Retroist GI Joe Comic Books Podcast
Welcome to Episode 2 of the 14th season of the Retroist Podcast. In this episode, I discuss Marvel’s formerly long-running comic book title, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero.
This is part two of a three-part series on the early-eighties incarnation of the GI Joe franchise. If you are interested in learning more about the toy line, that was covered in my first episode, GI Joe toys.
I begin the show by talking about what a revelation this comic was to my group of friends. It was so well-done that it made us change the way we purchased comics and overall increased the number of comics we were buying.
Then I move onto the comics. I trace the history of how the comic came to be at Marvel. After that, I talk about the HUGE debt we all owe to the creative powerhouse behind GI Joe, Larry Hama.
He was the writer of nearly every GI Joe story during the Marvel years and the book itself was successful beyond expectations. Running for over a decade, it would include intricate long-running stories that engaged fans and welcomed new readers.
I do briefly touch on the post-Marvel comics but barely. If you want more about GI Joe comics, there are dozens of quality episodes of other podcasts dedicated to the subject.
As a kid who did not want to give up on GI Joe, long after my friends did, I owe the comics a lot. It allowed me to continue my fandom alone well after the group fun I had enjoyed with my friends had to them become age-inappropriate.
Listen and download the GI Joe Comics Podcast
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Production Notes
This is the second episode of the 14th season of the podcast. It was the second episode I recorded this season and is part two of a three part series.
My initial story was a lot longer originally and a bit more melancholy as I talked about when my friends stopped reading the comic and how I acquired their collections because they thought they were childish.
I had a few more audio clips in the show. They released a lot of commercials for the comic. I cut it down to just two.
I had a small section about how the tone and voicework is less sophisticated than what they did for the cartoon. I amnot sure how true that was, I might just be biased. So I removed it.
Commercial bumpers have been removied from this episode and the last one. Its an experiment to lighten the show as I make them a bit longer overall.
I had some more about Hama. Mostly about his non-GI Joe work. It does not seem necessary.
Dicussed the GI Joe comic collection they released 7 or 8 years ago. Didn’t add much to the show so I removed it.
Was supposed to be a top 5 issues but couldn’t come up with just 5. Plus so many good things are from multi-part storylines. Look for metagirl to return soon though.
I am not an artist but I am still confused as to why artists overall didn’t want to stick with this book. I guess you had to be there at the time to understand.
Took out some stuff about buying comics in the eighties when you didn’t have a comic book store nearby. I might revisit this as a bonus track.
I have been in the middle of a re-read of the full comic line and thought it would be interesting to record my reaction to rereading some of my favorite issues. It turns out, it wasn’t.
I had a little history section of stuff I covered in episode 255, seemed redundant.
If I mispronounced your name as a Patreon supporter, please email me and I will add a corrected version to a future episode.
All the music you hear in this episode is by the mighty Peachy.
Thanks for listening to the show and I hope you have a great weekend.