News Article

Ken: Hi Madison. I would like to thank you for agreeing to this interview. First of all, can you tell us a little about yourself?

Madison: You're welcome, Ken. I'll be 49 this November. Star Trek- in all it's forms- has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. All through school, I took every art class I could- including a commercial art course at a Vo-tech school. When I went to college at WVU, I majored in Design and Technical Theater- That's designing sets, costumes and lighting for live theater.

Ken: How long have you been doing 3d art? What are your favorite tools?

Madison: I've been doing 3D art for five years now. Started with Poser 5. Poser and Photoshop Elements are my main programs, I have 3D Max 2009, Hexagon, Accutrans 3D, Milkshape 3D and trueSpace 6, But I only use those for conversion of 3d and Lightwave models. I also have Vue 7 which is a great program for outdoor sequences.

Ken: I love VUE and 3ds Max, myself. Your work modeling in Poser is amazing. I've long underestimated that software, obviously! I've been using it for years but never did any modeling in it, just character work. So, how long have you been writing? Tell us a little about what you've written besides Star Trek?

Madison: I've been writing since Jr. High School- almost 30 years now. I have one other series- Non-Trek. There's been one book in it printed- self published. The series is called "Dickess" and the first book is "Vol.1: Prisoner of the Past." The stories deal with the first female head of a planetary security force, her friends and family. Unlike most series, the characters are not "stuck" in one time and place. The series follows them as time passes and the family grows up.

Ken: I've enjoyed your stories so far. Quite interesting and surprising in places you might not expect. How did the idea for Nova Trek come about? Why a female Kirk?

Madison: I've always wanted to write a Trek story. But you had to have an agent to sell anything or even submit anything. Then when Next Generation came along, I heard that they had an open door policy on submissions. So I wrote a spec script and sent it in. They didn't buy it--I guess they had enough stories centered around Data that year.

Ken: I know the feeling. I pitched to “Star Trek: Voyager” a few times myself. One of the reasons for creating Saladin was so that I could tell some stories that I had considered as pitches years ago. I liked that story you posted on the Tamerlane forums. I think it would have made a fine episode of “The Next Generation.”

Madison: Anyway, some years later, I started getting into 3D artwork and started finding and saving every Star Trek model I came across. At this point, I intended just fan art, no stories. Then I decided that I wanted to do some stories- but it was Red Sonja that I wanted to do. This project- the .pdf of which can be found at Deviantart --was more the classic illustrated story than a Graphic novel. After finishing that, I started on the next project--a genuine comic book based on the DC Comic, "Sgt. Rock." It was a comic book story in the traditional sense of the word, and I was still trying to figure things out, like how many panels per page is best and what font is best for dialogue and so on. In the meantime, all through this, I was still gathering and collecting any Star Trek models I came across and doing nothing more than fan art pieces. With "Sgt. Rock" done, I turned to my first sci-fi piece, "Lost in the Mail." This one-as well as "Sgt. Rock," can be found at Deviantart in my gallery. LITM was another step forward. The layouts were better, the dialogue looked better and I think the story itself moved a little better. It was then that I decided that I wanted to do a Star Trek story. Problem was, after TOS, the cartoons, the movies, I felt the "5 year Mission" had been pretty well-mined.

Ken: That's great! I'm a bit of a Red Sonja and Conan fan myself! I had a few Sgt. Rock comics when I was a kid so it is interesting to see more adventures. I heard that the "Predator" films were based on that character initially even. I do think it is interesting that you made such a seemingly small change in Kirk and it really makes for a completely different story. Of course, Janet and James aren't the same person as the readers will discover, which might relieve a few folks....

Madison: The Kirk-Spock and company story had been told, at least this version of it. Star Trek is well known for it's alternate and parallel universes. So I started with that, with a woman captain. I said that, and THEN Decided she'd be a Kirk and played with the same initials until I came up with Janet Tamera Kirk. I really can't say how the idea of her and Spock being married came to me, but it just seemed to fit--that and the fact that we'd never seen a married captain.

Ken: Is there anything out there that grabs your attention in the Star Trek world right now? Either fan-based productions or official Paramount productions?

Madison: Probably, outside of the next "issue" of Tamerlane and the next Saladin adventure... probably the one I'm really looking forward to is "Star Trek: Aurora." (See www.auroratrek.com) Both the animation and the story they're telling are incredible.

Ken: I’m a big fan of the Aurora series myself. And Tamerlane. :) What can we expect in upcoming Nova Trek adventures?

Madison: What to expect in future Nova Treks? Well, for the next five books--this equals three stories--we'll be dealing with the Romulans and readers will see the interior of a TOS Bird-of-Prey beyond the command center. Then, in book six, we begin the transition into the Movie Era- -which in the Nova Trek Universe will come about two years before it did in the Prime Trek Universe. There will be 3 stories set in that time frame. Then the last two stories will be set in the Next Generation era and tie off the series. I've said elsewhere--and I'll repeat it here--by the time the series is over, the readers will know more about Janet Kirk than they ever knew about Jim Kirk. I hope everyone enjoys the stories.

Ken: No doubt in my mind that they will. And I certainly hope they will give them a chance! Thank you for taking time to answer some of these questions. It's been great working with you on our various art projects and crossovers and I personally thank you for your contributions to "Starship Saladin" as well. I'll be looking forward to your upcoming projects!

Madison: You're welcome, Ken.

Nova Trek comics in PDF format are hosted at www.usstamerlane.com. Click the link below for more news and artwork at the Tamerlane forums.