Gary Godsoe of What’s On Joe Mind on Getting Into G.I. Joe Comics

Hey, this is Barbecue, and you are listening

to What's on Joe Mind. Oh my gosh, this is so

great! Welcome to the Polepacks Origins episodes.

Join TFG1 Mike as he grills this week's guest

on just how they cut into reading comics and

more. So sit back, relax, and enjoy... The Pullback.

G .I. Joe is the code name for America's daring,

highly trained special mission force. Its purpose?

To defend human freedom against Cobra, a ruthless

terrorist organization determined to rule the

world. He never gives up, he'll stay till the

fight's won. G .I. Joe will dare. G .I. Joe!

Welcome to the pole bag. This is yet another

origins episode I am your host TF Joe and Mike

and for those of you who don't know who are joining

us for the first time an origins episode is where

I Wrangle any kind of Cobra agent around to talk

about their Introduction to comics how they get

into comics how they're maybe not even reading

comics anymore What companies they like what

companies they may not like or care for? And

last time you heard Mike Mike from what's on

Joe Mike. I can't say his last name. It just

I just can't I know he told me how to say it

in the episode, but I'm just not going to because

I'll butcher it Just call him please just call

him. Sorry to interrupt you, but just call him

Beachhead Mike. He loves it when I do that. Yeah,

there we go beachhead mike who probably wants

to marry jim anyway all right so as you heard

i have the commander in chief gary godso of what's

on your mind with us today good night or good

evening good night hello whatever yes yes hello

whatever hello whatever i'm here um and why i

wanted to have mike and gary on uh The Origins

episodes for The Pull Bag is we're a year or

so into the show and all the Origins episodes

have talked about everything under the sun. We

had JT from Saskatoon talk about the strangest

of strange comics. We've had a lot of people

talk about Marvel and DC and Transformers and

Turtles and all that other good stuff and we

hadn't really hit G .I. Joe or we hadn't really

hit Destro and his metal face. So that's what

Mike and Gary are here for is to talk about the

G .I. Joe comics and normally how I start these

off is Gary was there a certain person in your

life or was it just a pass down or did your parents

just say here here's a comic go leave me alone

for 10 minutes. How did you what was your Breaking

into comics for reading Good question Well, basically

I do remember my first issue of GI Joe it was

purchased by my mother at a local drugstore here

in town which since got bought out by CVS and

it was issue number 16 the night attack version

or a night attack issue and It was strange to

be actually getting something like that from

her because she was a school teacher. And still

this is the day and age of comic books where

they were still frowned upon in school. You kind

of hit them in your desk. And if the teacher

saw them, sometimes they'd get confiscated or

just plain thrown away. And so I was really amazed

when we were sitting at a drug store. She knew

I loved G .I. Joe. I saw the G .I. Joe comic

book commercials on TV, which at the time they

were on all the time. And she's like, sure, go

ahead and grab it. So that was my introduction.

Not only did she surprise me with that, but she

clipped out the subscription to Marvel Comics

in the back, checked the G .I. Joe box for me,

and then had a subscription then sent to our

door pretty much from issue 19 forward. So that

was kind of my introduction to Joe and and and

comic books and from an unlikely source my mom

the school teacher Yeah, there was a lot of things

back in the 80s that just wasn't Wasn't copacetic

for school Well as she put it as she put it it

yeah, she didn't teach me any good English by

the way As she put it any type of reading is

good Yes. And so she said, you know, if it's

a book, it's a magazine, it's a comic book, it's

good. You're sitting there and you're reading.

Now, if we want to do a podcast on video games,

that's where she frowned on majorly. She wanted

nothing to do with video games, but a comic book,

ironically, was okay. Yeah, I so want to make

a book books with pictures joke right about now,

but I'm not going to. Because I think she probably

would have frowned on that too if you were reading

a certain or not reading a certain magazine Oh,

yeah, she would definitely would have frowned

on that. You're right. Yeah It's appropriate.

Of course. Yes. Yes. Yes I'm a dirty old man.

What can I say? We all are at some point. Yeah.

All right, so So with Joe being your first introduction

did you ever as a kid did you ever read any other

comics or was it just G .I. Joe? It was pretty

much GI Joe and and there's two reasons why number

one I was never really a big superhero fan Although

I did watch all the superhero cartoons And and

whatnot after school and on Saturday mornings.

I was not a problem I just never really got into

a big got to keep in mind at the time to GI Joe

one was only one doing commercials They were

out there throwing it out there saying read GI

Joe by the toy read GI Joe by the toy Well, guess

what? They got me both on both hooks right there

And eventually it became the cartoon. So read

G .I. Joe, buy the toy, watch a cartoon. And

they suckered me in all hook, line, and sinker.

