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1:16

This is iFanboy Booksplode Classic GI Joe,

1:18

A Real American Hero, Volume 1. He'll

1:22

fight for freedom wherever there's trouble. GI

1:25

Joe is there. GI Joe,

1:27

A Real American Hero. GI

1:30

Joe is there. It's GI

1:33

Joe against Cobra and Destro,

1:35

fighting to save the day. He

1:38

never gives up. He's always there,

1:40

fighting for freedom over land and air. GI

1:44

Joe, A Real American Hero. GI

1:47

Joe is there. Hello and

1:49

welcome to my Fanboy Booksplode Classic GI

1:51

Joe, A Real American Hero, Volume 1.

1:53

My name is Connor Kilpatrick and I

1:55

am here with Flanagan, Josh

1:58

A. I

2:01

had nothing. I really wanted a good one.

2:03

I was like, whatever I say is going

2:05

to be disappointing. So yeah, I'm still a

2:07

trainee. I'm working on it. Sergeant Slaughter's, you

2:09

know, he's going to give me, and at

2:11

the end we'll come out of it and he's like, oh,

2:13

that's fumbles. The new recruit. Frank E. One

2:16

fumbles. Chatterbox. Chatterbox. So

2:19

we're here to discuss this GI Joe volume. We'll

2:21

get to the statistics in a second, but this

2:23

is the book's bloat that was

2:25

unlocked by the patrons at patreon.com/ifamboy. Thank you for

2:28

being a patron. If you are one, if you're

2:30

not, please consider it. It's how all these shows

2:32

stay going and it's a going concern and we

2:34

appreciate everyone that supports the show. So

2:37

spoilers for this nearly 40 year old

2:39

comic or is it 40 years old? Oh

2:42

Jesus. 41 year old comic. 42.

2:46

If you listen to the pick of the week show regularly right now,

2:48

you know that Josh and I are on a GI Joe kick after

2:50

being in GI Joe slumber for many years. Josh

2:52

had been reading the issues, single issues, and we

2:54

decided let's do a book float. There isn't

2:56

actually a current printing of this book. What we're

2:58

talking about is the classic GI Joe real milk

3:00

and hero volume one, which is what IGW put

3:03

out when they initially got the license many, many

3:05

years ago. They put out at least 12 volumes

3:07

of really nice quality, high quality collections

3:10

of 10 inches a piece. And

3:12

so we're talking about the first 10 issues of GI Joe that are

3:14

in this first volume and perhaps a

3:16

few more after that, depending on how things go. But

3:19

if you're looking for this volume, it's really not something

3:21

that's currently in print. You have to find it in

3:23

a secondary market and they're quite expensive.

3:25

I'd be very curious to see if now that they're

3:27

with image, if image will go back and do it.

3:29

My God, they say they won't. They'll do the new

3:31

issues as collected editions, but not the old ones. That's

3:33

my guess. It's been done before. Marvel

3:36

originally started putting out collections. They didn't make it through the

3:38

whole run. I have those. I think they've made about five

3:40

or six of them. And then on IDW did

3:42

it, they put the whole initial Larry Hammer run and

3:45

collected it for them. They did the whole thing. Did

3:48

you buy them again? Did you buy the ones from IDW

3:50

that you already had from Marvel? Oh yeah, for sure. This

3:52

is what I'm holding my hand is that IDW volume one

3:54

here. Right. I have the

3:56

first 10. I stopped at 10, which takes you through issue 100

3:59

for some reason, though I stopped reading around

4:01

110 or 120. I could, I don't know

4:03

why I stopped short of where

4:05

I should have. I should have at least gotten volume 11,

4:07

which ends in the massacre for the piper, but didn't

4:10

do that. For whatever reason, that book is like

4:12

100 books, if you can find it at all. So,

4:16

GI Joe, originally published in Marvel

4:18

Comics. GI Joe number one

4:20

came out March 82. Cover date famously

4:22

June of 82, famously among people who

4:24

know things like this. And yeah, but

4:26

it came out in March of 82.

4:29

We were five. I was four. I

4:32

did not buy the first issue. I had just

4:34

turned five, actually. Right. You weren't

4:36

out there on the newsstand looking for GI

4:38

Joe? No, I didn't. Y'all got any of

4:40

that, Joe? No.

4:42

I mentioned to you earlier off air. I went through

4:45

the toys that made us GI Joe episode till the

4:47

end. Yeah. Just to

4:49

have a little more context on it. So

4:51

Netflix, in case you're wondering, it's a great

4:53

resource. Yeah. I have avoided it all together

4:55

because of the simple fact that they have

4:57

recreations. And I cannot abide. Traumatization of real

4:59

scenes in the documentary drives me insane. Wait,

5:01

did you not watch it before? No, I

5:04

didn't. Oh, oh, this is

5:06

exciting. No. I

5:08

started, I was like, oh, this is one of those documentaries that

5:10

has a recreation. I hate it. But that said, you know, like

5:12

I can get past my biases. It's fine. But

5:15

what I thought was really interesting is that so

5:17

GI Joe was in the 60s and 70s, extremely

5:19

popular toys. They were the first boy dolls. And

5:22

that's why they were called action figures. At the

5:24

time, they were trying, they were losing ground to

5:26

Star Wars. And so we got to do something.

5:28

They said, well, come on. They were big toys.

5:30

They were like 18 inch

5:33

figures. Little known fun fact. Our old

5:35

pal Darwin Cook had a massive

5:37

collection of those original GI Joe

5:39

figures. Like a massive collection that

5:41

he... And I have not seen

5:43

this with my own eyes. I've only seen photographs set

5:46

up as incredible diorama in

5:48

his house. Oh my god. Anyway,

5:50

just to get the context of why the comic

5:53

exists. And it is that they were trying to

5:55

break a rule. Basically, you're only

5:57

allowed to show animation for... Certain

6:00

amount of time and kids cartoon and they said well

6:02

what if we advertising a comic book. And.

6:04

So by advertising the toys their advertising the comic

6:06

book. So as they try to com for this

6:08

scenario to put these characters they said of a

6:11

comic book and so was developed with Marvel Comics

6:13

at the same time as Toil On have been

6:15

developed in fact and I will not do this

6:17

because it's don't like he like we saw it

6:19

but I'll read all the things but in fact

6:21

at some point somebody's i think at Marvel said

6:23

the us who they supposed to fight. And

6:26

in the has will be religious your other

6:28

toys and and Marvel was like when we

6:30

got to give him somebody and it was

6:32

I and they said it like he was

6:34

nobody. There were like and then and moral.

6:36

Edgar Archie Goodwin I was like V Archie

6:38

Goodwin you know, but that's maybe from my

6:40

perspective. The story goes that he just blurted

6:42

out. Cobra. And

6:45

thus it was born in so they as if is.

6:47

I think we will understand how a lot of come

6:49

up with stuff happens over there and but he goes.

6:51

What about if we kill him. And. That's

6:54

I think it's girls are just goes Would you

6:56

want to? Karma Cobra. Reflects. As

6:58

they couldn't resist the Soviet Union and the

7:00

Zola context of the the Cold War baba

7:02

block. and so they added those three other

7:04

characters Cobra Commander, Cobra Soldier and Co Road

7:07

officer whatever specific of the causal divert and

7:09

that's how you end up with bad Guys

7:11

which eyes good move by the way is

7:13

is a having a bad guys and so

7:15

they develop all this stuff and they do

7:17

i think a years where the comics or

7:19

something like that and then they all hold

7:22

because I buy sex back them up and

7:24

so then when they're ready to go they

7:26

have this backlog of stories and characters. That

7:28

were largely written in created by Larry Hama. He

7:30

was the one who wrote the little dossiers that

7:32

are on the back of a toys that Tell

7:34

you who everybody is sort of ensues. life and

7:37

all those things and. banana

7:39

what you can we talk about of a

7:41

like i lived by those will dossiers i

7:43

love don't like hoarding a story that when

7:45

with those toys was iran i'm all out

7:47

idol or file of that cartoon comes along

7:49

after that more people knew about that not

7:51

long after that eighty three but this other

7:53

stuff existing beforehand and it's important to note

7:55

again for nerds like us that this is

7:57

not related to the cartoons or it is

7:59

a different kinds continuity, if you will. Cartoon

8:01

took a lot of this characterization, but not all of it.

