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The 1980s Dungeons & Dragons cartoon featured six children from our world who are transported to a place called “the realm” where they receive magical items from a mysterious dungeon master and befriend a colt. unicorn called Uni. For three seasons, they tried to find a way to return home while thwarting the villainous Venger and the five-headed dragon Tiamat, but were ultimately defeated by falling ratings. (opens in a new tab) before the story ends. Next year, that story will continue in a four-issue miniseries from IDW Publishing.
“To celebrate its 40th anniversary”, indicates the publisher’s website (opens in a new tab)“IDW will bring back the heroes of this cartoon classic in March with the new four-issue comic book miniseries, Dungeons & Dragons: Saturday Morning Adventures, an exciting “lost episode” charting new territory in the world of D&D by writers David M. Booher (Canto), Sam Maggs (Rick and Morty Ever After) and artist George Kambadais (John Carter of Mars)!”
It won’t be the first time an answer has been offered to the question, “What happened to those cartoon kids anyway? Have they come home yet?” What torments in the back of the brain of anyone who has seen the show, which has been syndicated and repeated around the world, for decades now.
Baldur’s Gate 2 offered one possibility. Examine the back wall of the Adventurer Mart in Athkatla and you’ll find paintings of two characters from the show, and examining them will reward you with an explanation that concludes, “They are said to have died horribly at the hands of the dragon Tiamat .” Another dark possibility was hinted at in a 1996 promotional comic titled Forgotten Realms: The Grand Tour, which depicted the protagonists as a group of middle-aged losers still unable to find their way back home. (And moved them from the “Realm,” with four suns, three moons, and a bunch of floating islands in its cluttered skies, to the less weird Forgotten Realms setting.)
The closest thing to an official resolution was a scripted finale by one of the series commissioned by the production company, which was recorded in radio format for limited release on DVD. Fans have since turned this script into a stitched-together animation using footage from the show. (opens in a new tab). A little further from canon was the appearance of children in a Brazilian car advertisement for Renault’s Kwid Outsider (opens in a new tab) (apparently Brazil is one of the countries where the series was big in syndication).
However, the IDW comic doesn’t seem to follow either of these versions of events. The synopsis reads, “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!”
Sam Maggs, one of the comic’s writers, said: “As a lifelong D&D fan, it’s an absolute dream to get to work bringing a childhood classic to life. It’s been such a pleasure to work with IDW and the fine folks at Wizards of the Coast for at home on what made the Dungeons & Dragons Saturday morning cartoon such a cult favorite. of stories has truly been a career highlight, and I hope the fans will love seeing Uni (well…all of our cool kids, but especially Uni) back in action as much as I have!”
