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Adventure Team comics (1969-1976)

 G.I. JOE: ADVENTURE TEAM COMICS




Most of the material in this section was provided by Derryl DePriest and the G.I. Joe Collector's Club . The following information was originally published on DePriest's now-defunct "G.I. Joe Clubhouse" website. An avid G.I. Joe collector, DePriest wrote The Collectible G.I. Joe in 1999, and later became Director of Marketing for some Hasbro toylines including G.I. Joe. DePriest now works with Hasbro's Star Wars toys, and was kind enough to give permission to reprint his article here. All the story summaries that follow are from the old site, as well.

 

More than you ever wanted to know
about the Adventure Team comics!

By Derryl DePriest

Comic books played a big part in G.I. Joe's success in both the 60s and 70s, and are now being used once again on the packaging of the new Adventures of G.I. Joe sets recently introduced by Hasbro. Now is the perfect time to take a look at the history of vintage G.I. Joe in the four color medium.

Many Hasbro ads appeared in D.C. comic in the mid-60's, but most were just plain ad pages featuring the latest and greatest sets. In 1965, Hasbro got creative and invented Andy and George, a pair of young hucksters who appeared in a run of ten ads. These two guys, the models of good behavior, were the envy of all kids for their huge G.I. Joe collections and hyper-indulgent dads. Andy and George typically integrated all newly released sets into their play scenarios and built scale dioramas for their troops, giving kids some ideas on how to play with their G.I. Joes. I have no idea why they were retired - probably because kids increasingly realized that they could never have the kind of collection that Andy and George had.

In 1967, Hasbro created a small 5" x 3-1/4" comic book for pack-in with the talking figures. Titled America's Moveable Fighting Man, this blue-covered comic highlighted all of the window-boxed sets then currently available as well as deluxe vehicles and the talking figures. There is no story to the comic, as it is simply a narrative depicting G.I. Joe as a hero who engages in exciting adventures in all branches of the military.

Hasbro's most important use of comics came in 1969. Up until this point, all of G.I. Joe's sets had been military and lacked any kind of directed storyline element, with the possible exception of 1967's Sabotage. As G.I. Joe abandoned the military theme, Hasbro thought that kids needed something to direct them in using the new and sometimes strange cocktail of ingredients in the Adventures of G.I. Joe line.

A series of small 7" x 3-1/2" comics were created and packed in with all deluxe sets. These comics featured G.I. Joe in an exciting, often death-defying adventure and were Hasbro's way of suggesting a plausible context for the sets. While the stories were told in only 32 panels on 16 pages, each had a definite start and finish. Typically, Joe used all of the accessories for each set in the adventure, making the comic "complete" in its representation of the set. In later years this was especially useful, since many of the sets (like Mine Shaft Breakout and Danger Ray Detection) needed extra help to get kids oriented to the obscure combination of ingredients.

The 1969 comics (along with the 1967 one-off) were produced by Custom Comics, Inc. a marketing-support firm based in New York City. The artwork of the early comics is typically very good, and appears to have been done by artists moonlighting from DC Comics. It appears that from 1970 on, Hasbro found a new supplier for the comics or created them in-house. The art from Adventure Team era comics is very poor (worse than any comic books at the time), but is compensated for by some inspired storytelling which stretched the creative boundaries of the comic narrative (I'm half kidding - the stories were seldom better than the art).

Hasbro would issue comics for 40 different sets from 1969-1976, and almost all of the bigger sets and most of the larger window-boxed sets had adventures. Despite the plethora of comics, there are a few conspicuous absences: the awesome Mobile Support Vehicle, Sandstorm Survival and it's store exclusive variation Desert Patrol Adventure, the oddball Peril of the Raging Inferno, and Sears' Recovery of the Lost Mummy did not get the four color treatment. Since the comics were often separated from the toys, putting together a complete run (especially those from many of the rare 1969 sets) is a very challenging task.

There were some very good stories, and some very contrived ones that even the smallest child must have found ridiculous. Some of the spy tales were especially well done. In these, Hasbro deliberately did not name any spy organization as the enemy; it was always left to the imagination of kids to supply that. In this way the stories remain timeless. As a kid in the 70s, most of the time my Joe's nemesis was Russian or generically Eastern bloc. Reading these comics today, Joe's enemy could work for any number of countries or corporations.

Hasbro used many recurrent themes in the Adventure Team sets, which is reflected of course in the stories. The Cold War and the menace of nature were very prevalent. A survey of the themes from all 40 stories breaks down like this (some tie in to more than one major theme):

# of comics centered around:

  • Animal menaces: 18
    • That were killed by Joe: 9
    • That were captured or subdued: 9
  • Spies and saboteurs: 9
  • Natives, either friendly or hostile: 6
  • AT members in distress: 5
  • Civilians in distress: 5
  • Recovering artifacts/treasure: 4
  • Beings from outer space (Intruders): 2
  • Unnatural disasters: 2
  • Natural disasters: 1


Hasbro was a master of cross-promotion, not only on the back of the packaging and through the G.I. Joe club, but in the comics as well. Many vehicles and sets, especially the Headquarters, were mentioned in other adventures. Hasbro late in the game realized that they had a cool concept going with Spy Island, and tied it in to two more sets (Troubleshooter and Jaws of Death). Hasbro also had it in for government scuba divers for some reason. One surprise is how few times the all-purpose ATV was mentioned in the comics, even though it was the most popular AT vehicle of all.

# of comics that mention or feature:

  • Adventure Team Headquarters: 8
  • Kung Fu Grip: 8
  • Adventure Team Helicopter: 7
  • Troubleshooter vehicle: 4
  • "Spy Island": 3
  • Inept government scuba divers: 3
  • Sandstorm Survival jeep: 2
  • Sky Hawk: 2
  • Adventure Team Vehicle: 2


Hasbro, whether intentionally or not, also included some interesting AT members in the comics that were not available on shelves. I always wanted to have a red haired AT Man of Action, which Hasbro clearly depicted in Shocking Escape. A pair of gray-haired figures show up in other stories. A wizened gray-haired Talking Commander is in charge in Secret Mountain Outpost, and a gray-haired black Adventurer makes a cameo appearance in Trapped in the Coils of Doom. Since all of these sets are from 1975, Hasbro's quality control was probably slipping as the Adventure Team line was fading into the sunset.


Following are year-by-year listing of the different series, the individual plot summaries, and highlights. Passages in quotes are actually taken from the too-cool text:

Item Title Hits
Series 1: 1969 (Adventures of G.I. Joe) 4129
Series 2: 1970 3322
Series 3: 1971/72 3009
Series 4: 1974 4258
Series 5: 1975 A 3359
Series 6: 1975 B 3911
Series 7: 1976 2765
 
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