And I never really did get a chance to read a

lot of the other Marvel or DC superheroes at

the time. I am now because naturally I have more

time on my hand, more disposable income. And

of course, it's nice to have a nice hookup at

Marvel Comics with a good friend like Arun Singh.

But back then, not so much. OK. Um, so as you're

growing up, did you ever stop reading the comics?

Or was there ever a point where, you know, that

your 10, 11, 12, 13 year old brain said, oh my

God, they did this? No, I'm done. Actually, it

really ended around issue in the it was in the

60s 60 I want to say 63 64 65 somewhere in there.

It was about the time that Outback stalker and

snow job got captured in Barovia and my subscription

ran out and I was at the point in my life where

um sports and basketball that I was playing was

more important and girls and and that type of

thing and and GI Joe was becoming less and less

um which I I picked up all on that in the later

in life but so that pretty much just all stopped

for me uh kind of abruptly as you change focus

as a kid rather quickly and you're like this

is what I want to do from now on at the time

it was you know basketball and girls and you

know some other interests and your hobby and

that's kind of where it stopped. But I never

picked up another comic until well into I was

probably into my 20s by the time I picked up

another comic after that So you are in college

or out of college by that time? I was At the

time picking up a college. I was excuse me picking

up a comic. I was out of college I was actually

married and the interesting thing that got me

back into Joe comics Is that I was collecting

all this stuff from my parents and this actually

got me back into Joe collecting in general again

they just box after box after box. They got rid

of all my Star Wars stuff, but they kept the

Joe stuff. And that was just box after box of

Joe stuff. And then all of a sudden there was

just like big canvas bag that I kept of all the

Marvel issues. And at the time the Marvel issues

came in like a, the best way to put it is if

you ever had a family member or maybe you had

a subscription back to National Geographic in

the mid 80s, they came wrapped in like a plane.

brown wrapper type thing. That's how your issues

came to you when you got them in the mail from

Marvel. And I had a bag full of these things.

I said, I got to check these out. Comics was

my launch into the Joe community and which later

started, you know Started what's on Joe mine

and everything that I'm involved with now But

Isaac I gotta I is there a community that people

read these things to oh, yes, there's yo Joe

There's all this stuff that they still sell these

things on eBay so I can catch up and get current

Okay, cool get on eBay. That was my first eBay

account was to get up on was to get up on eBay

and To get myself current and buy all the back

issues that I missed as a kid Chunk of change.

It was a nice chunk of change, but I was more

I was a I was a little more than I wasn't halfway

home I was almost halfway home in terms of the

total Joe run But having the older issues certainly

helped out the newer issues were a bit more current

and easier to find with the exception of 155

155 a little bit of a challenge, but that was

the last Marvel Marvel number in the Marvel run

But getting some of the earlier issues, the later

issues such as in the 90s was a little bit easier

because they weren't that old. But going back

to issues that I missed, for instance, one of

my favorite issues, number 11, because that's

one I didn't have and it also is the debut of

one of my favorite Joe's, Snow Job. That issue,

for some reason, it was really tough for me to

get and I went to a big bidding war just to get

that one issue, but. money well spent every single

dime. Very cool, very cool. Alright, so podcast

affiliations aside, are you a Marvel or a DC

guy? I would definitely consider myself a Marvel

guy. Okay, so since you've... Quote -unquote

grown up because we haven't really all none of

us have really grown up at all only in size Yeah

So as you're as you're getting into this now

what When you found the Joes again, you get all

caught up and everything else What did you start

reading other than them? Did you just read them

for a number of years or when did you like really

get back into like batman and spider -man and

all that kind of stuff? I totally caught up on

joe And then at the end of the joe run or actually

was more in the middle of the joe run But they

had these four special issues featuring the transformers

I said, you know that this might surprise you

mike, but it might it's like okay I got to check

out these guys a little bit and see us so I got

a couple of transformer issues It didn't really

set the same way with me as joe did i'm like

most everyone else who seems to be a transformer

fan. Who was writing the books that you were

reading? I don't know. But I didn't really start

really getting into superhero comics on a regular

basis until basically the start of this Marvel

movie run, because I never had a... Iron Man

was a watch you wore, not somebody that... not

Tony Stark who wrapped himself in armor. So I

was like, oh, there's a whole comic history behind

this. And you wanted to go, you read about it

on Wikipedia and that just gives you a tip of

the iceberg. It's now going to get more of these

comics and read this. Same thing with Captain

America. Same thing with a lot of the Avengers.

