Written by Adam McCombs
Some time ago Joe Amato (customizer and host of the Fans Of Power Podcast) scanned the MOTU Sticker Fun book, The Evil-Lympics. My good friends Jukka Issakainen and Øyvind Meisfjord shared the scans with me, and with Joe’s kind permission, I’m sharing them with readers of this blog.
This particular book stands out because it was illustrated by the venerable Alfredo Alcala, whose artwork in various MOTU minicomics from 1982-1984 (as well as inks on some of the full-sized MOTU comics published by DC) is beloved by many fans. You can peruse these comics at at Vaults of Grayskull and He-Man.org, as well as in the Dark Horse Minicomic collection (the Dark Horse collection only includes the MOTU minicomics).
The level of detail in these illustrations is somewhat reduced compared to Alcala’s other work. That’s not surprising given that it’s just an inexpensive sticker/coloring book rather than a real comic. But still, his unmistakable style is there, and it’s a real treat to see more Alcala goodness. Some of the monster characters he creates here are reminiscent of his work on The Obelisk and Masks of Power minicomics.
Zodac is portrayed as an Evil Warrior here, which is unsurprising considering the date (for more on the shifting alignment of the character, see my article on the topic). What is surprising is that Man-E-Faces is also portrayed as an Evil Warrior. In previous stories, Man-E-Faces would sometimes fall under Skeletor’s sway in his monster form, but generally-speaking he was almost always aligned with the Heroic Warriors. Also, as Waylon Piercy in the comments notes, Stratos and Ram Man are in there too! I’m wondering if the original idea was to include both Evil and Heroic Warriors in the games, but then the story was revised after the art was finished.
In any case, enjoy!
For some additional context, I’ve included some eBay auction photos of the original sticker pages as well as the back cover:
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Ram Man and Stratos are among the evil warriors, too! I think I may have had this when I was little. I didn’t think so from the title, but several of the pages jogged memories as I was looking over them.
Good eye! I’m wondering if the original idea was to include both Evil and Heroic Warriors in the games, but then the story was revised after the art was finished.
Wow! I had a jumbo colouring book when I was a kid, but none of these other ancillary story or activity books. Always a treat to see something like this surface and expand my knowledge. Thank you!
Interesting thing about page 11 is the sticker is Zodac’s head but that is Tri-Klops’ body. I even double checked the sticker sheet images you placed at the end and Zodac’s is the only head for that page. I guess the sticker team and page art teams had a miscommunication.
It is very unclear what the goal of that maze on the back is. When you reach the base of Snake Mountain? When you get to that gap near Skeletor (that he’s not actually near ’cause he’s on top of Snake Mountain?) Is the mace blocking egress? Is that cave monster? What in the hell is that fuzzy black-hole-lookin’ thing?
In her heart, Evil-Lynn thinks of these as the Evil-Lynn-pics, even if it is no longer immediately clear what she’s talking about. That’s just her style.
I think that black fuzzy-looking thing is supposed to be the top of a tree. As for the rest, I couldn’t begin to answer.
Mazes like that always bothered me as a child. He-Man is the Most Powerful Man in the Universe – so why can’t he just step over those small piles of rocks???
How many of these sticker/activity/colouring books have original stories in them? I wasn’t aware that many of them did.
In interesting item, I hadn’t seen this one before (though I have seen the “fat Man-E-Faces” image used on various MOTU websites over the years!)
Whilst Zodac was always a grey area depending on which media he was seen in, it is indeed odd that Stratos and Ram Man are also seen amongst the villains. Stratos of course began like as an Evil Warrior before quickly being reassigned to a Heroic one, but Ram Man is an oddity.
We do know that a great many characters would be assigned “Herioc” or “Evil” status late in the concept development, and I do recall an online post with ?Roger Sweet? years ago commenting on this – Tri-Klops started out being considered as a Heroic Warrior, for example, and I’m fairly sure that Ram Man might have initially been pencilled in as Evil (hence the skull on his belt?), but if if that’s so, he was well established as a Heroic character by this stage!
Man-E-Faces might have been excused if he was shown with his monster face, so it’s odd that he’s in human form. It does feel very much the rough story was formed first, and it was adapted to an “Evil-Lympics” as the text was added. The original concept might have been similar to what we would go on to see in the Filmation episodes “The Games” and “The Arena”.
The artwork style is very similar indeed to that of the 1985 and 1986 UK annuals. Alfredo Alcala is amongst my favourite MOTU artists, but (with respect to his otherwise excellent) you could tell when his heart wasn’t in it sometimes, as I suspect the case might have been here (though probably as much due to a “just do it quickly and get it out there” budget).