THE STORY OF SHE-RA (mini-comic, 1985)

Not to be confused with The Sword of She-Ra or The Secret of the Sword, The Story of She-Ra (1985) is the first Princess of Power mini-comic. He-Man’s in it, or we wouldn’t be here. No author or artist is credited, but I’d guess Larry Houston on the pencils and maybe Bruce Timm on the inks.

This is a vastly different origin: Adora’s still kidnapped by the Horde as a baby, but the only ones who appear in this story are Hordak and Catra. As this story begins, Adora’s already free and a good guy somehow, she’s already got the sword somehow, and she turns into She-Ra on her own (in front of Catra) somehow. Thus, He-Man drops by pretty much just to say hi. It’s borderline incoherent. Typos abound. Also, the moral’s printed explicitly in red because…girls are stupid?

The art is perfectly fine and the colors are good, but it can be confusing because Adora looks like She-Ra already, like the action figure does. When Adora changes into She-Ra, her headpiece flips around to go over her eyes, Batman-style, following the original toy concept; otherwise, her outfit doesn’t really change.

In short, this one’s a mess. It might be worth a look just for how wacky it is.

TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT

Read it HERE

THE SECRET OF THE SWORD (comic)

Here’s yet another Secret of the Sword tie-in I missed the first time around. This 1985 comic, which was given away at theaters, chronicles the first half of the film. No author or artist is credited.

The comic is obviously slapped together. We’re covering half the movie in six pages, so the plot is barely coherent. Punctuation is in short supply. Overall, the thing reads like somebody cranked it out on his lunch break. Example: He-Man realizes she is the one Sorceress (sic) sent him to find. “You? You’re the one I came to find!”

The art suggests a similar situation. Sometimes, it’s perfectly good, but in a lot of panels, the figures are stiff and awkward, are in bizarre poses, or are obviously crammed into these tiny panels (the last panel features the scrawniest arms I’ve ever seen on He-Man).  

Also included is a full-page promotion for a spectacular He-Man/She-Ra sweepstakes that I’m sure I would have gone nuts about in 1985 (17,000 prizes!).

Any value this comic has is purely as a collector’s item. If you’re looking for a print adaptation of The Secret of the Sword, you’re better off with The Sword of She-Ra or the eponymous duology.

NOT RECOMMENDED

Read it HERE