, I worked closely with an online comic called EHero, which ended up switching to something along the lines of "Prime Universe." I think online comics are a novel idea, but it's just not feasible as a shift in the industry. I think people putting up online comics should do it for entertainment value, and not because they expect to make money off of it. If people want to make money, I think they're going to be horribly misled. I think it would be good-and some companies already do this-is to take a lot of very old comics and archive these online, and charge a nominal fee to look at them. I think that would be a great way to utilize online comics. That would also establish enough profit for people to put up a few exclusive online comics. Now this is of course wishful thinking, but that seems like the best way to handle the profit end. I think in terms of pure entertainment, online comics are great, and they give good exposure to ideas that haven't made it to the shelves. But you have to do it because you love it, not because you want to get picked up by Image or Vertigo as a property.

More broadly, what do you think is and isn't working in the comics industry as a whole?

Val: I see a lot of hypocritical statements in the comics industry. I'm certainly not naming names, but I see a lot of people fussing about 80's comics and so forth and saying they hurt the industry, and a lot of these are the same people who want comics to be appreciated as an art form. But comics only started to become an "art form" in that sense very recently, with Frank Miller and the artists who wanted comics to be exposed to adults as well as children. The more serious you try to take it, the more you alienate yourself from the new generation that should be reading comics. I mean, comics are supposed to be fun! They're supposed to be for kids! They can't relate to bloodshed and strong language and all this other stuff. That's what's damaging to comics. Regardless, even if we shifted gears and pitched stuff at kids again, the problem is that kids nowadays would rather spend their money on something with a lengthier entertainment time. If I was a child and my parents gave me five dollars, I would go rent two video games, not buy two comics. There's more challenge, it's more interactive. This is why the larger newsstand presence of comics is gone. I hate to say this, but I think comics need to be a fad to survive. Kids need to want to pick them up because they're cool. Even after the fad dies out, you will have hooked a readership. That's what's important, maintaining a new generation of readership. The bottom line is, we all claim to have the answers, but no one seems to be able to get it done. It's hard to do, financially speaking. There's a domino effect of things that could go wrong. I hope for the best, but it's going to be something that everybody needs to contribute to.