When you spend the majority of your time in various secret bunkers and hollowed out volcanoes, wearing the same uniform day after day, current fashion trends remain elusive.
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When you spend the majority of your time in various secret bunkers and hollowed out volcanoes, wearing the same uniform day after day, current fashion trends remain elusive.
I distinctly remember this issue as G.I.Joe was my gateway comic as a kid. Man, I feel old now.
But what fashionable men’s clothing store also stocks fake white beards and Foo Man Chew mustaches?
Unmaskings! i loved that issue even though it was kinda weird. Even back then Cobra Commander and Destro definitely looked like “stranger danger” guys who ride around in a window-less van….
MUFTI! I forgot about mufti!
I know me too! thank god for editors notes
Was this Larry Hama? The sensei* of the the asterisk.
*Japanese for “master” or “teacher.” –ed.
I love comic books.
Unmaskings – great issue. Just goes to show – Fedoras are always cool. “Tad Retro” is not how I would phrase that look Mr Hama, even back then.
Issue 55 was around the Tipping Point for me, though the covers were getting more and more amazing, and was among the first where I first noticed colouring. Take a look at the cover to issue 63. I never saw the gradients of blue like that and made me take notice. Since you are not asking, favourite cover and issue? 21.
It was also the time when GI Joe comics sometimes had an animated sequence that were shown during commercials. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36MKP3HaxgU
What happens next? Find out on iFanboy!
Tank Top Cobra… all that needs to be said.
Where was my wife beater Cobra Commander figure? Was it that variant you have to send UPC codes to get?
Bugger. I am looking on ebay for GI Joe comic lots for sale. Why is this not available on Graphicly?
I still have this issue boarded and in a plastic slip in a box in my basement. I haven’t looked at it in years
Dear Cobra Commander: in a few issues time you’re going to be hanging out with a guy dressed as a bird. Compared to that, Destro’s gold-chain-open-shirt 70′s homage is practically Paris fashion show worthy. So don’t knock it. Besides, your little red booties aren’t exactly changing fashion trends.
either destro is wearing sweat pants or he tight rolled his pants legs…
It was the 80′s (or very early 90′s). EVERYONE (I knew) tight-rolled their pants legs. Trust me. I can never forget.
“excuse me…are those Bugle Boy Jeans that you’re wearing?”
yeah dude i was a wee lad, but i remember the tapered leg acid wash, baggy pleated pants that were in. So weird.
This was ’86, so squarely in the middle of 80′s fashion.
showing yur ankles was cool
This was the middle of a great saga, post-PIT explosion. Eventually, Cobra Commander was (SPOILER ALERT) shot in the back and “killed” by Crimson Guardsman Fred while wearing that very disguise.
As hard as it may seem to believe, the threads that Cobra Commander & Destro are wearing were pretty much the rage back then. At my school, some of the kids would roll up and fold their jeans (Guess and/or Levi’s) at the ankle to get that look Destro is going for. This issue was my introduction to G.I. Joe as well. I bought it as part of a grab bag deal along with 5 other Marvel titles for $1.50.
that’s a pretty sweet beret
Shut yo mouth
This page has been seared into my brain since I was kid. I loved GI Joe so much during this period.
I like that the one guy’s “disguise” screams “Middle Eastern Dictator.”
I don’t remember anymore where I actually jumped onto G.I. Joe, it may not have been later in the 60s, 70s. However, once I did, I bought up all the back issues I could find. So, I remember that classy Commander disguise, even if I can’t say I recall the specific panel. (I mainly remember it from the “death” issue).
And yes this series, along with Transformers, was my gateway into comics in general. Sometimes that synergy stuff does actually work . . .
i’ve seen those exact same outfits at urbanoutfitters.com
ALL this time Cobra commander was ………Dennis Eckersley???
I can’t believe you didn’t include the cover of this issue… the cover was terrific. As a matter of fact, see how many people are like ” this was my jumping point into the comics”… I guarantee it was because of that cover!!! Every kid who watched GI Joe wanted to know who was behind those masks, and cover teased it!
I still have a stack of GI Joe (Issues 43 – 80-something?). But these I collected when I was a kid and they are beat up to all get out, never been in bags, obviously no boards. But I still have them!
What was great was how complicated the plots where… so much more depth than the cartoon ever had. I mean… Cobra Commander is ‘dead’, his son takes over… the only person that knows is the Baroness? And all that to take control away from Serpentor? Crimson Guards were all guys who had plastic surgery to look the same! Those Joe comics were bananas.
I remember when this issue came out, and was all excited by that cover. But it was kind of a rip-off, because while Destro, Cobra Commander, and Snake Eyes did unmask, we never did see what their real faces looked like (as seen in the above panels and when Snake Eyes was unmasked). The characters in the book got to see their real faces, but not the readers! I was kinda mad. I really loved GI Joe in those days – still do, actually.
I wonder if there’s a chance that Paul Gambi (Flash’s Tailor to the Supervillains) opened up a franchise near Cobra here…