A happy ending...

This very happy illustration appears on the last page of the Masters of the Universe Ladybird book "A Trap For He-Man". Here artist Robin Davies has illustrated He-Man and Teela to perfection. I love the way that Teela is looking towards He-Man with a big smile on her face, whereas He-Man is looking as heroic as ever. One of my favorite things about this illustration is Battle Cat. We cannot see his mouth, but given the somewhat goofy eyes, we can tell that he is smiling...


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Star Comics cereal:geek article #7

As many of you will know I continue to self-publish cereal:geek magazine; the one-hundred page glossy magazine dedicated to the cartoons of the eighties. I have incredibly talented individuals write articles for the magazine. However, when I required an article covering the Masters of the Universe comic book published by Marvel's Star Comics imprint I knew I had to write this article myself, given that I have such strong views on this series! As I have rarely covered the Star Comics series on this Blog I thought it would be good to showcase the article I wrote for the magazine across a group of posts.

So here I present the seventh part of the article...

Another memorably big error occurs during issue ten. Blade and Saurod attack the heroes after shooting down their Wind Raider. During the battle He-Man overpowers Blade, who is promptly tied up by Teela, whilst Man-At-Arms is put to sleep by Saurod's spraying sparks. The following page dialogue indicates that Kobra Khan put Man-At-Arms to sleep (presumably with his mist), and we see that instead of Blade it is Webstor who has been tied up by Teela!

This begs the question as to how these pages were assigned to Ron Wilson, and more importantly what the editor was doing when going through the pages.

One of the common gripes with both the writing and art in the first eight issues is how quickly things wrap-up, sometimes at a comical speed. The worst offender is issue eight. King Randor appears on the last page, and in six small panels the following happens; Randor effortlessly defeats Skeletor in two panels; Orko "inspired" by Randor manages to freeze Scare Glow, as He-Man also "inspired" by the king begins to gain advantage over Ninjor; Randor fires a laser bolt from his hand (not sure how he is able to do that) to defeat Blast-Attak, sending him flailing into Ninjor; Skeletor vanishes with predictable dialogue; and in the final panel the heroes strike a pose.

Even though issues one to eleven are stand alone, one to eight feel incredibly isolated and often monotonous in their storytelling. Thankfully George Caragonne would come along and change everything.

To be continued...


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Nepthu crawls.

Here is a fantastic piece of development artwork from the He-Man season one episode "Temple of The Sun". Here we see an artist's suggested look for the opening scene where Nepthu, who has been crawling across the desert for goodness knows how long, finally discovers the legendary Temple of The Sun! I especially like the second illustration where we see the temple in the distance. Notice that the look of the temple itself was in development, as it appears to look nothing like the one in the actual episode...


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Skeletor wakes the Beast!

The Masters of the Universe Ladybird book "He-Man meets the Beast" features a great deal of beautiful artwork by Robin Davies. Here is a fantastic illustration showing the moment when Skeletor wakes the Beast! I love the colors on this illustration, as well as Robin's ability to create amazing scale-like texture on the Beast's skin with simple circular shapes. Over the years I have featured numerous illustrations from this particular book. Track them down!


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Star Comics cereal:geek article #6

As many of you will know I continue to self-publish cereal:geek magazine; the one-hundred page glossy magazine dedicated to the cartoons of the eighties. I have incredibly talented individuals write articles for the magazine. However, when I required an article covering the Masters of the Universe comic book published by Marvel's Star Comics imprint I knew I had to write this article myself, given that I have such strong views on this series! As I have rarely covered the Star Comics series on this Blog I thought it would be good to showcase the article I wrote for the magazine across a group of posts.

So here I present the sixth part of the article...

One of the things that bothers me most about Star's Masters of the Universe comics are the amount of art errors. There seems to be an odd lack of consistency, which is strange as anyone who has seen Ron Wilson's art outside of this series will know that he is a fabulous artist. One of the most common errors is when Adam calls upon the Power of Grayskull; in many an issue the Sword of Power would inexplicably swap hands from panel to panel, during the sequence. The sword itself was often drawn in a variety of ways throughout each issue.

Issue six contains the most offensive art errors in the entire series. First though, let me explain. Throughout this issue (thanks to Mattel's product placement) Eternia is no longer the Royal Palace, but the expensive playset. We see that the Heroic Warriors now operate out of the Central Tower with the tramway that goes all the way to Castle Grayskull and Snake Mountain. Yes, you read that correctly. Obviously to make their battles easier the heroes of Eternia made an agreement with Skeletor to build a tram that connected his lair to Castle Grayskull. Best of all in one image we see that the tramway goes straight into the mouth of Castle Grayskull!

Skeletor attacks the lone Central Tower with his Fright Fighter and so He-Man leaps aboard the Blasterhawk to fight back. We then get a two page spread showing the Blasterhawk exchanging fire with the Fight Fighter high above Central Tower. However, most confusingly we now see it surrounded by the many walls and buildings of the Royal Palace! This fantastical location only exists on this two page spread. On the following page we see the lone Central Tower once more, albeit with one new addition, a pit of green slime for Skeletor to fall into. As before, never seen in any other panel, the slime is another new addition to Central Tower.

