Influences and Source Material

As I begin this process of rebooting my world of GI Joe vs. Cobra, I have to acknowledge the influences that have shaped my thinking. If these writings become more popular beyond the relatively limited scope of my regular readers, I don't want a bunch of rabid, sweaty, stank-breath pseudo-fan boys whining about how my material sounds like stuff that's been done before.

No kidding. I get it, even before I begin this project. I'm going to be using bits and pieces of various events of GI Joe's long history. Some of it will be very familiar, some will hopefully be from a new, weird viewpoint. Mine.

And there will be some cases of "why are you using that character that way?" Like I've said before, once the toys, of any line, enter my home, they also enter my weird world. So don't be too surprised if I figure out a way to integrate Bossk and Hellboy into my GI Joe vs. Cobra conflict.

So here's probably a partial list of the GI Joe influences in my life:

1. Larry Hama & the Marvel comic series - Of course. The godfather of the Real American Heroes line has had the biggest impact on my love of these toys. He took a toy property and helped to shape it into a world filled with fascinating characters. Plus he wrote most of the original file cards. Larry is still hard at work writing GI Joe comics, while I have let that side of the hobby slip away. 
2. The Sunbow cartoons (including the mini-series and the movie) The cartoons brought the characters to life, giving them voice and movement. I'm sure there are plenty of GI Joe fans out there who read the comics with the voices of the cartoon characters in their heads. Sure, some of plots were goofy and bizarre, but they brought the characters to life.
3. Devil's Due Publishing - Their comic run with GI Joe picked up post-Marvel years and soon became an intriguing, tougher, brutal world for the characters. Sure, there were some crazy stories, but that's what is cool about GI Joe vs. Cobra. Crazy works!
4. GI Joe: Resolute - a harder edged GI Joe that became a fan favorite, but was a bit too harsh for Hasbro folks. Can't blame them, they've got toys to sell.
5. GI Joe:Renegades - GI Joe meets the A-Team. A fun show, canceled way too soon. I really like the world of Renegades, with Cobra being a national "legitimate" corporation. That concept is going to be a huge driving factor n my world.
6. GI Joe: Rise of Cobra - Really? Yeah, I guess so. I'm not sure how the events of the movie will fit in, but there were some exceptional action figures came out of that line. We wouldn't have Helix without RoC and Helix is a very important character to me.
7. GI Joe:Retaliation - A better cinematic look at GI Joe with a bit of Renegades type plotlines.
8. Justin Bell, Monte Williams, Andrew Peletier, Andre Bynoe, many others - I really don't remember when I first discovered his website. Justin was well into his huge series of dio-stories and I truly enjoyed the work he put into his GI Joe universe. I don't really know him, but he's a huge GI Joe fan and his storytelling skills are top notch. Monte does some exceptional toy photography work and usually adds an element of weirdness. Andrew has an amazing imagination with his assorted dio stories. Andre has a unique creative eye and has some impressive photographic skills. There are many other individuals out there in the GI Joe fandom that have and will serve as an influence in my world.
9. IDW comics - I've been out of the comics for several years now and I don't regret that decision at all. Something had to give in my collection and I chose to keep the figures rather than keep up with the comics as well. I suppose that it was probably a year or two after Rise of Cobra that I stopped collecting the comics. I do have a couple years worth of IDW's run, including the amazing Cobra series. I really liked the "alt" history of IDW. This was what was needed for GI Joe - a modern reboot of GI Joe.
10. Modern politics - I'm generally a pretty conservative dude and and am pretty disgusted at the general decline in culture in the United States. Rinos and liberals and socialists and communists won't really like what I am going to write about. I'm going to bash on some Republicans as well.
11. Conspiracy Theories - I'm just going to let this hang out there and flap in the wind - the government story behind the events of 9/11 is full of shit.  I used to be a little hardcore in my digging into the events of 9/11, but I've pretty much let it go. I just think that there is a whole lot more to the "official" story that us sheeple don't need to know about. Doesn't mean I can't revisit it and spin it around with some Cobra influences.
12. My bizarre imagination - Stuff has been stewing in my head for years. All of the above influences and other crazy stuff swirl around and congeal into a weird glob.

That's probably just some of my influences. I just wanted to clear the air and acknowledge to the world that I'm not claiming 100% originality in my work. It's all about the fun for me. Don't be a whiny b!tch and get offended.