8:04

And finally, Larry Hama said, all these

8:06

people are running around with guns and

8:08

stuff, and in the cartoon, you can't

8:10

have anybody shoot anybody or anybody get

8:12

hurt. And what he said was that

8:14

that is, quote, morally bankrupt. And I

8:16

believe that as this series progresses, you

8:19

see how he exercised his belief about

8:21

violence and shooting and killing as opposed

8:23

to the cartoon. And

8:25

that will close with just saying, I did not read

8:27

these when I was young. I read them when I

8:29

was older, like in my early 20s, because a friend

8:31

of mine said, have you ever read those? And I

8:34

was like, no. And he goes, they're amazing. And I

8:36

read them and they were amazing. But it's been a

8:38

really long time since they did that. So going back

8:40

through here, it was pretty much like new, not completely.

8:42

Yeah. And you're looking at it with 20 years later

8:45

sensibility. It does take a while to

8:47

get to amazing. Yeah. I was

8:49

trying to think, and there's just no

8:51

way to know, but I definitely remember

8:53

being in my elementary school cafeteria passing

8:55

around geo joke issues with my friends.

8:57

I definitely remember playing with GI Joe

8:59

figures in our classrooms. You know, like

9:01

when we played blocks, we made little forts from

9:03

the GI Joe guys. I remember the one kid

9:05

who somehow managed to find a storm shadow and

9:08

brought him in. And we all were like a

9:10

bunch of six or seven year old boys going,

9:12

Ooh, around the store, you know, because they were hard to find back

9:15

then. So I don't know if I had to

9:17

hazard a guess. I would say I came on in

9:19

the 30s maybe. And then

9:21

went back to shoe hunting. I remember the

9:23

distinct difficulty in finding the snake eyes origin

9:25

issues, 26 and 27 and even

9:28

28 a little bit. I

9:30

wasn't a regular reader probably until after that, but the G.I.

9:32

Joe was always around. Once I started reading, I was a

9:34

regular reader up until, like I said, around 110 or 120.

9:39

And then I dropped off. And

9:41

then when it moved to IDW, I started up again. We all did.

9:44

I'm heard you ever one is the pick of the week after 9 11. We

9:46

lasted a while there, but not a long, long time.

9:48

I find it has a guess. I would say, you

9:50

know, right now we're on issue 303. There's

9:53

at least a hundred issues of G.I. Joe. I've

9:55

never read in that Larry Hama continuity. I have to guess.

9:58

No, you're right. This is a. totally different

10:00

than the cartoons. The cartoons is almost like the kitty

10:02

version of the comic, which

10:05

again was all designed to sell toys. I'm

10:07

looking at the IDW collection, which has Jade

10:09

Scott Campbell covers. And the

10:11

collection, the first issue is a recreation

10:13

of the first issue of a

10:16

comic, which is a tank in the background and

10:18

all the characters running at you. Only the

10:21

collection has added Snake Eyes because he wasn't on

10:23

the first issue cover. Right. If

10:25

you're placed Hawk with Duke who's not at all the first collection. No,

10:28

and we had that discussion perhaps on the show, perhaps not

10:30

really like it. Yeah, it's on the show. And

10:32

that was Hawk who... Looks and

10:34

sounds and acts like Duke. Yeah, he's... He

10:37

gets promoted at some point and then Duke shows up

10:39

and I think that they just... Well, it's Hawk and

10:41

General Flag and then Hawk becomes General Hawk and Duke

10:44

takes over Hoxwell, but I haven't even gotten that point

10:46

yet. Doesn't Flag become Admiral and then he gets the...

10:48

No, wait, that is the flag. Yes.

10:51

So anyway, this was fun for me because it's

10:53

been a long time since I've read them, gone

10:55

back and read through these early issues. And what

10:57

I found most interesting, just to dive in, is

11:00

to see how they're figuring it out on

11:02

the page. Because knowing

11:05

the continuity so well, knowing the characters so well,

11:07

seeing things that don't match up or line up

11:09

because they're figuring it out. And as

11:12

Josh and I, you and I discussed, the

11:14

mythology, the ongoing story of G.I. Joe

11:16

doesn't really start until issue 10, the

11:18

final issue of this collection, Welcome to

11:20

Springfield. Springfield being, of course, the Cobra

11:22

Town. Actually, it's called a nice little atomic guard, Welcome to

11:24

Springfield's in the cover. But issue

11:27

nine and eight are... Is

11:29

it nine and eight or two-parters? There's a two-part Russian

11:31

story, but the rest are all... Six

11:33

and seven is the Arctic team up

11:36

with the October Guard. Yes, that's the

11:38

only two-parter. The rest are all one and

11:40

done stories. Yes, with slight continuity, but

11:42

not a ton. There is character continuity for

11:44

sure. Right. But you don't... It isn't until

11:47

like 11 or 12 Other

11:49

than that one October Guard story, where it's

11:51

like the next issue starts where the last

11:53

issue ended, like that becomes the Sofapra quality

11:55

to start to run that point. Yeah, there's

11:57

a point where like Larry Hama does is...

12:00

The Any as he said this in the

12:02

dark as which he said sure, I can

12:04

do this because you you don't, just a

12:06

guy around them isn't the lower tier editor

12:08

around the office and he did it and

12:10

then these like what that one hell isn't

12:12

going to do with this and so you

12:14

know after he sort of did that first

12:16

chunk of them and it should be noted

12:18

is scripted as seven of the first ten.

12:20

keep right what he wrote fully. The two

12:22

parter was a plot by her Trump who

12:24

had drawn the issues prior to that and

12:26

that Hamas scripted it. And then issue nine

12:28

was written by Stephen Grants right. Who

12:30

I mostly new from his comic book resources.

12:32

Calm. and then I think Hama owns it

12:34

from there on out thrive as even topics

12:36

it was kind of the Marvel method right

12:39

were yes, trump would try and then Larry

12:41

Hama with some it's gripped. We only talked

12:43

about yourself. Larry Hama who is most closely

12:45

associated with Jojo. He was a Vietnam vet.

12:47

He. Was there from sixty nine, seventy one

12:50

use of firearms and was of ordinance expert.

12:52

And. In the eighties For people who

12:55

are younger than us maybe not understand how much

12:57

all the other old the most of the time

12:59

were working through their it it's Vietnam issues. Whether

13:01

they were in the war, not. And

13:03

we didn't know it at the time either.

13:05

It was like later when car I look

13:08

back and oh all of Mississippi are all

13:10

the movies, all the Tv show, everything. Everything

13:12

was people who had during the war or

13:14

had been protesting the war or had lost

13:16

some of the war processing that. And

13:19

so you had things with Marvel Comics producing

13:21

a book called the Nam that's realistic com

13:23

a book about Vietnam and you had this

13:25

other book called yoga which was not set

13:27

in that time period but was clearly a

13:29

way of dealing with. Sick of him is

13:31

as soon as you get literati surgeon flashback

13:33

to Vietnam because the charger served in it's

13:35

yeah as a as a kid that was

13:37

heavy. I still remember those panels from and

13:39

then they had. didn't learn how to draw

13:41

us as but you had all the settler

13:43

have incomes, the figurehead, the guy who runs,

13:45

you know the whole thing. He brought a

13:47

sense of. Discuss. Some crazy talking

13:49

to judge other. Reality. To it. And

13:52

the look, Everything in here says I'm Soft

13:54

Toys Vehicles. etc. but. The.

13:56

Way to talk about the weapons. the way they classify

13:59

them that the Akron. They used to talk about

14:01

things. All that stuff comes from

14:03

the schedule. It just it earlier was trying

14:05

to bring some moral clarity to what's happening.

