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G.I. JoeVersity: Rule of Three with Larry Hama, Chuck Dixon, and SL Gallant

By | June 8th, 2012
Posted in Columns | % Comments

Welcome back to G.I. JoeVersity, a weekly look at all the goings-on in the exciting world of G.I. Joe, including the new issues of IDW’s G.I. Joe family of titles, as well as the latest action figure releases and movie news!

Wednesday saw the release of two Joe comics, “G.I. Joe” #14 and “G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero” # 179, and with twice the books, well, we figured why not deliver THRICE the insight!  We’re super excited to be joined again this week by RAH writer Larry Hama and “G.I. Joe” scribe Chuck Dixon, but as an extra special bonus, we’ve got RAH artist SL Gallant making his JoeVersity debut.

For the record, there might be a few SPOILERS ahead.

Talking with Larry: “G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero” #179

Written by Larry Hama
Illustrated by SL Gallant

THE FINAL SHOWDOWN! The Blue Ninja Clan begins its final assualt on Cobra’s homebase, and Cobra Commander, Baroness, Snake Eyes, Duke, Scarlett and Stalker are all caught in the fray! This is the explosive conclusion to the Blue Ninja saga that you’ve all been waiting for. Things will never be the same for G.I. Joe and Cobra after G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #179, don’t miss it!

Thanks for joining us, Larry!  RAH# 179 gives us some classic Cobra Commander!  The opening battlefield banter between CC and BN-001 was absolutely priceless.  You’ve always sort of presented Cobra Commander as someone who’s as cultured as he his cruel,  which I’ve always loved.  But how has your take on CC changed over time?  How does the man under the mask today compare to the man you started writing years ago?

Larry Hama: He started out as a cipher because I didn’t know who was behind the mask, but the introduction of Billy and the back-story of how he started Cobra began to fill in the blanks for me. I see his ruthlessness as a mask he dons exactly like the blue cloth one he wears over his head. He has continued to evolve and now I am playing with how he will change in the face of Billy’s death.

This is the first time we’ve seen Cobra Commander get this physical in a long while.  Watching him go toe-to-toe with BN-001 made me wonder, why don’t we see him in the thick of things more often?

LH: Cobra Commander is much more apt to get somebody else to do his dirty work for him rather than sully his own hands. Why else have evil minions?

I know I’ve said it before, but I’m really digging on Cobra Commander’s reactive armor!  With no true toyline to directly coincide with the book, is this new armored-look one we should get used to?

LH: Dr. Mindbender is busily upgrading the new battle armor to take into consideration weaknesses exposed during the battle with BN-001. Cobra now has reversed-engineered Blue Ninja technology and first-hand knowledge of their battle tactics. The battle armor is going to be the next best thing to a battle cyborg short of a direct cortical shunt. Obviously, there is a showdown in the works.

This issue’s finale sees the Joes walking right into Cobra’s hand, and notably, the Baroness on the wrong end of Cobra’s gun.  What can we look forward to next issue?!

LH: Other players will reveal their hole cards.

Can’t wait to find out who!  Thanks again, Larry!

Follow Larry on Twitter

Art of War with SL Gallant: “G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero” #179

Welcome to the team, SL!  Now you’ve worked on both “G.I. Joe” and RAH, each of which has its own distinct tone and continuity.  Tell us a little about your different methods when drawing each book — “G.I Joe” being very modern and rooted in reality, and RAH being sort of the iconic version; it’s the classic book.  How do you approach them differently?

SL Gallant: It’s just that, one is iconic, while the other is visually grounded more in reality, like a movie. I’ve always approached RAH from a nostalgic fan-boy perspective. As a kid, I was more into the comics, and especially the cartoon. When my turn came, I decided the point of the book was nostalgia, for the myself as well as the fans. That dictates all my decisions, so I always go with the classic versions of things unless told otherwise. It’s Destro’s pimp-daddy outfit, the classic Storm Shadow costume, the wire-framed glasses on the Baroness, etc. That applies to the vehicles and sets as well. I tend to ride a fine line between updating things and not. Obviously, it doesn’t make sense to give them cell phones the size of Buicks, and they should have internet access (you’ll see a lot of tablets thrown in), but I wanted it to feel comfortable, and familiar without being too dated. I try to make classic things feel fresh, but not alter them too much. Sometimes I add details to make hardware look like it can do what it was designed to. A gun should look like it works rather than a set of tubes with a handle glued on, but I try very hard not to make things look silly.

