Recently, my co-partner Adam made an extensive article about why He-Man is NOT Mattel’s attempt to produce a Conan action figure, only to change hair-color in the last minute after seeing the film in May 1982 – the dates don’t match (among many other discrepancies).
On the other hand, one can certainly see that the people who worked on Masters of the Universe were influenced by the barbaric fantasy-artworks of Frank Frazetta (on topics like Conan and more).
There are numerous cases where we have seen… homaging? referencing? swiping? certain elements and images from Conan the Barbarian in official media for He-Man. Now this is not to shame any of the artists working on the brand. In the examples from the UK Annuals, we don’t know all the circumstances or motivations behind the creation of a little book aimed at kids. Maybe there was a rush with the deadlines so the artists (many uncredited/unknown) resorted to taking old comic panels as inspiration.
Below I have gathered some comparisons, in no particular order. There are over 40 examples listed for your enjoyment. Many are directly lifted off of existing Conan material, but I’ve included a couple generic ones as well. I’ve looked at MOTU media from US, Germany, United Kingdom and Italy.
For this comparison, I am mainly focusing on vintage materials, because something like Masters of the Universe Masterverse Vykron figure’s packaging art paying homage to Conan art (Ken Kelly) is done intentionally. The adult audience for this figure is supposed to get the reference.
I have also included repeating offenders, if such occur. As in the case of a pose from Conan the Barbarian #100 getting use out of in both UK Annual 1985 and then Annual 1987. In the case of the 1987 version, however, it is possible that the artist was looking at the 1985 pose.
I most likely have missed some instances; so feel free to comment below if you remember seeing a vintage He-Man comic panel, poster or cover image using Conan as its basis in one way or another. If so I will try to add it to the article.
Special thanks for scan help: Mark “Polygonus” Knobloch, Ben Massa, Adam McCombs. An extra hat tip to Joe Amato and James Eatock for few of the panel finds. Also a big thanks to Warpman Alexandre and James Eatock on couple artist credits’ info.
I really like Masters of the Universe comics. Heck its no secret I’d love to one day write and/or draw art for an official publication in the future. And since its now been 20 years that the reboot comic series ended, I wanted to take a moment to appreciate the cover artworks on that series.
The 2002 comics for Masters of the Universe were produced by MVCreations. While the animated series by Mike Young Productions was aimed at a younger demographic, the comics had the opportunity to appeal to the older fans who grew up with He-Man in the 80s.
From 2002 to 2004, the Masters of the Universe comic series was published through Image Comics (15 issues), CrossGen Entertainment (8 issues) and MVCreations (6 issues).
Since the beginning, there were many variant covers for the comic issues. But some fans reported how they couldn’t keep up with them, so the president at MVCreations, Val Staples listened to the feedback and decided to not feature them during the Volume 2 ongoing comics and the mini-series “Icons of Evil”. Accordingly it “cut the sales by almost half, and made the comic extremely hard to produce later on.” [1] They added them back when Volume 3 started, as limited releases and special exclusives, which “helped a little.” There were also ideas for other special gimmick covers they wanted to do, but never got the chance – such as a lenticular cover depicting Adam transforming into He-Man, or a felt texture cover with Moss Man.
The cover artwork especially was really terrific, with a multitude of talent from regular to variants, so I’d like to highlight them in this article. Full disclosure, it was also a way for me to dig through old hard-drives (from 2004) and folders on my computer, so that I can share the logoless cover versions, many of which can’t be found online in 2024 anymore. They are displayed next to the final covers. When researching other sites, I found some to have omitted variant covers or credited wrong artists. So I’ve tried my best to include as many of the unique cover artworks in this gallery (meaning a special museum edition won’t be here, since it used art on its cover from the existing 5-page preview comic), and the artist & colorist credit.
Hope you enjoy the images and if you found some errors or missing unique art by MVCreations, please let me know! Some of the scans are my own, and I’d like to give a special shout out to grahamcrackers, milehighcomics, comicvine, mycomicshop, cilman and RED.
