 Hello everyone, we should be live now. You should be able to hear me my microphone appears to be working my camera appears to be working Hello everybody and again welcome to Tuesday night live And it's nice to see everybody especially nice to see my girlfriend Marianne in the audience Doing well and working hard. She's been working hard, but hello sparkster Terrence Jo fan Zaymott and everybody else Well, we have a special show today. I have guests. I have special guests They are guests and they are special and since I have guests. I want to make sure To leave as much time as possible to talk with them. So before we start the guests I will run through the usual announcements Fairly quickly and then we have we have stuff to talk about Hello JLS comics. Hello, Rob Vegas. Nice to see you. Thanks. Thank you guys for being here. First of all It's Tuesday. That means there is a new episode of half the battle with timmer in this episode he did a review of the gijo special missions comic book issue ambush Which is an issue that I really like because it kind of digs into like military tactics um, and it just feel has kind of a realistic feel feel to it which Special missions was supposed to have right? I really like that issue. So that's Half the battle. Make sure you check that out. A link is in the description of this live stream also Very important What's on Joe mind will be live after this episode So make sure you check out what's on Joe mind as soon as this live stream is done. Hey, it's kujo. Nice to see you kujo Thanks for being here. Hello, james lucas. Uh, hello, terrence childs. Uh, hello victor matthews. Thank you guys for being here Hello gi joe 1990s. Hey christian bricks greetings denmark from the united states. Thank you very much for being here So what's on Joe mind and I believe what's on Joe mind is going to talk about Um, the kentucky on a Winter fest gi joe winter fest which was in shepherdsville kentucky which I attended I was there. In fact, I was there with Mike iris airy not live in the sense that we're live right now But actually live in person. Hey bart. Nice to see you there. Thank you for being here. Hello big M um, so we are Uh, we're back from Um, kentucky. That was a heck of a drive Actually, it's not the biggest drive i've done it But it was it was a heck of a drive on you know, not very much sleep But I well, we made it we made it. We had a nice show. I put up a uh, a video of that I got some things Mike I got this um gi joe 1964 1978 uh identification guide by James desimona james desimone is somebody who is important to the history of gi joe and somebody I never actually thought I'd be able to meet in person But not only did I do an interview with james desimone I uh, actually had dinner with him after the show that was really cool and he uh, he did sign That to me. So that was really cool. Um, also I got I'm worth one flag point. Well, I'm I am an individually carded figure So I'm only really worth one flag point. That's that's all that's really all I should get Um, I got this fun school police jeep obviously based on the vamp. I have some ideas for that um, and oh, oh, yeah I got this, um I got this adorable, uh cobra commander. It's um It's made of schwarzby witcher. It has the wrong it has the wrong voice made of schwarzby Witcher it's it's got the wrong for some they put the the yogurt voice in But I you know, he's he's adorable He's pretty cute. So I had to get that um, and I got this uh this this uh big honkin cut out, um, but that's I mean I really focused me I I didn't focus on getting things for the collection because I was really only wanting to pick up things if it was going to help with a um Well, like with an upcoming review. I didn't want I'm trying not to buy things just to buy things, right? um But I didn't really find anything like that. So instead I just I bought things just to buy things So that's why I end up with a a plush cobra commander and uh And and a and a two-dimensional cobra commander and such But it was a really nice show. Thank you to everyone who came up and said hello It was really nice to meet lots of people. It was a lot of fun. And I really appreciated Seeing seeing everyone uh since we have guests. I will say since we have guests We basically have no hope Of getting to gung-ho gung-ho will have to stay In his plastic prison For another week. There's no chance We will have time to get to the retro classified gung-ho. I know he's been sitting up there unopened I mean obviously he's unopened because you can see him there unopened um And uh, so he'll just have to wait. We have more important things to do tonight more important things Gung-ho will have to wait. I did also want to point out though that Unlike last week when I said hey, I didn't get the duke comic book. Hey cat. Okay. The cats are wrestling by my feet Um, I didn't get the duke comic book. Well now I have the duke comic book I have read issue number one of the duke comic book by image skybound Well, I mean it's published by image skybound, but uh, those are the creative credits right there. Um, now that I've read that I will get to cobra commander of Number one of which I have two copies I don't really need two copies, but I have two copies So I'll get to that, uh, but I've been very busy um Since I've been home I had dinner with marianne um, and then I worked And I slept and I worked some more and I worked some more And that's it. I've taken no downtime at all since I've gotten back Not like one not one minute of downtime like literally working and sleeping So I haven't had time to do nothing else nothing um, so uh We're gonna do the best we can but It's worth it though because we have we have guests. I don't have enough guests on this show So I'm really happy to have some guests. Um, let's bring on Roger and josh So let's see if my layout works Roger and josh welcome to the live show Yo Joe Uh, it's it's great to see you guys. Um, I know like I've seen you at uh at conventions and stuff But um, it's it's kind of fun to see you uh two dimensional and on a screen. That's uh, it's a different Different how it is. Yeah, it's kind of like Yeah, yeah, so exactly. So yeah, we've got now we got panels. Um, So we'll uh, I'll throw in some some dialogue balloons Or maybe not because we're talking about a silent issue All right, so no dialogue. That's it. Well, we're you know, I'm just gonna shut off the audio And we're just gonna episode I don't know any I don't Through interpretive dance. That's it real sign language. Yeah, it was interpretive dance. I feel like we can do that um, anyway, so you guys, um are um The heart and soul of after action report. Um, you guys have done several Uh kick starters already and we're gonna talk about the one that you're working on right now, which I did back I was able to back that earlier today. Um, but let's Let's begin at the beginning. Um Talk to us about like the book projects you've done in the past and kind of uh, how those came about Well in 2021 covid hit and uh, we had just done Josh had just did the uh hunt for 21 second printing And invited me on that and we decided to work on a project. I wanted to start 20 years earlier, but never did And uh, I called him up and said hey, do you want to do? Well, I messaged him up and said do you want to do a project? That'll take a year and roughly a year later. We had volume one um Year later. We had volume two That covered uh, the marvel era 80 82 to 94 or is that 90s 82 to 96 and then uh, devil's dew era, which was uh, 2001 to 2008 And then we Went on to volume three, which is idw, which we are still waiting on some printer delays, but we're Getting that in the mail soon and uh, then we got greg augusta on board and he did here in the By the way, he's our he's I said greg is in the chat. I saw him on the chat Hello greg nice to see you. I don't know if he's a cat, but he's certainly He's been a big part greg has been a big part of making the command files book Yeah, and then he's helping us out with a lot of other things too and then he has more more books for the command files coming Well, he's been more than a big part of it. He is he is command files. We just helped him All right and command files. That's another project that I uh, that I backed and I'm really looking forward to so um, I guess like That's a a project you want to kind of tell folks what uh, what that was about Go for it greg go for it greg Oh, greg you can also chime in since you're on the on the message there. So basically, um, You know we roger and I had completed volume one and volume two which were the comic guides and we were working on volume three and then um last year greg who goes by uh g unit two 2472 on instagram. He's been posting all kinds of his gi joe work for about 10 years and had um uh posted and sent to me somehow I got a bunch of his um Character profiles, which is command files, you know, like when you look on the file cards This is you know, these are command files on the file cards So ultimately he'd been making those for fun as just a lot of gi joe people do make fun stuff for fun And so I messaged him and was like, hey man like this would be an awesome after action report book and this was around last year um or Yeah, no year year and a quarter about a year ago a little more actually I messaged him more than a year ago But he had been working on the book for like 10 years Even though he wasn't knowing he was going to work on a book. So that's command files and what it is It's all these character profiles and it doesn't it doesn't show any toys It's just the artwork from the different media in which the figures have appeared in terms of uh Comics cartoons movies even some packaging art depending on whatever some of them don't even have much beyond that um Though uh, so that's what greg put together So then we made it an after action report book and it is finished. It is at the printer. It's tied up with the same Uh drama that volume three is and then we also have a second printing of um Volume one that they're all shipping together along and along with some other items that are coming from the same printer, um and uh, so that's uh, literally Supposed to be getting on a boat within the next few weeks And then it takes, you know a few months a few weeks to get here and they won't be able to ship it out So that's kind of the update of of the four books that that we have finished Those are four books. We do have some more Plan for the future that we're already kind of working on But that's for the future. Um That i'm i'm glad that you gave the update because uh, i'm really looking forward to command files Um, I've mentioned this before really mainly when talking about you guys as that I love to get print reference material absolutely A lot is on the internet the internet's great Uh, but there's still a lot of information locked up in books that you really just You know, you need to have your hands on the the physical copies Uh physical media is kind of making a comeback now too, which is nice to see Um, so i'm excited about this uh, you're since I review mostly like Stuff that happened in the marvel area era. I refer to this often So this is a really valuable book to me. So it's greatly appreciated. Uh, so thanks for doing it first of all And since I'm less familiar with the devil's zoo era This is valuable because it gives me information that I didn't otherwise already have so um For those who are interested in the the history of gi joe Uh, and you know, just basically what's out there Um, although the internet is a valuable tool Uh, the folks who are doing a lot of the deep research are still collecting them in books So if you can get your hands on these, um, it's it's a very good thing And I want to talk about, um, you have karson's book behind us, you know behind you, right? You have karson's book behind you. Yeah. Yeah, I mean again That's more proof of how people really love to put this have this stuff printed I mean, you can't you know, you can't argue with You know the printed manual and that was what roger had said to me in 2020 when we started this He goes, he goes, man, I have all these collector guidebooks, but there's none for comics There was tons for toys as you showed the good demand. There's some own look, you know Tons for toys, but nothing for comics So we filled that gap and then of course now we're doing the character guidebook So that's filling that gap And here's this segway. Yes But we get to this. Um, I wanted to make sure to talk about those earlier projects first because um Just to make clear to everyone You have a track record of successful kick starters and delivering on those uh kick starter goals, so um Up to the project you're working on now. Let me let me pop up the time limits. Yes, we deliver. Yeah. Well, I Circumstances are circumstances, but you know, I've got I've got I've got the proof here and we've got more coming so You guys are doing fantastic and this Let's let's put up the the yeah, this is a nice nice one to start with Talk to us about about this. I mean, it's kind of evident what it is But it's something that I think a lot of people should be excited about Yep So what you're looking at there is first of all, that's roger's logo work He's pretty much our master logo maker for everything we do. So I was really pleased with that Um, and uh, it looks great, you know, so basically Uh, you know, right now it's uh, well, I guess it's the end of january 2024 so in december of 1983 The silent issue number 21 gi joe real american hero was released. It has a cover date of march 1984 so we're still in that 40 year time frame of it being released. Yes, there it is Yeah, so most people consider it march, but you know, those are actually the days for when they're supposed to leave the news stand um, uh, but it's basically now, um 40 years from the release of that and it's also the 60th year event and a 60th anniversary of gi joe in general yeah, that's It is it is hard to believe it's been around that long. Yeah, and we have been also So the silent issue, I mean I most likely everybody in here knows what we're talking about when we talk about the silent issue I mean, it's it's the it's the most famous issue of the gi joe comic book But for the uninitiated for the like Maybe one person who accidentally clicked on the wrong link who doesn't know what it is Give us a general idea of the I mean what this is and why it's important. So um, like in the history of all comic books say dating back to superman in 1939 there's been basically like, you know a lot of comics that are critically important either based on like a particular artist or a storyline Or something happening in the comic book, you know a big, you know a couple characters meeting or dying or anything like that so there's all there's this in you know and in in For the top one to be the top 100 when you look at them They're mostly either marvel dc or a few independents are an occasional like spawn kind of thing So for gi joe number 21 when I was started doing research on this book I realized that it was in the ranked in almost all the top top 100s of all time I mean literally think about that that's like puts gi joe number 21 against like say the dark night you know frank miller or Some of these other books so and um, so the idea was just to create a book on a single issue So it's one after action report book on one issue Now we are we are bringing some elements from the different other books that we had in there Um into this one, but there's a whole lot of new articles and things like that So the the basic concept of the book is to You know basically promote this one book talk about all the creators There's been there was some really amazing creators connected to it Of course the behind the scenes story that larry ham has told hundreds of times and is out there all over the place A lot, but we are we are focusing More on the other creators other than hamma to give them some more highlight We do focus on hamma too And then we're having some commentary, uh tim phim Tim fin of talking joe is going to be doing an introduction and doing a lot of commentary with us um Uh in the book and then we also will have articles regarding storm shadow snake eyes or ashikage ninjas silent issue I mean like there was so much introduced in this one issue You know, I mean all the key collectors have to have this book in their collection. I don't care what they collect Yeah, exactly the silent castle there silent So like this is a comic that everybody in comic book collecting collects right whether they care about gi joe or not They try they generally have a number 21 in their collection because it's such a seminal issue So that's why we decided to write this book about it Um and again, it's all about I mean we do have some offshoots of things here and there But well, you know, like we're we're featuring a lot of the creators and we have a couple other things And of course to do this we have to have a Kickstarter now I just posted the link in the chat, but uh, I think it I think it said no so maybe brine you can do that. Um If it doesn't go in the chat, um it uh, it's in the description of the live stream So if if you're watching this if you just go down to the description the link is there So right now we have a Kickstarter. It's only one week old and we're already 50 funded Um and again, it's a you know, it's going to be more than 80 pages of a book all about one issue, you know, um We do include everybody asks this question. We do include the 21 b Hasbro book from the figure pack We also are including the stories from the action force which had a prelude and a postlude postlude um um, and then also the devil's due uh story that was in the trade paperback. So those are all, you know, like Secondary stories to the issue, but like they're all generally silent Well, not the after action not the action force books, but the So they have a really cool storyline. So there's a lot of that kind of stuff and that's all included, of course Yeah All right, so that's the pitch so go to the Kickstarter and if you can't the link Just go to Kickstarter and type in, you know after action report And you'll see our other kick starters and just look for number 21. It's pretty easy search Absolutely. Um, it's also the top link in the description the very first link in the description will take you right there Um, so yeah, this I mean this issue. Oh, thank you for the super chat Uh, what's on Joe mind? Um, the singing cast will be on right after Uh, after this, uh, right after the first commercial break They're coming on On my singing George, you didn't get your cats in this one. We're on what's on so mind. Thanks to those guys last week They helped help us get our kickstarter kick started and uh, we had cats and dogs all over the place in our stream My cats are just off screen asleep over here earlier, but they're they're gone now That my dogs started barking but all right that um, so You know, we really uh at this point I can say, you know, our our campaign is like at the 20 days left we're halfway there in one week So we should definitely reach our goal But we of course need as much support as we can and you know what I mean roger and I have spent our lives Brian also too, you know reading these comics and you know, everybody's and you know, by everybody knows this one But the thing is is that like we're brian saying it's all a lot of it's on the internet But this book puts it all together in one place. Just thumb through it and have all kinds of cool information Yeah, how much It just vanishes from time to time And like, you know, once you have but once you have it in physical media you have it That is incredibly valuable, especially now Um, I mean, this is the issue that was entirely without dialogue um and Yeah, written story and breakdowns by larry hama finishes by steeve lay aloha coloring by george russos and Of course the editors No, no letterer any o'neill and jim shooter were the editors. Yeah um, but That's why it's it's I mean that's why it was innovative at the time You have a complete story told with images uh, and with and without Without dialogue. Um, this I've talked about this before this issue is like a clinic in comic book storytelling for those who yeah That's that's gorgeous that that color is sharp. It's beautiful. Yes But but for those who are interested in drawing comic books, uh, you know, of course you're gonna learn your your Uh, your graphic design and your anatomy and all that um story telling it's it is its own part of the art form and this is like a Like the perfect example of how to do it right You have a a complete story a cohesive story a clear story um With artwork that uh, does it need? embellishment With dialogue you don't need to be told what's happening. You can clearly see what it is and that's why this is this was this stood out Not everybody loved it when it first came out Which which larry has not forgotten But uh, it's it's definitely stood the test of time. So that's one of the reasons why It's it's something that deserves a book about its history and its creation This is not just any any other issue of the comic book. There's not some random issue This is something that had Uh, not only an impact on gi joe because first appearance of storm shadow First appearance of the silent castle first appearance of the iraasha kaga tattoo Yeah, yeah, there it is Uh, but this is of interest for people as you said for people Who are just in general comic book fans? Because of how innovative it is. So if anybody's sitting there wondering well, why does this issue get a history book about it? There are lots of reasons why this issue would get a history book about it so, um You talked a little bit about uh, like what's going to be in it. I guess, um, if if you if I don't want to spoil anything but um, if you had We had to spell it because it is kind of an interesting concept to do a book on one issue, which is pretty rare. Yeah um, but if um if you can like Give I guess elaborate a little bit more on The approach you're taking to it and what you're expecting to to put in it go for it There's probably Right now it's at 80 pages, but it's already expanding past that. Um So I would say there's probably about 20 pages on the creators. So of course that includes larry hamma But as you listed before So what what has happened with? um, the creators of this book minus the colorist george uh Roussios, I think it says it he was on the book for a fair amount of time But nobody else was really on the book denny o'neill was the the editor of course for a while and then jim shooters enter But all of those all of those creators had done amazing things beyond 21 million after in fact, there are four Eisner awards Include and then the fifth would be larry hamma as in the Eisner hall of fame Right of people who worked on the book right and then the denny o'neill had been a big writer with green arrow And green lantern creating character like john stewart and having a speedy beyond drugs All kinds of important stuff before being with gi joe And then claus jansen Who is the cover artist went on to make fables which he won four Eisner awards for you know what I mean So like the amount of people that are connected with the book are really amazing Now here's the fact that I discovered as I was making this book. So the colorist george Rusios, I gotta figure out how to exactly say his name But um, so do you want to know what his first comic book that he did when he was a colorist? When he was like 18 or 19. I must know tell me tell me I must know Batman number four In like 43. So this guy was coloring the gi joe comic books in 1982 83 and 84 Right and he went he made it all the way to the I think like uh, 47 or something So he was so and he also colored a couple other important comic books like avengers number four When when captain america returns Um, many of the x-men so he was kind of there like jack kirby's Colorist so jack kirby said hey, I'm gonna make this and then george is gonna color it So a lot of the jack kirby colors are from george. Who was coloring the gi joe book at the time? I mean like that's amazing. Then you know neil has done all kinds of stuff. Jim shooter himself So so that's part of what the book covers Right, it gives a perspective on what the artist who made this one book and like class jansen did 21 and 26 That's it. The other uh cover artist ed Hanigan he didn't do anything else with gi joe. Jim shooter helped get gi joe started Right like was part of the history of getting you know the 1982 Or I guess it would be 81 famous meeting with with the marvel and hasbro people in the toilet You know like they passed it on to jim and then jim got it gone and then he got He walked down the hall and hired hammer and then hammer took off. You know what I mean? Yeah, jim shooters talk about that or at least written about it. Um, and it's a fascinating story Yes, it's interesting to think of how much of our hobby kind of hinges on these meetings and Getting getting the right creative people in place. It could have gone very differently Very um, if if anybody if any other writer had said yes to this project before larry did Um, it would be dramatically different It might be like a lot of other toy licensed books They last a little while and they fizzle out and nobody remembers them But here we are in 2024 Still talking about this issue So, you know, that's that's a critically important point that you make there about toy comics Right now. I know roger collects a lot of those. He has a ton of them and they're all run It's like 12 issues or whatever But at 21 when this comic came out It could have easily been the kind of the tail end of gi joe, right? It could have been dying But instead the comic book created the rivalry between snake eyes and storm shadow and that lives today that drives it I mean, how many toys are snake eyes and storm shadow? You know what I mean? Like those two toys together probably equal more toys and just about All the other ones combined, you know what I mean? Like there's what probably are a hundred each You know, you could add all the rest of it together. It wouldn't even be a hundred for some of them You know, so that it created that and so it gave the spark For gi joe and of course all of us were like 10. I mean, I that's how all I was You know what I mean? Like and I remember getting the comic and going. Where are the words? I had read all the words. Where are the words? I don't know what to go And it took me until this year till writing this book to realize that I never learned storm shadows name Other than by buying a toy Right His name was on the back of a card back from an 84 toy or actually I probably already had us So I can't exactly remember but then his name wasn't actually mentioned until number 26 Five years later. So six months later. You have to learn his name So that's what's really an amazing been a part of this cool process of Diving into this one book. So another part of it is Is like a lot of the history of the characters like that like the the impact of Of the silent part of it or work technically it's not silent because there are some words in there So it's mostly wordless But it is called silent, but there's no thought balloons. It's not dialogue. It's not dialogue But yes, there there are words Yeah, and actually gi joe has never once had any thought balloons And that's right. There you go Yeah, and then it's on the grenade find the grenade. It's on the grenade him. Yeah Yeah Yeah, those are the only places where the words are destros screen and there So and I actually I have a whole bunch of international versions and in the international versions It's in the other language. It's written You know, so you know So it says except for the grenade thing the the grenade tends to be the same But the on the screen is written in other languages. So that's another part of the book is the guide aspect So our previous books were guides Right, then there are very much like say 80 guide and 20 other stuff, right? Well, this one's flip-flops It's like 80 stories and character arcs and like we also cover a lot of the second The number 21 second printing mystery like Roger mentioned at the beginning in 2020 We started off with that and in the last four years We found out a whole lot of information that nobody had we pieced it together from all these things and Tommy Hazelton Has done a big article. He's kind of like a 21 expert And I've known him since the devil's do bore forms way back when so he's definitely An expert on that so that so that's kind of another aspect of the book It's probably about 10 or 12 pages because it took us a long time to really figure out where this second printing came from Um, and then, you know, we are copying and pasting from jim shooter Dot com his website gotta make sure to give him credit But he has some amazing stories on the different creators and things like that So we're just basically putting what he's in there and so we have the guide pages and things like that So that's kind of what the the the bulk of the book is now for the Kickstarter We have some cool pages and we're calling them fan love pages. So it's one of the backers You can pay you can get an extra 15 Uh extra $15 on top of the book. By the way, the book is 35 With with shipping. So if you do if you back to the the um, it's called the uh, your story included What you get to do is you get to write 200 words and we will put it in the book But it has to be about Number 21 and it's influence on you whether when you're a kid or an adult or whatever um, and right now It's limited to how many we can do because we only put so many in the book um And so that's a cool different uh backer pledge that you can choose and then but you have to have that turned into me by April 1st Um, and of course, you know, it's gotta be like all homework. There's a deadline. Yes Yeah, so that's what your dog eat it. That's why I got back Or don't go to the computer and claim it. It doesn't work anymore. That's right So that's basically what the contents of the book are and I mean, it's a lot It's a lot. I mean, it's amazing when you start reading it all and putting it all together Like all how important this comic is to the comic the histories of comics. I mean, there's a lot of artists out there Currently working who say I read that one when I was a kid and I wanted to be a comic artist and here they are today still drawing and writing and You know all these things um So that's why we're making the book. I mean, you know, Roger and I are the comic book guys Roger likes to collect merchandise too, but uh, I'm mostly just a comic book guy I mean, I have a couple toys, but you know, most I just have a big-ass collection of comics. Mostly all di joe so But I know there's something to be said for that because you know, this this takes up a lot less space than You know say a rolling thunder or uh, you know, uh Flag Yeah, all that stuff. This is this is a little more manageable. Let me tell you As deep into the collection as I am now. I'm looking at something taking up this much space with with envy So, uh, it's not not not a bad choice that you that you've made there um, so you guys, um Are gathering a lot of information. Um, and uh, you know, you were also, you know, taking A guide approach to it. Um, these books that that you've already done. I mean, these are pretty densely packed with information uh, there there's there's not filler in there. It's it's really Full of information and so that seems to be your your approach to Uh, writing and publishing. Yes, it is Pack in as much as we can Um, so I mean If you have to get it in there Um, uh, I mean that's for for someone like me who who's going to read it. Um, that adds to the value for for me. I mean, um This is this is something that I mean, we all know about it and we've all Heard stories about it. We've all read bits and pieces about it. Um, but um I am I'm just thrilled to be able to see your take and your research on Uh on this topic a bit more dialed in and focused Uh on a specific thing than than the earlier guides Um, but you seem to still be taking that same, you know approach with an attention to detail Uh and try to be comprehensive. Yeah Yeah, I'm trying to cover every aspect of it as much as we can Including the parody covers and and homage covers and and other silent stories and stuff like that How it's I mean, but like, you know, like we have all the different uh hard covers, you know This one is this is the 30th anniversary. There's a 40th anniversary one and there's all It's reprinted a bunch. Those are all in there. Um someone. Um, this is a it's not off topic, but it's a little bit of a tangent um my um My friend, uh codename new two ver or two He did a video a few years back kind of asking the question There were others silent or issues without dialogue In the gi joe series that are not as remembered or revered as as this one um Do you think that's uh, do you think that's because like this is like the first one and that's why we're Remember it or do you see like any differences in in the structure? Or you know, just the the way those issues were put together versus how this one was I I think part of it is is The kind of mystery of putting this one together and the the legend of putting it together Even though we didn't know how it went together at the time There was an urgency to it because it was put together so fast The others I don't think have that urgency to the story um This one is is Almost visceral in its Storytelling and the others were more like well, let's try that again and see if we can do it and it just it Didn't work as well. Um I think this was the right time right creative team And and the right situation to make it work It is a phenomenon in art sometimes not all the time, but sometimes that um having that pressure Yes, I get something done forces an artist or a team to strip away a lot of Of but basically anything superfluous and get right down to the core. Yep, right? I think I think he agrees with me. You agree. Yeah, I think I think we're on board here Um That pretty much was the the case with this issue though because they were on a a hell of a time crunch to get this thing done Legend has it's uh, it's about three weeks. Yeah Which is lightning fast in like Starting from blank page to producing a comic book ready for print. That's uh, that's a very short time frame Yes, it is So and and I I always kind of like to point out that the issue before that number 20 was like a standalone issue Not written by hammer about clutch that was like Considered one of like marvel used to do this. They had like safety comics Well, they'd have a comic they would make that when they ran into deadline issues They could just throw out there, you know, and you know Sometimes they would would not be in continuity exactly because of time But it was ultimately something they could publish so they did 20 and then 21 were both, you know Somewhere in that that mix of the behind on the deadlines or whatever Um, and then of course we get 21 and you know, I mean that the the regarding the um, the the next After number 21 so before 21 there really wasn't any comic books that are silent now In my research, I realized that spy versus spy the mad magazine thing has almost always been silent And that's been around for a long time, right? But it wasn't a comic book, but it's still a comic character, you know what I mean? So that was the the the silent concept is not a hundred percent new But no major comic book had ever done a whole issue silent like that And then of course hammer did a few more and I actually just was at uh a comic convention and I got this one This is batman number four Uh 433 Right It's a silent issue while there's one line in it. Jim Gordon says get out But it's basically batman dying and it turns out to not be batman But that was made in like 87 or something. So again, and then, you know, uh in the early 2000s like 2002, I think marvel did a whole thing with a couple uh for one, uh One issue per all their whole series called enough said, you know, stan lee's famous phrase But it was like all silent covers or all silent books, right? Um, so there was a bit of fair amount after but nothing really before right? I mean, there are always a couple sequences in comic books. They're here in there They're silent for a couple pages nothing like that and of course now there's a lot of it It's been done a fair amount as in homage to number 21 or inspired by or whatever. Um, you know like 86 Uh, yeah a real american hero 86 is uh special effects sounds only your book number three is 100 silent And that's hush the hush job story um, he did a A silent one for number 214 and then number 275 number 275 was a really cool 30 pages of full blown Splash pages all silent we cover that in volume three really good breakdown and robber akins and uh Nito Diaz, but again, it was 30 pages of splash pages all silent Well, he he keeps doing it the you talk about you you've talked a little bit about the influence um of this issue and others trying to Kind of do the same thing kind of repeat that that technique um, I think I think we benefited from larry hamas specifically having such a um Experience in the art form beings somebody who really Was kind of a master of the art form whether he got recognized for that I mean he's he's been recognized for that recently, but at the time, you know, he had worked with walley wood and neil adams and all these people and he had got all this information um, so this larry is someone who was uniquely equipped To hammer out something like this and make it good. Yeah, you guys i'm sure have looked at more of these you know The ones that came after Are they good? That's my question. I guess are they good? I mean, I think your book three the hush job where they assault the cobra consulate. It's pretty awesome Yeah, you know, I mean again, it's another assault on a castle this time It's storm shadow and scarlet trying to rescue snake eyes who ultimately rescues himself again But I mean, you know, I mean like the um the issue number 214 is the uh A silent issue on the death of snake eyes and it's all the characters standing in line Waiting for the casket to come out and get put on a plane and go away and that's the whole issue I mean, it's amazing. You know what I mean? And it's like as moving as you could get just having all them there And like at the end kind of stalker collapses and roadblock and scholar there to help pick them up as you know, he's like my man's dead Yeah, you know So Those issues I for me were important and I've heard people complain that like an issue like that Is is filler and I can't I I completely disagree. Um It's moments like that that uh give weight to all of this and make it something more than just an action comic book it's it's something that you know, we can take Larry's not afraid to take a minute, you know, take some time out to You know, show us the consequences of all of this and to to let the weight of that sink in so I have that issue. I've read that issue and I think it's one of the the best ones I love it. Yeah, it's experimental stories like that that actually elevate comics to an art form. Yeah Yeah, um, that's I mean, this is why this is why we are still talking about this. This is why, you know, it's this is not, you know, uh, mask or um, I don't know who else had a comic book back then. Um thunder cats and air bears and the smurfs A rom space night had a pretty good run 75 issues. Yeah and four four annuals Um, but uh, but I mean this is these are the reasons why we're still talking about this and and why it deserves Um, the kind of focus that you guys are giving it in this book Um, I mean to think about this way in 1984 transformers was maybe barely just getting going when this comic came out So transformers which has its own Legacy of comics a lot of comics, you know, they weren't even really around at that point yet Yeah, um, uh, I uh, I did want to point out the irony of the the advertisement On the inside of this issue being for uh, i'm a teleport True, I just I just Notice that I found that a little bit amusing. So yeah, I think the back cover is frogger, right? Oh, yeah, it is it is frogger There you go We grew up in The universe are going please notice us too Uh, that's uh, you know comic books. It's the wild west Uh, they'll they'll take any advertising dollars they can get that's what I'm waiting for the day when they do that now Like, you know, now they don't have paid advertising outside of Their own promotion and like, you know, maybe they comics should go back to that, you know Allowing outside companies to publish candy ads in comics. It's revenue Yeah, oh, why they went away from that. I never The demographic change now they're gonna have to start doing adult diapers and stuff like that Great hair deals deal with the gray hair Yeah, no, I think, you know, there's some synergy between comic books now and the aarp I think they need to uh get together and start, you know advertising their uh, their retirement benefits That's actually our advertising partner for the fourth volume AAR AARP It's it's too good to pass up it's gotta gotta make this happen Yeah, call the aarp people. It's gotta happen. That's right Well, this it's fantastic guys, um, uh, it's it's been great to talk to you here. Um, and I am gonna Uh remind everybody Again, in fact, I'm gonna remind everybody now and I'll remind everybody when we wrap up that the link for the Kickstarter is In the description of this live stream. So even if you're not watching it right now If you come back and watch it later the links right there, it'll take you straight to it I have backed it, uh, they, uh, these guys have a history of actually producing the products that they Intend and promise to produce And this is about I mean the most important gi joe comic book That there has been, uh, so I think I think you should revise that and say it's one of the most important comics in all of comic history Uh, which is hey, which is why hey the tell tell your friends who are not like gi joes. That's is that what we're called No, I don't think that's it Your friends who are not gi joe fans because um, you're exactly right this issue has legs outside of the gi joe fandom and um, this is something that people should pick up this is um This is going to provide some insight that most likely you you haven't had before um, you guys go to to a lot of conventions because i've seen you i've seen you at a few um Have you been to one of larry hama's panels where he talks about the issue 21 Yes, which is pretty much every panel that larry does. Yeah yeah, um Did you I mean did did you get a lot from that and Did it give you any ideas of where to go to? You know branch out on your research because I I've seen it and I think it's a fantastic talk Yeah, well, we did interview him for volume one and he did pretty much give the same pitch right there So we we have that recorded for ourselves and uh, I think that was that was a good place to start right there Fantastic yeah, I mean There's a quite a few videos out there too um of him talking and there was a very clear short one that we're using We just transcribed it, you know, he was at the uh, it's like 2019 He's at the chinese museum of america and it's a super clear great story that you know kind of Doesn't really ramble too much and so we put that in the book and you know That's kind of the beginning of course him talking about the characters and things like that and like I said Roger has interviewed him twice now. I think for the our books Yeah, three times. Yeah, three times. So we had we had uh segments from that that we put in there So we didn't actually re interview him from scratch for this book again because it was already out there Um, but you know, it's already I like said it's already out there. So yeah, three interviews. That's fantastic though. That's um, uh, I don't For some time after a gi show, I'm not really sure how much larry would have wanted to talk to about it because he has talked about how like um, he got pigeonholed as the the comic book or as the toy uh comic guy, yeah And uh, that was maybe you know Uh, I don't want to put words in his mouth and I don't want to like try to psychoanalyze him But he did seem to be maybe a little um less than enthusiastic about his uh his forever Tie to the gi joe series Yeah, um in more recent years though. He seems to have uh opened up about that more um, so I'm glad that you were able to talk to him. Um, was he I mean was Do you seem like he uh was comfortable and uh wanted to discuss, you know, his experience on gi joe Yeah, volume one very much so volume two, he didn't Care for his experience at uh devils do as much. So that was not as enthusiastic of an interview and uh idw Wasn't as enthusiastic as marvel, but it was more enthusiastic I love you there. We just sent him a bunch of questions. Sorry. I think you just sent him a bunch of questions Like in my email because we didn't really you know, we're like, hey, here's you know Talk about don marino and different things like that. It's like just answer the questions and he's like cool It was easy, you know And that we had we had already built up but roger has roger's built up enough relationship for them like that For to be able to do that. That's great. That's great um, and you I mean you were mentioning, you know, his enthusiasm for Uh devils do versus idw. He's you know, he's he's Uh with image skybound now and he's carrying on uh with his continuity um, uh I hope you know that he's feeling good about it the the writing on issue number 301 seemed to have an energy to it So I hope that means that he's happy Uh, and he's enjoying it. You know, he's given us a lot of enjoyment I would like for him to enjoy what he's doing. I Would love for him to actually have a good time doing all of this Obviously he's talked a lot about this issue Say he's he he doesn't mind talking more about this issue. He's he's uh, he's cool, uh, cool discussing it then Oh, yeah. Yeah, in fact, uh, one of the questions I had about 21 I don't even remember what the question was but it was a very tiny specific question And he still went off and told us the whole story if that was I was trying to avoid that since it was already answered so often, but he still answered the question in full That's nice. I'm glad. I'm glad. Um, I G. I. Joe sold really well at the time. Um, it was it As far as marvel subscriptions, it was often at the top of the list, which Um, for one thing that a lot of those issues are out there, you know, there's a ton they printed a lot of them But for another thing, um, I think that inspired a lot of people to get into comic books in the first place Um, I think I think a lot of talent that's working in comics now Um started, you know started here. Um, so I I hope that larry Uh understands and appreciates the the legacy that he's had on the entire industry Uh, you know, I think if I had an opportunity to sit down and talk with him, I I hope that he I could impress that on him Um, because again, this is important This matters. This matters not just to g. I. Joe and not just a frogger But but to the art form to the art form and to the industry. So, um, uh, thank you guys I have a few minutes left. Um, do you have any last words that sounds like we're putting you in front of a firing squad? But I promise the the guns are not loaded Have you any last words before we send uh folks to the kickstarter and then have roll into uh, What's on your mind, which is right after this this show? Well, if we're about to be shot Please don't sell my collection for what I said I paid for Hmm You have to have some last words you you've never not had words No, no, yeah, so so basically the the pitch is Support our book right because we are doing something very special Not only with our guidebooks that have aren't done anywhere else like marvel dc They they've never done anything and there's not any other really books out there on like one issue Now there are the silent interlude stuff and you know, idw has published You know the republished the book, but they haven't actually really dived into all the stuff that we're diving into Yeah, that's my final word is yo, joe And going back to that if you haven't picked up the first two volumes Uh, if you have any interest in gi joe and any interest in comics Odds are pretty good. You'll enjoy it even if you've never read a gi joe comic Right, and you can go to our website after action report net. Yep dot net I I reference this frequently. I look at it pretty much every video that I do so That's absolutely. Well, thank you guys And just to wrap up Again, the link is in the description Just go straight there. Check it out Read through it. See if that's something that you would like to back. I have backed it Uh, so I'm on board and I'm very much looking forward to seeing the final final product. It's very exciting. So Check it out back it if that's something that you're interested in And if if you are interested in it Let your non gi joe comic book fan friends know about it because This is something that That they should be interested in as well anyone who has any interest in comic book history Should take a look at this So, uh, thanks guys. Um, I hope to see you on the uh the convention circuit at some point in the in the future Well, we will definitely be at joe fest and the next assembly required Definitely me too. Me too. Uh, so I'll I'll see you there. Um, Yeah, well, thanks guys, uh, that's it's almost exact time to wrap it up. So, uh, I will say good night everybody I'll see you all next Tuesday. Um, and and uh until then check out The Kickstarter and then go see uh, what's on joe mind, uh, right after this episode. See you later everyone Bye