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09-23-2024, 12:41 PM | #61 |
Cobra Viper
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: San Diego
Posts: 160
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Granted, your binds are really the gold standard for these things. I especially like the idea of the matching covers, and that you didn’t make them too thick. I’ve got a few custom binds that I love, but I find myself cheaping out and making too thick in order to save a bit.
If you ever decide to bind The ‘Nam let me know as I’ve got the issues and would love to piggyback off of your great work! (Or help as I can—I’m just really impressed with how your books turned out). |
09-23-2024, 01:23 PM | #62 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Aug 2020
Location: Boston
Posts: 1,605
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Quote:
Second, the reading order alternates Special Missions with A Real American Hero, which means that, except where it crosses over, it makes the reader alternate between an ongoing story and mostly one-off issues.
Third, the Transformers crossover has been shunted to the end of the fourth volume. It fits Hama's chronology (not well) after Yearbook #3 and before ARAH #58. Furthermore, the main G.I. Joe book was not always an ongoing story. It had plenty of one-off issues of its own. The two books were published concurrently, with the understanding that the stories in them took place more or less at the same time. That would be the way I'd want to read them, personally. On the other hand, while the Transformers crossover may "fit Hama's chronology," it is not part of that continuity and should be separated from the rest. The same would go for European Missions or the 'G.I. Joe in 3-D' comic. |
10-11-2024, 04:13 PM | #63 |
Cobra Viper
Join Date: Mar 2020
Location: Louisiana
Posts: 119
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Don't read any of my disagreements in an angry voice. This is just nerd talk.
I accounted for the mentions of events from Special Missions in the way they are ordered earlier in the thread. However, the way I grouped them roughly parallels the release order alongside ARAH. The Star Brigade arc happens well after Special Missions concluded. As far as alternating issues, there are several moments in ARAH when a cliffhanger at the end of an issue resumes immediately in the second issue. Taking a break to go on an unrelated adventure in SM isn't how I enjoy reading it (and I tried in the Complete Collections). But YMMV. They were released that way, so there's something to be said for experiencing both series the way they were released. The Transformers crossover is also acknowledged later in ARAH when the Transformers make another appearance. In the miniseries, Dr. Mindbender refers to putting Snakeyes in the Brainwave Scanner in YB3, and there are a couple of other acknowledgements of recent events. I know Hama has expressed his distaste for it, but it's one of those things that kind of fits and kind of doesn't. I left it in out of completionism. |
10-11-2024, 04:53 PM | #64 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Aug 2020
Location: Boston
Posts: 1,605
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Quote:
For my part, I prefer to read the issues in the order they were published, even if that means the occasional two-parter is interrupted by a Special Missions in between. |
10-11-2024, 10:58 PM | #65 |
Cobra Viper
Join Date: Mar 2020
Location: Louisiana
Posts: 119
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That's totally fair. I've placed comics in certain custom bindings in the order that they came out because reading them in chronological order revealed plot points too early or, alternately, it created vast disparities in art style. The reader wouldn't get to see the art evolve over the years.
Putting my literary critic nerd hat on now. Feel free to scroll past. The issue with the art changes and some of the inconcsistencies is obviously true with Hama. All of the later interpolations, 25th Anniversary issues, and retcons don't always make for a smooth reading experience when placed in order. However, Hama has stated that part of the idea behind G.I. Joe was retconning. It's integral to the story. The lesson is that the past is never truly behind us, and that there is always more to learn. If you read Alison Bechdel's graphic novel "Fun Home," there is a device wherein she remembers her childhood repeatedly, cycling through the same events throughout the story. Each time, more is revealed. In doing so, she comes to better understand her father, who was a closet homosexual and whose private life nearly upended their household. As she revisits her childhood, she gradually learns to accept the things that happened to her growing up as more is remembered and revealed each time. By the end, she has made peace with the memory of her father. As I see it, the point of Hama's run on G.I. Joe has been to follow the outward ripples of the Vietnam War to learn how the events shown in flashback ultimately come to affect the lives of those who were nowhere near the conflict itself, even years later. Everything in the war is shown in flashback. Hama adds to the past to better contextualize the events of the present. This means that it merits additional readings, as all great works do. The reason I've decided to maintain the binding set I did is as a sort of life project that will only be complete when Hama retires. Until then, I'll have to revise and reprint a couple of volumes to keep up with the retcons. I don't mind, because it's in service to the most complete version of his saga that I can maintain for the reasons outlined above. |
10-12-2024, 12:19 PM | #66 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Aug 2020
Location: Boston
Posts: 1,605
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Quote:
The issue with the art changes and some of the inconcsistencies is obviously true with Hama. All of the later interpolations, 25th Anniversary issues, and retcons don't always make for a smooth reading experience when placed in order. However, Hama has stated that part of the idea behind G.I. Joe was retconning. It's integral to the story. The lesson is that the past is never truly behind us, and that there is always more to learn.
