MEET BRUCE TIMM MAIN PAGE

(From Masters Unbound, summer 1998).

This summer we had a holiday in the U.S.A. and we have been in San Diego, where we attended the International Comic Convention! Sincerely we had been there looking for a job (and we couldn’t find one, by the way) and to show our project for a new Masters of the Universe comic series. OK, no one seemed interested in this project, although they found it very well realised. But guess who we’ve meet there? Yes, you’re correct! Bruce Timm and Paul Dini!

See the Sketch for the He-Fans

"Grizzlor" signed by Bruce Timm

We’ve had time to chat with Mr. Timm who looked very kind and gentle and we’ve asked him some questions about is work concerning the Masters of the Universe. First of all Timm told us that only a few people in his career had asked him about his work on He Man, and he was very happy every time someone remember it. Bruce Timm worked at Filmation as a background artist and as Layout Artist. He didn’t know Paul Dini yet, even he was working on the He-Man show as Writer at the same time.

But his best contribution to He-Man was his run on the Minicomics that came with the action figures. Actually these were his first professional job in comics. Timm portrayed probably the best comic version of our favourite characters using a simple but strong style not yet so essential as the style of Batman and Superman but already powerful and dynamic. His strongest character was, without doubt, Skeletor who has been portrayed not as a ridicolous villain but more like a classic comic villain, very "phisical", full of power and evilness. As, in general, all the characters showed Timm's love for comics.

Bruce obtained that job trough a contact at Marvel Comics and starting with
“Grizzlor, the Legend comes alive” in 1984 (that was his very first professional comic), he worked on several minicomics. Sometimes inking Larry Houston or Red Grant, sometimes inked by Jim Mitchell or Mike Van Cleave, the name of Bruce Timm appeared on: Rock people to the rescue, Escape from the Slime Pit, King of the snake men, Snake attack, The terror claws strike, The hordes of hordak, Enter: Buzz Saw Hordak, The ultimate battleground, The search for keldor and Powers of Grayskull.

In the European edition of the minicomics, sometimes appeared a beautiful handpainted pin up of He-Man. Timm has confirmed he had drawn that pin up as a part of a little full painted comic (The special comic included inside the extremely rare Hordak and Grizzlor two pack with audio cassette). Timm also drew some characters that have been printed on some cards
.

He-Man Pin-up by Bruce Timm

Bruce Timm working on the He-Man Sketch
Bruce Timm working on the sketch

Finally we asked him if he had ever drawn or inked the sencond (and, maybe, the third) part of Power of Grayskull. Unfortunately he told us he had never received any script or page to ink (sigh!). So another chance to know how the story had evolved is gone (now we have to find the writer!). After we had showed him our proposal for a new MOTU comic series we asked him to draw a little tribute to the He-Fans and he was happy to do this.
You can see his sketch here.

That afternoon we also meet Paul Dini in a Warner Studio Store. He was very tired for the encounter with fans he had had and we can only make him compliments for his work on the MOTU show.
He answered “Grazie” (thank you), the only italian word he knew…

Bruce (left) with Alessio (center) and Emiliano (right)
Photo by Mike Mignola (not good as his artworks, uh?)

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