FILMATION ART: Royal Palace outskirts.

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 "Creatures From The Tar Swamp". This rarely seen location, which by all indications is situated on the outskirts of the Royal Palace, appears during the scene in which Prince Adam transforms into He-Man. I always enjoyed the fact that this near-desolate location had some interesting features; the alternately-colored stones on the floor indicate that at some point this may have been a castle. Sadly, in the episode this particular shot was cropped dramatically, especially when He-Man runs past the camera.


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

Evil She-Ra?

I always thought this panel from issue three of the UK Princess of Power comic could have made for an excellent cover. The way in which the evil version of She-Ra is staring down at herself looks great, as does the way in which Shadow Weaver is looming over her, with Hordak issuing out his commands! For the time being I will not spoil the story by revealing the context of this illustration, as I will feature it on this Blog very soon...


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The Nemesis...

"The Nemesis Within" is one of the most memorable episodes of The New Adventures of He-Man. The story tells of a clone of He-Man created by Skeletor that pushes our hero to the very limit; something Filmation really dropped the ball on when it came to Faker! There are some nice little touches throughout the episode once the clone appears; for example he commands, "By the power of Skeletor!" Another impressive moment occurs when He-Slave reveals to He-Man that as they share the same thought process he knows what He-Man is going to do before he does it, thus they fight to a standstill! The one problem I have with the episode is the name He-Slave; I was hoping for something a little more striking...


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GIANT Picture Book (Heroic Warriors) illustration #16

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 the Sorceress. I love the fact that we see the Sorceress transforming into the falcon form of Zoar, posed in the exact same way she would be in the Filmation series. I like the fact that the text refers to the Sorceress making Prince Adam aware of his power to become He-Man, rather than simply stating that she gave him that ability.


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The fake beard...

For some reason I always loved this piece of animation of Madame Razz from the season two She-Ra episode "The Inspector". Even though we had seen this spell casting sequence numerous times throughout the series, I love the way in which they decided to end the sequence with Madame Razz sporting an incredibly self-assured look upon her face, as she holds the fake beard. I also like the use of different colored pencils on this piece of layout artwork, with the red representing the existing stock, and the blue and black representing the movement and new stock.


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Ridiculous detail!

I have been purchasing animation art from the He-Man and She-Ra series for the last fifteen years! One thing that many collectors will miss out on are the pieces of artwork and cels where it appears that there is not much on show. Here is an example of a piece of She-Ra animation art, from the season two episode "One To Count On", in which this appears to be the case. However, upon inspection, you will see that even for such a tiny piece of animation, the Filmation artists were still required to illustrate every little detail. Bear in mind that both Bow and Glimmer are in the distance during this shot, with Clawdeen in the foreground. Dare I say there is an element of cuteness about the way in which they are illustrated.


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He-Man versus Trap Jaw!

Here I present a page full of panels from the lengthy deleted action scene from the season one He-Man episode "Golden Disks of Knowledge" featuring He-Man, Beast Man, Evil-Lyn, and Trap Jaw! In this page of assembled panels you can see that it was originally staged for He-Man to have a physical fight with Trap Jaw. Keen-eyed observers will notice that the fight between He-Man and Trap Jaw strongly references a fight between Man-At-Arms and one of Rago's guards from "It's Not My Fault", and the fight between He-Man and Garn from "A Tale of Two Cities". It is somewhat amusing to see Trap Jaw thrown about so much in the space of a few seconds!


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GIANT Picture Book (Heroic Warriors) illustration #15

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 second of the two black and white illustrations focusing on Stratos, resized for you to enjoy! This illustration beautifully showcases Stratos' ability to swoop down and save his friends; in this case rescuing Man-At-Arms from a fire-breathing dragon!


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

Deep in the caves...

The Masters of the Universe minicomic "King of the Snake Men" featuring artwork by Bruce Timm also features some of the most beautifully colored panels ever to see print! In this introductory page we see Skeletor and Kobra Khan descend into the caverns below Snake Mountain. Not only are the background colors spectacular, but the coloring and highlights on the characters are also beautiful.


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Narwhal by Timm!

Here is a fantastic character turnaround of King Narwhal from the season one She-Ra episode "Black Snow" by Bruce Timm. What is always interesting to note about Bruce Timm's model sheet concepts is that even though his is adhering to the Filmation character guidelines, his evolving style of illustration shines through. What makes this piece even more interesting is that the concept is illustrated in red pencil, which was frequent in layout artwork, but not in model sheet concepts.


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