G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero | |
---|---|
Publication information | |
Publisher | Marvel Comics |
Format | Ongoing series |
Genre | see below |
Publication date | June 1982 – December 1994 |
No. of issues | 155 |
Main character(s) | G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero |
Creative team | |
Written by | Larry Hama Herb Trimpe Steven Grant Eric Fein Peter Quinones |
G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero (also called G.I. Joe) was a comic book published by Marvel Comics from 1982 to 1994. Based Hasbro's G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero line of military-themed action figures, the series has been credited for making G.I. Joe into a pop-culture phenomenon.[1] G.I. Joe was also the first comic book to be advertised on television, in what has been called a "historically crucial moment in media convergence."[2]
The series was written for most of its 155-issue run by Larry Hama, and was characterized by a realistic, character-based storytelling style that was unusual for a toy comic at the time. Hama wrote the the series spontaneously, never knowing how a story would until it was finished, but he worked closely with the artists, giving them sketches of the characters and major scenes. Most stories involved the G.I. Joe team battling against the forces of Cobra Command, an evil terrorist organization, and also focused on the relationships and backstories of the characters. Many issues dealt with the interaction between the ninja characters Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow. The book attracted many female readers due to its strong female characters, and lasted for 14 years, spawning several spinoff books including G.I. Joe: Special Missions, which ran for 28 issues.
Publication history
Background and early development
In the early 1980s, Larry Hama, then an editor at Marvel, began to design characters and background for a series concept he was pitching that would be entitled Fury Force, about a team of futuristic S.H.I.E.L.D. super-soldiers.[3][4] At about the same time, Hasbro noted the success of Kenner's Star Wars action figures, and decided to relaunch their G.I. Joe property as G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero. Hasbro decided that they wanted the new figures to have a backstory, so they approached Marvel and contracted them to make a comic book series featuring the toys.[3]
As Hama tells the story, he got the job of writing for the series because Marvel had asked every other available creator to write it and no one else would. Unable to find other writing work at the time, he later said that, "If they had asked me to write Barbie, I would have done that, too."[5]
Soon after this, Hasbro hosted a meeting with Hama, Jim Shooter, Tom DeFalco, Archie Goodwin, and Nelson Yomtov to discuss the future of the property. It was at this meeting that Archie Goodwin suggested the idea of Cobra Command as a recurring enemy for G.I. Joe to fight; prior to this, Hasbro had not considered giving G.I. Joe an enemy.[6]
The first issue was published in June, 1982, containing two stories, both of which were written by Hama. The first story, "Operation: Lady Doomsday", was drawn by Herb Trimpe, who drew many issues and wrote issue #9, and the second story, "Hot Potato", was drawn by Don Perlin. This issue introduced many basic concepts of the G.I. Joe universe, such as the Joes having a base under a motor pool, and introduced the iconic "original 13" G.I. Joes: Breaker, Clutch, Flash, Grand Slam, Grunt, Hawk, Rock N' Roll, Scarlett, Short-Fuze, Snake Eyes, Stalker, Steeler, and Zap. The issue also introduced two recurring villains, Cobra Commander and the Baroness.[7]
Most of the early stories were completed in one issue, but multi-part stories began to appear by the middle of the series' first year of publication,[8] and there were hints of the ongoing storylines that would later characterize the series. In May 1983, issue #11 introduced many new characters, including most of the 1983 action figure line and the villain Destro, who would become a frequently recurring character. Many subsequent storylines involved the machinations and power struggles between him, Cobra Commander, and the Baroness. Issue #11 established a pattern for the series in which every so often Marvel would publish an issue introducing a group of characters and vehicles that represented the new year's toy offerings.[9]
In order to promote the series, Hasbro used television advertising, airing commercials to advertise many of the issues. These commercials were effective in that they allowed Hasbro to circumvent television regulations which mandated that commercials for toys could not contain more than ten seconds of animation. Since the commercials were promoting comic books and not toys, they could include a full thirty seconds of animation.[10] This was the first time that television commercials had been used to advertise a comic book.[11]
One of the beneficial side effects of the commercials was that they attracted many people to the comics who were not habitual comic readers. In an interview, Hama stated,
I think [the commercials have] also opened it up to a very different type of audience. I get a lot of letters from girls. I get a lot of letters from young housewives who sort of started watching the cartoons with their kids and sort of started getting into the characters, and then somewhere along the line they picked up the comic book and they started following the stories and got caught up in the continuity.[6]