Continued below

In the updated continuity, it was always the intent to make it more factual in design. Where RAH seems to be a group of costumes,  the update was a standard uniform that people had personalized. That can make things a bit tricky when setting people apart from each other, but I think it needs to be that way. The fun always came with COBRA on that series, as their costumes were more individualized. When I got to design Dr. Mindbender’s costume, there was a point to make him more Indian than a German weightlifter from a circus. I’ve always wanted to redesign that costume, so I put him in a more traditional Indian suit. I always envisioned COBRA as the equivalent to SPECTRE from the James Bond films, and approached them as such. You never saw a Bond villain wearing something too outrageous, still a costume, but not to the point of being a dressed up like a Pharaoh or something. I also like the stories that are more “spy” oriented, having Joe as the US version of the “OO” agents; but where Bond always has a martini and a game of cards when confronting the enemy, Joe would just go in with a gun and smack them around for info.

Overall, this Blue Ninja arc has been pretty tech heavy, what with the cybernetic ninjas, the introduction of Cobra Commander’s new armor, and just a lot of unique weaponry all over.  What kind of design work went into this particular story, and what can you tell us about the creation of BN-001 and CC’s reactive armor?

SLG: For the blue ninjas, I really just followed the design set forth by Hama on the sketch cover of 172, which was the first drawing of them. With the “BN-001”, Larry’s description stated it was spider like with four arms, and multiple eyes. I simply tried to incorporate details from his initial blue ninja into it, so they would all feel as part of the same group. That idea went for the other blue ninjas too, so you’ll see elements that carry over to all their costumes. I never knew if the Viper gear on the arms was intentional or not, so to a certain extent I went with it in case it fed into a future plot line.

As to CC’s reactive armor, Larry wanted to use the Sigma Six suit for him, but we had to alter it slightly since it was part of another continuity. It wasn’t an intention to bring it in line with the updated series to my knowledge, as some have suggested. I’ve been vocal about trying to keep RAH independent from the other series as much as possible. You’ll see the Commander back in his rag mask soon, and I’m pushing to get Snake Eyes back in his goggles; just to emphasize the separation between the classic series and the update even more.

With the Blue Ninjas being half machine, I felt like Snake Eyes and the Baroness really got to cut loose in this arc and reign down some serious violence on those guys.  Beyond that, we’re treated to some really beautiful work by you throughout.  You make it look easy, honestly, but what kind of challenges do you run into when designing a well choreographed, super intense action scene?

SLG: I consider myself an illustrator, so I’m more comfortable drawing people sitting in chairs and wearing suits, so the action stuff has always been like pulling teeth for me. I have a hard time drawing people in positions that I can’t believe a person could get into, which limits me. To make up for it, I try to draw realistic fight scenes, and amp up things with the composition of a shot. Regarding choreography, my wife and I started taking Krav Maga about five years ago, and recently I’ve added Kali stick fighting to that. Originally, it was more for exercise and to spend time with her (nothing says I love you like an uppercut), but there have been times when I’ve staged scenes with my instructors just to make them flow better. In the updated series, there was a knife fight between Snake Eyes and a COBRA pilot, all of which was planned out with my Krav instructor. Most of my instructors have appeared in the Joe books at some point, one was even the model for Ripcord in the Origins issues I did. Carlos, my editor, took Krav as well and he loves pointing out when I use it in the series.

Continued below

Kind of along those same lines, is there anything that your particularly proud of with this arc or your run on the book in general?  Anything that you look back on and just go, “Oh yeah.  Nailed it!”?

SLG: Honestly, the bit from my run that I’m most proud of is the Sneak Peek arc. I thought the solution we found for the problem that had come up was well done. It was also a story where I was able to go with the idea of the Joes being spies, and not just a SEAL unit. Early on, I was very happy with the Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow fight scene where they fell off a building, and recently I was pleased with the way some of the tank scenes turned out in issue 174. I learned way more than I ever wanted to about the Abrams from that story. I tend to do a lot of research, because not having served in the military myself, I want the guys with that experience to feel I made the effort to capture the reality of it as well as a comic could. To help all of that, I try to make the environments as specific as possible, because I think set design is just as important as the props and costumes in setting a mood. It’s like a movie in that regard, because if you see a skyscraper in the background of a western, the story falls apart. I want the reader to know that this isn’t set in and around our garage; it’s a world wide stage so I want it to feel that way.

Without giving too much away, is there anything coming up that you just can’t wait to draw?

