He-Man and the Masters of the Universe have been retconned many times over the decades as new animated series debut on television. One character I’ve always wanted to know the backstory to is Skeletor. In comic book land, I remember the tale offered by DC comics was quite the Shakespearean style take which sees him as a brother to King Randor–a concept taken from the comics released after the Filmation series.
With the release of #2 of MotU: Revelation, the recon changes the backstory back to its original incarnation.
The history of creating He-Man to what it is now had its difficulties when Mattel, the toy manufacturer, didn’t take the deal of a lifetime. The CEO of the time, Ron Wagner declined to make toys for the upcoming Star Wars movie. Thankfully, that didn’t spell the destruction of this business. Recovering from that was hard. They looked to fashion a similarly competing product.
I still want the Emperor and Skeletor to fight each other but we won’t see that in any official media. If there’s a chance for an apprentice to defeat the master narrative in Kevin Smith and Rob David’s prequel comic, Masters of the Universe: Revelation, then I’ll be thrilled.
It seemed like forever for ACE Comic Con Seattle to arrive, but arrive it did. I drove from Spokane, Washington to this city on Friday morning, unaware that my VIP seat assignment was determined by my check-in time rather than by when I purchased the package or stood in line before the panel. It started on Thursday. Needless to say, I was much further back than I thought. VIP seating was also only good for two of the Marvel Entertainment panels.
I am no stranger to conventions and have been to a variety, from Creation Conventions (Star Trek: The Next Generation and more recently Supernatural), city-specific shows such as Mid South Con in Memphis (where I used to live) and more recently Lilac City Comicon (Spokane) and Anglicon (Seattle). I even went to things that would be hard pressed to be called conventions, such as answering phones for the Arkansas PBS station where Jon Pertwee (3rd Doctor from Doctor Who) spoke to the volunteers as well as Paul Darrow (Blake’s 7). ACE was by far the largest one I have attended.
Kevin Smith, director of such films as Clerks, Red State and Tusk, is working on a third horror film. Originally titled Here Comes the Krampus!, it has been renamed Anti-Claus. Its being scripted by Andy McElfresh and Kevin Smith and is based on an idea created by Andy McElfresh during a Christmas episode of SModcast.
For this latest project, Smith will be using actors from his second horror feature Tusk, including Justin Long, Haley Joel Osment, Genesis Rodriguez, Michael Parks, and Ralph Garman.
Smith said earlier in the year that the film would be shot before Clerks III.
On Smith’s blog earlier in the year, he announced he will co-direct the horror feature with McElfresh, Mewes, Schwalbach and Carol Banker. The cast reported thus far are Kevin Smith’s co-podcaster Scotty Mosier, and Family Guy voice artist Ralph Garman.
Anti-Claus tells the tale of the centuries-old, devil like creature known the world over as the Krampus — the “Anti-Claus” of Alpine country folklore is infamous for eating naughty children during the season of giving. The movie will be told in single story episodes, stitched together with a framing device similar to the classic Creepshow film.
Principal photography is set to begin in September, 2014.
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By Ed Sum 
