A comic book based on the Dungeons & Dragons animation from the 1980s
This may be going way back in time for most individuals reading this. However, this spring, the series is making a comeback as a comic book for those old heads exposed to the Dungeons & Dragons RPG via the CBS cartoon on Saturday mornings – gulp, 40 years ago.
The four-issue miniseries from IDW, billed as a “lost episode” of the original cartoon, brings the entire group back together to take on their archenemy Venger, including Bobby the Barbarian, Presto the Magician, Diana the Acrobat, and everyone else.
Dungeons & Dragons was a Saturday morning animation from 1983 to 1985. It featured the tale of a group of teenagers and one grade schooler who got lost after riding a haunted roller coaster and ended up in a high fantasy world. The adventurers attempt to return to our ordinary plane of reality with the (limited) aid of the sly and mysterious Dungeon Master (aren’t they all?).
The Dungeons & Dragons cartoon introduced classes like Ranger (Hank) and Cavalier to players of the basic D&D set at the time (raises hand) (the snotty Eric). When Unearthed Arcana first appeared on the 45-minute drive away Waldenbooks shelves in 1985, we didn’t begin playing those classes until then. Notably absent from this bunch was a cleric. The crew faced off against recurring enemies like the hydra Tiamat and the power-hungry potential overlord Venger (voiced by the prolific Frank Welker).
Twenty-seven episodes of Dungeons & Dragons were produced. It debuted in 1984 as a two-hour programming block that featured a stand-alone half-hour version of Pole Position, Namco’s popular racing game, and the Saturday Supercade, a collection of shorts based on arcade games like Donkey Kong and Q*Bert for the Atari 2600.
In other words, speaking from personal experience, it was an incredible moment to be a sixth-grade video game geek. Launching in March 2023, Dungeons & Dragons: Saturday Morning Adventures will feature a cover created by Brenda Hickey and Kambadais.