SLG: I’m usually kept in the dark about the future of the book as much as the fans. I may be three months ahead of them, but other than the time lag, they know as much as I do on where the series is heading. I hope we do something more with Spirit, as he was always my favorite from the cartoon, plus It would be fun to have him fight Storm Shadow just an a nod to the cartoon. For one fan in particular, I hope to do something with the romance between Snake Eyes and Scarlet. I’ve always loved the personal interaction between characters, and often I find those scenes more interesting to draw than a gun fight. Who knows, but for now, just getting the book out on time makes me happy.

Visit SL Gallant’s website

Scrounging Underground with Chuck Dixon: “G.I. Joe” #14 

Written by Chuck Dixon
Illustrated by Will Rosado

“Deep Terror, part 2!”

Under-staffed, under water, and under the gun! The new stripped-down Joe team battles a very public Cobra as Dr. Mindbender drills on the ocean floor–but what’s he looking for? And how will Scarlett and her team escape?

Good to have you back, Chuck!  I really enjoyed the character work this issue. Great bits with Mainframe, the captured Joes, and Scarlett. But more than any of those, I want to talk about Bildocker. What a guy. Such a jerk, but so fun to read and hella good at his job — can we even call it a job, though? We’ve never really seen a guy like him in in Joe before, have we? What does having a guy like him on the team say about the new Joe status quo?

Chuck Dixon: I thought that the Joes needed a scrounger. It’s an old military tradition. Even in today’s modern, mechanized and computerized army there’s room for a guy who’ll bend the rules to keep his unit running. Hawk knew they’d need Bildocker or someone like him when they’re funding got cut. He’s kind of like Sgt Bilko from the old TV show. But he’s closer to Milo Minderbinder, the fixer in the novel Catch 22. His network is huge and his connections deep.

I was really impressed with the attention to detail given to all of the underground stuff. So no kidding, how many geology and mining websites do you have saved in your favorites right now?

Continued below

CD: I did a lot of mining research for another project that fell through. Never waste research, right?

I might’ve mentioned this before, but Stalker and Scarlett are my two favorite Joes (well, outside Snake Eyes), and this arc seems like a conscious effort on your to put them up front for while. I’d like to think you were doing this just for me, but I know better. But tell us about your versions of Scarlett and Stalker, and how they’re seen by the rest of the team.

CB: To me Scarlett is the embodiment of that male fantasy of the beautiful and wicked smart woman who’s also “one of the guys.” I figure every Joe recruit has a crush on her as a right of passage until he sees her in action and gains a whole new level of respect for her.

Stalker is just badass. He’s tough on himself and his men and thinks tactically all the time. His mind can see and analyze any military situation and adapt to survive it.

Cobra Section 8 has me pretty worried, Chuck. And Mind Bender and Copperback in those hazmat suits seem pretty ominous, too. Should I be afraid? When do we find out what they’re up to, and how significant is it to Cobra’s global operation?

CD: Mindbender has been working on the same major scientific project for the entire run of this book. Each time we see him he’s involved in some part of this grand experiment. I’ve laid a few hints here and there. It’s one of the long-term continuity Easter eggs.

Visit Chuck’s website at www.dixonverse.net! OR go see him at http://www.comicspace.com/chuckdixon/

 Joepourri

-Despite reports last week that he would be taking part in G.I. Joe: Retaliation reshoots , Channing Tatum stated this week he had not been contacted about it and nothing had been scheduled.

“I don’t know. Truly,” Tatum said when asked if the rumors we’d see more of him in the revamped sequel are true. “I haven’t seen the movie. I did my part and then all this stuff is going on, so they haven’t come to talk to me about anything. They talk about a lot of stuff; who knows if it’s the industry or the actual studio? You never know.” [MTV.com]

-And speaking of Retaliation, marketing and design firm Massive Black released a ton of concept art commissioned by Hasbro for G.I. Joe: Retaliation.  They’re worth taking a look at, if only to see how much things can change from concept to reality. [hisstank.com]

And that about does it for this week.  Be here next Friday when we review “Cobra” #14.

Got a question for me or the G.I. Joe comics creative team(s)?  Email me: chad@multiversitycomics.com


//TAGS | G.I. JoeVersity

Chad Bowers

Chad Bowers has been reading comics for most of his life. His transition from fan to professional is a work in progress. He’s the co-founder of ACTION AGE COMICS, creator of the webcomic MONSTER PLUS, co-creator of AWESOME HOSPITAL, THE HARD ONES, and DOWN SET FIGHT (coming soon from Oni Press) with Chris Sims. He reviews comics, writes G.I. JoeVersity, and co-hosts The Hour Cosmic for Multiversity Comics! If you've got nothing better to do, you can follow him on Twitter or Tumblr.

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