G.I. JOE: The Complete Collection Volume 1

G.I. JOE: The Complete Collection Volume 1 If you are sitting there wondering whether you need ANOTHER collection of the G.I.Joe comics by Larry Hama, the answer is definitely YES!The enlarged size is brilliant, ALL the stories (including never before reprinted back up tales), fact files, character profiles and covers are included. Worth the price alone is the introduction by the amazing Mark Bellomo (Author of The Ultimate Guide to G.I.Joe) detailing exactly how Larry Hama went about writing the File Cards for new characters. It's just brilliant and it has to be owned by anyone claiming to be a Joe fan...Yo Joe!!!Role on the next volumes!!!!

As a life long fan of G.I Joe it's good to be able to by collections of the comics. A little pricy byut nice quality and hardback makes it worth.

Lots of nostalgic action with the Joes

top draw

I was initially quite annoyed when this collection was announced. It came almost immediately after IDW had finished their run of Classic GI Joe trade paperbacks, collecting the same material and collects the same material in the manner it really should have been originally (that is, all the Yearbooks, back-up strips and extra material included in with the main series, let alone Special Missions).Fortunately, this collection is generally good enough to smooth over that irritation. The book itself is a lovely piece. Oversized to roughly the same dimensions as Marvel's OHC and Omnibuses, it's a stylish looking book, with good binding and pages that largely lay flat when opened. The embossing on the cover is quite swish as well.The contents are pretty darn good as well. This contains the first 12 issues of the 80s Marvel series. Not the best that the series has to offer, but an essential beginning that shows quick evolution from tales of daring do to the twisty-turny paramilitary soap opera that the comic became. The upsizing of the material hasn't hurt the art reproduction and the clarity of linework is on a par with Marvel's collected editions of this material (I didn't get IDW's initial tpbs, so I can't compare directly, but it's much better than their first few fuzzy volumes of previously uncollected material). The colours are slightly washed out compared to the Marvel editions, but this a huge negative. It makes for a slightly less garish read at times.The only downside to this collection is the work of Mark Bellomo. Bellomo is a terrible writer. His introductory feature, about the nature of the file-card profiles each character had on their toy packaging, is over-written, pretentious and patronising. His notes on individual issues are banal and spotty. He feels the need to point out that the island featured in #1 isn't the famous Cobra island, but doesn't feel it worth mentioning that Stalker's consistently misnamed in #4.The real draw, I think, for these volumes over the paperbacks is that, as well as the excellent presentation, there's all the previously missing material. This volume doesn't get as far as needing to include Special Missions or Yearbooks, but we do finally get Hot Potato, the back-up strip from #1, as well as a host of fun little extras, such as guides to Joe equipment and character pin-up pages.In all, the Complete Collection overcomes its drawbacks to be a pleasingly comprehensive and classy comic.