VOLUME 1
Issue 1 – Cover A (wraparound)
Art by: Emiliano Santalucia Color by: Val Staples
Issue 1 – Cover B (wraparound)
Art by: J. Scott Campbell Color by: Val Staples
Issue 1 – Cover C (wraparound)
Art by: Earl Norem
Issue 1 – Graham Crackers exclusive cover (wraparound)
Art by: Emiliano Santalucia Color by: Nathan “Baena” Baertsch
Issue 1 – Reprint (front)
Art by: Emiliano Santalucia Color by: Val Staples
Issue 2 – Cover A (front)
Art by: Emiliano Santalucia Color by: Val Staples
Issue 2 – Cover A (back)
Art by: Kevin Sharpe Color by: Val Staples
Issue 2 – Cover B (wraparound)
Art by: Francis Manapul Color by: Val Staples
Issue 3 – Cover A (front)
Art by: Emiliano Santalucia Color by: Val Staples
Issue 3 – Cover A (back)
Art by: Matt Tyree Color by: Val Staples
Issue 3 – Cover B (wraparound)
Art by: Brett Booth Color by: Val Staples
Issue 4 – Cover A (front)
Art by: Emiliano Santalucia Color by: Val Staples
Issue 4 – Cover A (back)
Art by: Tone Rodriguez Color by: Val Staples
Issue 4 – Cover B (wraparound)
Art by: Keron Grant Color by: Val Staples
VOLUME 2
Issue 1 – Cover A Regular (wraparound)
Art by: Emiliano Santalucia Color by: Val Staples
Issue 1 – Cover B (wraparound)
Art by: Drew Struzan
Issue 1 – Cover C Graham Crackers exclusive (wraparound)
Art by: Cully Hamner Color by: Val Staples
Issue 2 – Cover A (front)
Art by: Emiliano Santalucia Color by: Val Staples
Issue 2 – Cover A (back)
Art by: Nathan “Baena” Baertsch
Issue 2 – Cover B (wraparound)
Art by: JJ Kirby Color by: Joel Benjamin
Issue 3 – Cover A (front)
Art by: Emiliano Santalucia Color by: Val Staples
Issue 3 – Cover A (back)
Art by: Jonboy Meyers Color by: Tony Washington
Issue 3 – Cover B (wraparound)
Art by: Tommy Lee Edwards
Issue 4 – Cover A (front)
Art by: Emiliano Santalucia Color by: Val Staples
Issue 4 – Cover A (back)
Art by: Leanne Shaw Hannah Color by: Tony Washington
Issue 4 – Cover B (wraparound)
Art by: Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell
Issue 5 – Cover A (front)
Art by: Emiliano Santalucia Color by: Val Staples
Issue 5 – Cover A (back)
Art by: Matt Roberts Color by: Tony Washington
Issue 6 Cover (front)
Art by: Emiliano Santalucia Color by: Val Staples
Issue 6 Cover (back)
Art by: Jonboy Meyers Color by: Val Staples
VOLUME 3
Issue 1 – Regular Cover
Art by: Emiliano Santalucia Color by: Jeremy Roberts
Issue 1 – Incentive Cover (wraparound)
Art by: Frank Quitely Color by: Val Staples
Issue 1 – He-Man.org Exclusive Cover
Art by: Nathan “Baena” Baertsch
Issue 1 – Convention Gatefold Cover
This cover depicts all of the 5 covers that were planned for Masters of the Universe Encyclopedia. [Click HERE to download a high-resolution scan by Jukka Issakainen]
Art by: Emiliano Santalucia and Enza Fontana Color by: Nathan “Baena” Baertsch
Issue 2 – Regular Cover
Art by: Enza Fontana Color by: Jeremy Roberts
Issue 2 – Incentive Cover
Art by: Brett Booth Color by: Val Staples
Issue 3 – Regular Cover
Art by: Emiliano Santalucia Color by: Jeremy Roberts
Issue 3 – Incentive Cover
Art by: Sam Liu Color by: Jeremy Roberts
Issue 4 – Regular Cover
Art by: Emiliano Santalucia Color by: Jeremy Roberts
Issue 5 – Regular Cover
Art by: Emiliano Santalucia Color by: Jeremy Roberts
Issue 5 – He-Man.org Exclusive Cover
Art by: Tim Seeley Color by Jeremy Roberts
Issue 6 – Regular Cover
Art by: Emiliano Santalucia Color by: Jeremy Roberts
Issue 6 – He-Man.org Exclusive Cover
Art by: Andy Smith Color by: Jason Keith
Issue 7 – Regular Cover
Art by: Leanne Shaw Hannah Color by: Jeremy Roberts
Issue 7 – He-Man.org Exclusive Cover
Art by: Eamon O’Donoghue Color by: Jeremy Roberts
Issue 8 – Regular Cover
Art by: Mike O’Hare Color by: Jeremy Roberts
Issue 8 – Graham Crackers Exclusive cover
