Jay Stephens

Name: Jay Stephens

Age: Unknown

Biography
Jay Stephens is the creator of Tutenstein.

Interview with Jay Stephens
'''Tutenstein is a fantastic cartoon. How did the character evolve from comics to toon? '''

"Very slowly and painfully! It took seven years to go from print to screen... a long, arduous process that has scarred me for life. I think the trauma has caused some memory loss, but I do vaguely remember burning through several teams of writers in the early days. Seriously, I entered into the process fully aware of the different requirements of animation. We started with a simple, 24 page comic about a little mummy boy reawakened in a museum, and realized from day one there was a lot of fleshing out to do for TV. By trial and error, we gradually built a solid world around our main character."

Did aspects of your storytelling have to be altered to be appropriate for the target audience?

"In a way. Discovery Kids wanted somthing that had the creepiness of my original story. Trying to adapt my original designs came off as too cute and 'Casper' for our purposes, so we made some changes there. My sense of humour and my concept of who Tutenstein is are intact... I recognize my character on the screen. We certainly had to develop a lot more supporting material, though, and that definately changed the 'feel' of Tutenstein. I makes for a far better cartoon, if you ask me. I feel lucky that we were able to work with such talented creative people in the development of the show that could bring new depth to our threadbare concept!"

'''I recall reading a press release that said merchandise rights for Tutenstein were also worked out. Any idea what type of merchandise we'll potentially be seeing?'''

"You'd have to ask Discovery Kids! It's up to them to capitalize on the U.S. market. Feel free to e-mail them and request all your favourite Tutenstein products... they just might move on it! Me, I'm hoping for a pull-apart doll, View-master reels, Tutenstein Senet game, and a slew of Halloween costumes and stuff." the director of WWE Raw