If you read Alison Bechdel's graphic novel "Fun Home," there is a device wherein she remembers her childhood repeatedly, cycling through the same events throughout the story. Each time, more is revealed. In doing so, she comes to better understand her father, who was a closet homosexual and whose private life nearly upended their household. As she revisits her childhood, she gradually learns to accept the things that happened to her growing up as more is remembered and revealed each time. By the end, she has made peace with the memory of her father. As I see it, the point of Hama's run on G.I. Joe has been to follow the outward ripples of the Vietnam War to learn how the events shown in flashback ultimately come to affect the lives of those who were nowhere near the conflict itself, even years later. Everything in the war is shown in flashback. Hama adds to the past to better contextualize the events of the present. This means that it merits additional readings, as all great works do. |
10-12-2024, 03:37 PM | #67 |
Cobra Viper
Join Date: Mar 2020
Location: Louisiana
Posts: 119
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Thank you for your thoughtful reply. I understand what you mean, but Hama has, as described in his own words, been making changes after the fact from the very beginning. There are revelations and retcons in the first 50 issues that I am fairly confident he made up on the fly.
I explained this entire process to my father, a retired Naval officer, thusly: "A Japanese-American Vietnam U.S. Army vet spends 300 issues exploring his feelings about the war and its aftermath in real time, all in service of advertising a toy." Like all of us, Hama has gotten older and his worldview has shifted. This has, as we've read here among our compatriots, not sat well with some, who feel that his politics have shifted too far to the left. I am a rock-ribbed conservative. I understand the argument. However, I'm willing to look past some of those admittedly cringe moments to understand that I am, again, watching Hama grow and change as a writer, a veteran, and a human being. Finally, retconning, revising, and expanding stories has been part of creative expression since the dawn of human history. A medieval studies professor I once had explained that wandering bards would usually change and expand their ballads as they learned what people liked (and would pay to hear) and what they didn't. Your thoughts? |
10-12-2024, 07:24 PM | #68 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Aug 2020
Location: Boston
Posts: 1,605
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Quote:
Finally, retconning, revising, and expanding stories has been part of creative expression since the dawn of human history. A medieval studies professor I once had explained that wandering bards would usually change and expand their ballads as they learned what people liked (and would pay to hear) and what they didn't.
Your thoughts? I doubt Hama is really putting this much thought into the rationale for his retconning. It strikes me as mostly just laziness in not bothering to look back and check what he previously wrote. He writes the story as he feels like writing it now, and doesn't give a damn whether it makes sense anymore or not. |
10-13-2024, 01:58 AM | #69 |
Cobra Viper
Join Date: Mar 2020
Location: Louisiana
Posts: 119
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For what it’s worth, I vacillate on this subject. I think that your last point is valid in some instances (see the Oktober Guard android debacle). After so many years, Hama sometimes writes to what he can just remember. However, I think that it’s still more or less within the boundaries of what a lot of indefinite narratives have done over the years. Ongoing comic book series, soap operas, pro wrestling, and pulp novel series often fall back on retconning and revision. I’ve always found the practice interesting, just from a writing perspective (and also the very conceit that the narrative may never end). Whether it makes for good storytelling or is useful at all is, admittedly, debatable. Some of my English teachers would tell us to stop wasting our time with all of the aforementioned examples. The real difference that makes ARAH interesting is that it’s primarily written by one person, who, again, demonstrates that he understands the past differently as he ages and matures, as we all do.
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10-14-2024, 02:55 PM | #70 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Aug 2020
Location: Boston
Posts: 1,605
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Quote:
I acknowledge that long-running comic books often fudge details of their continuity (especially as it pertains to character ages or how much time has passed) as both their writers and their audience change with time. However, as you say, G.I. Joe stands out for having been primarily written by one man, and mostly for the same audience for over 40 years. (Let's be real, are new readers who didn't grow up with G.I. Joe in the '80s really picking up this particular book today?) |
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