The book's popularity with women has also been attributed to the many strong female characters featured in the comic, such as Scarlett and Lady Jaye. Since very few of the G.I. Joe action figures were female, Hama tended to use all of the female characters that were created as recurring characters in the comics.[12] An early issue that attracted lots of attention was G.I. Joe #21, the "Silent Interlude", which was told entirely without words or sound effects. In a 1987 interview, Hama explained that the motivation for the story was that,
I wanted to see if I could do a story that was a real, complete story - beginning, middle, end, conflict, characterization, action, solid resolution - without balloons or captions or sound effects.[6]
At first, the issue was controversial; some readers felt cheated that it had no words and could be "read" so quickly.[12] However, it eventually became one of the series' most enduring issues.[13][14][15] Another early highlight was 1984's "Snake-Eyes: The Origin" Parts I & II, published in issues #26-27. This issue established Snake-Eyes' complicated background and tied his character in to many other characters, both G.I. Joe and Cobra. The events of these issues would later be embellished and elaborated on in many subsequent issues.[16]
Later development
In 1986, G.I. Joe #49 was published, which introduced the character of Serpentor, a genetically created amalgam of history's greatest warriors. Serpentor played a significant role in the Cobra Civil War, which occurred in issues #73-76, a landmark story event that involved nearly every extant G.I. Joe and Cobra character vying for control of Cobra Island. Also in 1986, the series spawned a spin-off comic, G.I. Joe: Special Missions, which ran for 28 issues until 1989, usually featuring stand-alone missions focusing on a small group of Joes. By 1987, the main title was getting 1200 letters every week.[6] Hama read every one, and sent out fifty to one hundred hand-written replies every week.[17]
When G.I. Joe began, most toy tie-in comics lasted an average of two years,[18] so G.I. Joe, lasting for 14 years, was considered a runaway success. In the early 1990s, however, it began to drop in quality, and was cancelled by Marvel in 1994 with issue #155 due to low sales.[18] According to a history of the G.I. Joe property,
[In 1994,] The comic was the element of the brand most clearly on its last legs. The first issue (#144, Jan. 94) was a decent flashback to the cause of Snake Eyes' facial injuries. But from there the comic story closed out with a Star Brigade mission and some awful one-shot ideas before surprising readers with a decent final issue. The series ended unfinished, with several loose ends, including characters left brainwashed by Cobra.[19]
Writing style
Hama enjoyed a relatively loose working relationship with Hasbro. Hasbro would send him character sketches and brief descriptions of each character's military specialties, and Hama would create detailed dossiers on each character's personality and background. Eventually, Hasbro decided to reprint shortened versions of these dossiers as file cards on the packaging for the action figures. Hama tended to base the personalities of the characters on people that he knew, and he credits this technique for the realism of his characterization.[5] He later said that, "Events and continuity never meant anything to me. The important thing was the characters."[20]
Many readers praised the series for its attention to detail and realism in the area of military tactics and procedures. Much of this was due to Hama's military experience (he was drafted into the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers during the Vietnam war), but he also did a large amount of research in order to be as up-to-date as possible. He frequented Sky Books, a military-oriented bookstore in New York, and read many U.S. Army field manuals and technical manuals, and also credits his friend Lee Russel, a military historian, for helping him with research.[6]
In style and plot structure, the comic often made use of overlapping story threads. According to Hama,
We’ve been following one basic storyline pretty much in the comic for fifty issues. It’s sort of like an extended soap opera, although I try to have a real solid resolution at the end of each book. But I like to keep some plot threads going. There a sort of episodic quality to some of the earlier books, like one episode will last six issues. That will resolve completely, but two issues into it another thread may have started. At any given time there’s probably about three overlapping threads.[6]
Hama wrote out page-by-page plots for all of the issues he wrote, with most pages having four to six panels. He worked very closely with the artists in plotting the book,[6] and wrote the series spontaneously, never knowing how an issue would end until he got to the last page.[5]
IDW Publishing
In May 2010, IDW Publishing began a new series written by Larry Hama and picking up where the original series left off, starting with G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #155 1/2.[21]
Notes
- ^ James Wortman (August 5, 2009). "Larry Hama and the Not-So-Average Joes". Broken Frontier. Retrieved 2010-04-13.
