Sculpting veteran and company chief Steve Varner explains! So far, the title character of the comic book Princess Ai has been the sole focus of Bleeding Edge's "Princess Ai" toy line, but as time goes by, that's likely to change. The mystery-cloaked heroine, created by musician/actress Courtney Love, may see some of her friends and foes join her on collectors' shelves as well.
Speaking by telephone from his office, company founder Steve Varner says, "There are some neat characters in the second book, which is shipping now. They are really cool. They're sort of like these vampire chicks that are after her. They have these bat/gargoyle-ish wings and vampire fangs, practically. They're sort of like demons that are after her from the other world."
Varner would like to turn portions of the supporting cast into dolls and action figures, too. "Oh yeah," he confirms. "Some of them. Definitely the Furies, which are what (the villains) are called. I'm working on it, but I definitely think they'd be a part of it."
As in the case of Bleeding Edge's series of macabrely glamorous "Goths," women will dominate the line. "Princess Ai is definitely going to be a strong part of it" Varner says. "There are a number of male characters (in the story), too, but I'm a little afraid to get too much into the male characters. Everybody asks for them, but when we make 'em, they're kind of a hard sell. It's one thing to do a 12" character where you use an existing male body and just sculpt the head and (replace) the clothing, but its another thing to spend a ton of money cutting steel tooling. It's very expensive to do these 7" action figures."
Such concerns aside, he seems to be enjoying himself. He insists he is.
"I like the license, I really like the people at Tokyopop. I can't say that working with licensors is always fun, but these people are about as good to work with as anyone I've ever worked with."
As for his own enthusiasm for Princess Ai herself, Varner says it occurs on multiple levels. "She's beautiful, obviously," he laughs. "She's hot. That's part of it. Just the way she interacts with everybody and the fact that she's got a mystery: She sprouts wings and has all of these things going on: Being discovered by rock promoters and stuff. It's like a modern-day fairy tale. It doesn't matter what state she's in."
Asked if there are plans to turn the story into a cartoon or movie, Varner deflects the question by simply saying, "You never know." Read into that what you will!
By Claude Flowers
