Episode 532

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GI Joe Week continues as the Grumpy Old Fans go through three Marvel-era issues of GI Joe: A Real American Hero (#1, #21, and #50) and three IDW-era issues (#155 1/2, #177, and #178). How do Dan and Mike feel about Larry Hama changing the focus of the series from the Joes to ninjas, just how violent are the comics compared to the cartoon, and does the silent issue deserve the praise it's received throughout the years? There's only one way to find out, and you know what that is! [ 2:13:30 || 64.6 MB ]

To listen, click here: http://www.earth-2.net/theshow/episodes/e2ts_532.mp3

[Donomark]

You two stabbed me in the heart when you said that neither of you care for Ron Frenz nor Sal Buscema as artists. Nevertheless, as someone who's unfamiliar with G.I. Joe, t'was another solid listening experience from the Toland/Simms team.

[Dan]

Frenz is only as good as his inker. I've seen decent work out of him, and I've seen terrible work. Buscema, however, is a TERRIBLE inker. Decent penciler, but he has never been any good at inking. Believe me, I have nothing but fondness for Our Pal Sal - he was basically Mr. Marvel in the 70s and 80s, and his work in about as distinctive as it gets.

[Donomark]

Well I will totally agree that Frenz does have a tendency to mask his art as another styles, particularly with those Ditko and Kirby styles you mentioned. He was brought onto Bruce Timm's Fantastic Four miniseries specifically because of his Thor stuff looking like Kirby's, because they wanted it to match Kirby's F4 run as much as possible.

Also, Bob McCleod is/was one of the best inkers in comics ever. I think every work he touched be it his own pencils or him inking over someone else's, make the art jump out of the page. For instance, his inking during Jim Starlin and Jim Aparo's run on Batman made Aparo's stuff look great. You read "A Death in the Family" and the inks almost look Dr. Seuss-ish in how illustrious they are. Compare Aparo then in 1989 to in 1993 during Knightfall, and while it's not bad it's very different.

Again, as someone unfamiliar with the Joe franchise, I was heavily amused by all the codenames. I knew of Duke, Scarlett, Lady Jaye, Snake-Eyes and Cobra Commander. But hearing names like BeachHead, Short Fuse, Rock'nRoll, Sgt. Slaughter and others made me look up all the characters' names throughout the franchise. I think you guys mentioned Larry Hama's wacky naming for characters beofre off-handedly in BotI before, but this was eye-opening. Awesome stuff haha.