Review- CLASSIC G.I. JOE VOL. 14

CLASSIC G.I. JOE VOL. 14 (IDW, 2012; Softcover)

Collects G. I. Joe: A Real American Hero Nos. 135-145 (originally published by Marvel Comics, cover dates April, 1993- February, 1994)

Writers: Larry Hama (except 143)

Artists: Andrew Wildman, Chris Batista, and others

Wow. Things go downhill so fast that they should have sold this book with a parachute to prevent injury. For starters, the title of the book temporarily changes to G.I. Joe Starring Snake Eyes and Ninja Force. That alone should tell you how kewl and !!!extreme!!! things get here. Andrew Wildman's artwork deteriorates here, getting all scratchy and unfocused like the Image brethren. Who thought that this style of artwork was appealing in the first place? What was the matter with you people in the '90s?? 

The first chunk of the book is basically Destro and ninjas battling it out with Cobra Commander for a castle. Then there's a Transformers crossover that does little to help things out. Issue 143 is an inventory story obviously thrown in because of a missed deadline. Then we get a retelling of Snake Eyes' origin in 144. Phil Gosher takes over the art in 145, and he sucks even worse than Wildman's Image-flavored crap.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 2 out of 5.

The OCD zone- What happened? Was IDW disappointed that Volume 13 was mostly readable? 

Ugly, ugly pixelation. Look at the outline of that word balloon. I lost a full night's sleep over that.

Linework restoration rating: 1 out of 5. Things start out decent, but it's almost like the budget ran out and they cut corners for the rest of the book. This is the worst pixelation that I've seen in any collected edition in the last 10 years. This is inexcusable. 

IDW must have hired a first semester intern to do the restoration here. They should be embarrassed.

Color restoration rating: 3 out of 5. Some of the issues have more muted colors, probably an attempt by the colorist to try and replicate the more subdued color of pulp paper. It doesn't look bad, but other issues look terrible. I don't understand how both the coloring and the linework restoration quality can vary from page to page within the same issue. One page will look okay, the next will have pixelation or crappy airbrushed looking gradients.

Paper rating: 4 out of 5. Heavyweight, bright white coated stock that gives too much glare.

Binding rating: 4 out of 5. Glued binding. Nothing to get excited about here.

Cardstock cover coating rating: 4 out of 5. Not bad, should hope up over time. The corners are a bit soft and can be easily dinged.

Review- CLASSIC G.I. JOE VOL. 13

CLASSIC G.I. JOE VOL. 13 (IDW, 2011; Softcover)

Collects G. I. Joe: A Real American Hero Nos. 124-134 (cover dates May, 1992- March, 1993)

Writer: Larry Hama

Artist: Andrew Wildman and Rurik Tyler (132 only)

There are equal parts goodness and stupidity sprinkled throughout the issues in this book. Some ideas, like Firefly being a ninja, are totally stupid. Others, like the assault on Cobra Island, are great fun. There are no hard and fast rules on where the goodness and suckiness occur.

While the concept of having artwork on the front cover of the book that doesn't quite match the artwork in the rest of the book was started by Marvel when they released Volumes 1-5 a decade ago, that is no reason that IDW had to go and keep this crappy tradition going. Seriously. Look at this book's cover by Jonboy Myers. It sucks, and I feel that using any one of the issue's covers for each book would give them more “curb appeal”. 

Issue 125 was a split issue not unlike what John Byrne did back in Fantastic Four #277 in 1985, where he used two existing subplots and assigned them a top and bottom arrangement throughout the issue. Issue 124 was split in three parts across each page in much the same way. Larry Hama is a good writer when he is allowed to cut loose and have fun like he did in those two issues. 

There are some ideas in these issues that really, really suck, such as the G.I. Joe Eco-Warriors and Cesspool and his sludge weapons. There are some good ideas, too, like shifting the focus on the series to Snake Eyes again. Snake Eyes was the first G.I. Joe doll that I got back in 1982 at age 9 (I'm talking pre-swivel arm battle grip Snake Eyes, folks), and was always my favorite. The only problem with him is that he cannot speak so you need someone such as the now-good guy Storm Shadow to relay what he is thinking or meaning to say to others. It gets tiresome quickly. 

