<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: The Absolute Textbook of GI Joe and COBRA
Review: If there were college courses dedicated solely to the subject of GI Joe and COBRA, this would be the one stop textbook on the subject and Lars Pearson would have the Doctorate in Joeology. If old school GI Joe was your cold war kid religion, then this is it's bible. If you just jumped on the new school Image bandwagon, read about the rich mythology you missed. Bless you Larry Hama for never dumbing down the comic (until it jumped the shark with the toyline, circa. Cobra-laaaa, but that wasn't your fault.) and allowing even the preteenage readers a chance to begin to understand news and the world. Thank you to the cartoon creators for the surreal clash between childish fantasy and hard cold war reality. Thank you, Lars Pearson, for writing this excellent guidebook, as a fan, for fans.
Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Encyclopedia of the World of GI Joe
Review: If you are a huge GI Joe fan (like myself), then this book is a must-have! The book outlines everything you ever wanted to know about the world of GI Joe cartoons & comics (including the first few comics currently written by Devil's Due Publishing). The author goes into great detail about analyzing each cartoon episode, outlining storylines including mistakes within the storylines and animation. If you never read the original Marvel comic series, the author does an excellent job of summarizing the entire comic book line from beginning to end. This book is an excellent book and is absolutely bargain priced.
Rating:
Summary: Great reference for fans of Joe!!!
Review: Reading this book, it's obvious that it's a labor of love for the author and staff. The book begins by covering the entire Sunbow cartoon series (which is the one most of us remember), with detailed episode descriptions and observations of goofs, tie ins, and other interesting facts. It briefly covers the DIC series (which was written for a much younger audience) with about a paragraph description of each DIC episode. The second part of the book covers the comic series, with in depth coverage of each issue of the Marvel series and then the material produced independently in the UK, and finally the first 5 issues of the Image GI Joe series. The final few pages list toy and character data (but not descriptions) of all the characters. Throughout the book there are numberous interesting sidebars, including the "top 10 episodes", "Origin of Snake-Eyes", "Voice Actors other Credits", and several other fascinating essays. Since this book is obviously fan-written, it contains a lot of opinions in addition to straight facts. This serves to really give the book a soul, and adds to its credibility since they're not afraid to make fun of some of the more ridiculous directions Joe went at the end (everybody's a ninja, python patrol, etc...) My only criticism of the book are that there a few typos, and no pictures at all. I suspect they couldn't or didn't way to pay for them, but even if it was just black and white screen shots and cover galleries, I think that'd help recognize what episode or comic they're talking about quicker. Overall, this was a very pleasant surprise. I bought it thinking I could read a little bit at a time, but ended up getting sucked into it to the point that I couldn't put it down! If you were ever a Joe fan, this book brings back a flood of memories, finishes some fascinating stories (most interestingly the snake-eyes legacy), and compares and contrasts some interesting differences in the cartoons, Marvel Comics, UK comics and Image Comics.
Rating: 
Summary: An entertaining nostalgia trip.
Review: What a fun book! Anyone who grew up during the salad days of the 1980's G.I. Joe cartoon and comics series will appreciate this exhaustive compendium of history, trivia, and minutia. Either as a nostalgia trip or as a means to fill in any missing holes from your comic or cartoon collection, this book will surely please any die-hard Joe fan. The author not only has a firm, loving knowledge of Joe lore, but with sections dedicated to goofs and implausibilities also provides matter with tongue firmly planted in cheek. The book chronicles the soaring highs and frustrating lows of the entire Hasbro-related Joe universe. Action figure collectors beware: this book has very little to offer in the way of figure collecting or appraisal. Also (most likely due to copyright issues) the only image(s) you will see are on the cover of the book. I had to bump down the book a star for lack of images relating to either the cartoon or comics--which in my humble opinion would have made the offering perfect. Definitely worth the price of admission....
<< 1 >>
| 