14:07

I think that that right there is part

14:10

of the magic of it if you will.

14:12

It is clearly I mean it was intended

14:14

to sell toys and in like the first

14:16

junkie issues of the first year ten or

14:18

whatever, there was no. Ambiguity

14:21

about the fact of these are

14:23

vehicles. With. Which to sell toys?

14:25

I mean, it wasn't like all,

14:27

come on and I'll make something

14:29

of it. It isn't that it's

14:31

that. it is the thing. It

14:33

is, a commercial exploitation of Cold

14:35

War fears and boys love of

14:37

war for it is. And then

14:39

at the same time you have

14:41

this writer who somehow managed to

14:43

weave in his specific experiences and

14:45

then those of you know people

14:47

around him in the things that

14:50

he the experienced in a way

14:52

that in Congress li impossibly. Kind

14:54

of works and I can't help but

14:56

think as you and I you know,

14:58

men careening towards the age of fifty

15:01

are still talking about this and thinking

15:03

about this much longer and I can't

15:05

help of believe that that touch of

15:07

realism that little bit of like will

15:10

have the technical language hear sounds awful.

15:12

Real. That. That didn't attract in holds

15:14

a lot of us. If you do know I

15:16

am can't speak for everybody but you know you

15:18

and I are interested in history where incident things

15:21

have happened. We read books when it talk about

15:23

it and this had a smattering of that at

15:25

an age where we were too young to appreciate

15:27

it. But. It. Was there, and

15:29

I think that that's very interesting In

15:32

retrospect, I often have said many times

15:34

over the years of a fanboy have been

15:36

sometimes scoffed at by people younger than that. This

15:38

is where the most important comics ever made.

15:40

And that's because in the eighties. And.

15:42

That josh but everyone I knew as

15:44

who's reading comics reggio and watched year

15:47

ago and was brought to comics from

15:49

Matt or. Somehow.

15:51

Jojo was the onramp to going to the store

15:53

every week because you know you played the toys,

15:56

you watch the cartoon. Oh as a comic book

15:58

I'll read that to. Oh, There's other

16:00

comic books are read Spiderman and suddenly you

16:02

had someone going everly to the store. That

16:05

was a very common onramp to in my

16:07

mind. groups in the nineteen eighties. literally everyone

16:09

else friends have read com expected this. That's

16:11

what I didn't have any of that. I'm

16:14

super school to whenever people said baseball with

16:16

her soccer. Every one of my friend group

16:18

read comics in some way muslim when every

16:20

week but some just you know read old

16:22

issues but everyone read them are had them.

16:25

It was a common thing. Comics: Mad Magazine

16:27

and Cracks Magazine. But. Viejo

16:29

was of wasn't was popular things in that time

16:32

and it that's what were the most part com

16:34

us because not only was it in a way

16:36

really subversive anna how he was able to get

16:38

away from the stuff he did in his book

16:40

special later on but it was very important to

16:43

growing the fan base in have grown in next

16:45

generation of comic readers and isn't really really important

16:47

but now you know this person issues aren't that

16:49

comic or given that that's what's it's name know

16:51

well as it in read that that's also interesting

16:54

about nascent thing about a person who is actually

16:56

turned into an otter comic book writer to this

16:58

day. He put. His wife Revenue

17:00

is your last week. You. Know

17:02

it was able to turn that into

17:04

like his life's work and I kept

17:06

thinking us like we had some kind

17:08

of backend on something which is a

17:10

regular paycheck. And mean entering a

17:13

paychecks? eighty one. And in comics.

17:15

That's. Not nothing. I. Was Jack

17:17

Kirby's dream regular Paycheck. But.

17:19

Again, getting back to this collection!

17:21

So Jojo is a highly trained

17:24

Special Mission force. They're basically like

17:26

this clandestine special forces unit within

17:28

the military and their. Main.

17:30

Objective is to fight Cobra. Who.

17:32

Are ruthless terrorist organization and term and to

17:34

rule the world who run by this lunatic

17:36

mad Max over commander who was one of

17:38

my favorite characters. Nalls six in. The. Great!

17:41

So like I said, what's fun for me

17:43

reading this for sources read the stories was

17:45

to see how they were figuring it out

17:47

like in the beginning. The kicker. Speaking of

17:49

really clunky dialogue when they were talk about

17:51

there were equipment and try to find one

17:53

that seemed impossible. But. They'll be like

17:55

that's the mobile, The mobile on what we don't

17:57

the would have a spell out the whole Akron.

18:00

in the dialogue balloon. It was only towards the

18:02

very end when they started replacing that with the

18:04

editor's notes which became famous in G.I. Joe for

18:07

spelling out all the acronyms. So at first it was all in

18:09

the dialogue and then you watched them figure out, now let's just

18:11

put that in the editor's note. And

18:13

then you'd see things like, they hadn't figured

18:15

out what exactly Snake Eyes was all about

18:18

or who his friends were. And so at one point, early

18:20

on, Snake Eyes does something and Stalker's like, oh, why is

18:22

he doing that? And someone else said, well, he's doing that

18:24

because of this. I said, no, you should switch those dialogue

18:26

balloons because Stalker would be the one who would know that

18:28

being his lifelong friend. But

18:31

they didn't know back then. They were figuring it out.

18:33

And almost every time Snake Eyes' mask comes off, he

18:35

either has hair, he doesn't have hair. It was always

18:37

kind of different. Again, they were making up as they

18:39

went along. I didn't remember the detail from it in

18:42

any way except for the fact that I knew that

18:44

every time his mask come off, somebody went, ugh! You

18:46

know, like someone was disgusted by his face from there

18:48

which I liked. And I did learn a thing today

18:50

that I did not know. I'm gonna

18:52

not bring this up anymore, but it was so relevant is

18:55

that there was a point where the people making the toys

18:57

were told they were gonna have to raise the price. But

19:00

they didn't want to. So what they did was they said, well, we'll do

19:03

one of the characters unpainted. And so

19:05

Snake Eyes came out completely black, plastic,

19:09

no painting, and they thought, well, we'll see if people

19:11

buy that, but we saved some money. And of course,

19:13

it becomes the most popular character out on the line

19:15

by far. People always have just a nefarious plot behind

19:17

everything that happens. Sometimes it just happens to have. Yeah.

19:20

But there was a sense also pretty quickly that Snake Eyes is

19:22

the coolest guy here, even though I think in a way, in

19:25

his first issue, it's the main character. Okay,

19:27

there's a couple of things we need to talk about. I

19:30

don't know the best format for this, but Scarlet's

19:32

very much the main character. And I thought,

19:35

as I was reading it, and I noticed, I've

19:37

noticed in the cartoon too, despite Clutch's

19:39

best effort at objectifying her, she

19:42

is just a capable soldier in

19:44

these books. Yes. Like

19:46

she happens to be a woman, but

19:48

that's it. There is a startling lack

19:50

of sexual or gendered stereotyping

19:53

about her or the way that people

19:55

treat her again, except for Clutch, who

19:57

is a problem. You know what, you sent

19:59

me the panels before. I started reading it and totally is for

20:02

about the first half of this book And

20:04

then I don't know if they got a note

20:06

or what but it gets toned way down and then

20:08

by the end He's not even

20:11

making those comments anymore. Yeah, he's like

20:13

the smartass But yeah, like I know what you mean, but

20:15

like I can't think of all like every time she's like

20:17

You know, he's right pop out of his head this tongue

20:19

rolls down But then by the end when there's that one

20:21

mission they go on to Europe where she's in a bikini

20:23

He doesn't say a word about it. Yeah.

20:26

Yeah. Yeah, you're right. It's just Definitely

20:28

tone it down. They must have gotten a note.