And I found myself liking the Marvel superhero

world a little bit more than the DC world. I

read a couple of the Batmans. Nothing really

fancy a couple of the Superman again. Nothing

really fancy, but they changed their titles so

race so and rebooted so many times this is like

The story as I knew it as I watched Batman or

as I watched Superman as a kid totally changed

And it kind of just turned me off a little bit

Marvel does it too, but now I understand why

versus back then where I didn't really necessarily

understand why Alright, the reason why I asked

you who was writing those Transformers comics

is because apparently, and I think this is probably

more recently than it was back then, there was

a few people writing Transformers comics a number

of years ago that didn't really know how to write

Transformers comics. That's why I asked you,

which it was, because there was a whole run there

where they started that ongoing that wasn't very

good. I could say it wasn't Larry Hama. No, Mike

Costa. Yeah, okay. All right. All right. So you

said that Snow Job is your favorite Joe. Is there

a favorite iteration of him? Is it the cartoon?

Is it, well, it can't be the movie since he hasn't

been in the movie yet as far as I know. I've

seen both. I don't he wasn't retaliation was

he don't know he but he did have a rise of Cobra

action figure that came with the Unless it's

in the well, it's not that I'm frowning on the

figure But he's not in the movie. No, he's not

in the movie But is there a certain iteration

or a certain storyline from him that they've

done over the years that you That you find is

your favorite. Well being that he's a a specialist

is an Arctic trooper. There's only so many stories

that you could really include the guy in. I mean,

you can't necessarily. It's I think it's the

stupid monkey guys. Stupid monkey guys. Oh, chicken,

robot chicken. Oh, robot. It's been a while since

I've seen it, but They did a skit with Snowjob

where they're like, it's time for action in the

jungle. Oh, but you can't go. Well, yeah, exactly.

Snowjob doesn't typically go on missions in the

jungle or missions in the city or that type of

thing or missions underwater. About the best

I've seen them really, and I'm not a cartoon

fan, was in that very first. Mass device series

like the the mass device mini series that came

out where he is on the first mission to go get

the radioactive crystals of death and he's there

with snake eyes and I think we had flash and

scarlet and Oh god, there was one other Joe on

that one. I can't remember who it was but They

go out into the Arctic and of course they're

all riding the Polar Bear or the Battle Bear

snowmobiles and then they run against Major Blood

and then they run against Snake Armor and the

radioactive crystal of Death Chamber and everything.

And he had the whole Eastern accent and everything.

It was a horrible Eastern accent and you don't

have to talk about the whole Boston accent and

everything because the character... Yeah, yeah.

The character... Me? No. We can still park the

car in Harvard Yard, thank you. There you go.

Very good. He's like... And that's not an impression,

ladies and gentlemen. I'm originally from Boston.

He's calling Scarlet like, hey there pretty lady,

and stuff like that. But that's about the best

I've really seen of him. Because when I close

my eyes as a kid, and he comes from Rutland,

Vermont, you'd expect to see him in the deep

Arctic on a mission like that. And when you expect

to hear him talk, you probably would expect them

to hear him talk like that. And he was voiced

by none other than Rob Paulson. Rob Paulson,

yeah. Yeah, I would think that if not to say

the current State of government would even have

a GI Joe unit But I would think if a GI Joe unit

was real today snow job would have a lot of work

right now Well his actual his actual Specialties

is something that maybe more along the lines

of 10th Mountain Division would do but they actually

do ski and they do a little bit more in terms

of what Alpine would do as a Joe, which would

be doing mountaineering. But one thing that SnowJob

is not really known for, but is specifically

mentioned in one of the Order of Battle books,

is that he's a world -class biathlete. Right

now, we're in the middle of the Olympics. Guys,

go watch the biathlon. That's cross -country

skiing and then stop and use a rifle and hit

four or five targets on a single shot. shoot,

ding, reload, shoot, ding, reload, shoot. You

gotta do this five times in the middle of cross

-country skiing. Now, Mike, I don't know if you've

ever cross -country skied. I tried it once, and

it is arduous. So to sit there and have to sit

there and cross -country ski and then stop, come

to a rest, and use a gun to pick off targets

at a distance, that's a bit of a challenge. So

Snow Job is also known as being a world -class

sniper. which people don't typically equate for

him on the GI Joe team. They kind of give that

more to low light, but that is one of his actual

duties. He is known as a world -class sniper.

Interesting. Yeah, no, I tried skiing when I

was six and that didn't really work. Yeah, it

didn't equate well to me. Skiing any kind of

skating, whether it's on wheels or blades, new.

I enjoy hockey from the sidelines, thank you.

