He punched Beast Man?!

In this page of storyboards by Bob Kline from the season one He-Man episode "Diamond Ray of Disappearance", we can see that during the battle outside of Castle Grayskull He-Man was originally going to punch Beast Man! Now, for those that know the cartoon and the strict rules it placed upon itself, this scene could never take place. He-Man was never allowed to commit violent acts against the enemy. As such, these scenes have a large cross through them implying that they would not even make it to the layout stage!


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The wrong home?

Here is an illustration from issue fifty-one of the UK Masters of the Universe comic. In this piece we see the Heroic Warriors preparing to head back home, having saved the day once again. You can see on the horizon that "home" is illustrated as the Three Towers. This would appear to be a mistake on the part of the artist. Even though the Three Towers were an important part of the comic by this point, the Heroic Warriors' primary base of operations was still the Royal Palace, as it was at the very beginning of this issue!


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GIANT Picture Book (Heroic Warriors) illustration #8

Golden Book published a great deal of Masters of the Universe material during the eighties. Two of the most notable and yet rarely seen books are the Giant Picture Books; oversized quality publications printed on thick quality paper featuring artwork by Fred Carrillo. One book focused on the Heroic Warriors, whilst the other focused on the Evil Warriors. Here I present, from the Heroic Warriors book, the first of the two black and white illustrations focusing on Teela, resized for you to enjoy! The way in which Teela's body is positioned as she swings her sword, knocking Mer-Man's sword from his hand, is fantastic.


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Skeletor versus the Attak Trak!

The many Masters of the Universe coloring and activity books featured a plethora of unique and often questionable illustrations! Here is one such example featuring the Attak Trak attacking Skeletor. I can just about buy into the fact that the vehicle and Skeletor are dueling, but why Skeletor's hood is falling down revealing his skull for comical effect is beyond me! And maybe I have this wrong, but if you look at Skeletor's pose, he almost appears to be laying down. Maybe Skeletor was merely taking a nap when the Attak Trak attacked?


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Sorceress in the stars.

This image of the Sorceress, created by the joining of many stars, is featured in the incredibly memorable episode "Glastnost Schmaznost" from The New Adventures of He-Man series. In the episode He-Man is looking for a way to return to Primus, currently dominated by the Mutants, but is unable to penetrate the shield that surrounds the planet. He looks towards the stars only to see this image of the Sorceress form. He subsequently joins the stars using the power of his sword to create a large image of the Sword of Power; notifying those on Primus to lower the shield!


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FILMATION ART: Trollan landscape.

For the last sixteen years I have collected He-Man and She-Ra animation artwork. As a result I have amassed a pretty large collection! Here I present a piece of original background artwork from the He-Man episode "Dawn of Dragoon". While this may look like a simple nondescript background, I immediately recognized it from the scene in which Prince Adam attempts to use his fire ray, which due to the backwards nature of Trolla turns into water. Filmation always had a talent for drawing otherworldly locations, and yet making them vastly different from all the strange oddities located on Eternia. Amazingly, weeks after purchasing this background I found the matching cel of Prince Adam!


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And here is how the background was used in the episode...

GIANT Picture Book (Heroic Warriors) illustration #7

Golden Book published a great deal of Masters of the Universe material during the eighties. Two of the most notable and yet rarely seen books are the Giant Picture Books; oversized quality publications printed on thick quality paper featuring artwork by Fred Carrillo. One book focused on the Heroic Warriors, whilst the other focused on the Evil Warriors. Here I present, from the Heroic Warriors book, the two pages focusing on Teela. That said, much like the colored Man-At-Arms illustration seen previously in this book, this illustration appears to focus on the vehicle, in this case the Wind Raider, rather than the individual piloting it. I love that the text describes her as a "warrior-maiden"...


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Vibrant panels.

Here are some wonderfully colored and beautifully rendered panels from the Masters of the Universe minicomic "King of the Snake Men". This story features some of the best-looking artwork seen in the minicomics, with Bruce Timm illustrating for Mattel early in his artistic career. I love how the mood of the scene changes with each panel moving in closer to He-Man, with the vibrancy of color increasing as the Snake Men army begin to emerge! The third panel shows a fantastic use of colors, as well as some wonderful lighting that casts eerie shadows across He-Man's face!


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That's Imp?! #2

Imp was a character that rarely, if ever, appeared outside of the Filmation She-Ra series. Interestingly, a few other canons did attempt to bring him into existence, with vastly differing results. Here is the second of two images showing Imp outside of the cartoon. In this illustration from issue thirteen of the Masters of the Universe comic published by Star Comics we see another unique take on Filmation's character. While his proportions are closer to the cartoon, his lack of hair and fingers is quite striking. Once again the color scheme differs greatly from the Filmation design with this version of Imp being colored bright pink!


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That's Imp?! #1

Imp was a character that rarely, if ever, appeared outside of the Filmation She-Ra series. Interestingly, a few other canons did attempt to bring him into existence, with vastly differing results. Here is the first of two images showing Imp outside of the cartoon. In this illustration from issue eight of the UK Princess of Power comic we see a much taller Imp with his proportions vastly different when compared to his Filmation counterpart. Aside from the differing design the most notable difference is that he is red!


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