GIJoe

[anarky]

Hasbro finally confirmed it today: IDW has GIJoe.

As part of the agreement, they'll publish a monthly (!!!) series (they hate monthlies!) based on the classic 80s series. New stories, but no word if it's new continuity.

And no word, of course, on the creative team.

They'll also get to reprint the old stuff.

[anarky]

And... the cat is already out of the bag over at Newsarama:

NRAMA: Any creators that you can mention that will be working on the property?

CR: Well, it wouldn't be G.I. Joe with[out] Larry Hama's involvement, I'll say that for now.

He also confirmed reprints would be forthcoming.

Awesome news!!

I hope it's either a reboot, or set in some alternate universe where the Devil's Due series never existed. Nothing against the early issues, but the later stuff has gotten so ridiculous, with the rampant wave of "death for death's sake."

[anarky]

Kinda pathetic watching the debate over "reboot vs no reboot." A lot of people are crying that a reboot shouldn't happen, as it throws away decades of continuity.

Isn't that what Devil's Due did? Early on, they were pretty good. But it became such a rash of people dying (and sometimes coming back) for no real reason. Lady Jaye, Flash, Chuckles, Serpentor, SAW Viper Skelton, Monkeywrench, Snake Eyes, Billy.... I'd consider it "thrown away" by now.

I think it should restart where the proposal for Hama's first non-Marvel series began, and the inside front cover should be a picture of Lady Jaye flipping the bird and yelling, "Fuck you, Devil's Due!"

[jjreason]

I'm taking this thread back a few years. My wife just cleaned out her parents' basement and brought me a box of her younger brother's comics. They're beat to ratshit but include a near-complete run of Nth Man as well as a good bunch of Marvel Joes that I never had & had never read. Included in these was the 97 (which led to my new 'tar) and the 94-96 "Snake Eyes Trilogy". Well, I haven't read the 97 yet, but that trilogy was fucking good. I might even read it again.

[anarky]

No #93? He was missing the "zero issue" of the Snake Eyes Trilogy, with the first unveiling of his face?

I'm going to see if I have an extra copy on hand. For some reason, I think I might.

[jjreason]

I'll look and see.... it's in there!!!!!

EDITED: Great book, Chux. I've seen the scarred face before (likely posted here) - did he have some surgeries closer to the explosion? I guess I thought it should have looked like more burns that just big scars, but it definitely had the intended shock effect (or would have had I not seen the pic before).

Almost as good as the story was Larry Hama's reply to one bitchy letter calling the book a Hasbro ad:

Write to Hasbro. GI Joe comics has always been a licensed commercial venture subject to all restrictions and problems inherent to such agreements. There is no choice, as you put it. Either the comic exists as a licensed property or it does not exist at all. We have always endeavored to do the best we can under the circumstances, and in fact, have chosen to ignore a number of toys in the line that do not fit into the comic continuity or clash with the structure of the "GI Joe Comic Universe." There is nothing we can do about peer pressure.

[anarky]

Three books starting in January.

One written by Larry Hama. One written by Chuck Dixon. One written by Christos Gage.

Fuck me with a broomhandle and call me Susan. I have no idea about Gage, but Dixon and Hama writing two GIJoe books is like a geekgasm so massive it makes every woman alive simultaneously climax so hard that they flood the entire planet.

[anarky]

http://comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=18371

Fuck me.

Everything I read about this makes me more excited. A book in the past, and a book in the present, and Chuckles undercover in a third.

Snake Eyes used sparingly to keep his awesome factor in check, and Cobra being revealed slowly.

This really gives me a boner.

I am anarky and I approve this message. The Joker has not added any comments about boners. Reading that article did that on its own.

[anarky]

Interview with Chuck Dixon:
http://comicnewsi.com/article.php?catid ... emid=12260

One thing I dig is that Roadblock is seen in both his uniforms. It makes more sense that he just has a different set of duds with sleeves, rather than switching off every couple of years.

And, finally, some goods.

[Rollo Tomassi]

G I Joe # 0, the new preview issue from IDW came out this Wednesday. Three, count 'em three awesome short stories previewing the three ongoing titles next year. And they did their job.

The Dixon story ntroduces us to the team already in progress and the first hint of what will become their greatest adversary; a single word: Cobra.

The Hama story "In or Out" reintroduces the team in its conception stage ( as a prequel to the ongoing regular series by Dixon.) The exchange between General Hawk and the man formerly known as Conrad Hauser is wonderful. A-List work from Hama.

And the third story introduces us to Chuckles as he begins his infiltration of the Cobra organization.

I nearly peed myself. i bought two copies since it's only a buck.. one of each cover.

My only problem with the issue? On the page of character sketches, they refer to somebody as Heavy Duty. A person who is CLEARLY NOT Heavy Duty. It is clearly blasphemous and someone shall get papercuts on the tip of their weiner in retribution.

What say you, Joe fans?

[anarky]

I think I read somewhere that there would be two characters, Roadblock and Heavy Duty, and Heavy Duty would be sporting the 1985/6 Roadblock "Urban Warfare" look. That could be mistaken, though, and they're simply going for consistency with the movie.

[Stormshadow]

Naturally, that blowhard Nate gets his face(plate) on the cover. I suppose Mr. Hama and those fools at IDW will flip a coin and decide whether I am to be a hero or villain this go around. Or rather, which one of those I will be first. As if it was that simple. I am a complicated person who happens to be able to kill you and your entire city with a napkin. It's not easy being me.

[anarky]

Devil's Due is in trouble. Financial trouble. As in "we just canned four of our executives" trouble.

Call me nuts, but they spun off from Image solely on GIJoe, which was a costly license and jumped the shark hard after they left. What else do they have? Their Voltron is one of the godawfulest comics I've ever seen. And hack/slash, apparently some cyberpunk horror teenybopper bullshit.

Yeah, when you've got a good deal with Image, and all your money comes from licenses that probably aren't actually making money once you figure in the licensing fees, probably not a good idea to try to do things on your own unless you know what's going on.

"How to Publish--Not Create--Your Own Comic Book" is still a decent book, though hella skimpy. Like the one Tony Cavuto put out a decade ago, it's really a collection of "things I didn't actually do but will tell you about as if I did." If Blaylock or Cavuto had followed half their own advice, they'd be like fucking Stan Lee right now.

[Rollo Tomassi]

The sad thing is, once DDP folds, Blaylock will probably get work as a freelance writer at the big 2/little 3.

[anarky]

Blaylock had enough good ideas to keep the new Joe book strong for right at a year. Trouble is, you've got to have more than that. And you've got to have better ideas than "let's bring back the guy cloned from ancient DNA in this military book that we now have pretty much full control on" and better original characters than Wraith.

Did you know DDP published a line of superhero comics? Nor did I until just now. Aftermath. After 5-6 issues of the books, they decided they weren't viable. Call me nuts, but did you hear anything about this? It's called marketing, dude.