I can handle the wheels, but anything that involves

a flat surface on snow, forget it. Myself, I'm

a flat lander. All right. OK, so. Any other like

what are you currently reading besides obviously

GI Joe? I have now a subscription to the Marvel

online archive So I just I grab whatever kind

of floats my boats a lot of the Avengers the

Avengers versus X -Men a lot of Iron Man a lot

of just various Spider -man of various stores

just just kind of catching up and whatever catches

my eye in the past I also did a good deal of

reading of the of some of the devil's -do stuff

such as Voltron and when they had G .I. Joe as

well. When IDW had some of the Transformer titles,

Mike, I tried. I really tried. And I just couldn't

really get into them. But I did try the Transformer

titles. But whenever I have time, I definitely

try to read whenever I can. And then I've been

reading a lot of independent stuff, such as got

this new comic that we were pitching on the show,

What's on Joe's Mind, from Chris Sims. in Chad

Bowers called set down set fight, which is an

independent comic about a football player that

goes on a vigilante spree against evil mascots.

So it's an interesting book. But you know, I

read that type of stuff too. Do you see that

commercial is a commercial? I don't know what

series it is. It's it's it's It's one of them

stupid reality show series, but it's like sci

-fi or I don't remember which channel it's on,

but it's about mascots It's the first thing that

popped into my head when you said evil mascots.

I'm like, oh great. That's the that's a good

reality show So you keep saying you've tried

and tried and tried with transformers Tried recently

since James Roberts and John Barber have taken

over writing duties on More Than Meets the Eye

and Robots in Disguise. No, but that doesn't

say that I shouldn't give them a chance. Barber

has been on What's On Joe Mine before and I have

a great deal of faith in his editing skills and

his storytelling skills, so I should definitely

give those guys a shot. Well, I'll tell you this.

Start with The Death of Optimus Prime, which

is a one -shot. about it has really is nothing

to do with the the actual movie it has to do

with the iuw continuity um start there at the

end of that book you can go down two paths you

can either you know jump on the lost light with

rodimus and his crew and leave cybertron behind

and go search for the nights of The Knights of

Cybertron or lights. I forget what the hell they're

searching for. They're searching for something.

They never find it. I don't think or you can

stay on Cybertron with all the characters you

might know and enjoy and Basically relive the

United States political agenda No, it's it's

the robots in disguise book is what is the one

that Barbara writes and the beginning of it is

basically Trying to establish a functioning government

in Iacon on Cybertron. Okay. With Bumblebee in

charge at first. Wow, okay. It takes characters

you know and might enjoy and basically that there

is some stuff that you might recognize and then

there's a lot of stuff you might not. If you

want something more of a space adventure, grab

more than meets the eye because I was, I was...

skeptical because I you know like I said way

back in episode three of the podcast I first

got into full -time comics back in 2012 with

the Joker returning with death of the family

and then you know people keep telling me about

Transformers the Transformers comics and then

a friend of mine Ender who's been on the show

several times said oh my god that's I can't even

put into words how awesome that origin for shockwave

is I was like all right Well, do I actually,

I asked him, I said, do I, uh, listeners have

heard this before, but anyway, uh, I asked him,

I said, do I really need to read the first 10

issues to catch up to what he said, yeah, you

do. So he basically forced me to go out and get

the trades for more than meets the eye. And my

initial hesitation about even getting it was,

I'm not sure if I'm going to even like these

characters if it's just going to be ripoffs of

characters I know and enjoy. The only characters

that are on the lost light that we know from

previous continuities. Ratchet, Rotimus, Ultra

Magnus, Rewind, and Chromedome. The rest are

all kind of newish kind of characters. I'm sure

they've been around, but it's an interesting

read, I'll give you that much. Fair enough. I

mean, to well -round yourself, you should probably

try a little bit of everything, and it's been

a while, so fair enough. I'll definitely have

to check it out. Yeah, where, if you were going

to recommend to me, not that I will, but where

should I start with Joe? Where should you start

with Joe? Like current stuff, not the old stuff.

Oh, well then, okay, if you're not into the old

stuff, do not... Read anything in the IDW continuation

of the old Marvel series Which is still pinned

by Larry Hama starting at 155 and a half, which

was a free comic book day comic about three or

four years ago Because really what you need to

know in 155 forward and we're knocking on the

door 200 So that they've got well 50 almost 50

issues well in the bank on this particular line

Yeah You really have to go back into the original

marble run Yeah, and and the continuity sticks

because Larry Larry is sticking to it and and

I can appreciate that because I am a stickler

for continuity myself, but I Don't know if it's

not the writing. It's the art And I don't know

you don't like a lot art Well, no, it's not that

it's Every time I pick up an old comic whether

it's from the 90s 80s or whatever Okay, it's

yeah, like I read Iron Man armor wars for marvelous

March And I'm like, okay. I know this story.

