A History Of The GI Joe Comic Books
The GI Joe toy franchise from Hasbro spawned a lot of media tie ins, such as the GI Joe Saturday morning cartoons of the 1980s and the GI Joe comic books published by Marvel. At the time, the crossover of toys, cartoons and printed comics was an unprecedented set of tie ins, and the original GI Joe Comic run for Marvel ran for 155 issues, most of them written by Larry Hama.
This stint of writing nearly 155 issues in a continuous stream was also something nearly unheard of in the era, with most comic book publishers swapping writers and artists out after two to three years to prevent story lines and properties from going stale. Hama was also responsible for writing the file cards for the 9.5cm scale toys, which give a short two paragraph biography of each character.
The GI Joe toy line sold from 1982 to 1994, and was resurrected for a new generation of kids in 1997, and has remained more or less continuously in production ever since, with a significant part of the market adults who are re-collecting the toys of their childhoods. The first series of Marvel comics has not been reprinted due to legal issues with Hasbro (beyond the collection of the first 50 issues), and remains somewhat of a collector’s item.
The GI Joe “universe” is built around an elite special forces team, called the Joes, originally formed by General Joseph Colton, the original Korean War era GI Joe, and led by a General Hawk. The Joes are tasked with defending American and world freedom from a terrorist organization called Cobra, and their adventures take place on all seven continents and around the world.
The GI Joe character list is enormous – over 250 action figures were eventually released in the line, with around a dozen tied to mainline continuity, and the remainder used as specialists added to the team as the mission arrived. One of the great points of divergence between the Saturday morning cartoon and the comics was the treatment of casualties and injury. In the comics, it was possible for characters to be “killed off” (though they were usually brought back in time to keep the trademarks valid), while in the cartoon, any vehicle or plane that was shot down clearly showed one of the Joes rolling to safety, or using a parachute.
The original comic series ended after 155 issues, due to management disputes between Marvel and Hasbro, and remains something of a collectible. In 1996, a four issue short run of the property was done by Darkhorse Comics, followed by a promised, but never published renewal of the series by Benchpress Comics.
The series was successfully relaunched (even with input from creator Larry Hama) in 1999 by Devil’s Due productions. The Devil’s Due productions comics bring the G.I. Joe comics up to the production standards of 21st century comic books, and the more adult tastes of modern comic consumers, many of whom were readers of the initial run in the 1980s, and expect a grittier, more action oriented fare.