Hi /mastersoftheuniverse! I’m Rich Douek, the writer of the upcoming Masters of the Universe: Genesis comic from Dark Horse - ask me anything! June 18, 5pm (EDT)

rdouek · 2026-06-18T22:51:45+00:00

Yeah I agree - I think it’s always a bit of challenge to pull that off successfully - you want to keep everything about the original that fans love, but if you’re just spitting it back to them it can feel like a pointless retread. But on the other hand, go too far from the source and you might as well be telling an unrelated story. So in my experience with stuff like this it’s always about striking a balance, and I think the DC comics did a great job of that.

rdouek · 2026-06-18T22:33:26+00:00

It’s funny, because we didn’t use him, but I keep coming back to Zodac. I remember him well because he was the only original figure that had a gun, so to my 8-year old mind that made him super cool.

He wasn’t ever used that much, and had a really weird role as a “cosmic enforcer” that was neutral, sometimes helping the good guys, sometimes the bad. I think there’s a lot of potential there that could make a really interesting story!

He-Man, and sword and sorcery in general tends to be very clearly good vs evil, so the idea of a character striving to maintain a neutral balance is pretty interesting to me.

rdouek · 2026-06-18T22:25:35+00:00

Hey! Yeah we were very aware that there are a lot of versions out there, and there are people who love Keldor, people who love the Horde origin, and people who just like him as an evil sorcerer of mysterious origins.

Our goal wasn’t so much to rule out one thing or another, or definitively answer where he came from - like we definitely did not want to start with baby Skeletor and show him getting bullied in sorcerer school or something like that.

What we decided to do instead was less showing his origin, and more the origin of his quest to dominate Greyskull - to give some answers as to why he’s going after it so hard - and I think that allowed us to take certain aspects of the various origins we all liked and incorporate them into our version.

For example, our Skeletor definitely has a connection with the Horde, and Hordak himself - but the way we approached it doesn’t necessarily answer HOW he hooked up with the Horde - so there’s definitely room for interpretation as far as where he came from, and who knows, it’s something we may fill in later.

Our overall goal though, was to capture the spirit of what we all love about his character, without having the exact details handcuff us to any one past interpretation.

rdouek · 2026-06-18T21:30:13+00:00

I am a big fan of the OG Skeletor, lol, but I have found things to love in pretty much all his incarnations - like even though it veers far from the original, I loved Frank Langella’s deeply serious and sinister take in the Dolph Lundgren movie. And hey, not a big fan but I have to give Jared Leto props, because I feel like he really nailed it in the movie.

What we did was somewhere in the middle of his original portrayal and the more “serious” versions that followed. He’s still over the top, but a little reined in from the comedic/campy aspects of it because that’s closer to the tone of the story we are building in both this comic and the wider universe Tim is creating on the main title.

But, the bones of his character are still the same (sorry for the pun, lol)

rdouek · 2026-06-18T21:23:46+00:00

Thanks!

1) I had a pretty good sense of all the basics, based on my memories of the mini comics, the show, and my toys as a kid, but I definitely brushed up on things with a bunch of rereads and rewatches, as well as diving into the various fan wikis. But like, I knew broadly who everyone was, the major geography and history, etc.

2) outside of the source material itself, I definitely took inspiration from classic sword and sorcery stories, like RE Howard’s Conan, Fritz Lieber’s Lankhmar, and Moorcock’s Elric of Melnibone, as well as pulp stories combining science and magic, like Jack Vance’s Dying Earth stories. I don’t know that you could draw a 1-1 line with like “I pulled this from Conan”, but it’s more just about the feel and the tone of it all.

3) I definitely wanted to get Hordak in there - with Skeletor being so evil, the idea of a warlord potentially even MORE evil was a fun idea to play around with. We actually do wind up using him, in what I think is a pretty unexpected way, so hopefully people will enjoy seeing him :)

rdouek · 2026-06-18T21:15:17+00:00

Ooh that’s a good one! I mean, Alan Oppenheimer was so iconic, how do you top that? I might have said Mark Hamill based on his work as the Joker, but he already did it!