20:30

Maybe I mean, yeah I'm not disagreeing with that

20:33

but but either way the sort of respect that

20:35

they had for that character Mm-hmm. Like I said,

20:37

I'm noticing the cartoons too is actually it's really

20:39

surprising She was first wave and you know, she's

20:41

kind of the most capable snake eyes is capable

20:43

in a different way They didn't figure out the

20:46

snake eyes was cool until about the end of

20:48

this sort of chunk of issues like he's another

20:50

guy Well, he was the ninja but they didn't

20:52

really think about the possibilities of that and also Similar

20:54

to Scarlett Stalker the one though at

20:57

the beginning the one black character is sort

20:59

of the highest ranking soldier after hawk Yeah,

21:02

you have an Asian American who's writing all

21:04

this Yeah And in the aftermath

21:06

of you know in 82 we had not figured out

21:08

racial identity in politics nearly to the extent that we

21:10

have now You know, but you

21:12

have a guy who fought in Vietnam I mean

21:15

there's a whole lot going on there and in

21:17

a way, you know, I don't it's really hard

21:19

to speculate about all of it But like yeah,

21:21

Joe is really diverse For

21:23

the time totally way ahead of

21:25

its time in terms of every

21:27

race being represented every culture There's

21:29

American Indian characters. There's Latino characters

21:31

as black characters in the 80s.

21:33

That was totally totally unusual There

21:36

are stereotypes in there Sure But you almost can't

21:38

help that but I still feel like they were

21:40

doing their damn best to be respectful in The

21:43

way that they could at the time spirit iron

21:45

knife talks a little like a cartoon

21:47

Indian and I say that you know Is it

21:49

but actually you know what actually is it in

21:52

this one? I think it's

21:54

not he's not in the first volume at all

21:56

No, no, no, but airborne is airborne airborne is

21:58

I think will Franklin tall tree And someone

22:00

says to him, you're an Indian, he goes, I'm a

22:03

Native American. And I was like, damn, getting ahead of

22:05

it. I really, like, that really stood out. I actually

22:07

think that was the very beginning of volume two, but

22:10

I did catch on that because that was not a dialogue

22:12

that I'd ever saw in the 80s happening

22:14

anywhere. And so I was like, whoa, shit, wow,

22:16

really? No, very progressive in that

22:19

sense. That's why several years ago, there was a GI

22:21

Joe miniseries that I stopped reading because they started racial

22:23

swapping the characters. I'm like, you don't need to racial

22:25

swap characters in GI Joe. They're all there. I

22:27

want to have a black character in the story, pick one of the many

22:29

black characters in this team. It was ahead of its time

22:32

in terms of diversity, but obviously not a panacea

22:34

or a utopia, but it was ahead of its time

22:36

in terms of what was really progressive in 1980. They

22:38

were trying. And I can't help

22:41

but think with some of us, it made a dent. Sure.

22:44

So are there any stories in this first volume that

22:46

stick out at you or anything that stuck out at

22:48

you all reading it, the Herb Tramp art? I like

22:50

it a lot. It's very much of its time. Yeah.

22:53

But I think it's very well done. You know

22:55

what we should talk about? What? I'm

22:57

just saying this. Every issue is dense as fuck. Yes.

23:00

It's a very different way of writing comic. You said to me, you're

23:03

not going to be able to read more than one or two at

23:05

a time. And it's totally true. It's

23:07

exhausting in a good way. They feel

23:09

like double-sized issues. Yes. And

23:11

they're not. It's not... I don't know. I've

23:13

said this before, but I didn't used to be able to read

23:15

through a lot of old comics because there is so much junk

23:18

in there that sometimes it didn't feel like it flowed very well.

23:21

And now I've got... I feel like I finally

23:23

learned the ability to appreciate things for what they

23:25

are and enjoy the things about them that are

23:27

inherent to the form. And so in this, I

23:30

was just enjoying them for what they are and

23:32

not being like, oh, this is so... I'm

23:34

not comparing it to a modern comic. It is what it is from

23:36

the time. And there's something interesting about that. Part of the reason why

23:38

I like watching old films is you can see them figuring the medium

23:40

out, especially in the 20s

23:42

and 30s. So here, same way. Obviously, they

23:44

weren't figuring out comics, but they were figuring

23:47

out GI Joe as to how to tell

23:49

those stories. And I really enjoyed watching the

23:51

progression. Like I said, I'm looking at

23:53

page 178 in a trade, whatever that is. So

23:56

now in the editor's note is Mobat and Vamp.

24:00

attack multi-purpose for Vamp. They really like had

24:02

to stretch to get some of those words.

24:05

Everything was given an acronym. Yeah, and the early issues

24:07

would have said, hey, I'm driving the Vamp, the vehicle

24:10

attack multi-purpose. Then they realized they

24:12

can make it better if they don't have and say it.

24:14

I didn't notice. That's a good observation. I like that. I

24:16

think one of the things as we go through the stories,

24:18

there is, I know they're

24:21

for kids toys, but they're

24:23

much more, you wouldn't

24:25

see a kids comic like if something was

24:27

dedicated like for eight-year-olds, you wouldn't see politics

24:30

to this extent. So the first issue

24:32

we meet the Joes and Cobra,

24:35

and the deal is the Cobra commander has

24:37

kidnapped doctors. There's always a

24:39

doctor, a professor or scientist or somebody

24:41

like that. Cartoons too, Cobra commander is

24:43

obsessed with finding smart people to get

24:45

them to do things for him. And

24:47

she has been outspoken about the United

24:50

States and the military. She's anti-military, anti-war.

24:52

Right. And so the Joes have to go get her and

24:55

of course, because they're soldiers. They're like, why don't we go

24:57

in and get this piece, Nick? I don't know if they

24:59

use that term. But then they

25:01

get there and Cobra commander is like, see what

25:03

they think of you. And he's like, yeah, but

25:05

you're terrorists. I'm going with them. I'm paraphrasing everything.

25:08

But still I was like, this is pretty high

25:10

level for again, kids toys. I

25:12

don't know. I feel like they have no respect

25:14

for kids. Oh, totally. They weren't being

25:17

written down to. In the first issue, the

25:19

Cobra salute is very much a Nazi

25:21

salute. Yes, it is. And then

25:23

at one point, oh, right. So in

25:26

the first issue on Cobra Island, there's

25:28

also a native village and

25:30

to distract the Joes, they go

25:32

and they massacre the village. Jesus. I was

25:34

just like, Jesus. You know, like I'm looking

25:37

at page 25 on the trade and it's,

25:40

I don't believe it, Cobra wiped out the entire village.

25:42

Women, kids, everybody. They did it to keep them from

25:45

helping us. It's our fault. I was like, damn, that's

25:47

dark. That's the first issue

25:49

of a book meant to sell toys. Mm-hmm. We

25:52

were damaged folk back then. We were, yeah. Then

25:54

we head into that next issue is they're in

25:56

the Arctic and we meet Quinn, the

25:58

Eskimo. That's what they call it. them and wouldn't

26:01

call him that now. But Quinn then becomes

26:03

a recurring character and he's amazing

26:05

because when he makes a deal, he sticks to

26:07

the deal. He never lies. He never goes back

26:09

on his bargain and he's a wild card. You

26:11

don't know what to expect from him. He shows

26:13

up later. I love Quinn.

26:15

I'm a big fan of Quinn.

26:17

Pete He's like a moral absolutist. Like what

26:19

he believes is right. He follows that to

26:22

the letter. He'll be very pedantic about the

26:24

letter of the law. Like in

26:26

the second collection, which I'm reading now, he

26:28

shows up and ends up helping G.I. Joe

26:30

because his contract ends with Cobra when a

26:32

certain thing happens. Pete But again, I'm gonna

26:34

point out like how dark. In

26:37

the end of this second issue, they had this

26:39

adventure in the Arctic with Quinn and Cobra and

26:42

Quinn helped these Cobra guys get away, but

26:44

he basically tells the Cobra guys, G.I. Joe's

26:46

gonna get you. And he's like,

26:48

no, no, we're miles from them. He goes, yeah,

26:50

they're trackers and you're not. And it's a slow

26:52

pan over three panels. A

26:54

wide shot of Scarlet Breaker,

26:56

Stalker, and Snake Eyes. Snake

26:58

Eyes wearing Quinn's necklace. To

27:01

a medium shot, to a close-up of Snake Eyes

27:03

and his Uzi and the necklace. And it was

27:05

just like a dark ending. They're

27:07

gonna track him down and kill these guys. There's

27:09

a lot of just indiscriminate machine gunning of people

27:12

in these comics. Again, in a way that would

27:14

never happen now for various reasons. Maybe good or

27:16

maybe bad, I don't know. Jared- Yeah, it's hard

27:18

to say. Then we have a third issue is

27:21

a robot. It's a Ditrojan, I forget what it's

27:23

called, Ditrojan something. Ditrojan. Pete I like that issue

27:25

a lot. It was really great.

