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He-Man and the Masters of the Universe
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: The Newspaper Comic Strips
For over four years, "Masters of the Universe "had its own newspaper comic strip! This story continued the tales from the Filmation cartoon bridged the saga to the space-themed "New Adventures of He-Man" cartoon relaunch. The comic strip only ran in selected newspapers and was never reprinted, so most fans have never read it... until now! For the first time ever Dark Horse brings you a collection of these strips, restored and ready for you to unleash the Power!
520 pages, Hardcover
First published February 1, 2017
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76 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
July 23, 2020
I had considered buying this several times but I talked myself out of it because of the high probability that it would be too silly. So, when I saw it was available to check out on Hoopla I did that.
Then I bought it.
It was surprisingly good and the story behind how they struggled to find all these old strips was truly interesting.
Then I bought it.
It was surprisingly good and the story behind how they struggled to find all these old strips was truly interesting.
September 19, 2018
Well it's HE-MAN, I've read it only out of nostalgia effect, I was fond of the Toys and Action Figures I had in the 80's
Hmm..
Hmm..
December 31, 2017
Sjajno je videti sve Masters novinske stripove na jednom mestu, ali ne mogu da se otmem utisku da su nakon lociranja 96% stripa samo poređali table umesto da zaista remasterizuju crteže. Svega 10% kolekcije izgleda besprekorno, a ostalo je mutno, izjedenih linija, loše rezolucije i nakaradnog kolora (gde ga ima - u nedeljnim tablama). Ipak, dizajn i štampa čine da manjkavosti bude manje. Ne nadam se drugom, poboljšanom izdanju, ali za koju godinu (deceniju) i to bi moglo da se desi.
August 15, 2017
If you ever loved the original TV show you owe it to yourself and track down this book. Who knew that they ran a daily comic strip in newspapers back then.
April 25, 2019
Everybody whose a fan of the classic He-Man and the Masters of the Universe line knows that with each action figure came with a 8-10 page mini-comic. But very few know that in the late 80s, MOTU ran as a weekly newspaper comic strip. Maybe the fact that only about a dozen major cities ran the strip has something to do with it. Could also be the sad but inevitable fact, that for the time, He-Man was running out of steam with the kids of the era.
Dark Horse continues it's compendium of all things He-Man in this massive 2017 hardback! When I say massive, I'm not lying. The book weighs about 12lbs. It has over 500 pages. Plus this collection of strip is over-sized, much like a tabloid. I honestly have no idea where I'm going to store this thing as my graphic novel shelves can't hold something this big!
He-Man, Man-At-Arms, Orko and friends battle Skeletor, King Hiss, Hordak and the mutants of Trogg on the far-out future world of Primus . There's also some all-new characters such as a woman named Miranda who wins Duncan's heart. However, due to copyright/licensing issues, She-Ra and her cronies do not appeared anywhere in these stories.
The first 6 or 7 episodes are really well done. The color job on the Sunday strips are so amazingly bold. They look like screen shots from the animated series, only done with crystal clear clarity.
Towards the end of the run, most of the American publications had dropped the strip. But since most foreign nations were still getting 'first run' episodes of He-Man on their national TV stations, the comic managed to survive until the early 90s. While the quality of the strips were good in both story and artwork, the preservation of the strips was sorely lacking.
A total of 1,674 days worth of story were produced. Amazingly 98% of them were able to be retrieved thanks to microfilm preservation of newspapers or the clippings of those lucky few fans who got to read the paper first run. Still, some of those finds weren't of the best quality and they do not translate into high-grade paper very well at all.
As for those missing tales, editor Daniel Chabon and his staff do a great job describing the missing scenes thanks to script notes from the original creative team of Chris Weber, Karen Willson and Gerald Forton; all of which sit-down for in-depth interviews of the creative process throughout.
I really enjoyed this collection. But even more, I enjoyed the kick-butt customer service I got from bellwetherbooks, a seller on Amazon. My collection of He-Man mini comics was missing 30 pages. As a replacement alternative, they gave me this book for free! I'm not saying that you need to take advantage of them or worry that they provide damaged books. But I do recommend them as a company that fixes it's mistakes, has good communication and super fast shipping and good prices! Give them a try!
As for this book- a very good read with some editing issues. Some are Dark Horse's fault. but for the most part, it's due to not being able to find pristine negatives because Filmation and or Mattel decided to trash them.