Art by: Randy Green Color by: Val Staples
Issue 8 – He-Man.org Exclusive Cover
Art by: Nathan “Baena” Baertsch
ICONS OF EVIL
Beast Man – Cover
Art by: Tony Moore Color by: Val Staples
Mer-Man – Cover
Art by: EJ Su Color by: Val Staples
Trap Jaw – Cover
Art by: Mike Pedro Color by: Nathan “Baena” Baertsch
Tri-Klops – Cover
Art by: Corey Walker Color by: Val Staples
RISE OF THE SNAKE MEN
Issue 1 – Regular Cover
Art by: Jonboy Meyers Color by: Tony Washington
Issue 1 – He-Man.org Exclusive Cover
Art by: Nathan “Baena” Baertsch
Issue 2 – Regular Cover
Art by: Andie Tong Color by: Jeremy Roberts
Issue 3 – Regular Cover
Art by: Andie Tong Color by: Jeremy Roberts
SPECIALS
Promo comic – cover (front)
Art by: Emiliano Santalucia Color by: Val Staples
Promo comic – cover (back)
Art by: Emiliano Santalucia Color by: Val Staples
Special Preview comic – cover (front)
Art by: Emiliano Santalucia Color by: Val Staples
Special Preview comic – cover (back)
Art by: Emiliano Santalucia Color by: Val Staples
Dream Halloween 2002 – cover
Art by: Enza Fontana Color by: Val Staples
Dream Halloween 2003 – cover
Art by: Emiliano Santalucia Color by: Val Staples
Masters of the Universe Encyclopedia Season one – cover
[*See Volume 3 Gatefold cover variant #1 that depicts all 5 covers intended for the Encyclopedia mini-series]
Art by: Emiliano Santalucia and Enza Fontana Color by: Nathan “Baena” Baertsch
Art by: Emiliano Santalucia and Enza Fontana Color by: Jeremy Roberts
Icons of Evil – TPB Cover
Art by: Emiliano Santalucia Color by: Val Staples
Unused/Unpublished covers
Planned 2-pack Smash Blade He-Man & Spin Blade Skeletor insert comic cover. Art by: Emiliano Santalucia. Color by: Val StaplesPossible cover for issue 4 Volume 3, published in the end of issue 3. Art by Enza Fontana. Color by: Jeremy Roberts.Possible cover for issue 6 Volume 3, published in the end of issue 5. Art by Emiliano Santalucia. Color by: Jeremy Roberts?Commissioned cover by Alex Ross. Due to time constraints, it was not completed. (Later repurposed for the BCI Filmation DVD Art Cards).
[1] Staples, V. [JVS3]. (December 3th, 2007). He-Man.org Discussion Boards.
Thank you very much for agreeing to this interview! Tell us about yourself!
Born and raised in Wilmington, Delaware, I was a life-long comic book fan and, originally, I studied art at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia with the goal of being a comic book artist. However, that path changed when, upon graduation, I was hired by DC Comics in New York to be one of their Assistant Editors. That shifted my focus on to editing and writing. As a full Editor at DC, I edited such titles as Green Lantern, World’s Finest Comics, Legion of Super-Heroes, Black Lightning, Firestorm and many others. As a writer, I wrote stories for Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Batgirl, Robin and others. I created the Ray and wrote the graphic novel, Batman: Castle of the Bat.
How did you end up working for Western Publishing (Golden Books) and their projects?
After leaving DC and working for a trade magazine for the licensing industry, I freelanced for DC, Marvel, Archie Comics, Darkhorse and just about every independent comic book company there was.
While working for the licensing industry magazine, we covered publishing. I received a press release regarding Golden Books’ (Western Publishing) plans to issue a series of Masters of the Universe storybooks. The editor was a gentleman I knew from the comics industry. In my capacity as a freelance writer, I contacted him and soon had MOTU assignments.
With Masters of the Universe stories, what did Mattel provide you with in order to form new tales for our heroes?