Read that dialogue. Just read it.

There are some fun action sequences, but much of this book was marred by the Image influence in the artwork department. Image was a big deal at that time, and every artist was scrambling to incorporate that razzle dazzle into their style. I blame the Image artists for the speculation boom that nearly destroyed the entire industry.

So yeah, the series is going down the tubes by this point, having long since lost its focus and is weaving and bobbing about. I am well into Volume 14 as I am writing this, and it is apparent that the train has gone off of the rails. Will things get back on track by the time that the original series end in Volume 15? Time will tell.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 2.75 out of 5.

The OCD zone- 240 pages of remastered comic books.

Linework restoration rating: 3.5 out of 5. This looks worlds better than Vols. 6-12, with minimal defects which would be barely noticeable to the untrained eye. Minimal pixelation, very, very few dropped out lines...finally, this title gets the treatment it deserves.

Color restoration rating: 3.75 out of 5. While there are still crappy gradient shadings, there is also a marked improvement in the coloring in this volumes. I'm happy with the strides IDW has made between Volumes 12 and 13.

Paper rating: 4 out of 5. Bright, day-glo white high gloss stock which makes the colors look garish. It does smell great, though.

Binding rating: 4 out of 5. The glue is solid, with no creaking when you fan through the book.

Cardstock cover coating rating: 4 out of 5. The coating that IDW uses on their cardstock covers isn't quite as thick as Marvel's, but is sufficient and should hold up well with repeated handling.

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Review- CLASSIC G.I. JOE VOL. 12

CLASSIC G.I. JOE VOL. 12 (IDW, 2011; Softcover)

Collects G. I. Joe: A Real American Hero Nos. 111-123 (cover dates April, 1991- April, 1992)

Writers: Larry Hama and Herb Trimpe

Artists: John Statema, Rod Whigham, Herb Trimpe, and Andrew Wildman

I love what Larry Hama did on the title when I was growing up. It pains me to write this, but I have an obligation to be honest and to call them as I see them. This title has gone from lovable fun to loathable stupidity. Gone are nearly all of the semi-realistic military angles, in are high fantasy elements such as the G.I. Joe Ninja Force and Battle Force 2000. Not to be outdone, Cobra has Slice and Dice, a pair of evil ninjas. 

The worst artwork that the world has ever seen was done in 1990s comic books.

Longtime fans will be happy with the reintroduction of Zartan, Tomax, Xamot, and Billy (Cobra Commander's son). Undoubtedly inspired by the the events of Operation: Desert Storm in January, 1991, the Joes become involved in conflicts in the Middle East in fictitious countries such as Quagmahr, Benzheen, and Abysmia. I got a kick out of those names. 

Storm Shadow gets a Wolverine claw for his right hand during the all-out ninja stupidity. Snake Eyes and Cobra Commander get new costumes without any fanfare or acknowledgment. It's like Hasbro sent them the new action figure designs and then they were integrated. The clearest sign of this title “jumping the shark” is the introduction of the Eco-Warriors, which are the dumbest elements introduced into the G.I. Joe universe thus far. 

New costumes for Snake Eyes and Cobra Commander are unveiled here with no mention of how or why.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 2 out of 5.

The OCD zone- In true IDW fashion, this collection is lacking. The G.I. Joe Dossiers from Issue 111, 113-118, 120-123 (2 pages each), are omitted. You would think that they would've included those in the back of the book as DVD style extras, but no. IDW has repeatedly dropped the ball with this line of trade paperbacks, from omitting issues that crossed over with G.I. Joe Special Missions to the poor restoration in many of these volumes. 

Tight gutters abound. There is plenty of excess white border space on the pages. All they would have had to do is some slight cropping and move the image out 1/8 of an inch.

Linework restoration rating: 3.5 out of 5. The restoration is really hit or miss. It's decent and readable but doesn't make me feel all warm and fuzzy like I do when I read a Marvel Masterwork. I like to have that definitive, high-def BluRay expereince.