- ^ Derek Johnson (8 May 2008). ""The Legend of G.I. Joe…New from Marvel Comics!": The Toy as Comic Book on Television". Retrieved 1 March 2011.
- ^ a b Ben Smith. "1980's G.I. Joe Team Origins & Artwork Uncovered". Metropolis Comics. Archived from the original on 2005-10-29. Retrieved 2010-04-13.
- ^ Brian Cronin (January 5, 2006). "Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed #32". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved 2010-04-13.
- ^ a b c Bill Mitchel (June 3, 2009). "IN-DEPTH: LARRY HAMA ON GI JOE, THE 'NAM & MORE". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved 2010-04-19.
- ^ a b c d e f g Dwight Jon Zimmerman (1986). "Comics Interview #37 and #38: Larry Hama". David Anthony Kraft's Comics Interview. Retrieved 2010-04-13.
- ^ Josh Eggebeen. "Operation Lady Doomsday/Hot Potato". G.I. Joe Comic Book Archive. Yojoe.com. Retrieved 2010-04-20.
- ^ The first multi-part story was in G.I. Joe #6 (December 1982) and #7 (January 1983).
- ^ c.f. G.I. Joe #11 (May 1983), #44 (February 1986), #60 (June 1987), #68 (February 1988) #82 (January 1989)
- ^ "Half the Battle: A History of G.I. Joe Releases, Page 1". Half the Battle. Retrieved 2010-04-13.
- ^ Kurt Anthony Krug (July 1, 2009). "Interview: G.I. JOE Generalissimo Larry Hama". Mania.com. Retrieved 2010-04-13.
- ^ a b Fred Meyer (2006). "JoeBattlelines:Interview with Larry Hama, Part 1". JoeBattlelines. Retrieved 2010-04-13.
- ^ Shaenon K. Garrity (18 September 2009). "All The Comics in the World: "Silent Interlude"". comiXology. Retrieved 1 March 2011.
- ^ Christopher Knight (14 January 2009). ""Silent Interlude": 25 years later, G.I. JOE comic still rattles the industry". Retrieved 1 March 2011.
- ^ James McFadden. "G.I. Joe Comics Home Page: Issue #21". Retrieved 1 March 2011.
- ^ Fred Meyer. "Review of Comic Pack #26 - Snake Eyes, the Origin Part 1". JoeBattlelines. Retrieved 1 March 2011.
- ^ Fred Meyer (March 19, 2007). "JoeBattlelines: Larry Hama Interview". JoeBattlelines. Retrieved 2010-04-13.
- ^ a b Yojoe.com (December 1997). "Interview with Larry Hama". Yojoe.com. Retrieved 2010-04-13.
- ^ "Half the Battle: A History of G.I. Joe Releases, Page 5". Half the Battle. Retrieved 2010-04-13.
- ^ Steve Ekstrom (2008-09-12). "G.I. Joe Roundtable, Part 1: Hama, Dixon, Gage & More". Newsarama. Retrieved 2010-04-13.
- ^ Brian Truitt (14 April 2010). "Larry Hama relaunches his '80s 'G.I. Joe 'series". USA Today. Retrieved 15 December 2010.
See also
External links
- G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero - YoJoe.com G.I. Joe Comic Book Archive
- JMM's G.I. Joe Comics Home Page
- G.I. Joe Comics covers from the 1980's