Mattel recently revealed the Mark Taylor-designed He-Man as one of its upcoming figures in the Masters of the Universe Origins “Sketch Book Series” subline. Now, thanks to Die Welt der Meister Magazin, the packaging and box art has been revealed as well. The packaging art depicts a mysterious female vampire character joining Skeletor in battle against He-Man and Man-E-Faces (another upcoming figure based on early concept art of the character). So, who is this striking vampiric character and what is her role in the vast ranks of MOTU characters and lore? To answer that question, He-Man.org reached out to her creator, Danielle Gelehrter, aka Penny Dreadful.
“In a universe that features character types from all realms of speculative fiction – dwarves, mermaids, ghosts, robots, giants, you-name-it, I always thought a vampire would be cool in a Halloweenish or spooky-themed MOTU story,” said Gelerhter. “Initially, the Crimson Countess was my entry into the 2011 Mattel Create-A-Character contest.”
Thus, the Crimson Countess was born! Since then, the vampiric vixen has sunk her fangs into the MOTU fandom and left her bloody mark.
“Although my own design was fairly crude, I used basic gothic vampire and fantasy imagery in the illustration, with a MOTU twist to it. A few years later, when Eric Marshall and I were contracted by MVCreations to take over writing duties on the official Masters of the Universe Classics bios for Mattel, and then Super7, I included the Crimson Countess in a horror-themed bio with several other Masters of the Universe monster characters as part of an evil supernatural cabal convened by Scare Glow.”
“It was an homage to the Universal horror ‘monster rally’ films of the 1940s. If you’re going to have a monster team-up,” Gelehrter said, “you’ve got to have a vampire! So, I decided to use the Countess in the mix.”
“That was her first official appearance in any official MOTU media,” said Gelehrter. “Fans asked what she looked like, and since my own design was rather amateurish, I sent it to the awesome Axel Giménez, who was working with us on Classics at the time. He did his own version, inspired by my 2011 Create-A-Character design, which was incredible!”
“Subsequently, several artists in the MOTU community, including the brilliant Nate Baertsch, Tom Bryski, and quite a few others, did their own twists on Crimson Countess, all based to varying degrees on my 2011 illustration. It was really cool seeing all of those designs at the time!”
“Since I was the guest manager for Power-Con back then, I reached out to the legendary cardback artist Errol McCarthy and asked him if he could also draw the Countess, which he did! He illustrated her fighting He-Man and Teela! Amazing!”
Eventually, Gelehrter would create a number of digital biographies for Masters of the Universe Classics.
“When Mattel gave us the greenlight to write digital bios for unreleased characters and items, in addition to cardback bios, I wrote a digital “Masters Mondays” bio for the Crimson Countess. Since the character is very loosely inspired by the vampire Akivasha from Conan, Eric and I tied her backstory to Vikor in the Classics bios.”
“The last time she showed up in an official capacity was in the ‘He-Man and the Masters of the Multiverse’ comic book miniseries from DC!” Gelehrter said. “The brilliant Tim Seeley included her in a cameo appearance, battling Valiant Tina.”
The Crimson Countess began life (un-life?) as a simple sketch by Danielle Gelehrter, but soon skulked her way into the hearts of many Masters of the Universe fans. Now, with her inclusion on the box art for the upcoming MOTU Origins Sketch Book Series He-Man figure, perhaps it’s only a matter time before the vampiric Countess haunts the toy shelves of MOTU collectors and fans.
* Thanks to Danielle Gelehrter and Adam McCombs for information and images found in this article.