Loo-Kee hides in a storyboard?

It was incredibly rare for a storyboard artist to include Loo-Kee in a board, but that is exactly what Warren Greenwood did in his storyboards for the season one She-Ra episode "Duel at Devlan". Due to the storyboards often being very much a work in progress it would be the layout artist or director that would make the decision as to where to hide Loo-Kee in an episode. We can see in Warren's illustration of Devlan that he envisioned the town as a medieval-looking location.


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Merry Christmas! Here's a gift...

Today I recommend getting out your DVD or VHS of "A Christmas Special" and watching it. As I have said before, this is the one day of the year that I can tolerate its existence, so I will certainly be watching!

Normally, I would source a Christmas-themed image on this day of the year. However, this year I thought I would try something different and actually give you loyal visitors a present of sorts!

Ever since I first saw the episode "The Mines of Mondor" from She-Ra's season one, I have always been fixated with a specific background from that episode. The background in question depicts a large dimensional gateway in the middle of the Whispering Woods at night. I always loved the fact that the location is incredibly unique, in that it is used as a dimensional gateway to another planet, and that we never see it again.

This time last year I was fortunate enough to acquire the original background art! So as a gift to you all, if you click on the picture below you will see the LARGEST image hosted on my Blog! The dimensions of this image are 3500px X 1605px. This means that due to the high resolution you can print off the image, or use it as a desktop wallpaper!


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Unused Adam.

Here is an interesting animation cel of Prince Adam reaching for the Sword of Power that I picked up a few years back. What is worth noting is that this sequence was actually created as a piece of stock animation, with the belief that Filmation would use this over and over again. However, this piece of animation was never used in the series! This was almost definitely down to the fact that we can see him unsheathing the sword with his left hand; thus when cutting to the stock footage of the transformation sequence the sword would have swopped hands! One has the wonder how much additional stock animation Filmation created prior to the series that was never used...


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Kickstarter project - cereal:geek - LAST DAY!

Today is the last day that you can aid me in financing a reprint of issue two of cereal:geek via the crowd funding website, Kickstarter. As I said before, should this project prove successful, then other He-Man and She-Ra-related projects will follow soon after...

Take a look at the project!


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Flogg-At-Arms?

When the He-Man community was in its inception I would often wax lyrical about things that people had no idea about. As very few people at the time had seen The New Adventures of He-Man people were at a loss when in 1996 I showed images from the episode "Planet of Junk" in which we see visual reference to Man-At-Arms; Flogg accidentally having tampered with an image projection device! Here, some sixteen years later, I have decided to showcase the scene on my Blog. Not sure why it took me this long...


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A brief review #034 - "The Dragon's Gift"

As many of you will know, in 2010 I published The unofficial cartoon guide to He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. At 300+ pages the book features 700+ pieces of trivia, 460+ deleted scenes, 360+ examples of animation reuse, 380+ quotes, 50+ abandoned episodes, and a LOT more! It is the book that NO fan of the Filmation series can live without! BUY IT NOW!

As an incentive, here is my brief review and rating (as they appear in the book) for "The Dragon's Gift"...

The first appearance of Granamyr is one of the most impressive debuts of the series. Before his presence in the script, the episode feels like a straightforward hero quest to find a cure for Man-At-Arms. But the moment Granamyr appears, because he has such a fantastic screen presence, we are captivated. Granamyr's dialogue is beautiful, and, at times, even makes He-Man look ignorant. The animation in this episode while not the best, manages to compliment the script appropriately. Larry DiTillio manages to pack the episode full of action, suspense, drama, character development and an incredible twist in the tale. Granamyr's debut is one of the most memorable of the season. 8/10

Now, may I ask; what is YOUR rating?

Adam flees the Beast #04

Here is the fourth of four strikingly beautiful illustrations by Robin Davies from the Masters of the Universe Ladybird book "He-Man meets the Beast". In the story Prince Adam enters a cavern and ends up being chased by a large monster. The chase is wonderfully documented with illustrations that often reach across two pages showing Prince Adam's fear amongst the iridescent colored glow of each tunnel. This fantastic illustration shows Prince Adam desperately trying to escape the creature by grabbing on for dear life at a crumbling rock face...


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Kowl's cousin.

"Birds of a Feather" features Kowl's cousin Red Eye, who is one of the best supporting one-shot characters to have ever appeared in the She-Ra series. His design is beautiful to look at, in that he is a twisted, scruffy version of Kowl. I actually really like the color scheme given to the character, and the design, while close to Kowl, is unique enough that it feels like a completely different character! His personality in the episode is perfectly scripted, with not an ounce of regret as he constantly betrayed his cousin. Maybe one year we will see a Red Eye action figure. But I doubt it...