27:27

It was a locked box sort of adventure.

27:29

We have to get there before the robot

27:31

destroys everything. Pete The Joe's bringing the robot

27:33

pieces back to their base. Their hidden base

27:35

in Staten Island, New York, which later on an

27:38

issue is said to be in New Jersey, but then goes

27:40

back to Staten Island. They were just making it up as

27:42

they went. But they don't realize that Cobra has

27:44

rigged the robot to reassemble itself and cause havoc in

27:46

the base and then help Cobra find the base because

27:48

it's a hidden base. And so, they've gotta destroy the

27:50

robot before it can get its signal out and that

27:53

was just a terrific, it's a

27:55

locked box issue. Jared- And it was

27:57

like it came down to the very last second.

27:59

You know, as the robot keeps getting blown up

28:02

and it's smaller and smaller and smaller and these

28:04

little sort of like spider robots end up and

28:06

they get crushed at the end and that's sort

28:08

of the end of it. And it really goes

28:10

right up the last page and the threat is

28:13

ended. Really nice. You

28:15

know, nobody knows the threat they're under. That was

28:17

good. I would love to know why the

28:20

transition from Hawk to Duke with

28:22

the same character with the same appearance.

28:24

I'm curious why they've done it. I'm not there yet. It

28:27

has to have to do with the cartoon. There were

28:29

other toys. Yeah. Because there wasn't a

28:31

Hawk toy. Not till later. There

28:34

wasn't a Hawk toy till he had the brown hair and he had

28:36

the jacket with the fur collar. It

28:39

wasn't like an original Hawk toy. Maybe it

28:41

was a mistake. Maybe he was supposed to be Duke all along

28:43

and then I don't know. And then

28:45

the cartoon came out like he looks like that.

28:47

We have to make him Duke and then I

28:49

don't know. Then that just features Snake Eyes' lovely

28:51

penmanship. Well that was... Very tight.

28:53

The right wing survivalist group in the

28:56

wilds of America. Again, kids love that.

28:59

We learned that he's willing to kill all

29:01

of his acolytes and some of them finally

29:03

turn against him again. Hawk's on the

29:05

cover because he's an Aryan. That

29:08

was dark. It was. And

29:11

then one of my favorites is the next one.

29:13

Is number five, Tanks for the Memories. With

29:16

the... Again, where's

29:18

the dialogue? Here we go. Come on, Scarlett.

29:20

You got to get the program. Pick up a sponge and

29:22

help us scrub down the old Mobat multi-ordance battle tank. That's

29:25

something that would later go into a editor's note. This

29:28

is the one that has incredibly phallic shots of

29:30

them sitting on the tank. Very

29:33

much so. Breaker, who always is blowing

29:36

a bubble. Steeler, Clutch, and Scarlett are

29:38

on... Well, Scarlett's not in the

29:40

tank parade, but they're on the military parade through the streets

29:42

of New York. That's definitely a thing that happens. Then

29:45

of course, Cobra attacks and they have

29:48

to sort of fight Cobra off without the brass

29:50

snowing it. And so it's sort of this clandestine

29:52

rolling tank battle through the streets of New York

29:54

City, which they have to keep secret. They

29:57

can't use it as a tank? Because they've

29:59

got no ordnance. They have to pretend it was

30:01

very clever and I like this issue a lot.

30:03

I remember the toy like kind of just looked

30:05

like a regular tank, but this one like, here's

30:07

what's great about the tank and it like it

30:09

goes underwater and it's got all this other stuff.

30:11

It looks like a normal tank, but it's better

30:13

than that. You know, as this sort of crowd

30:15

of stuffy generals and maybe they're the

30:17

Joint Chiefs. I really wanted to see the tanks.

30:20

I was told specifically that we would be reviewing

30:22

of display of spanking new armor. He

30:24

really wanted to see tanks. I can't tell

30:26

who the characters are just by looking at them. In

30:29

the first wave, they all looked, but one of them is

30:32

really into looking at the majorette's butt, which

30:34

is clutch. Is it clutch?

30:36

Yeah, I figured or stealer. Let's say I'm

30:38

fulfilling the obligation of a military commander to

30:40

keep abreast of the rear guard situation. Okay,

30:42

you got a pun about boobs and

30:45

there's not like there's he's looking through the screen at

30:47

the woman in front of it turns out to be

30:49

a Cobra. She's a shapely majorette. Let's not let's

30:52

not miss words here, but the screen that he's

30:54

watching her on her head is cut off. He's

30:56

looking at her ass. Yes. Kid's

30:58

comic. Kid's comic. Very funny. Very

31:01

good. The jocks that

31:06

are just going for a nice rowboat in Central

31:08

Park. The three city high football players who just

31:10

happened to be in a rowboat for some reason,

31:13

who make fun of the turkeys in the marching band uniforms,

31:15

only nerds who join the stupid marching band and then they

31:17

get tossed overboard because the tank comes out of

31:19

the water and knocks their boat over. But why are they

31:21

in the rowboat? Well, one of those kids

31:23

was named Winklevoss and he would go on to

31:25

have twin sons who would be tall. I

31:29

just thought this was combined sort of the absurdity

31:31

and the fun of it, but also being clever

31:33

and good character stuff. General

31:35

flag gets shot in the head by Cobra

31:37

Commander, but only glancing Lee. I thought it

31:40

was a good issue. I didn't love the

31:42

October guard to parter. I liked it. I didn't love it

31:44

as much as there are other issues for

31:46

some reason. I liked it in the midst of

31:49

the Cold War. There was that they

31:51

basically the Russians and

31:53

the Americans had to work together and it

31:55

was under the guise of so basically there's

31:57

a secret plane or something that they have.

32:00

to go get and the Soviets are also

32:02

after it and then they find out that Cobra's

32:04

after it too. So Cobra steals

32:06

it and the Joes and the Russians have

32:08

to work together. With the understanding that the

32:10

second that Cobra's defeated, they're going to go

32:12

back to fighting and in this

32:14

story, they get to kind of like and respect

32:16

each other while they are not at each other.

32:19

Because they get to meet each other. And it's

32:21

such a great, you know, again,

32:23

this is in the midst of the Cold War. I

32:25

cannot, if you were not alive, you cannot fathom

32:28

how much we hated

32:30

Soviet people for the prior 40 years.

32:33

And it is culminating at this point in

32:35

history. And there's this little comic book that

32:37

is just going, you know, they're not that

32:39

different. They would probably get along fine. You

32:41

also have a brief appearance from basically the

32:43

Mujahideen. Yes, yes. On

32:46

our side, prior. Who at the time were on our

32:48

side, it was just prior, it was just prior to

32:50

we armed them with the service to air missiles. They're

32:53

incredibly competent. They don't fuck around.

32:56

The CIA guys, they're helping the Joe set up and

32:58

he's stock was just a two bit infantry man. He

33:01

can't help you. And the guy says, he's a

33:03

fighting man. So I know you would understand like

33:05

they respected the Joe's, the Joe's respected them. And

33:07

then, you know, you've got a map. They're going

33:09

to Karachi. They're in Pakistan. They're going, they're going

33:12

to all these places now that are just the

33:14

hotbeds of anti-American terrorism sentiment.

