Well... we had the original with the 80's cartoon. All GI Joes prior to that were nameless action figures.
Actually, Dave... The GI Joe
Comic Book predates the Cartoon Series. The Comic was first released in
1982.
Larry Hama is best known as writer of the Marvel Comics licensed series G.I. Joe, based on the Hasbro line of military action figures. Hama said in a 2006 interview that he was given the job by then editor-in-chief Jim Shooter after every other writer at Marvel had turned it down.[2] Hama at the time had recently pitched a Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. spin-off series, Fury Force, about a daring special mission force. Hama used this concept as the back-story for G.I. Joe. He included military terms and strategies, Eastern philosophy, martial arts and historical references from his own background. The comic ran 155 issues (Feb. 1982-Oct. 1994).
Hama also wrote the majority of the G.I. Joe action figures' file cards—short biographical sketches designed to be clipped from the G.I. Joe and COBRA cardboard packaging.[3] In 2007 these filecards were reprinted in the retro packaging for the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero 25th Anniversary line.
The Cartoon Series wouldn't be released for another
three years in
1985.
In fact, It was
Comic-Book-Creator Larry Hama that took Hasbro's new generation of Action Figures and gave them each an identity:
DJZ: When Hasbro decided to come up with this updated version of G.I.Joe, how did you get involved with the whole thing?
LH: There was a big meeting at Hasrbo to discuss the project. It was attended by Jim Shooter, Tom DeFalco, Archie Goodwin, myself, and, I believe, Nelson Yomtov. Basically, they had decided to switch from having a large single figure of Joe with a lot of accessories, going for smaller action figures. The big, really major difference was they wanted to give all of the guys characters and backgrounds, and they wanted to have a comic book. They wanted to have a back story. That’s why Marvel was brought in at the very beginning. When we showed up they had basic designs for the figures. What they knew about these figures at the time was that one was a basic infantryman, one was a commando, one was a mortar, one was communications, one was a laser expert, and so on and so forth. We agreed to do dossiers on each figure, to come up with the background and characterization and the way they would fit together as a team. The surprising thing for all of us was they hadn’t even thought of doing a bad guy.
And Cobra was an idea by Comics Legend
Archie Goodwin:
DJZ: Cobra hadn’t been invented at all?
LH: No. As a matter of fact, it was Archie Goodwin, I think, who threw out the name. All of us agreed that these guys can’t just march around and go on maneuvers or whatnot, they have to be battling some things, some threat, whatever. We took it from there.
You can continue reading the
Full Interview here:
http://joeguide.com/interviews/larryhama_ci.shtmlAnd a more recent (but separate) video-interview with Hama can be found here:
http://www.pulpsecret.com/the-stack/episode/STK_20080520So the Cartoon is actually an adaption of the Comic Book.