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Adam flees the Beast #03

Here is the third of four strikingly beautiful illustrations by Robin Davies from the Masters of the Universe Ladybird book "He-Man meets the Beast". In the story Prince Adam enters a cavern and ends up being chased by a large monster. The chase is wonderfully documented with illustrations that often reach across two pages showing Prince Adam's fear amongst the iridescent colored glow of each tunnel. In this piece we see Prince Adam moving away from the creature. What I love about this piece is that we are now located in a purple cavern, but in the background we can see the two previous tunnels the characters have been in...


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Kickstarter project - cereal:geek - REMINDER #2

Here is yet another reminder of my attempt to finance a reprint of issue two of cereal:geek via the crowd funding website, Kickstarter. As I said before, should this project prove successful, then other He-Man and She-Ra-related projects will follow soon after...

Take a look at the project!


(click on the images to see them at full-size)

Adam flees the Beast #02

Here is the second of four strikingly beautiful illustrations by Robin Davies from the Masters of the Universe Ladybird book "He-Man meets the Beast". In the story Prince Adam enters a cavern and ends up being chased by a large monster. The chase is wonderfully documented with illustrations that often reach across two pages showing Prince Adam's fear amongst the iridescent colored glow of each tunnel. Here we see a wonderfully green-colored piece in which the creature comes close to catching Prince Adam...


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I command the jaw-bridge...

At every opportunity both Val Staples and Emiliano Santalucia paid homage to the original Filmation cartoon during their time on the Masters of the Universe comic. This scene from issue four (volume two) shows He-Man commanding the jaw-bridge of Castle Grayskull to lower in exactly the same fashion as he would in the original Filmation cartoon!


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Adam flees the Beast #01

Here is the first of four strikingly beautiful illustrations by Robin Davies from the Masters of the Universe Ladybird book "He-Man meets the Beast". In the story Prince Adam enters a cavern and ends up being chased by a large monster. The chase is wonderfully documented with illustrations that often reach across two pages showing Prince Adam's fear amongst the iridescent colored glow of each tunnel. In this illustration we see Prince Adam trying not to make a sound as the large silhouette of the creature looms nearby...


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Floating Twigget.

Madame Razz tries to improve some of the wild flowers by making them bigger in the She-Ra Ladybird book "Shadow Weaver's Magic Mirror". However, as you can see in this Robin Davies illustration her magic causes one of the lesser known Twiggets begins to levitate upwards! What I love about this illustration is the less than pleased expression on Broom's face!


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Female Spirit.

I own quite a few model sheets, but it may surprise you to know that this one is one of my favorites. The Female Spirit was a character that appeared for about fifteen seconds in the season one He-Man episode "The Remedy". What I love about this model sheet is how gentle the character looks, and the way in which her gown flows towards the ground. It is obvious from this turnaround that the character's feet were not designed intentionally, so that the Female Spirit would appear to be floating. Although not credited, looking at the detail on the character's face, this piece was illustrated by Fred Carrillo, who also completed a great deal of layout artwork for the episode.


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The expressions of Flipshot.

As I have mentioned before "The Ultimate Challenge" is one of the best-looking episodes of The New Adventures of He-Man. Much of the animation matches the dialogue perfectly; none so more than in this brief scene featuring Flipshot. You can see that in the first two images Flipshot is his typically overconfident cocky self, as he mocks Hydron for making a comment earlier in the episode. However, after Hydron commands him to patrol the dark side of the planet you can see that Flipshot's expression changes to one of both confusion and fear. The subtle touches to the character's eyes and the mouth expressions make this one of the standout pieces of animation in the episode. And there are many!



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Kickstarter project - cereal:geek - REMINDER #1

Here is a reminder of my attempt to finance a reprint of issue two of cereal:geek via the crowd funding website, Kickstarter. As I said before, should this project prove successful, then other He-Man and She-Ra-related projects will follow soon after...

Take a look at the project!


(click on the images to see them at full-size)

1500 POSTS! :)

This entry is the ONE THOUSANDTH, FIVE-HUNDREDTH post on The He-Man and She-Ra Blog!

To celebrate the occasion I present to you a panel of original artwork by George Tuska from the 1982 Masters of the Universe comic published by DC Comics. If you click on the picture below you will see that this is a HUGE scan! The dimensions of this image are 1363px X 2000px. This means that due to the high resolution you can print off the image, or use it as a desktop wallpaper!


(click on the image to see it at full-size)