Birthday Blog #3 - But who is he?

Here is the last page of the Masters of the Universe minicomic "The Powers of Grayskull: The Legend Begins!" The minicomic that promised so much to the point that we all thought we were about to embark on a new adventure, only for it all to vanish without a trace. This page is famous as we see He-Ro demonstrating his powers, though doing so in silhouette...


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Birthday Blog #4 - Ill Man-E-Faces...

The painted illustrations in the 1985 UK Masters of the Universe Annual were always impressive and extremely atmospheric in places. Take this image from the end of the story "The Tale of Man-E-Faces"; here we see He-Man and Teela at the bedside of Man-E-Faces, having just rescued him from Skeletor. The style of these paintings always reminded me of the earliest interpretations of Masters of the Universe. The mood of this piece is obvious, emphasized by the minimalist background...


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Birthday Blog #5 - This ain't Filmation!

A memorable phase during the Masters of the Universe minicomics had the artists look to the Filmation designs for inspiration. Subsequently we were treated to a lot of Filmation-like comic book artwork. The one thing that was odd about these minicomics is that they were extremely violent in places. "The Secret Liquid of Life", "Double-Edged Sword" and "Slave City" are three examples of minicomics that looked great, but had a very adult feel to them. In these two panels we can see He-Man and Battle Cat, clearly based on their Filmation models, killing the man-eating plants. Not something the moralistic Filmation He-Man would have done...


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Birthday Blog #6 - Volume twenty-two!

Often the covers to the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe video releases by Magic Window in the eighties were nothing to write home about! However with regards to the last five video releases Filmation illustrated some publicity stills that Magic Window sensibly used on their covers. I always thought that this cover to volume twenty-two was one of the strongest. Interestingly the cel of Webstor was actually used when he attacks Kittrina in "The Cat and the Spider".


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Birthday Blog #7 - Shriekers!

The Shriekers that first appeared in the season one He-Man episode "Creatures From The Tar Swamp" were written in the script with no confirmed name. Amusingly the script states, "...and for lack of a better term, we'll call them the Flying Shriekers," a name which actually stuck!

Birthday Blog #8 - Witch at work.

In this storyboard panel by Don Manuel from the She-Ra season one episode "The Wizard" we can see an amusing sight gag that never made it into the actual produced episode. Outside the home of Madame Razz is a sign that states "CAUTION: WITCH AT WORK", which is placed next to her washing line with all sorts of comical underwear!


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Birthday Blog #9 - Pretty Boy Bow.

"Shadow Weaver's Magic Mirror" features some fantastic artwork from Ladybird book artist Robin Davies. Amusingly his illustrations of Bow in certain parts of the book make the hero appear less than the macho Filmation character we were all familiar with, and more like a carefully groomed member of a boy band! Just check out those eyelashes!


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Birthday Blog #10 - Too much beef?

The season two He-Man episode marks the first and only appearance of the silent giant sumo warrior Michi. In the script to this episode the wrestling match between himself and Prince Adam goes on slightly longer. Also in the script Adam originally states that Michi's got "Too much beef," which was later altered before the recording session to "Too much muscle."

Ho-Ho-Ho!

Look out for a BIG update tomorrow...

The final panel of the DC minicomic "The Menace of Trap Jaw!" shows the heroes walking away from Castle Grayskull victorious after their battle with Skeletor and Trap Jaw. What makes me smile about this panel is that it is very much like the end of a Filmation episode with the characters laughing. I have to ask though, aside from Santa Claus, who laughs like that?


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Bow's amazing shot #2

Here is the conclusion to Bow's amazing shot from the She-Ra minicomic "Adventure of the Blue Diamond". Bruce Timm demonstrates a great understanding of character interplay in this image, especially with Bow and his arm around Frosta celebrating. Also, is it just me or am I the only one to question the apostrophe in the word "Bull'seye!"? Of course it makes grammatical sense, but to this day this is the only instance where I recall seeing it written this way...


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