33:16

You know, they're in Kabul. They're

33:19

in the Hindu Kush. They're going

33:21

to escape to Pakistan to make their escape. It's a

33:23

good snapshot of how different the world was back then.

33:26

Yeah. And you know, if you know anything

33:28

about history, then you see where that stuff leads and sort of where

33:30

we started and where we ended up. Well, they try to make us

33:32

think that Hawk's a bad guy, but he's not. You

33:35

know what I was saying? I was when that came up,

33:37

I felt like I didn't get that resolved. He fed them

33:39

fake information, has a fake mole to send them to the

33:41

wrong. Because the whole thing was

33:43

they were all fighting over a

33:45

decoy that the rest of the

33:48

Joe's had already rescued the right plane. But

33:50

he told them that like a dick. Yeah. It

33:54

was for no reason. He did. He told them

33:56

when they landed. Right. In the beginning, he says it to

33:58

Stalker's face. Hold up.

34:00

This is good stuff. We

34:02

get into eight. The Joe's are protecting

34:04

a space launch in Florida as Cobra

34:06

as a full-on attack on the coast

34:08

of Florida. Right. And

34:11

this is the all Herb Trimp. Larry Halma didn't

34:13

write or have anything to do with this one.

34:15

It's action-packed. I'll give it that. I didn't hate

34:17

it. I didn't hate it. I don't remember a

34:20

lot about it. I like there was a bit

34:22

where it was like military tactics in terms of

34:24

them, you know, like they formed

34:26

a perimeter and that's when you just see like,

34:28

again, it's called Sea Strike. Actually some great

34:31

art in this one. The first couple of pages

34:33

there's a Cobra boat and Cobra commander is, you

34:35

know, standing in the wind and rain and

34:37

his like cloak is floating over him. I found that

34:39

as we went through this, the art got better. Like

34:41

if they sort of settled into who everybody was at

34:43

first, it was like, oh, this is just a day

34:46

job or whatever. And as we

34:48

kept going, the art gets stronger. Did

34:50

Trimp draw this too? Yes.

34:52

Script and art. I was surprised to see his name

34:54

because I didn't remember it and I didn't know who

34:56

he was probably when I first read this because Mike

34:58

Vosberg, I don't know if he's

35:00

on before the end of this. Is he

35:02

on the next issue that Stephen Grant writes?

35:05

So Vosberg's first issue is bad looking. And

35:07

I thought, oh, I remember this as being better than

35:10

this, but he gets, as you get

35:12

into that sort of bunch of issues, like nine's

35:15

really rough. There's parts where like, this is not professional. And

35:17

what it is is not that it's not professional. It's that

35:19

he can give a shit. Like he was work a day.

35:21

Like here, this is good enough. It's for a kid. He's

35:23

doing a toy comic. And Thomas said

35:26

something about that. He's doing the toy comic. That's nothing.

35:28

That's bullshit. No one wants that. And then as they

35:30

get going, because I remember I was like, Vosberg, that's

35:32

a name he's on for a while. And very quickly,

35:34

his stuff gets a lot better. Even

35:36

in this issue, there are really

35:39

nice sequences or

35:42

nice panels. I'm looking at the panel where Scarlett

35:44

skis down a hill onto a jump, jumps into

35:46

the air and then crashes through the window to

35:49

break up the arms deal. Like

35:51

that panel where she's crashing the windows, terrific.

35:54

In this same issue where a plane, they have to

35:57

take a plane down, it crashes and the Himalayas. Yep.

35:59

You want to talk about storytelling? The page

36:02

where that happens? It's so good.

36:04

So you know, when I said art's not great,

36:06

there's clearly figure problems here and here that don't

36:08

matter. Oh, by the way, this issue is your

36:10

number nine. Dutch whorehouse. Jesus

36:12

yes. Yes, this is the

36:14

unnamed Dutch brothel in which some of the

36:16

action takes place, yes. It's

36:18

clearly, like there's no like, well, this looks like

36:20

it could be. They're in Amsterdam. These

36:22

are clearly working ladies. There is a madam.

36:25

They're all standing around smoking and

36:28

skimpy undergarments. But at six years old,

36:30

I wouldn't have known that. I know. But

36:32

I did really want to go to Amsterdam. I didn't understand why.

36:35

There's some good trade craft. This is when they're in the south

36:37

of France. They fight on land,

36:39

sea and air in this one. Yeah, they're all over

36:41

the world. This feels almost like a James Bond movie.

36:44

They go to France and they go to Amsterdam. There's

36:47

a room that's bugged, it's communicated by paper. There's

36:49

a lot more interesting things happening even if the art is

36:51

not just enough. This is Stephen Grant's doing. It

36:54

feels almost much more international than before. Even

36:56

though before they were in Afghanistan and stuff. But it

36:58

just felt like a fun, sexy,

37:00

Bond story. And

37:02

again, Scarlett is the hero of this. I didn't mean

37:05

the hero. She's the leader in this. And

37:07

Snake Eyes is along to help when she's not leading

37:09

things. And then

37:11

finally, as we sort of get near the

37:13

end, issue number 10 introduces the town of

37:15

Springfield. 10 is where it starts. 10

37:18

is where G.I. Joe starts to become G.I. Joe. This

37:20

is where the story starts to kick off. Nice

37:23

Little Town, Mike Vars, Larry Ham, Mike Vossberg, Chick

37:25

Stone on Lynx. Chick's a good name.

37:27

You don't get a lot of chicks anymore. One

37:29

thing I do want to mention, and I'm looking at

37:32

the cover to 10, there were some terrific, classic

37:34

covers on G.I. Joe. And I remember

37:37

as a kid, again, if I

37:39

started in the 30s, looking at

37:41

the early issues and

37:44

the back issue ban and having only the covers to go by,

37:46

and looking at, look at cover 10. Like, welcome

37:48

to Springfield, nice little town. Scarlet Snake Eyes, I

37:50

walk to this little suburban street, but the facade

37:53

is fake. And it's like a movie set, behind

37:55

the movie set are a bunch of Cobra soldiers

37:57

with AK-47s. I

38:00

wanted that issue so badly, you know, because

38:02

what was that about? You know,

38:04

they had really great covers. The cover of Stalker

38:06

shooting back to back with the Russian guy is

38:09

another one. Every one of the

38:11

covers was exactly what the story was.

38:14

Yeah. It was dramatized. It was, you know,

38:17

well conceived and they were good covers, but

38:19

they were also directly narratively tied. And there

38:21

wasn't even the kind where like it promises

38:23

something that's sort of related to the story

38:25

that wasn't. It was from the

38:28

story or at least told you like the

38:30

theme of the story. Yeah. Over and over.

38:32

It really impressed me. There's some really like

38:34

all time covers. Yeah. Issue

38:36

10 introduces the idea of Springfield, which is

38:38

the town Cobra sort of takes over. First

38:41

of all, it was important in the Cobra side of things

38:44

in the early days, as Josh said earlier, they

38:46

didn't have the characters. It's only really Cobra commander

38:48

and occasionally Baroness shows up, but the rest

38:50

is just Cobra soldiers. They don't really introduce

38:52

anybody else until the next volume. They just

38:54

get Destro. You get major blood. But in

38:56

the beginning, it's really just Cobra commander and

38:58

sometimes Baroness. And so here she's back and

39:01

we find out that Cobra took over this

39:03

town, you know, slowly, they started hiring people

39:05

for our, the company that turns out to

39:08

be Cobra, you know, front for Cobra and

39:10

very slowly, this becomes a company town where

39:12

everyone's working for Cobra. Although not everybody's happy

39:14

about it, but it's like this creepy, almost

39:17

twilight zone-esque scenario, right? Where they, this is

39:19

small town in America that's being taken over

39:21

by terrorists, but it's too late to stop

39:24

it. It was good. It

39:26

was really good. It was, and it made

39:28

me excited for sort of what comes next because I

39:30

mean, you look at more than a hundred issues after

39:32

this, where he gets to sort of world build this

39:34

and I, and I, and I mean, I'm not going

39:36

to tell you that you should come in here and

39:38

be like, you should read this. Like people say you

39:40

should read Watchmen, but if you have

39:43

any affinity for this stuff and you don't know

39:45

about it, it's better than you, than you think

39:47

it could be. And it's also, it can just

39:49

be entertaining also. I don't want to be like,

39:51

oh man, it's much deeper than, you know, it

39:54

didn't have to be that. Yeah, exactly. If taken

39:56

for what it is taken in the con

39:58

and then, you know, the historical context. of

40:00

everything is extremely interesting. And so

40:02

this issue, we get the first inklings

40:04

of Snake Eyes origin. He gets put

40:06

into Dr. Venom's contraption. Dr.