I've seen it in the cartoon. I've seen it in

Iron Man 2 Why do I need to read this and oh

my god, that heart style is horror of the colors

the Oh, yeah. If the art style, well, the art

style is not going to change. The colors, yeah,

you can change that. And IDW has done a little

bit of that. They've gone back in time and got

permission from Marvel to reprint some of those

earlier issues and bind them. And a good friend

of our show, Mark Belomo, has been doing previews

and forwards and a lot of those particular bound

issues from IDW. You can get your hands on a

couple of those just to get a preview. Think

of and I'm gonna I'm gonna put it in bad terms

for geeks But think of of Lucas getting a hold

of Star Wars just not adding those scenes but

sharpening things up. That's all he's doing They're

sharpening up the colors in the artwork. That's

about it. They're not adding any, you know Tontons

running around in the background or anything

like that. They're not doing anything like that

But they are sharpening up the colors and maybe

that would help. There was one scene that he

was telling us and one of the issues where I

think it was issue 20 and this is when clutch

goes home and he was saying that the. the scene

actually had Doc in it, but when Doc was drawn,

the person that was coloring didn't know that

it was Doc, so everyone knows that Doc is a black

guy that wears glasses, green glasses, and has

green fatigues. Well, when the guy coloring,

all he sees is a guy wearing fatigues and glasses,

so he painted the fatigues green and kept the

glasses white, and made it a white guy. In the

Joe world, to us, that's short fuse. So he draws,

he colors short fuse, but it's meant to be dock,

so what they do is they end up going back and

correcting that particular issue by making it

dock instead of short fuse. So basically it's

like some Fox News guy. Well I wouldn't go that

far. it's some fox it's some fox news news guy

uh... mistaking samuel jackson for laurence fishburne

okay i would go that far uh... what's uh... what

spider -man stuff have you been interested in

Just the most recent I think the most actually

the most recent I read was a death of Peter Parker

That was what December a year ago. I think 700.

Yeah, and that was pretty interesting That was

basically basically on a recommendation of a

ruin say you got it. You got to read this It's

really good. It's written by us great writer

got great art in there and I liked it but the

thing is it was pretty much enough to be a standalone

story as it is because I didn't go any further

after that. So I've been mainly reading a lot

of the Avengers stuff though lately though Yeah,

I don't know what it is about the Avengers as

a team I can never Bring myself to be that Interested

I've never I don't know what it is about them

The only time I got really interested in this

is gonna sound sad was the movie and that's what

got me into it. Yeah Well, if you had that team

in the comics, you know, the team from the movie

in the comics, I probably would read it. But

when you add in, like, Vision and Ant -Man and

Wasp and all these other characters from United

We Stand, I just don't care. Yeah, there's a

point where the Avengers become too big and then

all of a sudden, like, Super Friends all over

again. So I kind of like the smaller Avenger

team. And in some of those, especially versus

Avengers versus X -Men, the Avenger team was

just absolutely huge. It had everybody that wasn't

a mutant, right? And then every X -Men was every

guy, who was a mutant? So you're sitting there

reading, you go, who the hell is this? And then

you look up in the Marvel encyclopedia and go,

oh, OK, I got it who this is and everything.

So the movie team, I tend to like, because you

get any bigger than that. And maybe like the

first half of the season, for instance, of Earth's

Mightiest Heroes, where you only had like six

dudes. That's fine. But like I said, any bigger

than that, you're getting into the Super Friends

territory where you have everybody teaming up

with everybody. Yeah. Yeah. See, that's the thing,

though. OK, sure. You can blame Super Friends.

You can blame the 70s. But when they redid it

as Justice League and then they went Justice

League Unlimited, it was it wasn't. Yes, it was

a big team. But. They the producers of that show

broke it down to where each episode was like

two or three or four members per mission So that

I don't mind but if the Avengers stuff is the

entire team all at once oh And and the two or

three guys permission is is Just like how Hama

did it with the Joes I mean how many members

of the Joe team where there was there was over

a hundred at one point You can't have all 100

going into action all the time. So that's why

you will have a situation where Stalker and Snowjob

and Outback are going on a mission. Or you would

have a particular one -off issue where you have

Steeler driving his tank in a parade with Zap

and I think short fuse in the tank. You can't

have every member going at it There's very few

issues where I remember the whole team just flat

out going at it I mean issue one was one of those

particular issues where it had the original every

member of the original 13 was engaged in issue

one and then the Cobra Civil War where it just

seemed to have every member of The Joe team whatsoever

was thrown into this this big invasion of Cobra

Island, but you don't have it very often than

Joe Yeah All right. How do you feel about the

state of comics nowadays? The state of comics?

Well, I got to say it's pretty good. I don't

think sales of Joe will ever get to where they

were back in the 80s. But I do think the general

state of comics is good. You got to look at all

these shows and all these pop culture events

and they are built on and based upon the comic

genre and the comic book reader. And as long

as these shows keep popping up and pop culture

remains as popular as it is, I think these comic

book properties are going to be the thing that

movies are going to continue to go after. I mean,

you look at some of the highest grossing movies

of all time and what are they? They're all comic

book. uh properties so comic books are are leading

the way in terms of uh you know what we're seeing

in mass media these days did you ever watch and

I this must be must feel like repeat for people

listening because I recommend this comic this

stuff every time did you ever watch Batman Beyond

have you ever seen it uh no I have not Okay,

well then, there goes that recommendation. Let

me see here, what else am I reading? Well, you

kind of like stuff from Massachusetts, right?

