A few years ago, I "Unboxed" Dark Horse's collection of MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE minicomics, the little comic books that were packaged with the vintage action figures thirty-plus years back. Since then, I also bought a "backup copy" of the book in digital format during a Comixology Dark Horse sale at some point. Thus, armed with the book in both physical and virtual format, I'm ready to read it. Beginning this Saturday and continuing over the subsequent few weeks, we'll examine the He-Man minicomics by year, from 1982 through 1987 -- the full run of the original toyline.
But that's not all! Once the minicomic retrospective wraps up in October, we'll crack open another tome I picked up some time back (and also re-purchased in digital format later on) -- HE-MAN AND THE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE: THE NEWSPAPER COMIC STRIPS. Unlike the minicomics, which I read as a child and of which I retain some hazy memories, the newspaper strip is an iteration of MASTERS that I've never seen in my life. But my He-Man fandom and my recently developed interest in newspaper adventure strips have intersected to make this something I'm really excited to read.
The strips are broken apart into story arcs in the book, so we'll read two arcs per week, starting in October and running through November. After that, I have one more thing in mind to close out the year -- but we'll get to that when the time comes. For now, we're off to the distant planet Eternia to check out the never-ending struggle between He-Man and Skeletor.
It'll be interesting to see how the characters and setting of the mini-comic evolve over time. It definitely started out very differently, from what I recall.
ReplyDeleteI've been reading them over the past few weeks, and you're right that things started out very differently. There's a pretty clear evolution over the first few years from pre-Filmation influence, to a period where Filmation's TV series was clearly in development but not defined yet, to a point where the comics do their best to hew closely to the show. And then after the show ends production, the minicomics kind of take off in their own direction again, albeit maintaining the Filmation trappings.
DeleteI am absolutely not complaining, but as someone who always had more in the way of paper than plastic I was secretly hoping for the Star Comic. From a resource page I learn our local iteration of MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE book was a mix&match abomination collected from Star and UK comics and what else.
ReplyDeleteStill the most painful thing in hindsight I ever did re: comics was to swap two SPIDER-MAN issues for two MOTUs.
ASM #250/251 and MTU #100/MARVEL FANFARE #5, if you really must know.
I know I have that full Star Comics run, though it's packed away so well that not even I know where it is. Still, I recall enjoying it quite a bit as a child -- especially when the TV show went off the air and it became, from my perspective, the primary He-Man continuity.
DeleteMaybe I'll locate those comics someday and read them, though like I said, I literally have no idea where they're currently stored!
And those are two pretty major Spidey comics to trade away! Your love of He-Man must have known no bounds.
Which actually brings up a question... when I was younger, I worked with a guy from Germany and when he found out I was into comics, we discussed the genre. He said sword and sorcery was way more popular in Europe than superheroes, and he believed Marvel's CONAN THE BARBARIAN probably outsold every Marvel or DC super-title on the stands. He-Man sort of fits that genre as well. Anyway, was this your experience too?
No, that was just ~10-y.o. me having an idiot attack, I was looking to swap them for X-MEN AND ALPHA-FLIGHT which I had somehow led myself believe that my swap partner would have. But he didn't, and I had a brain malfunction.
DeleteAbout comics and Europe, the thing with CONAN may hold with Germany, but it's not a general thing surely as there's lots of variance from country to country and there's the non-superhero European options giving competition to Marvel and DC, not least the Franco-Belgian album format books.
PHANTOM, TARZAN, GARFIELD and to lesser extent MODESTY BLAISE have all for example managed to endear my domestic audience to carry a title of their own for longest time though maybe not all the way today. If I were to go to a grocery store comics rack today there would be DONALD DUCK pocket books, TEX WILLER pocket books, COMMANDO FOR ACTION AND ADVENTURE pocket books, ASTERIX album reprints and some Manga for kids who don't know better. DONALD DUCK comic book obviously still outsells any periodical and teaches kids to read. Superheroes pretty much have whimpered into maybe a couple of titles (SPIDER-MAN); the movie frenzy has done nothing to entice the publishers.
Thanks! I would certainly agree that tastes should vary from country to country. The guy I knew was adamant that Conan was number one throughout all of Europe, though we were both pretty young (early twenties) and he probably wasn't traveled enough to speak as an authority while I wasn't worldly enough to question his statement!
DeleteActually upon checking it up I learn that there was a CONAN book published for us 1984-96, mostly four issues a year. Some CONAN publications occasionally got advertised on the back covers of our Marvel books, but I didn't ever realize that the book lasted in continuous publication for so long.
DeleteI'm a "Masters of the Universe" fan, so I'm very excited about this. Plus, I own and have read the minicomic paperback.
ReplyDeleteGreat, glad to have you aboard!
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