Color restoration rating: 2 out of 5. Ugly gradient shading, done by letting the computer fill in the shapes rather than doing them by hand on the computer. Cheesy airbrushed gradient effects make my blood boil. The original issues did not have that, so I perceive it to be an abomination.

Paper rating: 4 out of 5. Super heavy duty coated stock paper. This book weighs a ton for a softcover, clocking in at a chunky 280 or so pages. It's a high gloss stock which makes the colors look garish.

Binding rating: 4 out of 5. Glue in a cardstock cover. It doesn't creak when you fan through it and should hold up over time.

Cardstock cover coating rating: 4 out of 5. The laminated cardstock cover seems durable with repeated handling, and should fare well over a lifetime on your bookshelf.

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Review- CLASSIC G.I. JOE VOL. 11

CLASSIC G.I. JOE VOL. 11 (IDW, 2011; Softcover)

Collects G. I. Joe: A Real American Hero Nos. 101-110 (cover dates June, 1990- March, 1991)

Writer: Larry Hama

Artists: Mark D. Bright, Ron Garney, Lee Weeks, and others

G.I. Joe isn't very realistic at this point in the title, with the far flung fantasy elements (science fiction, ninjas) getting as much attention as the military elements of the series. I was admittedly a sucker for this back when I played with the toys and read the comic books. I was no longer buying comic books when these issues were originally published, so these were all new to me. There is a sense of fun amidst all of these goings on. There is also a sense of reality, as seven Joes meet their maker in issues 109-110. And no, I'm not referring to Hasbro. 

Larry Hama's writing is a precursor to modern comic book storytelling. Unlike his contemporaries, Hama did not use third party narrative captions to set scenes. He would list a location or a time and then cut to the dialogue. This is pretty much standard operating procedure at Marvel over the last decade, but Hama might very well be the first to have done it. I'm not a comics historian so I can't say for certain. The artwork is done by a rotating crew, and is solid throughout the book. Clear, concise, competently done artwork. Mark D. Bright does the bulk of the book (101-106 and 108), and I enjoyed his run on Iron Man. 

This was a fun escapist read. I'll admit that G.I. Joe is pure nostalgia for me, as I played with the toys, watched the cartoon series, and read the comic books in the '80s. I left Star Wars for G.I. Joe in 1983, which seemed like a big deal at the time but now seems funny to me. Star Wars is so much cooler than G.I. Joe, but it had run it's course by late 1983. 

Junk Food For Thought rating: 4 out of 5.

The OCD zone- There is a marked improvement in the overall restoration in this book over previous volumes. While there are a few IDW-created typos found in the word balloons, greater care seems to have been taken this time around than with the previous volumes. There doesn't seem to be much in the way of pixelated lines. The strangest thing is the uneven lines on the top of the panels on some of the pages. My best guess is that these were scanned from floppies that were stored in extremely humid conditions and had the rippled warping that accompanies said humidity. 

Notice the "warped" appearance at the top of the panel. I'm not speaking about the curve from end to end (which is due to the book flexing), I am talking about the actual warping of the line. Very strange.

The computer recoloring seems to be handled better throughout the book, although the crappy airbrushed-looking gradients still mar the overall reading experience for me. Issue 110 has the worst linework and color restoration in the book. Your mileage, as always, may vary.

The paper is super thick, super shiny coated stock and is as smooth as a baby's bottom. It has sweet smelling toxic Korean ink, likely printed on virgin Amazon rainforest paper. There is significant glare if you read this under incandescent or fluorescent light, but there is almost no glare if you read it by natural light or sunlight, as long as it is not directly under the sun. Who cares, you ask? You do, if you're reading about this stuff in a section called The OCD zone!

Linework restoration rating: 3.75 out of 5.

Color restoration rating: 3.75 out of 5.

Paper rating: 4 out of 5.

Binding rating: 4 out of 5.

Cardstock cover coating rating: 4 out of 5.

