Reading – Masters of the Universe: The Sword of Skeletor

Masters of the Universe: The Sword of Skeletor*, published in 1983, is indicative of the types of simple books we used to get our hands on back in the early eighties. 24-pages, saddle-stitched, and packed with little more than page after page of artwork — the story, while okay, feels like an excuse to put our toys in fun scenes more than any involved plot or attempt to further the general storyline — this is a fun book but it is by no means quality entertainment or intellectual reading that would have advanced our young minds.

No, this was — still is, for that matter — pure bash the villains fun.

The story is quite simple — He-Man loses sword, gets in fights, beats Skeletor, and then recovers sword — but that doesn’t make the artwork any less fun or the book any less enjoyable. Seriously, guys, this is meant to be stupid fun and that’s exactly what we get. And if you don’t believe me then visit this page at he-man.org and read the entire book for yourself.

Stupid fun. And I do not mean that in a negative way.

I’ve posted another Flickr set with some shots of pages of the book. It’s nothing too exciting — and as I said he-man.org has the entire book — but if you’re looking for a way to pass some time and some Masters of the Universe artwork from the eighties this should suit you for a little while.

And looking through the artwork is likely more fun than whatever it is you should be doing at the moment. Get back to work, slacker!