Dark Horse continues it's compendium of all things He-Man in this massive 2017 hardback! When I say massive, I'm not lying. The book weighs about 12lbs. It has over 500 pages. Plus this collection of strip is over-sized, much like a tabloid. I honestly have no idea where I'm going to store this thing as my graphic novel shelves can't hold something this big!
He-Man, Man-At-Arms, Orko and friends battle Skeletor, King Hiss, Hordak and the mutants of Trogg on the far-out future world of Primus . There's also some all-new characters such as a woman named Miranda who wins Duncan's heart. However, due to copyright/licensing issues, She-Ra and her cronies do not appeared anywhere in these stories.
The first 6 or 7 episodes are really well done. The color job on the Sunday strips are so amazingly bold. They look like screen shots from the animated series, only done with crystal clear clarity.
Towards the end of the run, most of the American publications had dropped the strip. But since most foreign nations were still getting 'first run' episodes of He-Man on their national TV stations, the comic managed to survive until the early 90s. While the quality of the strips were good in both story and artwork, the preservation of the strips was sorely lacking.
A total of 1,674 days worth of story were produced. Amazingly 98% of them were able to be retrieved thanks to microfilm preservation of newspapers or the clippings of those lucky few fans who got to read the paper first run. Still, some of those finds weren't of the best quality and they do not translate into high-grade paper very well at all.
As for those missing tales, editor Daniel Chabon and his staff do a great job describing the missing scenes thanks to script notes from the original creative team of Chris Weber, Karen Willson and Gerald Forton; all of which sit-down for in-depth interviews of the creative process throughout.
I really enjoyed this collection. But even more, I enjoyed the kick-butt customer service I got from bellwetherbooks, a seller on Amazon. My collection of He-Man mini comics was missing 30 pages. As a replacement alternative, they gave me this book for free! I'm not saying that you need to take advantage of them or worry that they provide damaged books. But I do recommend them as a company that fixes it's mistakes, has good communication and super fast shipping and good prices! Give them a try!
As for this book- a very good read with some editing issues. Some are Dark Horse's fault. but for the most part, it's due to not being able to find pristine negatives because Filmation and or Mattel decided to trash them.
July 1, 2021
Toda una sorpresa, en verdad. Lo compré como mera curiosidad, en afán complementario, por encontrarlo de saldo irresistible al tratarse de un ejemplar costero. Preciosamente editado, uno de los rasgos más llamativos en el primer contacto es su tamaño: enorme. Se trata de los cómics que aparecieron en los periódicos y han mantenido esa dimensión. Sólo el trabajo "arqueológico" de recopilación y búsqueda del material lo hacen digno de valor.
No obstante, aún crece con el contenido, ya que se trata de historias sobre los Masters del Universo de un sesgo muy diferente al que se acostumbraba en la época y en el que, claramente, se han inspirado creaciones posteriores. Viajes al pasado, un Skeletor con problemas para mantener a raya a sus secuaces, relaciones románticas de He-Man y mucho más peso a su papel como Príncipe Adam. Los diferentes personajes nos muestran otros rostros y, me atrevería a decir, una personalidad mucho más compleja.
Desde luego, un libro que merece la pena tener por gran cantidad de razones.
No obstante, aún crece con el contenido, ya que se trata de historias sobre los Masters del Universo de un sesgo muy diferente al que se acostumbraba en la época y en el que, claramente, se han inspirado creaciones posteriores. Viajes al pasado, un Skeletor con problemas para mantener a raya a sus secuaces, relaciones románticas de He-Man y mucho más peso a su papel como Príncipe Adam. Los diferentes personajes nos muestran otros rostros y, me atrevería a decir, una personalidad mucho más compleja.
Desde luego, un libro que merece la pena tener por gran cantidad de razones.
June 17, 2021
An almost-complete collection of MOTU newspaper strips. Also includes some much-appreciated history behind the comic and the difficult process of bringing this collection together.
I found this collection difficult to rate. On the one hand, this is as complete a collection of MOTU newspaper strips as one can find (space is left for the few missing strips, with a description of what is missing), and so the MOTU collector in me is delighted. On the other hand, despite my love of MOTU I have no personal nostalgia tied to the newspaper strips, and the stories were not so interesting to me that I'm ever likely to reread them. That said, there were a few moments and story threads that kept me going.
I would recommend this collection to fans of MOTU and those who remember the strip when it appeared in newspapers.