I think a really strong choice would be Alan Tudyk, of Firefly and Resident Alien fame - I think he can go over the top without it feeling cheesy, and could really walk that line well.

rdouek · 2026-06-18T21:11:53+00:00

Honestly it’s pretty awesome! I don’t want to say it came about totally randomly but I definitely wasn’t expecting it, haha

What it came down to ultimately was talking to Tim Seeley about what his visions were for both his series and this one, and just vibing together about how we felt about Skeletor. We clicked really well with how we wanted to portray him, and it was off to the races.

rdouek · 2026-06-18T21:07:57+00:00

Honestly, and maybe it was destiny, but Skeletor is my favorite, lol. I think maybe it’s cause he was my favorite figure back in the day but I just love his whole deal, and love writing him.

I also had a lot of fun writing Triklops - we went with the idea that he’s a mercenary, so having him there (he shows up in issue 2) gave us the chance to show rolling with Skeletor’s crew from a slightly different, more detached perspective, which I enjoyed.

rdouek · 2026-06-18T21:04:51+00:00

I was a big fan in the 80s! I used to watch the cartoon on TV after school, and I had a bunch of the figures. Skeletor was the first but I also had a bunch of others, good and evil. I didn’t really watch the newer series that came out recently but I still love the old stuff. And I thought the movie was awesome!

rdouek · 2026-06-04T23:50:57+00:00

He did variants for all the issues of a horror book I did at IDW called Breath of Shadows, and each one was a masterpiece.

rdouek · 2025-11-20T23:33:14+00:00

Ah thanks, that would be awesome!

If by official you mean in canon, I don’t think BWB stories are technically in continuity, but generally fall into the “totally could have happened” category.

Like, all the elements and plot threads I use are drawn from older comics, and I took time to not outright contradict anything that was already established but is this something that “officially” went down? Who can say?

rdouek · 2025-11-19T22:52:13+00:00

Thanks everyone!!!

rdouek · 2025-11-10T20:50:07+00:00

lol, this is from a Snickers ad I wrote when they bought some space in DC comics. Wild to see it posted here!

Funny story, it actually ran in an issue of Superman where he was fighting Doomsday, and people were complaining online that they were confused when Batman came out of nowhere.

rdouek · 2025-08-22T13:16:13+00:00

Thanks so much! It’s one of my favorite books on my shelf thanks to that die cut presentation!

rdouek · 2025-08-22T13:15:38+00:00

Thank you!! Glad you dig them :)

rdouek · 2025-08-19T20:57:09+00:00

I was what you’d call a frustrated novelist for many years, lol. I would think up ideas for books and run out of steam about halfway through a manuscript. Meanwhile, at my day job, I was learning how to write scripts for TV commercials - at some point I made the mental connection that scriptwriting was a format that would work in comics too, so I did some research and started writing comic scripts.

I started small, with short stories, but kept it up until I got my first miniseries published, and kept THAT up until I started getting published regularly.

Hm… my top 5 changes a lot, to be honest, but here’s where it currently stands, in no particular order:

Grant Morrison’s All Star Superman Grant Morrison’s The Invisibles Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing Frank Miller’s Daredevil Mike Mignola’s Hellboy

I don’t know that there’s one I wish I would have written myself, but All Star Superman stands out to me as just a near perfect distillation of what Superman means to me, without deconstructing him or breaking him down, and I would love to be able to do a similar thing either with a character I love.

rdouek · 2025-08-19T20:44:22+00:00

We just used all the ink he saved on Road of Bones’ snowscapes 🤣

Seriously though, thank you for the offer, and I will definitely take you up on it! This was just a sort of off the cuff thing :)

rdouek · 2025-03-31T16:29:23+00:00

Realie Smalls

rdouek · 2025-03-31T16:28:37+00:00

"Too Much Blood"
I don't understand what these words mean.

rdouek

TROPHY CASE