Teela does not look impressed.

In this illustration by Robin Davies from the He-Man Ladybird book "He-Man meets the Beast" Teela appears to be less than impressed with Orko. This was one of the first times the artist drew Orko in the series. His later interpretation of the character would resemble the Filmation design even more.

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Prince Adam and Zoar.

Here is yet another beautiful rendered illustration from the 1985 UK Masters of the Universe annual. As I have stated before this annual made use of a lot of water color artwork; resulting in a rather unique Masters of the Universe book. This illustration from "The Crystal Cage" shows Prince Adam telepathically communicating with Zoar. It actually comes across as a rather dramatic piece of artwork, especially with Prince Adam's serious expression.


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"The Third Sword" #3

Here I present pages seven to nine of "The Third Sword", an epic tale that appeared in the one-shot UK Twins of Power special. Orko manages to anger Madame Razz within seconds after his appearance on Etheria...


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Madame Razz design!

Here is an interesting piece of development artwork of Madame Razz, as featured in the She-Ra Series Bible. It is obvious where the origins of her character design come from, and here we see she is illustrated as a typically cartoon witch in her earliest designs. What I like about this piece is that the style of illustration and character design is far removed from the style that Filmation often employed in their shows.


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Mer-Man's feet!

Throughout the season one He-Man episode "She-Demon of Phantos" there is a great deal of odd-looking animation, most notably on the action sequences. Here we see Mer-Man shocked at having his feet bound by Man-At-Arms. Even better is the fact that in this shot Mer-Man wiggles his toes!


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"The Third Sword" #2

Here I present pages four to six of "The Third Sword", an epic tale that appeared in the one-shot UK Twins of Power special. Here we are presented with the origin of the Third Sword...


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Many a Roton!

The Ladybird book "He-Man and the Asteroid of Doom" presents an interesting idea; instead of seeing just one Roton, we see the Evil Warriors pilot many a Roton! What I love about this illustration is the tiny details on both Beast Man and Zodac. Also it is interesting to see that this story reveals that the Rotons can fly in space! Not sure that would have worked well in the cartoon...


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That's Light Hope?!

The UK Princess of Power comic would often portray Light Hope very different to his appearance in the She-Ra animated series. By far his oddest appearance is in the story "The Null-Stone of Nabob" from issue four. In this strip he makes a couple of appearances we he is presented as a King-like character! Very strange indeed...


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"The Third Sword" #1

Here I present the first of many posts featuring one of the biggest stories ever to have come out of the UK Masters of the Universe and Princess of Power comics! The UK Twins of Power special was a one-shot comic that told a story worthy of its thirty pages. In this tale Horde Prime employs the services of Skeletor and Hordak in order to retrieve the two halves of the Third Sword! There are numerous highlights throughout this comic, but I will leave them for you to discover. Here are the first three pages of "The Third Sword"...


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Marvel Age He-Man #2

When Marvel's Star Comics imprint obtained the license to publish a Masters of the Universe comic, few could have predicted its turbulent thirteen-issue run. I think it is fair to say that the comic started off poorly, but ended with some of the best Masters of the Universe stories ever told. Before the series began Marvel Age ran this article about the forthcoming He-Man and the Masters of the Universe comic, featuring comments from those involved in working on it. Here are the remaining two pages of this enlightening article...


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Marvel Age He-Man #1

When Marvel's Star Comics imprint obtained the license to publish a Masters of the Universe comic, few could have predicted its turbulent thirteen-issue run. I think it is fair to say that the comic started off poorly, but ended with some of the best Masters of the Universe stories ever told. Before the series began Marvel Age ran this article about the forthcoming He-Man and the Masters of the Universe comic, featuring comments from those involved in working on it. Here are the first two pages of this enlightening article...


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Orko's comic strip #61

Almost every issue of the UK Masters of the Universe comic featured an Orko comic strip on the inside front cover. As this Blog continues I will try and feature all of them for your amusement. Here I present the "Orko the Magician" comic strip from issue sixty-one. The funniest thing in this strip is that Orko has a picture of himself on the wall in his home!


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Catra and Castaspella by Senior.

Geoff Senior was one of the greatest artists on the UK Transformers comic back in the eighties. His simple dynamic line art lent itself well to the Autobots and Decepticons. During his time on the Transformers comic he illustrated the She-Ra Ladybird book "Catra's Ice Palace". As much as I love his artwork on Transformers, I do not feel that he was a good choice for the She-Ra books...


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Dum de dum dum de dum.

This image of a jovial Skeletor appeared in issue twenty-two of the UK He-Man Adventure comic, and is one of my favorite images of all time, mainly for its absurdity!


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"A Thorny Problem" #2

Here are pages four to six of "A Thorny Problem", a story that appeared in issue seven of the UK Princess of Power comic. Predictably Flutterina and Perfuma work together, which serves the story well. I think I would have preferred to see their character altercation carried out across a much longer story. Also, if you are at all familiar with Star Trek you should be able to get the gag on the second-to-last panel on page six!


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The Cosmic Enforcer attacks!

I was always a fan of the original artwork that appeared on the earlier Masters of the Universe figure card backs. I was overjoyed when one of my favorite images, that of Zodac attacking He-Man and Man-At-Arms, was featured as a pin-up in issue fifty-seven of the UK Masters of the Universe comic. It was a great shame that this style of artwork was dropped from the card backs after the first couple of waves of the toyline.


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"A Thorny Problem" #1

"A Thorny Problem" appeared in issue seven of the UK Princess of Power comic. The story itself is actually quite brief, but there are some good character moments. I actually really like the character dynamic between Flutterina and Perfuma in this strip. Whilst Perfuma was written to perfection in the cartoon, Flutterina was fairly one dimensional in her all-too-brief appearances. Here I present the first three pages...


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Eternian War #2

Here is another wonderful illustration by Robin Davies from "Warlord of Eternia"; the story that features no He-Man from the one-off Masters of the Universe Ladybird annual. You will notice that Skeletor's warriors are comprised of a variety of creatures. This action-packed image shows Man-At-Arms, the palace guards, and the gray-suited palace guards kicking ass!


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Eternian War #1

"Warlord of Eternia" from the one-off Masters of the Universe Ladybird annual is a very unique story in that it focuses solely on the Evil Warriors, specifically Skeletor, Beast Man and Evil-Lyn. No He-Man in this story. The three villains end up in Eternia's past where they begin to wreak havoc. The beginning of the story features a large scale war between the hordes of Skeletor and the warriors from the Royal Palace. In this illustration by Robin Davies we see the heroes at the ready. There are many things to appreciate in this beautiful illustration. Firstly we see Man-At-Arms, along with the palace guards as seen in the Filmation series; beside them are the gray-suited palace guards as seen in the Ladybird book "Castle Grayskull Under Attack!", but most interestingly of all is another Man-At-Arms with a crown! Who can this be? And of course the flag the heroes are flying came with the Castle Grayskull play set!


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