I found this collection difficult to rate. On the one hand, this is as complete a collection of MOTU newspaper strips as one can find (space is left for the few missing strips, with a description of what is missing), and so the MOTU collector in me is delighted. On the other hand, despite my love of MOTU I have no personal nostalgia tied to the newspaper strips, and the stories were not so interesting to me that I'm ever likely to reread them. That said, there were a few moments and story threads that kept me going.
I would recommend this collection to fans of MOTU and those who remember the strip when it appeared in newspapers.
January 15, 2020
80's. Adventure hero. Based on cartoon.
Story: This book chronicles the He-Man newspaper comics from beginning to end.
Characters: He-Man is in reality Prince Adam, with the secret ability to transform. He saves the day with the help of his friends, not just with brawn but with brains.
Language: Very 80's dialogue. Full of cheesy lines and some morals. Contains suggestive adult content, but also appropriate reading for younger readers. While a lot of the dialogue with women is very sexist, women play strong roles in the book and are often the heroes.
A fun leap backwards in time, a nice distraction from my normal reading. Took some time to read because the book is so physically big it often causes cricks in my neck so I had to take lots of breaks!
Language:
Story: This book chronicles the He-Man newspaper comics from beginning to end.
Characters: He-Man is in reality Prince Adam, with the secret ability to transform. He saves the day with the help of his friends, not just with brawn but with brains.
Language: Very 80's dialogue. Full of cheesy lines and some morals. Contains suggestive adult content, but also appropriate reading for younger readers. While a lot of the dialogue with women is very sexist, women play strong roles in the book and are often the heroes.
A fun leap backwards in time, a nice distraction from my normal reading. Took some time to read because the book is so physically big it often causes cricks in my neck so I had to take lots of breaks!
Language:
October 14, 2021
As an artefact of MOTU memorabilia, this tome scores 5/5. Given that the creative team is directly connected to the original show, it feels like reading the blueprints of lost TV episodes which were not burdened by the show's constraints. Moreover, while I was aware that a He-Man daily comic strip existed, I was never aware that there was so much of it, so reading through the book was a really pleasant experience.
Having said that, the print contains unrestored pages which means that grain and poor contrast are often found within the page. Furthermore, some of the editing is sub-par, with some strips coming out of order.
Overall, recommended for MOTU enthusiasts, but it might not be of interest to random comic books readers.
Having said that, the print contains unrestored pages which means that grain and poor contrast are often found within the page. Furthermore, some of the editing is sub-par, with some strips coming out of order.
Overall, recommended for MOTU enthusiasts, but it might not be of interest to random comic books readers.
October 17, 2022
This is a great collection of stories by writers and artists who did a good job overall on developing the story that had started in the filmation show. It's different from the mini-comics, but it is true to what was started earlier, and it has some very lengthy adventures worth reading. The tie-in to the space show about he-man was weaker at the end, though I was never a fan of that cartoon.
April 7, 2021
These aren't the best comics but it is so cool that this collection even exists. This art should have been lost. Kudos to the researchers on this book. Here's hoping Dark Horse takes on the UK Comics next.
October 8, 2023
A nice trip back to the days of daily comic strips in the paper. I liked this because as a kiddo I never got to read some of these stories due to limited access to the newspaper. There are some strips missing. I would say this is an add for collectors, but probably a library borrow for most.
March 5, 2024
This was an interesting read. The nature of the daily strips requires a much densely plotted story than we ever got in the classic show. Overall it worked well and went to some unusual places. I’m looking at you Wonderland.
November 7, 2024
I wish I could say these stories were more interesting or that I enjoyed this for nostalgic reasons, but I found this not anything to exciting. I’ve already forgotten most of the stories. Skeletor is in I think every story with exception of maybe one.
January 6, 2023
Ah... Childhood memories.
Fantastic collection of rare comic strips.
Fantastic collection of rare comic strips.
February 20, 2019
This review originally published in Looking For a Good Book. Rated 4.75 of 5
What is it about He-Man and the Masters of the Universe that it manages to have a lasting appeal?
I was not aware that there had been a newspaper comic strip (daily and Sunday). 1,674 days worth of comic strips. So when I saw that Dark Horse gathered as many of these strips as possible (all but thirty-five are reprinted and of those that are missing a synopsis of the story is in its place) I was eager to get my hands on this.