When crafting these stories, the editor would forward everything I needed for the backgrounds of the characters. These would be in the form of press releases from Mattel, which included a photo of the toy or a picture of a prototype. Sometimes, I would get the toy itself.
How long would writing a story take?
I was free to plot any kind of story I wanted as long as it didn’t go against the main, established storylines and characterizations of the characters. I could usually plot a story in a day and talk it over with the Editor. This was during the days before the Internet, so our communication was over the phone.
Once a plot was approved, it took me about a week to type up a script, writing about two manuscript pages for each printed page. Typically, a 24-page storybook followed a 48-page, typewritten manuscript. These were delivered through the mail or, if I was going to be in the city, I would drop the manuscript off in person.
With character selection, did your Editor (or Mattel) require specific characters with each respective story?
In the very first MOTU story I did, Mattel did request the inclusion of Fisto, who was a new character at the time. They sent me a Fisto toy (but I don’t recall whatever happened to it).
You wrote a hardcover story “New Champions of Eternia”, which has a unique origin story for the Skeletor henchmen Evil-Lyn, Beast Man, and Tri-Klops; as passengers onboard the spaceship that Queen Marlena piloted. What do you remember about this story and reference Mattel provided?
All of the origin stories and back stories of the MOTU characters came, in detail, from Mattel. I might have embellished them in a narrative, but the basics were always there from Mattel, whether in text or in the drawings or prototypes. There may have been incidences where I made something up, but it was too long ago to recall specifics.
Which story was your first and which one is your favorite and/or least favorite?
Mattel requested Fisto’s appearance in the first MOTU book I wrote, The Secret of the Dragon’s Egg. This is also my favorite of the ones I wrote, mostly because of the stunning Norem cover. Some time ago, I tried to track down the original art of this cover, hoping to obtain it for myself.
Super7 Art Print, in association with the Power And Honor Foundation
My least favorite was New Champions of Eternia because the interior art completely misses the mark, from misinterpreting my original manuscript to not maintaining the established “look” of the characters.
What were the challenges?
Compared to writing for the comics, the storybooks were a little easier since they usually focused on one major incident, rather than a complicated series of events. The scripts would include descriptions of all the illustrations for the artist and all the dialogue for the typesetter. References for the characters were attached, usually copies made from the material provided by the Editor which he had obtained from Mattel.
I don’t have copies of any of these old scripts.
In the story “The Secret of the Dragon’s Egg”, there is a new character called Goat Man. He did not have a toy in the 80s and your book was his only appearance. What can you tell us about him and his creation?
In the instance of “Goat Man,” I had originally included an unnamed monster minion for Beast Man, but the editor added the name to him. He wasn’t based on any toy.
What was the name of your editor while you worked on the MOTU stories?
Mike Tiefenbacher was my editor at Golden; there were a few Assistants I also worked with such as Charlie Kochman, who later became an editor at DC.
There were many talented artists working on the stories. How did they get paired with writers?
The editor assigned the artists, so I never had any input as to who was going to draw my stories. I was lucky, in that I usually got some extremely talented individuals to illustrate my tales. Some of them I had teamed up with previously in comic books, such as Luis Eduardo Barreto and Fred Carillo. What really impressed me were the painted covers, especially the ones by Earl Norem, who also illustrated covers for such magazines as Reader’s Digest and Field and Stream.
Were there any stories left on the “cutting room floor”? Or pitches that were vetoed?
I never pitched a MOTU story. These were always assigned to me. I would get a call from the editor and he would give me a list of characters to use and I would go from there. The only “pitch” I would give was to the plot of the adventure. I never originated the discussion of stories.
Golden Books also did stories with “She-Ra, Princess of Power” who was He-Man’s twin sister. Were you offered to do any stories for She-Ra?
I never did any She-Ra stories.
Who is your favorite MOTU character?
He-Man himself was always my favorite MOTU character, because he had all the classic “super hero” traits, from super-strength down to the Clark Kent-ish meek alter ego.
You have worked as an Editor and a Writer. What pros and cons do you feel come in those positions? Which one do you prefer?
The best part of being a comic book editor was all the great creative people you were able to meet and work with! The downside were the never-ending deadline pressures!
Oh, and being a writer was more fun than being an editor.
