The D&D Cartoon is Back as a New Comic Book Series
The cult classic Dungeons & Dragons cartoon from the 1980s is back with a brand new comic book series from IDW (a publisher who knows a thing or two about nostalgic cartoon series, given their work on popular comic book series like Transformers, G.I Joe and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles).
Entitled Dungeons & Dragons: Saturday Morning Adventures, the four-issue miniseries is slated for release in March 2023 and will bring back the original characters featured in the show, including Hank the Ranger, Eric the Cavalier, Diana the Acrobat, Presto the Magician, Sheila the Thief, Bobby the Barbarian, and their sidekick Uni the Unicorn (hey, it was the 80s, times were simpler back then, right?)
The mini-series will be written by David M. Booher (Canto) and Sam Maggs (Rick and Morty Ever After), with artwork by George Kambadais (John Carter of Mars). IDW has described it as a “lost episode” of the original show and has provided the following synopsis:
“Danger lurks at every turn, the enigmatic Dungeon Master is less than helpful, and Venger – the force of evil – will stop at nothing to get his hands on the magical weapons that the kids have come to rely on. To top it off, Hank has made a startling discovery: Despite the dangers, Sheila, Bobby, Diana, and the others aren’t so sure they want to go home after all!”
“As a kid, I would wake up on Saturday morning, pour a bowl of cartoon-themed cereal, and plop myself in front of the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon,” writer David M. Booher said in a recent press release. “When IDW approached me about writing Saturday Morning Adventures, there was no chance I was passing up the opportunity to help this D&D party face Venger once more.”
“As a lifelong D&D fan, it is an absolute dream to get to work reviving a childhood classic,” said co-writer Sam Maggs. “It’s been such a blast working with IDW and the fine folks at Wizards of the Coast to home in on what made the Dungeons & Dragons Saturday morning cartoon such a cult favorite. Setting these characters up for a whole new run of stories has truly been a career highlight, and I hope fans will love seeing Uni (well…all our cool kids, but especially Uni) back in action as much as I do!”
“Just imagine being me—a 12-year-old boy in the body of a 38-year-old man—getting to play with some of the coolest yet cutest characters in one of the most immersive universes ever made,” added artist Kambadais. “I am so lucky, yet so freaking scared as to whether one can ever be enough of an artist to take on this huge of a job. Here’s hoping that I’ll do right by Presto and Sheila (low-key my favorites)!”
A Look Back at The D&D Cartoon
The 1980s were generally seen as a golden age for Dungeons & Dragons, despite disparaging press about the game during the so-called “Satanic Panic”. The Dungeons & Dragons cartoon series helped overcome some of these negative public perceptions and launched the game into the mainstream.
Developed by Marvel Productions, TSR and the Japanese studio Toei Animation, the show ran on CBS for three seasons from 1983 to 1985, with a total of twenty-seven episodes. A final unproduced episode was written to wrap up the series and reboot it for a fourth season. Unfortunately, the show was canceled before the final episode was made, although the script has since been published online and was performed as an audio drama as a special feature for the BCI Eclipse DVD edition of the series.
The show follows the adventurers of six friends who are transported to the world of Dungeons & Dragons by a magical ride at an amusement park. After arriving in the strange fantasy realm, they meet a mysterious sorcerer known as “the Dungeon Master” who gives each character a magical weapon.
The group then sets out to try and find a way back to their own world, while embarking on a series of adventurers and facing down the show’s primary villain, the evil wizard Venger. The five-headed dragon Tiamat and the Spider Queen Loth also makes appearances, along with a number of other staple D&D monsters, classes and magic items.
Dungeons & Dragons: Saturday Morning Adventures will be hitting comic book shelves in March 2023. Each issue will feature covers by Kambadais and Brenda Hickey, along with a special retailer incentive cover by Tim Levins.
In the meantime, if you’re feeling extra nostalgic, grab a bowl of sugary cereal and check out the first episode of the show below.
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Cameron Nichols is a Senior Editor who lives in Boston, Massechustes, and has been playing D&D since the early 90s, when he was introduced by his older brother and cut his teeth on AD&D 2nd Edition. Since then he’s played virtually every RPG he could get his nerdy little mitts on (including a weird Goth phase in the early 2000s when he rocked Vampire: The Masquerade pretty hard). His favorite D&D campaign setting is the Forgotten Realms and his favorite character to play was a Half-Orc Barbarian named Grug (who was unfortunately devoured by a gelatinous cube).