40:09

Venom because we hadn't thought of Dr. Meinbender yet.

40:12

Right. He's basically Dr. Meinbender. What is the name of this

40:14

machine? I'm looking right at it. There's

40:16

so many words here. Yeah, whatever it is. It

40:18

basically turns his memories into TV images.

40:21

They're trying to find a location of

40:23

the pit at Jiyajo Base, but instead

40:25

Snake Eyes fights him off with other

40:27

memories, leaving Saigon on the last helicopter,

40:30

going to the prom, working at the Texaco station. But

40:32

again, them not knowing here, a

40:35

helicopter crash in Vietnam is responsible for his disfigurement.

40:37

That's kind of what happens in his official origin,

40:40

but not really. His family being

40:42

killed in a car accident, that's part of his origin. So

40:45

you start to get that, which you've never seen

40:47

before. Snake Eyes, very strong chin on these issues.

40:50

So you see his face in silhouette. You never see his

40:52

face until much, much later in the series. And that's also

40:54

something that was very popular back then in the 80s, was

40:57

the characters whose faces he never saw. He never saw Cobra

40:59

Commander's face. He never saw Snake Eyes's face. He never saw

41:01

Destro's face. He never saw Dr. Doom's face

41:03

back then. As far as I'm concerned, we

41:05

never saw Cobra Commander's face. I mean, the most you

41:07

ever saw was where he was wearing the brown glasses,

41:09

the fake mustache, the beret, and the wig. That

41:13

was the unmasked issue in a cover where they're all taking

41:15

their masks off. But you never actually see their faces, but

41:17

you almost do. The only thing of his face that I'm

41:19

willing to admit is real is when he wears the hood

41:21

and you see his skin around his eyes. Right.

41:24

And he's wearing his face. That was so exciting as

41:26

a kid. You know, just getting a glimpse, a

41:28

little glimpse of their face. And it

41:30

wasn't like Destro was going to take off

41:32

his mask and I was like, oh shit, it's Bob from accounting.

41:34

Like there wasn't a mystery to it. It was just the mystery

41:36

was you never saw it. And so all you could do was

41:38

imagine it. And it made the characters much more

41:40

interesting. Same way that you never know Wolverine's origin. And then once you

41:43

did, you were like, ah, okay. It was much more fun when you

41:45

didn't know it. You were forced to imagine it and fill in the

41:47

blanks yourself. Springfield becomes very important. Snake

41:50

Eyes and his origin become very important. And

41:53

this is where we start to sort of get into that

41:56

ongoing soap opera narrative of the world that

41:58

Larry Havel is building. building and it comes

42:01

to a head in issue 10. And

42:03

it's a great issue, including the very

42:05

end of that incredible Hulk cameo and Snake

42:07

Eyes and his rifle having to take a bus to Staten

42:10

Island from New Jersey. He's just one of

42:12

those Times Square Hulks though. Right. He's

42:14

a play actor Hulk. Well, not even Times Square. He's

42:17

in Bayonne. I know, just... New

42:20

Jersey. You have to take

42:22

that bus. Well, let me, let's talk about

42:24

the fact that the Joe's, Fort Wadsworth, it's

42:27

located on Staten Island and they're in the

42:29

hidden underground bunker that goes six floors down,

42:31

I think. Yeah, more than that probably. They're

42:33

in the motor pool there. That's who they,

42:35

like, and nobody at the fort who isn't

42:37

part of G.I. Joe knows who they are

42:39

or what they do. Everything they do is

42:41

completely clandestine. It's awesome. Right. later

42:45

on I think it's in Utah. Like, it's

42:47

permanent. Oh, really? In the current books,

42:49

there are bases in Utah. Oh. I thought

42:51

it was in Staten Island in the beginning. No, no, no. I'm saying

42:54

in the current, in issue 303 we read last week, there are bases

42:56

in Utah. I kind of love that. And

42:59

then there's one issue in volume one where they say Fort Wadsworth

43:01

is in New Jersey. It's a mistake, just like everything else

43:03

in the area of the days was, you know, someone

43:05

didn't check. But it's every other time it's Staten

43:08

Island. It's not really convenient to get

43:10

to places quickly. It's not like a, well,

43:12

I guess they have their own airfield, but... Better

43:14

than Utah. Well, at least you can drive out

43:16

of Utah. That's true. That's true. I feel like

43:18

the cartoon takes place there in Utah because the

43:20

thing is in the middle of nowhere. Yeah, yeah,

43:22

for sure. So volume one is the foundation,

43:25

right? You can't have the rest of the series without

43:27

what they do in volume one. Volume one is not

43:29

a good representation of what happens later on, but it

43:31

is a fun look at it,

43:34

right? It's like seeing a band super early work

43:36

where they haven't quite figured out the

43:38

music or the instruments, but they're getting there and you

43:40

can hear it. And that's what

43:42

I found really gratifying about reading it. I read

43:44

it pretty quick, even though it was one

43:47

of the most two issues at a time. Every

43:49

night I've been neglecting my novel that I've been

43:51

reading. I've seen. At

43:54

night I'm like, oh, how come you didn't ask your G.I.

43:56

Joe? And that's what I've been doing. I pulled volume two

43:58

off the shelf. I don't know how... far I'll go, but

44:00

I had a hell of a good time on volume two,

44:02

Gung Ho. Did he speak this Cajun like

44:04

on the cartoon? He did not. Do

44:06

you remember in the mid eighties that there was

44:09

commercials for Ruffles? Yeah. And there was a guy

44:11

who was like, you want to show me good

44:13

like that? And like, for a little while Cajun

44:15

speak was real popular. And I was like, Oh,

44:17

they're playing off of that. But

44:19

no, I did not remember, but all of his dialogue

44:21

sounds like that. And I hope they stick with it

44:23

through the remainder of the series. I'm

44:26

only up to issue 13. I was hoping

44:28

to get further, but he's great. Life's gotten away.

44:30

I think I'm on 16. It

44:32

becomes this entire tapestry of characters.

44:34

And again, this is written in

44:36

the old eighties style of continuing

44:38

soap opera. Or you felt

44:41

like this whole world was happening. It really did feel

44:43

like an alternate world as opposed to now where everything

44:45

feels so sort of static. You really felt like you

44:47

were living in the Marvel universe or G.I. Joe universe

44:49

or DC, like the way the books are written, it

44:51

felt like that. And I think there's a little bit

44:54

of that in the modern book. You

44:56

know, it does feel like that. I mean, it's

44:58

the same guy writing. It should feel a little bit like that,

45:00

but it's obviously not written for kids anymore, not written to sell

45:02

toys anymore. But if you think about it, 300 plus issues of

45:04

G.I. Joe, that's up there

45:06

with. Cerebus and all

45:08

those, you know, how many people have written 300

45:11

issues of the comics? If it hadn't, I mean,

45:13

I was going to say if it hadn't been part of

45:15

a toy line, but then it wouldn't be what it is. You

45:17

know what I mean? It, it sort of

45:19

works for it and against it in that same way.

45:21

I think it diminishes it because it's almost like, makes

45:23

it more impressive that he was able to do this

45:25

even with Hasbro looking over his shoulder. Yeah.