Kind of. Everything but the Patriots. Wow. What

a jerk! Come on, I have no idea what... Why you

as a patriot fan is is all offended about that

I mean you did beat my team in the playoffs and

the last two teams We put last two times we played

you hung some pretty big points on us. I don't

know why You're offended All right, I'm starting

I have yet to read it I it's it's so funny Sometimes

when I go to my comic shop if they don't have

the number one, but they have like the most recent

like the three or four most recent issues i'll

grab them anyway and i'll go back and try to

find the number one later so i've got this series

called coffin hill it's from dc vertigo okay

it's a um it's a magic kind of based it's not

it's not twilight but it's It's magic -based,

it's based on the Salem witch trials and that

kind of stuff. And I'm really, really interested

to read it. I wish by now I would have started

reading it. I think I'm just going to have to

break down and get issue one on comixology to

kind of get myself caught up. Don't you hate

that? Yeah. all these tb shows these days and

i blame twenty four i think it started with twenty

four for you miss one freaking show you can't

watch the rest of them and that's how i am with

comics these days if you miss one episode i have

to go back and read the back ones before i can

proceed any farther so i absolutely know what's

going on yes i and i'm kinda like that with comics

that that that was my hesitation of getting into

comics for the longest time is like i said you

know as a kid off and on i would have comics

but i never collected as a kid i'd never had

a subscription to anything as a kid uh... but

that was my that's always been my problem is

okay if batman six seventeen is out now you mean

i have to read the last six hundred sixteen issues

to catch up with the number one though i mean

it's not coffin hills only six, seven issues

in so far. So, I mean, it's fairly new, but it

looks really interesting and it takes place in

Massachusetts. That's why, that's the whole reason

why I brought this up. So that that's really

what, it wasn't even the magic or whatever kind

of other kind of comic. It was just the, okay,

it takes place in Massachusetts. Okay, I'm going

to buy that now. That's all it was for me. Well,

a lot of times these days, series don't go very

long before they reboot anyways. Yeah, no. Yeah,

I don't want to get into the whole thing. But

you look at look at the IDW GI Joe series. I

mean, we've gone through at least two different

riders and I think they're going to end that

here soon. and they've done the Cobra files and

they've done some other kind of spin -offs from

the IDWs. In fact, this goes back to your question

you were saying earlier. If you were to want

to read something, GI Joe, but not have to go

all the way back to June of 1982 in order to

get an idea of what everything's going on, just

pick up the IDW Cobra series. Start there. Okay.

That'd be interesting now. Do you? I need to

start asking people this I haven't been but I

need to Do you prefer the print the actual copy

in your hand or do you like digital better? You

would think as an IT guy and as we always kid

in our program that a well -paid IT guy that

I would prefer the The digital I actually prefer

the print I like going and only owning something

and putting it and adding it to the library You

know if it's digital I guess I can go back and

redownload it at some time, but if I have to

reformat my hard drive or my computer crashes

or whatever, that data's kind of lost and I'll

have to go back out and grab it again. But I

like having the real tangible artwork in my hand

that I can flip pages and then put back in with

the bag and board and add it to the library.

Yeah, I'm kind of the same way. I only broke

into digital and even signed up for Comixology

because of where Batman Beyond went with its

2 .0 currently. That's really the only reason.

Even though I don't have any kind of smartphone

or any kind of smart device at all, I just read

it on my computer in Comixology. Unless the website

dies, if I have to reformat my computer, I'm

not going to lose anything because it's all on

their end. So yeah, but I'm I'm like you I do

prefer the print and actually being able to sit

down and read and I will say and I've said this

before many times in the show IDW has got the

right idea. Let us read the whole story first

and then put the ads at the end Because Every

month whether it's a book whether it's a title.

I absolutely love or not I hate reading a page

and it's like, oh, hey, that's awesome. Where's

the next part of the? Oh, wait, it's it's like

a friggin commercial. It's like a cliffhanger.