To be continued...


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A brief review #032 - "Search for the VHO"

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 "Search for the VHO"...

Water-based, race against time, action-adventure episodes do not come much better than this one. Within the first minute of the episode the plot is pretty much laid out, and when the Kraken appears and kidnaps Teela, we know we are in for a treat. He-Man's underwater adventures are visually interesting, as is the animation throughout this episode. Although Mer-Man does not get much screen time, he does shine in what little he has. He-Man seems to wear a wry smile during this story, and his moments with Teela are well scripted. It has to be said though, that as loud as it is, the Kraken is the star of this episode. 8/10

Now, may I ask; what is YOUR rating?

An approaching Gnoll...

Here is an illustration by Robin Davies from the Masters of the Universe Ladybird book "Wings of Doom". Gnolls were a race briefly mentioned in the Masters of the Universe Series Bible. When I was a child I remember thinking that the Gnoll's shield was actually a mouth that could eat things, not realizing that it was merely an elaborate design! I love the composition of this piece with the Gnoll approaching He-Man, who is drawing the Sword of Power.


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

Star Comics cereal:geek article #5

As many of you will know I continue to self-publish cereal:geek magazine; the one-hundred page glossy magazine dedicated to the cartoons of the eighties. I have incredibly talented individuals write articles for the magazine. However, when I required an article covering the Masters of the Universe comic book published by Marvel's Star Comics imprint I knew I had to write this article myself, given that I have such strong views on this series! As I have rarely covered the Star Comics series on this Blog I thought it would be good to showcase the article I wrote for the magazine across a group of posts.

So here I present the fifth part of the article...

A lot of these poor characterizations owe much to the dialogue, which is often poorly written. There are some real 'gems' in there. A few of the best examples of how badly the character dialogue is written include Hordak threatening Skeletor with Grizzlor, "I send the snaggle-toothed Grizzlor to do you in!"; Man-At-Arms comeback to Hordak, "Oh, yeah, ugly? Sez you!"; Skeletor's use of the word "Humongous" when describing Monstroid; Blast-Attak's "Whoa-Ho! This Ninjor dude is good!"; Mosquitor's grammatically uneasy, "Mind holdin' a bit stiller, He-Man."; Snake Face's, "Come back here and get rocked!"; and another wonderful piece of dialogue from Snake Face to He-Man, "You bet your sweet potatoes you will!"

Also another 'Eternian' phrase "Crumb-bum" is uttered numerous times, once even by Skeletor! And we were all led to believe that he was a little more creative with his curse words in the cartoon. The problem I have with a lot of the dialogue is that it doesn't appear to be spouting fourth from the mouths of characters located on a world where magic and science are wonderfully balanced.

A lot of this dialogue sounds as if it has come from New York City in the eighties. Not for one second am I harkening back to the days of the characters as interpreted by DC Comics, but a character like Snake Face for instance should be more cold and calculated, not talking about He-Man's "sweet potatoes". Fortunately the Sorceress does not utter the word "dude" in her appearances, though if she had done, it would not have surprised me.

Throughout the first eight issues there are one or two moments of good dialogue. In the first issue we hear Man-At-Arms explicitly state, "I guess I'm still just better with machines than people". Sadly the line is a throwaway one as he says it in the background with no one reacting to him, but it would make for a nice story in itself. In issue two we have Orko mocking Adam' desire to avoid a forthcoming storm, highlighting the prince's dependency on the Sword of Power stating, "Scared of the rain! Is that because your sword doesn't come with an umbrella attachment!" And as dislikable as they are, the pairing of Rio-Blast and Snout Spout works well in issue four; their constant bickering and wanting to outshine the other works well in the context of the story.

To be continued...


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Maddock model sheet.

"To Save the Creatures" is one of the less impressive episodes of He-Man's season two. In fact, you could actually say it is one of the worst episodes of season two. There are only a few saving graces in the episode. Surprisingly, I actually like the character of Maddock. The premise of the sub-plot, in which he has a chance to replace Beast Man, is unique. However, in this episode it is wasted due to the annoying main plot which is a convoluted mess. I always like the subservient way in which Maddock has his head somewhat lowered much of the time, creating this creepy doe-eyed stare! To this day I am still not sure if he is supposed to be wearing a helmet of sorts, of it that is his actual hairstyle! Looking at the model sheet on the far left would seem to suggest that it is his hairstyle...


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A unique disguise!

Here is an amusing shot of B.H. in disguise from The New Adventures of He-Man episode "Glastnost Schmaznost". I like that his disguise is incredibly poor to say the least, and that he is sporting a classic glasses, nose, and mustache look, ala Groucho Marx! I very much doubt this comical disguise would have been written into the script!


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