45:28

You know, different times has been like a,

45:30

you know, it was a privately owned thing. It

45:32

wasn't a conglomerate. They were just like, yeah, try

45:34

that. I think it's more impressive that he's able

45:36

to pull off this sort of wonderful. You

45:39

said it earlier, the degree of difficulty, the

45:41

threading of the needle between the

45:43

tone of a kid's comic meant to sell toys and

45:45

a adult comic world working

45:47

at his Vietnam feelings and

45:50

the whole way that comes

45:52

together in a, in a conference really makes a lot

45:54

of sense and is entertaining. That shouldn't work because they're

45:56

very disparate elements. That's amazing.

45:59

And it is not a thing. that you go back

46:01

to a lot of things that you like when you

46:03

were a kid and you, it's not good. I'm not

46:05

watching, I'm going to make somebody

46:07

mad, but I'm guessing that I'm not going to watch

46:09

a random episode of Thundercats and be like, man, this

46:11

is better than I remembered. This

46:14

does that thing as far as

46:16

I am concerned. I mean, I'm almost positive.

46:18

I would not enjoy looking back at He-Man.

46:20

Almost positive. But over the pandemic, when there

46:22

was no comics coming out, we were doing

46:25

the show, we were reviewing GI Joe shows.

46:27

Those are super fun to watch. And this

46:29

book was incredibly fun to read. For whatever

46:31

that magic holds, and I understand this won't

46:33

be for everybody. And if you weren't necessarily

46:35

alive at the time, and you didn't have to be

46:37

reading it, but if you weren't alive at that time, and

46:40

going through the end of the Cold War

46:42

and everyone coming home with Vietnam trauma,

46:44

it may not be as impactful, but it's

46:46

still very good and very fun. And

46:49

at the end of the day, they're not that different superheroes. They

46:51

all wear outfits, they all have code names, they

46:53

all have special abilities. But they also

46:55

have that military jargon

46:58

and sense of humor, you know,

47:00

that is really entertaining. And a

47:03

lot of stuff, and not everybody can

47:05

do that. But it's here, there's an

47:07

attitude, there's this frame of mind for military folks.

47:09

And I do not know how to describe it.

47:12

I know I do not have it, but it's

47:14

present here. And it can be it's very entertaining.

47:16

It sets you up for what kind of story

47:18

you're in, even though it is dumbed down is

47:20

not the word, but aged down. Right. It was

47:22

fun. I'm really glad we did this. Yeah. There's

47:25

a crazy part of me, I was like, we should do all 10 volumes, but we're

47:27

not gonna do that. No, we're not. We tried that

47:29

with Starman didn't make it finished the

47:31

series. Let's go

47:33

back, we'll do we'll do volume three. Again,

47:36

this is not necessarily easy to find right

47:38

now. I'm hoping that it would be

47:40

great if image put them all back into print. I don't

47:42

know if they will or not. But if they do, I

47:44

would recommend checking them out. So she'd be like, you know,

47:46

comics history. Again, the first 10 issues are not really representative

47:48

of the rest of the series. However, there are important things

47:51

in there for the foundation of it. And

47:53

man, I'm looking forward to reading more. I really am. I

47:55

want to see how far I can get. I Really do.

47:58

I Want to get to at least through the snake. Guys

48:00

are in stuff. He was not

48:02

a lot of this read does issues even I

48:04

can see so many of the pain of pages

48:06

and I had very clear ever actually set on

48:08

a read and so on that cover says files

48:10

are the photographs all laid out like that is

48:12

seared into my brain and the other one when

48:14

deciding on the elevated subways make as a song

48:16

shadow a sort of as a kid when they

48:19

reveal that they have seem tattoo all the school

48:21

were like completely my blog or what I could

48:23

mean in the same an issue. Here

48:25

is thought about getting that tattoo in your

48:27

life, to course I did that's what I'm

48:29

saying like them, yes, that's, of course, I.

48:32

The. Irving people who were not alive at a time To

48:34

understand is how much we all love ninjas. Everything.

48:37

Was done. Ninjas, Yeah. I

48:39

was about a simmer for like you really

48:41

can understand what the Cold War felt like if

48:43

you are in it as it might sound

48:45

like it's exaggerating but like thermonuclear destruction was. Something.

48:48

That was in the back of our minds. Pretty much all the

48:50

to. Rent and. Ninjas. So

48:52

we're ninjas, right? It's a

48:55

felt about the same sort

48:57

of space. There.

48:59

Are tons of movies about ninjas. We

49:01

all had ninja toys. Be

49:03

divided into costs, but it was all about

49:05

ninjas. Nice. And so button At this

49:08

point the book has entered into a full a

49:10

Ninja book And which eventually does happen. Larry Hama

49:12

into martial arts. We. Were to. We

49:14

didn't know anything about it, but a nerd

49:16

partners nerd. sit in there and is war

49:18

trauma. And work. And.

49:21

Said gainful employment ever since. So.

49:23

Hopeless made sense If is a lotta all over the

49:25

place, but that's kind of what's your joys. And a

49:27

book like this at so important to us. it's so

49:30

easily just some of his want to talk about. Make

49:32

sure we get to this. Main elements concerns wanted to

49:34

be but I join it. And. Tdk, you're not

49:36

listening at this point anyway. but if you did

49:38

it probably didn't A sense of fun. So the

49:40

latest adjustments in this house coming out now we

49:42

just talk to them last week. there's as usual

49:44

American Hero book which is a continuation This the

49:46

story is as you through injured three of the

49:48

most recent one. There's the new energy on universe

49:51

that. Robert. Kirkman overseeing.

49:53

When. Sky Bound got the license,

49:56

Others void rivals and there's Duke.

49:58

And. As Cobra Commander. And. There's

50:00

Transformers, those books all the same shared universe, but

50:03

as Duke in this club or commensurate others. three.

50:05

Salons. Yeah, you're busting published which is

50:07

not unusual in that early. Two Thousand C

50:10

had Viejo origins. We had Geagea a Cobra.

50:12

We had see a job American Hero. so

50:14

it's not like this is a new thing,

50:16

but right now we're back in it. were

50:18

all about it. When danger turn the show

50:20

Intaglio Diego Much to the horror, some of

50:22

the listeners. They'll. Pass it

50:24

will pass. Were in a phase.

50:26

It happened. I'm not sure how, but it did. You

50:29

get let a burnout doesn't really don't like listen to

50:31

us on wages are you still have happened? Let it

50:33

burn out and will burn out and then move on

50:35

to something else. Here's the thing you gotta think of

50:37

it. Like for car night it's like a joint. Combustion.

50:40

Chamber. In refills

50:43

the tanks of joy. And. And

50:45

than that, that spreads outwardly and

50:47

happen. South. When here's talk with a

50:49

new books you courses. The take the lead show was

50:51

Russian I sometimes special guest stuff about two weeks new

50:53

comics as over less than what I com as well

50:55

as Justice talks blowed interview show he interviews creators it's

50:58

or sisters or this. when we alternate months or next

51:00

month we talked with one is an obvious on a

51:02

busload. Of our monthly meatiest bloodshed although

51:04

slowed shows are in love with patients a patron

51:06

that comes less I fanboy and you can also

51:08

inauthentic contact us and will com if you want

51:10

to get your emails in on the show. Or.

51:13

Just once in a some feedback you could always

51:15

do it there if I was at assembler com

51:17

us on Instagram as he declined. Pretty much are

51:19

only online presence is our moment so we don't

51:21

know the next post was gonna be a figure

51:23

that out. For. The other discussed was going

51:25

to be will cigarette up as soon as. We. Know

51:27

what you know and knowing is

51:29

half the battle. So Job is

51:31

just like the southern airing on.

51:35

I'm Josh. I'm gonna buy the.

51:42

six

52:08

That kind of fun can cost a life.

52:11

Barbecue! Both alarms are no joke.

52:14

They keep firefighters away from the real action.

52:16

And in this business, a few seconds can

52:18

mean the difference between life and death. Remember,

52:21

a firefighter's job is to fight

52:23

fires. Not after false alarms.

52:26

Now I know. And no one is half

52:28

the battle.