I was like, oh, God, no. Well, we really turn

to GI Joe after these messages. Well, you know,

actually, the Joe comics back in the 80s had

that as well. And I think part of the nostalgia

when I go back and read those are looking at

those ads. You see these ads for. the old ads

for Mile High Comics, before there was internet,

you know, contact us for your back issues. No,

that I can understand. That I can understand

why you like, I'm sorry, nowadays? Nowadays,

yeah, you got the internet. But back in the day,

you had all the old video game ads. What was

that one ad that you sold so many of these things

that you could earn points to get, like, The

x -ray glasses and stuff like that or the or

the sea monkeys, you know stuff like that I remember

I just one of the things I I did with my comic

collection when I when I got a full run is I

got out my scanner and I scanned every front

Cover of every Joe issue and you're asking add

that's that's what's so different than what you

know You see on yo -yo and that's right. There's

no different than what I did. You could see on

yo -yo But what I did when I was done and I flipped

them over and I scanned all the ads on the back,

that is a time capsule right there. I mean, all

these Atari 2600 games and television, all this

old, old, old, you know, not even 8 -bit video

game stuff. I mean, we're going back to... turn

my tv to channel three and flip the switch in

the back and plug in a cartridge type stuff that

those all all those ads back in the day i'll

loved of every single one of them and that i

don't know if i could see that you know i could

see that if you're going back and reading through

the old comics i could see enjoying those men

i'm sorry with today's comics new Every time

I get an IDW book whether it's transformed whether

it's one of the two on goings whether it's a

one -shot whether it's a miniseries Whatever

I know I can rely on IDW to put all the ads and

the solicits and whatever else in the back of

the book And that's fine and IDW actually I think

For Joe fans at least has their pulse on the

nostalgia level of Joe fans. Not only do they

keep all the ads in the back and everything,

which is no big deal, they're bringing back the

post office pit or the post box pit. You remember,

I don't know if you read any old Joe issues back

in the day, but the post box pit was the opportunity

for you at home after reading an issue to write

a letter to Marvel and have it answered and then

Larry would actually have your letter there and

then he would answer it right there on the post

box pit on the page. And they're actually bringing

that back. And I think that's something very

cool that IDW is doing with the Joe comic. Yeah,

they are. They're doing it right. They are doing

it very right. And don't get me wrong, I still

like certain parts of DC. But after April, I

will only be getting three titles from that company.

You know and and Marvel I I Don't know what it

is. I love some of their characters But I just

can't bring myself To fully get into or commit

to any of their comics. I don't know what it

like I love the X -Men like X -Men for me are

Wolverine Scott Gene Beast Rogue storm. Yeah,

you know the 90s team, right? Let's put it that

way the 90s team the 90s cartoon team, you know,

I like daredevil I like to a certain extent Punisher

but I prefer to see them in animation or in the

in the live -action films then Read their comics

like Superman love the movies Love the cartoon

series. Well most of them You know I'm not so

sure that, well, I can't really speak exactly

for what Marvel's doing, but it's pretty clear

they're kinda becoming a media company and less

of a print company. And obviously, you see where

all their money has been made lately, and it's

been made at that box office and not printed.

I think at first, it was... It was movie to supplement

the print and now print is now supplementing

the movie because the movies bringing in everything

So I think more and more we'll start seeing a

lot more Marvel movies. I mean heck I mean you

have yeah, it's it's phase twos coming out you

have You have the Guardians of the Galaxy, which

is they're kind of the first group of superheroes

that's kind of a third -tier fourth -tier type

team and and that's coming out with the movie

so I think I think they've just pretty much made

up their mind that we're gonna be animation and

we're gonna be major motion pictures and the

comic books are and then we'll sell our licensee

in the Hasbro and Hasbro will sell our action

figures And DC they're They want to be an entertainment

company they want they want to be I will say

I will say that I just saw the Lego movie, and

I don't know if Lego went to both of them and

said, hey, which one of you is going to pony

up the most money and we could feature either

the Marvel figures or the DC figures? I still

don't know why when that movie came out they

didn't feature the Marvel figures, the mini figures

and characters, but they exclusively featured

the DC characters in there. They need to do more

of that. Because you're right and I see where

you're getting. I mean a lot of the DC movies

are Not as well received as the Marvel movies

I'm not gonna say they're bad because there might

be fans out there and say hey, you don't know

anything about here's our here's the problem

Here's the problem. You look at Marvel, okay?

Look at Marvel as early as 1998. They did blade.

Okay. Well actually blade series I did like Right,

but I'm saying like one of the first like current

like in the last 10 11 12 13 14 15 years that

I can remember Marvel movies not counting Transformers

86 because technically that was Marvel productions,

but anyway Blade was the first movie that I ever

really saw that said Marvel on it right and then

in 2008 X -Men and all this and all that up to

now You look at DC you travel back to 1978 you

get Superman 234 superman returns on along the

lines you get batman had to wonder what he's

doing wonder woman on tv yes that that was good

my point here is is that and i've said this for

the last six years that i've been podcasting

marvel does movies well Marvel does continuity

in movies well and for the most part of what

i've seen their animation it's new It's not like,

it's not bad, but it just isn't my cup of tea.

I did see that thing, I forget where it was.

It was probably on, well, it was either have

to be on Disney XD or Disney, since Disney owns

Marvel. Right. Marvel Maximum Overload, where

it was the Lego characters. Yes. I did see that

and I like that but like the general Marvel animation

it just it doesn't grab me whereas on the other

side DC they do excellent animation they're doing

well in animation and their movies over the last

what is it 40 something years I think 1978 yeah

last 36 years Superman Batman Superman Batman

Green Lantern. Hey, let's yeah my point here

is is that DC Believes and this is just my personal

opinion I believe that DC believes that the only

characters that people are gonna pay money to

go see is Batman and Superman and now They're

not even giving either one of those characters

a chance because they're gonna do it turn up

already. Yeah My whole point in this when I started

talking about Superman is I like Superman in

other media, television, animated series, films,

Superman comics. This is just another one of

those things I just can't get into. I don't know

why. It doesn't translate to me as a reader because

I've seen all this stuff in movies and TV. I'm

with you. I mean, I just can't believe Superman

punching through Brainiac's robotic face on a

2D page when I can see it, you know, 3D animation

in Superman. I'm with you. I'm with you. This

is my whole point here. All right. Any recommendations

for the listeners out there that you want to

give out? Any recommendations for? Well, if you've

never stuff to read well, obviously We're gonna

show GI Joe here a little bit I think if you

haven't got a chance to read any of the bound

IDW editions of the Classic Marvel run pick those

up just grab one Flip through it. See what you

think I would recommend anything in the first

20 issues first 20 24 issues as issues that are

good The I would even say if you want to find

something on the cheap Go to go does Devils do

and find some of the bound issues of the disavowed

series, which I hate they call it disavowed because

really the guys that worked on that particular

series which was a continuation of the Marvel

run and and later pinned by some friends of the

program Brandon Gero and some other folks They

call it disavowed means it's I think call it

brings it the quality of it less than the question

and It's anything but that it's some good stuff

Pick up the devil's dew stuff. That's good stuff,

too, and you could probably pick it up on the

cheap If you want to pick up Joe and you don't

want to know anything about Joe other than and

forget about the movies But you just know about

Joe in general general Retaliation was good.

Come on, man But if you want to pick up said

forget about the movies we'll allow you to forget

about rise of Cobra but if you want to pick up

Joe and and just pick it up in a very general

content that you know it's a team of specialized

uh soldiers then pick up the IDW series that

that's coming out there but there you go but

if if you want to really get into when you see

all these action figures coming out uh and you

see they they have these backstories to them

and you and you want to know why is he called

duke or why is he called clutch or why is he

called breaker or the favorite my favorite character

snow why is he called snow job then you probably

want to go back into the marvel run and read

those you're really not missing anything that's

going to set you back too horribly expensive

if you pick up the bound editions and just scan

through them. So that's kind of my recommendation.

Anything in the first 2024 of the old classic

Marvel run, anything in the Devils do run, you

can probably find on the cheap. And if you want

to pick up Joe and not know anything, pick up

the IDW series. All right. Where can the people

interact with you or you want to pimp out? What's

On Joe Mine and all the other stuff you guys

do? Well, it's not much nowadays, but it is What's

On Joe Mine. We are the web's number one GI Joe

podcast. You can find us on podbean at whatsonjomeine

.podbean .com. You can also find us on the Geekcast

Radio Network. You can also find us on Facebook

at facebook .com slash what's on Joe Mine. And

you can always email the program at whatsonjomeine

.gmail .com. And we'll, chances are we'll eventually

read it on one of our shows. May not be today,

may not be tomorrow, but it'll probably be within

the next year or so. Alright folks also head

on over to well by the time this is up, it'll

be already over nevermind 50 41 edit point All

right, that's gonna do it for this episode the

full bag Stay tuned for whatever we have coming

up next, I'm not sure at this point in time.

I want to thank Gary for taking the time to chat

about comics, G .I. Joe, and everything else

he loves. And we will catch you next time. Make

your great escape into comics. Our guests include

Jason Marsden, Kevin Michael Richardson, and

Matt Yang King from G .I. Joe Renegades, Larry

Hama, Robert Adkins, and John Barber from IDW

Publishing, and many more from around the online

Joe community. Yeah, it's guys talking about

Joe. Think of it as Joe Talk meets Sports Talk,

and we make fun of Chuck. Right, and we, hey,

again? Come on, Chuck, we're just kidding, kinda.

Sometimes Chuck makes fun of himself. Right,

and we, okay, seriously, this is just getting

ridiculous now. It's What's on Joe Mind every

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and listen today. I suppose I still can't say

something about Transformers, can I? Good grief.

What about sports? Sounds good. Yeah, that's

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