Were there any artists you would have liked to have worked with? Did the writers have any say in the matter?
I was paired with many other artists on other books, such as Al Bigley, Mike De Carlo, Dan Adkins, Carmine Infantino, Gene Biggs, and so many others.
Your MOTU stories appear in both softcover versions and hardcover. Did you know the format in which the story would be published, and what the approach was like?
The format for these books was 8″ x 8″ in both soft and hardback editions. I never knew if the soft covers would also be published in hard-cover editions, and it really didn’t matter as the scripts were typed up in the same matter for either.
What other projects did you work on during your time at Golden Books?
Once I had the MOTU books under my belt, other projects followed, on an extremely wide field of characters and subjects, both fiction and non-fiction: Other licensed characters such as Batman, Conan, the Dino-Riders, Garfield, the Ring Raiders, Zelda, the Galaxy Rangers, the Super Mario Brothers. I did a biography of Dwight Eisenhower and non-fiction books on jet planes, firefighters, and boats. It was a long and varied list.
Did you ever watch the animated series by Filmation?
Since I was writing so many licensed characters, I spent many a Saturday morning watching cartoons with my three daughters. This was “research”!
What projects are you currently working on?
Currently, I am mostly retired, but still touch upon the occasion freelance assignment. In October, I have a book coming out from TwoMorrows Publishing entitled Working With Ditko, which chronicles my many comic book collaborations with legendary comic book creator Steve Ditko.
During the 2002 relaunch of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, there were many promotional variants with the initial release of the figures. Some figures came packaged with a VHS cassette, starting with select Filmation episodes and as the new series by Mike Young Productions aired; episodes from the new cartoon.
One instance with variant releases was the Kmart-exclusive Art Cards (or as they are referred to in the packaging, Trading Cards). The following figures came packaged with their respective card:
He-Man
Skeletor
Man-At-Arms
Beast Man
Stratos
Mer-Man
Image from “The Toys of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe” Guide book by Dan Eardley and Val Staples [Dark Horse 2021].
All the cards have a foil treatment, which sadly doesn’t translate well in the scans. According to the Toys of He-man and the Masters of the Universe guide, the cards were produced by MVCreations, and “it is speculated that a thousand of each existed”. Looking at the cards, the artwork was done by Emiliano Santalucia with colors by Val Staples.
The style on the cards is still a very early version that Santalucia used when illustrating the characters. The easiest example comes in the Skeletor trading card. The pose appears to be based on a page from the pack-in comic that MVCreations produced for the He-Man and Skeletor Target exclusive 2-pack, with some edits on hand poses and the added weapons. That comic was done in the span of just two weeks and it helped the studio to get the ongoing comic deal with Mattel. The “toony” art style here is based on the early Mattel presentation images by Ruben Martinez. (But for the ongoing comic, Santalucia established a less angular, yet more detailed style.)
Comparison image: Kmart Skeletor card and a comic page from Target 2-pack.
A Special thanks to he-man.org member Cilman for these scans of the cards!
He-Man
He-Man’s pose and the background of Castle Grayskull in the distance appear to be inspired by the promotional poster art by Mike Young Productions (which itself was based on the 2001 poster by Ken Kelly). The back of the card features the figure’s accessories Power Sword, Battle Axe and Battle Shield.
Man-At-Arms
Man-At-Arms stands battle ready at his workshop. The back of the card features the figure’s accessories Battle Club, Hand Cannon and for some reason, they include Removable Chest Armor (when many figures had their armor as removable).
Stratos
Stratos appears flying in the sky, possibly near the Mystic Mountains. The back of the card features the figure’s accessories Arm-mounted Wings and Sky Pack.
Skeletor
Skeletor stands in front of his throne inside Snake Mountain. The back of the card features the figure’s accessories, including his Double Blade Sword and his Havoc Staff, described here as Battle Staff.
Beast Man
Beast Man is ready with his whip inside one of the caverns at Snake Mountain. There are some nice little touches on the ground with small bones and a skull. The back of the card features the figure’s accessory, referred to as his Beast Whip.
Mer-Man
Mer-Man is in his element underwater, looking up ready to strike. The back of the card features the figure’s sword and trident accessories.
Hope you enjoyed this little look at the 2002 Masters of the Universe exclusive Kmart Trading Cards!