The History of the, "G.I. Joe," Comic is Fascinating

G.I. Joe existed as toys and cartoons, but when the comic launched with Larry Hama at the helm, it became a huge hit. This wasn't expected, as an excerpt from, "A Brief History of G.I. Joe," discusses on Comicsbeat. Albert Fuzailof explains how a tie-in comic to go with the cartoon helped avoid running afoul of rules about advertising toy products. He also discusses the way Larry Hama ended up on the comic--namely, a lot of other creators passed on it before it was offered to Hama--then it became massively popular.

Hama's work on, "G.I. Joe," has spanned decades and multiple publishers; he is still currently working on a, "G.I. Joe," series now over at Skybound (an imprint of Image)! The franchise has gone on to have live-action movies, plenty of other comics, and toys (so many toys). "G.I. Joe," would still have a degree of popularity without its comic, but the work of Larry Hama and his collaborators made all the difference for, "G.I. Joe," to be what we know it today.