A daily comic strip is a very unique and challenging way to tell a story but as you read through this volume you come to see that authors Jim Shull and Chris Weber and artist Gérald Forton did a really remarkable job telling stories in this method. It becomes even more impressive when we learn through the different interviews included that these stories had to be cleared not just from the editor and publisher, but also by the controlling toy company that often wanted to feature a new item that would soon be for sale.
The interviews here are with Weber, Forton, colorist Connie Shurr (the early colors in the Sunday strips are quite remarkable and notable), and strip editor Karen Wilson.
I asked at the top here why He-Man has such a lasting appeal. Editor Karen Wilson may have answered that in her interview when she says:
This was a really fabulous read and it deserves to be on every shelf of every comic book, comic strip, television/media fan who enjoys a good story with wonderful art.
I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.
What is it about He-Man and the Masters of the Universe that it manages to have a lasting appeal?
I was not aware that there had been a newspaper comic strip (daily and Sunday). 1,674 days worth of comic strips. So when I saw that Dark Horse gathered as many of these strips as possible (all but thirty-five are reprinted and of those that are missing a synopsis of the story is in its place) I was eager to get my hands on this.
A daily comic strip is a very unique and challenging way to tell a story but as you read through this volume you come to see that authors Jim Shull and Chris Weber and artist Gérald Forton did a really remarkable job telling stories in this method. It becomes even more impressive when we learn through the different interviews included that these stories had to be cleared not just from the editor and publisher, but also by the controlling toy company that often wanted to feature a new item that would soon be for sale.
The interviews here are with Weber, Forton, colorist Connie Shurr (the early colors in the Sunday strips are quite remarkable and notable), and strip editor Karen Wilson.
I asked at the top here why He-Man has such a lasting appeal. Editor Karen Wilson may have answered that in her interview when she says:
There’s something in our culture that appreciates heroes who act with fairness, justice, equality, and compassion. Although powerful, He-Man and She-Ra look out for the needs of the marginalized, the suffering, those seeking justice. They use their power for good, not evil. They are not self-serving. They only use violence as a last resort. They use their smarts and their wits. ... They are also brave. Strong. And still have a sense of humor.
This was a really fabulous read and it deserves to be on every shelf of every comic book, comic strip, television/media fan who enjoys a good story with wonderful art.
I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.
October 30, 2020
The actual comics themselves are pretty dry reading, an ongoing daily comic strip is a difficult medium to write for and then reproduce in a collected edition. Two of the strips are also entered in the wrong order, considering the amount of effort that was put into recovering these strips I feel thats a massive oversight.
The book is peppered with a lot of very interesting insights into the production of the strips, and the people behind them as well as a look at and example of the original pitch that had a different approach, with much better story telling, which sadly wasn't picked up.
There is also a very interesting flash-forward story where He-Man travels through time to meet the characters from the later iteration of He-Man, where he leaves Eternia (and gets a hair cut) to travel through space.
This is for completionists and die hard-fans only
The book is peppered with a lot of very interesting insights into the production of the strips, and the people behind them as well as a look at and example of the original pitch that had a different approach, with much better story telling, which sadly wasn't picked up.
There is also a very interesting flash-forward story where He-Man travels through time to meet the characters from the later iteration of He-Man, where he leaves Eternia (and gets a hair cut) to travel through space.
This is for completionists and die hard-fans only
January 27, 2019
Let's book is fantastic! Emerging of my 1st fandom he man in my greatest fandom comics. I had no idea that these strips even existed. Let's book was a straight shot of nostalgia to my geek veins. The only problem is the art in the book is not complete you have all the scripts for the strips but they're about 35 strips missing from the collection. With this is a great collection at lunch scene he man artifacts . Well worth the time for any fan.
June 14, 2019
RATING: 4.5 STARS
2017; Dark Horse Books/Dark Horse
(Review Not on Blog)
I grew up watching and loving He-Man and She-Ra and even attended a live show when I was 7 or 8. I never saw them as superheroes for some reason, like Batman and Superman. Seeing them in this medium gave me a wider perspective and I really enjoyed this collection.
***I received an eARC from EDELWEISS***
2017; Dark Horse Books/Dark Horse
(Review Not on Blog)
I grew up watching and loving He-Man and She-Ra and even attended a live show when I was 7 or 8. I never saw them as superheroes for some reason, like Batman and Superman. Seeing them in this medium gave me a wider perspective and I really enjoyed this collection.
***I received an eARC from EDELWEISS***
March 9, 2020
Goofy and fun. Reads pretty much exactly like the show.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews