Comments on: Snark Blocker - Mike Zeck's G.I. Joe Covers!

By: ted santiago

ted santiago — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 17:54:50 +0000

Thanks! Love these GI Joe covers. Just to let you know that GI Joe 64 is by Ron Wagner, not by Mike Zeck. I know because I own the art and I bought it directly from Ron.

By: clint adams

clint adams — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 18:28:15 +0000

You know what these covers make me want to do? Buy the comic!!! Something comics just are not doing for me now a days....(also, I hope later on there is a listing of Zeck's Deathstroke covers) I was a passing fan of GI Joe and had some of those issues but I do love the majority of those covers.

By: salamurai

salamurai — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 05:32:53 +0000

I copied so many of the poses and layouts in those covers when I was in high school. Marvel's GIJoe will always be my most favorite comic book series. Even when it got really bad sometime after hitting 100. The stories in the 30's and 40's were some of the best. #33 had a big revelation that I won't repeat -- and then Hama had to do two or three filler stories to push some toys, so you didn't get to find out what happens next in the storyline for months! it drove me crazy! My brother's been storing our comics for the past several years but can't anymore, and I got half of them (pickup was full) back at Thanksgiving. All our GIJoes were included. And I have a week's vacation coming up.

By: jazzbo

jazzbo — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 21:40:18 +0000

#43 was the issue I started collecting GI Joe, and comics, with.

The Cobra Civil War is to this day one of my favorite comic storylines. And while I never got around to submitting my top 10 battles, the Cobra civil war was on my list for that, too. GI Joe was a great comic book series.

By: HarlanJBryan

HarlanJBryan — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 19:10:23 +0000

"BLOODY Hell! I miss the thirty and thirty-five cents comics books!"

Tom, I'm with you on that one too! I just didn't want to give my "Grampa" voice away!

By: Edward Liu

Edward Liu — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 18:38:25 +0000

For the record, Roadblock toted an M2 .50 machine gun (in service since 1919, and still going strong -- that John Browning sure could build 'em). The M60 (which is indeed the gun on the cover of #43) was Rock and Roll's weapon of choice, for the times he couldn't use the gatling gun on the motorcycle.

I am also sad to say that my skill at recognizing and naming firearms started with G.I. Joe comics, but this also led me to the realization of how silly the comic could get, since a quick look at a book showed the M2 weighed more than 80 pounds unloaded, plus another 35 for a can of 100 rounds of ammo. I think it also has 2 triggers at the end to fire it, which would be hard to do with one hand even if you were able to carry that thing.

By: DubipR

DubipR — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 15:38:58 +0000

I remember looking forward each month to get those GI Joes in the mail (yes I had a subscription!). Issue 43 and 45 bring back great memories, especially 45 where Ripcord goes one on one with Zartan as Ripcord infultrates Corbra Island. It's a great story, but man those Zeck cover hold up beautiully. I wish comic covers today (at least from Marvel) go back to those covers...and put some freaking captions on them!

By: Stephen

Stephen — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 06:18:17 +0000

>And I think thatâ€™s an M-60, by the way. G.I. Joe and Larry Hama have taught me to name many weapons on sight! <

Yeah, after I wrote that I looked again and said "wait, that's the gun Roadblock used... so it can't be an M-16" I was wondering when some 80s Joe fan would call me on that.

By: Ethan Shuster

Ethan Shuster — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 04:42:42 +0000

Yeah, #43... I think that's like one of the greatest comic book covers, ever. And I'm not kidding. An issue including a number of character deaths, and on the cover? The Grim Reaper with a @#%^ing machine gun!

And I think that's an M-60, by the way. G.I. Joe and Larry Hama have taught me to name many weapons on sight!

By: Tom Fitzpatrick

Tom Fitzpatrick — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 04:15:11 +0000

"Man I miss sixty and seventy-five cent comic booksâ€¦."

BLOODY Hell! I miss the thirty and thirty-five cents comics books!

Wasn't there anything that ZECK didn't DO?!?

By: HarlanJBryan

HarlanJBryan — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 03:51:22 +0000

Man I miss sixty and seventy-five cent comic books....

By: Agent_Torpor

Agent_Torpor — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 00:17:25 +0000

Oh man, that GI JOe Yearbook #3 was a treasured part of my childhood comic collection. That thing was dogeared, copied, pored-over and generally consumed beyond belief. Absolute love to a 9 year old kid.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 22:48:41 +0000

"The Cobra Civil War Era had some great stuff inside as well."

There was one really awful fill-in in the middle of it, IIRC - someone who apparently drew it just off a script, since no one looked anything like their character models (Hawk was suddenly a guy in a baseball cap and khakis). But, yes, some good art in that era.

Special Missions was a really underrated title, as well, since it was Hama doing exactly what he wanted to do with Joe without Hasbro or Marvel having much oversight since it wasn't the "real" book.

By: MarkBlack

MarkBlack — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 22:13:09 +0000

The Cobra Civil War Era had some great stuff inside as well.
After about issue 82, the comic started to slip a bit.
There was some decent stuff, but nothing quite as good as that which preceded it.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 21:34:09 +0000

Covers 40 - 49 bring back soooooo many good memories. I mean, geez, how could you NOT buy a book that featured the Grim Reaper firing an M-16 on the cover?

An interesting compare / contrast exercise would be to put these next to the re-done versions included in the recent 2-packs of figures. The new ones certainly lack the dynamic nature of Zeck's best work (43, 30, 34).

I also always loved how he used to switch between a slightly more cartoony style and the more straight-up style, and be great at both.

Some of the covers from the Cobra Civil War era actually approached Zeck in terms of badassery - they're in the mid-70s. Everything around the time of the Zarana / Lady Jaye catfight cover.

By: KentL

KentL — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 21:10:22 +0000

#51 was by Byrne, which is why it isn't seen here.

By: OTL

OTL — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 21:09:48 +0000

The Byrne cover from #37-57 was actually issue #51, not 50 (and hence why #51 wasn't included; looks like a little typo in the article, is all...).

Flint on #50's cover definitely looks more Zeck than Byrne to me...

By: Blackjak

Blackjak — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 20:51:20 +0000

"the cover to #50 has Zeckâ€™s signature on it" - ye gods, that's sure freaky! It's definitely a John Byrne jawline and upturned mouth on that trooper (Flint?)...
Maybe one inked the other?

By: Keith

Keith — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 20:44:35 +0000

I love all of these covers and all of the comics that were contained within.

By: danjack

danjack — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 20:42:27 +0000

i loved Zeck on Captain America! There was one cover where Cap literally looked like he was jumping out of the cover. It was almost 3-d! That said, i never bought a G.I. Joe comic in my life [although i do consider myself patriotic].