The Larry Hama Interview, by 3DJoes at NC Comicon

Click the timecodes below to jump to that section, or check out the playlist of shorter clips:
• The Larry Hama Intervi...
0:00 Introduction and a brief history of G.I.Joe before Larry Hama
3:27 Landing the job
7:20 Creating "The Enemy"
10:53 Larry Hama's storytelling process
11:33 Writing G.I.Joe #1 (and creating the Baroness)
13:31 Creating original characters for the Marvel comic
14:58 The invention of file cards (AKA dossiers)
20:28 Making comics to sell toys
22:06 The comic commercial loophole
23:43 Starting with a really good cover
25:23 Making memorable characters
28:19 Bringing martial arts into G.I.Joe
30:01 Zen archery
32:16 Bringing Ninjas into G.I.Joe, and turning Storm Shadow
33:19 Getting fired. And rehired!
35:11 Who killed Cobra Commander?
36:22 The importance of humanizing "The Enemy"
38:00 The Oktober Guard
39:12 Immortalized in plastic by Bill Merklein
40:23 Immortalized in plastic once again
40:54 Props to IDW
41:38 Audience Q&A: G.I.Joe #21
44:21 Audience Q&A: G.I.Joe #155
45:04 Audience Q&A: Consulting on Rise of Cobra

[@webslinger48]

This guy is a legend, the George Lucas of G.I. Joe, so to speak. Nice to see him getting his due.

[@quigley6643]

Damn right!

[@DS8379]

G.I. Joe was a Gigantic part of my childhood and in 1987- as the who was winding down was when I discovered the comic which just blew my mind! I met Larry at a con in 2004 and was so nervous cuz he is as big of a hero and influence on me as Lucas/Spielberg/Henson - I was thrilled at how kind and friendly he was. Truly a class act!

[@3djoes]

Thank you ALL for all of the positive feedback! It was great honor to sit down with Mr. Hama, and I'm indebted to NC Comicon and IDW for giving me the opportunity.

[@cobra-emperor6starwars665]

I hate the new style of figures but the vehicles are still nice, the vintage figures are what GI Joe is, I love those figures, the cartoon from the 1980's is what GI Joe is and the figures were made the same as the cartoon they made,

[@thochaos13]

This is a fantastic insight into one of my favourite things ever. I owe Larry Hama so many thanks, 1000x over for some of the best parts of my childhood.

[@jtadams101]

Adam Smith Amen to that...

[@robosborne4851]

This is the best Larry interview I've ever heard! ROCK on, Carson!!! 👊

[@joshua3732]

Great interview. I love GI Joe and Larry Hama. I have been lucky enough to meet Larry 3 times. He has always been gracious and I got a great sketch each time. Yo Joe!

[@SylentEcho]

Why does this video have so few views? This is awesome!

[@totalrobot]

I want to meet Mr.Hama. I need to thank him for helping make my childhood awesome with his amazing creations!

[@nathantaisto6930]

Thanks Mr. Hama. Great childhood memories or your work.

[@coeurdelion3113]

Who are the seven shells of humanity who gave this TREASURE of a video a "thumbs down"...

[@3djoes]

He was put on the comicgate blacklist at some point so I’m betting it’s that crowd!

[@TheTsefu]

You guys are awesome! Thanks for posting!

[@wheeljack0]

Total work horse, they need him on the new film coming out.

[@ScavengerXJim]

Wow what a great interview with my favorite writer!

[@Timkasa82]

Awesome video. I just bought some posters from 3dJoes, I can't wait to get them.

[@Number-6]

Thanks so much for making this happen!

[@foxglove9]

What a great interview, thanks for posting this!

[@FreedomCompatriots]

For this moment on, I will be reading the file cards in Larry Hama's New Yorker voice! LOL and there you have it! Even the Red Oktober team where probably New Yorkers! Larry Hama seems to be a great guy! In reference to the G.I.Joe movie with the talking Snake Eyes, I have to wonder if it was Ray Park who spoke or if they intended to ADR it over with somebody else's voice?

[@TroySmith25]

Thank you for recording this and posting it.

[@locomotionllc]

Thank you Troy!

[@dennisjakobus807]

Great interview, you have a subscriber!

[@Activated_Complex]

Back when it was considered gauche to talk about soldiers as being heroic figures, Larry Hama was injecting some reality into the Gi Joe comics, where the Joes were often put in tough positions by the political choices that directed their actions. And even wrote some great, heroic Soviet characters in the Oktober Guard, who went out with a bang, while speaking of making a stand worthy of Eisenstein’s classic Battleship Potemkin. Only the servants of the fascist Cobra were depicted as truly villainous. Foretelling the age of asymmetric warfare, against the likes of the almost universally reviled Daesh, way back during the height of the Cold War. Only with the arrival of Marvel’s “The ‘Nam” would comics find another outlet for this type of storytelling, that was largely lost when EC stopped producing their outstanding war dramas. And “The ‘Nam”, for all its well-deserved praise, was arguably less free to play with these themes, since the story of that conflict was already written in the pages of history.

[@3djoes]

Activated Complex this is probably the single smartest comment my KZbin channel has ever received. You’re absolutely right, he never portrayed characters as one dimensional or black-and-white. Anyone that has served as a soldier should have learned respect for their adversaries, and Larry Hama brought that to his writing after serving in the Army.

[@KevinMayle1974]

This is so great!

[@SonicPAJ]

Interesting. I didn't know Kyudo was so different from Western Archery.

[@burgundypoint]

The only problem is that it was too short! A part 2 would be great

[@MadSUPANOVA]

Awesome

[@snakeeyes007]

Great interview, and the guy in the brown jacket has some serous ADD, he should have been in the back of the crowd.

[@3djoes]

Chris Daniels he’s the former Editor in Chief of IDW and he was really just up there at the request of the show runners for “emotional support” :-) I think they wanted a contingency plan in case I bombed as a panel host.

[@snakeeyes007]

I see...thanks.

[@paulgoodwin3640]

Is the triangle joes club still going? I started collecting a year ago and would love to sign up.

[@kylearking8918]

And now Snake Eyes talks in the new Snake Eyes movie.

[@3djoes]

It's a prequel.

[@kylearking8918]

@@3djoes Do you think Snake Eyes will be silent in the next movie?

[@clf1908]

As much as i love G.I.Joe and i stilll collect time from time when i can afford it...And now I'm 46 years of age .what exactly is a 3-D Joe.?? I've herd of that quite a few times don't exactly know what that is exactly

[@3djoes]

Chris Ferrell 3DJoes.com features interactive photos that allow you to see the vehicles and figures from various angles... as opposed to traditional 2D photos.

[@SweeturKraut]

OMG. 22:55 G I Joe does the most Murican!!! Thing. It uses the 1st Amendment to justify an ad campaign to sell violent toys to children. Btw... We bought a shitload of G I Joe toys in the 80's.

[@joeblaster8770]

Snake Eyes talking is like Captain America being a Nazi good thing GI Joe is no longer at Marvel.