Editor’s Note

EDITOR’S NOTE

We hope you enjoyed the August edition of A new Ulster; it is difficult to fathom how time has flown in this global crisis but one constant is the continued productive output of artists around the world. It is never easy handling other people’s work and ensuring that everything fits when formatting the magazine but we do our best.

One of the surprising things lately has been the issue around fandom and the question of ownership of franchises such as Star Trek, Star Wars and now He Man and the Masters of the Universe. The latest animated series of MOTU followed the Mattel bible and yet the outcry from a significant and predominantly male audience has been surprising especially as their beloved He Man barely featured in the mini series but Teela a woman was the main character for some reason this caused uproar.

Surprisingly Teela was actually the first character designed for the franchise and has two intertwined backstories which they never got to fully explore in the mini comics, toy line or the animated series. Mattel made the team put a writer’s room together and they fleshed out every character, their interrelations, motivations and connection to the settings past, they hired artists to design the characters and those artists work laid the basis for all the figures in the toy line.

So, the question becomes who owns a franchise once it has been released? Is it possible to enjoy new content even if it goes against your head canon? Worth thinking about.

Happy reading, good health, and keep creating,

Amos Greig (Editor)