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Review- G.I. JOE YEARBOOK

G.I. JOE YEARBOOK (IDW, 2012; Softcover)

Collects G. I. Joe Yearbook Nos. 1-4 (cover dates March, 1985- February, 1988)

Writer: Larry Hama

Artist: Herb Trimpe, Michael Golden, and Ron Wagner

IDW are completely clueless when it comes to collecting G.I. Joe. You'd think that when they set out to reissue the classic Marvel run of the title that they would have spent a few minutes online figuring out crossovers, etc. Instead, they issued Classic G.I. Joe, which collected the core series, G.I. Joe A Real American Hero. Then they released the G.I. Joe Special Missions trade paperbacks, collecting that series over the course of four trades. Now we have the G.I. Joe Yearbook trade paperback. They should have collected all three into one cohesive line. Oh wait, they are going to do that...in hardcover, now that everyone has already bought of all them. Bastards. 

Artwork by Herb Trimpe.

I wonder if they will include the G.I. Joe Vs. The Transformers '80s series in with those hardcovers? IDW issued a separate trade of those crossovers. That choice almost made sense, since both G.I. Joe and the Transformers have been licensed to multiple comic companies over the years, and there have been crossovers from multiple companies. They landed over at IDW a couple of years ago, and IDW has made some decent choices with new material, such as resurrecting the Marvel continuity for both properties, getting Larry Hama back on the title, etc. My beef is with the way that they presented the material in this book. Let's get started, shall we? (*cracks knuckles*)

If you did a shot for every panel marred by poor restoration, you'd die of alcohol poisoning.

G.I. Joe Yearbook No. 1 was appealing to me as an 11 year old upon it's newsstand release in December of 1984 because I didn't get in to the G.I. Joe comics until issue 23 in February of that year. The bulk of Yearbook No. 1 was a reprint of the at-the-time expensive first issue of G.I. Joe A Real American Hero. This was already collected in Classic G.I. Joe Vol. 1, so this was nothing more than padding in my opinion. Had they collected this in proper sequence, this could have been omitted. The linework doesn't look too bad for this issue. 

Artwork by Michael Golden.

The linework restoration in Yearbook No. 2 is superb, worlds better than the crap that IDW passed off on us for the rest of the books. I wonder why the lines are so sharp and clear in this story while the other three issues are a pixelated mess. My guess is that they had access to Michael Golden's original artwork. 

Which is worse: the horrible linework or the cheesy airbrushed recoloring?

The other two issues in this book suffer from same the subpar production values that IDW had for Classic G.I. Joe Vols. 6-9. Those books are complete crap, production-wise. I have reviewed them all here in my blog. Click on the G.I. Joe tag below and see for yourself. IDW created typos. The linework is obliterated. They use crappy substandard computer recoloring, allowing the computer to fill in the shapes which resulted in poor gradient blends and “airbrushed” looking lines. There are rampant jagged lines due to low resolution scanning of the floppies. I would have rather seen them just do straight scanning of the pages than this crap. Dots would have been preferable to this garbage. I wonder if they even bothered asking Marvel to use the files for these issues. Wouldn't have hurt to ask. 

Yup, IDW actually CREATES typos in these books. This is pathetic. These typos are not found in the original issues.

The stories in and of themselves are fun, but the shoddy presentation ruined this book for me. I would advise everyone to pass on this book unless you cannot live without this material in collected edition format. Rating below is based on the stories themselves.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 3 out of 5.

The OCD zone- Super thick uncoated paper stock and sewn binding glued square to the spine make this a tough read. You have to almost pin it down like a wrestler to read this book. I don't like fighting with my books just to be able to read them.

The cardstock cover has coating on it, but not as nice as what Marvel uses.

I went over all of the restoration shortcoming above. Let me reiterate: AVOID THIS BOOK.

Linework restoration rating: 1 out of 5. (It would have been a 0 if not for Yearbook No. 2.)

Color restoration rating: 2 out of 5.

Paper rating: 5 out of 5.

Binding rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Cardstock cover coating rating: 4 out of 5.