Thursday, August 16, 2012

DRAGON’S GIFT (mini-comic, 1983)


Dragon’s Gift is a 1983 Masters of the Universe mini-comic by Michael Halperin (who wrote the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe series bible) and Alfredo Alcala. Here, Skeletor turns Man-At-Arms into crystal, and He-Man must seek help from the dragon Granamyr.

If that sounds familiar, it’s because this was adapted from the cartoon episode “The Dragon’s Gift.” The story’s extremely rushed for that reason, but Halperin more or less gets it all into these few pages.

Alcala returns to the mini-comics with a distinctly different but just as impressive style of artwork, with bright watercolor washes that add an impressive degree of texture. It’s also neat to see the same story done in a completely different artistic style.

So, thus we begin the third series of mini-comics, which are now down to 14 pages. From this point on, in terms of story and backstory, the mini-comics conform to the Filmation mythos, although not everything and everyone looks like their cartoon counterparts, presumably because these comics were completed before the cartoon was produced: Adam’s wearing blue, the king and queen are still geriatrics, and Man-At-Arms is still clean-shaven, but Teela, at least, is back to being a redhead, with her hair up, like we’re used to.

All by itself, Alcala’s art makes this one worthwhile.

RECOMMENDED

Read it HERE