Quoted By:
Mark Taylor was able to look at the artwork of Frank Frazetta and clearly see the potential there..."Holy Fuck! This shit would make some great fucking toys!aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa"
Don't get me wrong - I like the extremely weird ways in which the toyline evolved as much as the next guy, but I strongly feel that the roots of the franchise are to be found in the artwork of, specifically Frazetta, and then if you want to follow the trail of the guys that inspired him, probably you could look at the work of guys like Burne Hogarth (Tarzan) or Hal Foster (Prince Valiant).
And of course, while taking away nothing from Alcala, Norem and Kelley, and giving them the proper respect that they deserve for setting millions of imaginations on fire in the "bronze age," of the 80s; I think we must go back to the source - the REAL source - which clearly lies within the mind and deft fingers of Frank Frazetta and to be more specific, his work on the pulp Conan covers.
For this is where He Man and The Masters Of The Universe was truly born, in my humble opinion. These other artists were good, great even, but Frazetta's work was on a different level; there was (and is) a kind of visceral madness that is pervasive within the work; a sense of genuine desperation and urgency to it that somehow transcends the fantasy of gazing at an illustrated image and transports you into another world in which you can practically taste the sweat and smell the blood - or maybe taste the blood and smell the sweat?
However, I feel like those early Alcala comics and just the general idea of the whole thing, and I'm talking pre-cartoon here, was hinted at and touched upon before they pivoted into the more kid friendly stuff; give me the full Frazetta treatment please and thank you.
