The tale of Hordak's first arrival on Eternia, and his to punish Skeletor for his past crimes, and to take control of Castle Grayskull. He-Man confronts the Evil Horde who overwhelms him; take Skeletor prisoner, and take Orko hostage. He-Man has to now travel to Etheria, battle the dangers and the Fright Zone, and save Orko and Skeletor.
The audio cassette includes the original Filmation voice actors reading the dialogue of this book.
Bruce Walter Timm is an American character designer, animator and producer. He is also a writer and artist working in comics, and is known for his contributions building the modern DC Comics animated franchise, the DC animated universe.
Timm's minimalist, angular style is heavily based in his love of 1950s and 1960s-era comics and art deco architecture style. He is also completely self-taught, having never received any formal art schooling.
He lists his artistic influences as Jack Kirby, Harvey Kurtzman, Jim Steranko, John Buscema, Wally Wood, Frank Frazetta, Dan DeCarlo, and Alex Toth.
This story was originally an action figure pack-in, introducing the fan-favorite Evil Horde characters. It was first bundled with a cassette tape featuring the actual voice cast from the Filmation cartoon. The book itself is beautifully painted by a young Bruce Timm, best known for his design work on Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, and other DC animated shows of the '90s.
I've read a lot of these He-Man storybooks this year, and this one definitely ranks among the best—if only for the art alone. It's hard to track down a cheap copy, but fortunately, it's collected in the fantastic Mini-Comic Omnibus from Dark Horse, even though it's not exactly a comic. If you do plan to check it out, you'll find a rip of the cassette to read along with on Youtube.