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I've gone on record (well, I've said it a couple of times) that the old Marvel G.I. Joe series is really, really good. Larry Hama brings just enough authenticity and grittiness to a war comic based on science fiction toys - not unlike what happens with Marvel's Transformers, or even their Star Comics Masters of the Universe series. I think with a toy-related comic, you have to be very careful to balance good stories with advertisement, otherwise the comics can become quite tedious. When I originally collected Transformers, this was the impetus to stop for me - it just seemed like ever month became an ad for the latest toy, which didn't really reel me in. Today's issue, though still attached to a toy line, is far enough removed from the franchise's heyday to allow for some interesting storytelling.
I have some other, and IMHO better, examples of the work of today's featured creator, Jamal Igle, in the absolutely stellar Ahoy Comics series The Wrong Earth. I was going to read an issue of that for today's comic, but I think with a series that well-wrought, I want to do the whole thing as a series over the course of a couple of weeks. So instead, we'll have a look at a much earlier piece by Mr. Igle. He shares art chores on this issue, and while his and Mr. Kurth's art meshes well, it's easy to tell the two apart. One of the things I really appreciate about Mr. Igle's work is that he lavishes as much attention, as far as I can tell, on facial expression as he does on body language. We communicate as human beings in so many ways, and often it's a little off-putting in a comic when we see body language, verbal (print) language, and facial expression not quite meshing. But looking through the Igle-pencilled sections of this comic, the characters all evince different faces and expressions, and through that personality. This comic is dripping with a kind of personality in each character that, despite it's awesomeness, the original series doesn't quite attain.
To that point, I'm quite excited that I have the first 10 issues of the series, though I think this is the only issue that Mr. Igle helps out on. It'll be interesting to see if the things I'm picking up on today continue throughout the series without his artistic talents.
More to follow.
Further Reading and Related Posts
Larry Hama is a pretty fascinating guy, and I'll definitely feature a bit more of his work when I get to my series on creators of East Asian descent. But here's a couple of places he's already shown up in the project.
The only other G.I. Joe piece in the collection is a neat promo piece that I reviewed here. Get your ABBA ready!
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