Short Box: G.I. Joe A Real American Hero Compendium TP

G.I. Joe A Real American Hero Compendium TP

Release: Oct 09, 2024

Creators

As a kid, I picked up some G.I. Joe action figures before I ever picked up an issue of the comic.

Looking through this compendium, I think the first issue I got was #10, which I undoubtedly picked up because it had Scarlett and Snake Eyes on the cover, which were two of the figures I had, and I thought they were cool.

From there, I picked up a few more issues of the comic here and there – but I don’t think I ever got any additional figures* – but didn’t really stick with it. I’d already stopped reading it for quite some time when I picked up the G.I. Joe Yearbook, and I didn’t pick up any issues after I got that.

And, of course, what issues I did have were lost to the ages.

Overall, I was never a huge Joe fan, and haven’t kept up with their post-Marvel adventures, but while I didn’t buy the series regularly back then, I did enjoy what I did read, as thanks primarily to the brilliance of Larry Hama it was so much better than the extended toy catalog it might have been in different hands.

This compendium, collecting issues 1-50 of the original Marvel comics, gives me a chance to look at what I overlooked back then.

One of the most notable things about this compendium is that while it has fifty comics’ worth of content and is three inches thick the book itself is light as a feather. I almost hurled it across the comic shop when I took it off the shelf because I grabbed it more forcefully than necessary as I’d anticipated it being considerably heavier.

Never judge a book by its cover, and don’t judge its weight by its size, I guess.

The reason it’s so light – and the main reason I wanted to write a Short Box post about it – is that, apart from the cover, it’s printed on low-cost newsprint, just like the original comics were in the ’80s.

It’s kind of a neat gimmick – if only because of how surprisingly lightweight it is – though also kind of odd, and maybe a bit pointless. I mean, sure, it adds an air of authenticity and presumably reduced the cost – at $64.99 it was considerably cheaper than a typical similarly-sized compendium – but even with those whys it leaves you wondering “But why though?”

Or it leaves me wondering, anyway.

Still, it was a compelling enough bargain to get me to pick it up, and I look forward to reacquainting myself with the stories I’ve read and reading the many other stories I haven’t.

*I never had any vehicles. My total collection consisted of Flash, Scarlett, Snake-Eyes, Breaker, and Grunt.

Born and raised in the sparsely populated Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Jon Maki developed an enduring love for comics at an early age.