First off I would like to say a big "thank you" to Sher for taking a
chance in letting my write for her E-Mag. I hope that I can live up to the
standards set by the other writers on this site. Also, I would like to mourn
the passing of the great movie critic, Gene Siskel, and send out my best to
his family. The world of movie critiquing will never be the same. As always
questions, comments, flames, other column ideas etc. can be e-mailed to me
at: torach@hotmail.com. Now on with the show.
Lots of us have memories of our childhood. Generally, it revolves
around a favorite toy or television show that you watched or had as a child.
As a small child myself, at one time, my favorite had to be GI Joe. "GI
Joe," you ask, "what in the world is that?" Then let me tell you in a nutshell.
The GI Joe I'm talking about was a comic first put out in June 1982
by Marvel. From there, it enjoyed a nearly 13 year run of 155 issues with
the last issue being published in 1994. For it's time, it was probably one
of the most entertaining comics on the market. It was a comic almost entirely written by one man, Larry Hama,
that used a cast of characters from all branches of the US military to tell
the story of the United States versus a evil organization called Cobra. GI
Joe was unique in the fact that none of it's characters had super powers (although they did push it with
the ninja characters). Plus, Mr. Hama gave each of the characters vary
different personalities and forms. He had every kind of character under the
sun in the comic, from a large black man that was one of the teams machine gunners and chef, to a mysterious
hooded figure that dressed all in black that had serious martial arts
training. The art on the comic was good for it's time, with all it's
characters being in proportion and they dressed like what people in the military might dress like. He even had Rob
Lifeld do the art for one issue.
Along with the popular comic, GI Joe had both a toy line and daily cartoon
show to back it up. The toys were, for it's time, running second to the Star
Wars toy line. You may have even had a few when you were a child. They were
probably the best done figures then, and I have not seen since them in a long time. The figures were
ball jointed at all the major joints, came with vary detailed weapons for
them to use and they just had incredible sculpting on a figure only 3.75
inches tall. The toy line also had an incredible amount of vehicles and play sets to use with the action
figures. They ranged from a small 2-figure motorcycle to a large space
shuttle launch complex. In my opinion, the toy line had the best looking and
designed aircraft, some based on real aircraft and some just made up. Something vary unique to the toy line, was
the fact on the back of all the action figures was a sort of file card that
gave all this information about the character that sort of brought it to
life. Something I have not seen on almost any toy since the GI Joe line ended. The cartoon was the icing
on the cake, if you will. It gave all the toys and the characters in the
comic life, that you could see on television and talk with your friends
about the next day at school. Then you could go out and play with your toys until you had to go inside for
dinner.
The GI Joe comic was a product of the early 1980's that was just well
executed from start to finish. It had all sorts of other support from other
media, like toys and television, and at one time you could not go two feet
in a store without finding something Joe related. Now GI Joe is enjoying a resurgence of sorts with the
re-releasing of some of the old action figures in your local Toys R Us
store, to a new comic book line that is planned to be released this summer.
If you want to know more than what I have written here,you can visit the
best GI Joe web site on the net at: http://www.yojoe.com . This is mostly
about the action figure line, but he has some info about the comics and
cartoons, and links if you want more information than what he just provides.
(Mathew Bredfeldt brings this stroll down memory lane to you and is in no
way meant to be posted anywhere else without his consent. If you do you
might get a visit from a vary large black man with an equally large gun.)