Entrevista

Entrevista feita na revista Previews (pag 102 -103) de Agosto de 2002

This October sees the release of G.I.Joe: Frontline, a brand news spinoff from the amazingly successful G.I.Joe relaunch last year. As if fans weren't excited enough to see more adventures of their favorite real American heroes, Frontline brings something new to the mix that is making fans stand at attention - the return of original G.I.Joe writer Larry Hama. Responsible for writing almost one hundred and fifty-five issues of the original G.I.Joe series, Hama also helped to pen the file cards that adorned the G.I.Joe toys, his magic touch at characters and action making him a revered figure in fans' eyes. Just don't tell him that...

Previews: First off - it's been nearly a decade since you last wrote G.I.Joe. How does it feel to be working with the Joes again?

Larry Hama: Very good and very familiar. It is a bit like going home again.

P: Is there anything you're doing differently this go 'round; has your approach to the characters changed at all?

LH: I think I've learned a great deal more about storytelling and character development, and I have had some insights into the old characters that only came to me as though through osmosis as time passed. I don't want to get into any sort of ret-con, so I am pretty much taking up the thread from where it was left off and keep as close to the original style as much as possible. If I were to do material that wasn't a direct continuation, that would be another story.

P: Tell us a bit about this initial story arc for G.I.Joe: Frontline. Without blowing anything you've got in store, what can fans expect?

LH: They can expect an action-packed story involving some favorite characters, a continuity of the personal entanglements of Scarlett, Snake Eyes, and Storm Shadow, intrigue betwixt Cobra Commander and the Baroness, some arch villainy from Dr. Mindbender, a revelation from Billy, and the usual grape soda and chocolate-covered donuts from the Dreadnoks.

P: With the previous stories, it seemed like the comic books were very much an extension of the toy line - as new toys appeared, so, too, did new characters, etc. How did that impact your approach to the book - and is that something that affect what you're doing now with Frontline?

LH: I'm not pushing any new toys with Frontline. But I can't see that having to put in new toys or new characters in the original series was any different from what all the Marvel and DC writers faced from editorial all the time. What is the difference between told to insert the Thunderclap or base a story around Alpine, and having to use Cyber or Mr. Freeze because they figure into some overall continuity? Most of my work on series other than G.I.Joe has actually been far more restrictive. On one character at an unnamed company, I was handed a thick loose-leaf binder that was a supposed "bible" for the character, that pretty much itemized all of the stuff you couldn't do with him! At another company I had to write in a mysterious character that had been "created" by another writer. The masked mystery character was going to turn out to be a well-known existing character within this particular universe, but the writer hadn't decided just who it was going to be yet. I had to write this character for three issues without knowing who he was and then I had to go back and ret-con to make it all work out!

P: Snake-Eyes (and his ninja background) is obviously a fairly big part of the Joe milieu. Any insight into how the series became so dependent on him?

LH: Could the coolness factor have anything to do with it? It wasn't deliberate on our part or Hasbro's part. Snake-Eyes was just one of the team. However, from the very start, the masked ninja dominated the fan letters, and the figure was the first one to disappear from the racks with every shipment. I guess it's hard to go wrong with a mystery man with a sword and an Uzi.

P: Have you ever wanted the opportunity to flesh out characters like Grand Slam or Iceberg? It always seemed as though they had the potential to developed more fully, but were always sort of overlooked in favor of the more established characters.

LH: Considering how many characters there were, it was amazing that as many of them got as much development as they did. Grand Slam sort of got pushed back to the background because he was a vehicle driver and his particular vehicle wasn't all that practical for stories as it was. There aren't too many situations you can utilize a self-propelled artillery along with cogent character development. With Iceberg, he seemed sort of redundant if the team wasn't in the arctic.

P: How do you feel about death in the Joe stories? Considering the nature of the business at hand in these tales, do you feel that the lack of blood 'n' guts diminishes their impact in any way? Does working with a licensed property like G.I.Joe make it difficult to approach this type of material in a "realistic" manner?

LH: I don't see how it is at all possible in any way to deal with the military in a realistic manner in a licensed toy property? That was never my intent. I gave it my best shot within the parameters that were laid out for me. Marvel gave me and some friends (Michael Golden and Doug Murray) the chance to tell stories about Vietnam in a far more realistic context than had been done before in a color comic, but even there we were constrained by the Comic Code. We had to call a new guy a "greenie" instead of "cherry." My approach to G.I.Joe was always that is was more of an adventure soap-opera than a "war" comic. There has been plenty of death in the Joe comics. For the most part, they were characters that were created and set up so they could die, since I could not kill off any characters that were figures (until it came a time when figures were going to be phased out or discontinued).

P: When characters did die, was that something that you had to pitch to Hasbro and get approval for? Were there ever characters Hasbro wanted to "phase out," thus opening the door for their deaths within the comic book?

LH: I think I just answered this! The massacre at Benzine (or wherever it was!) was a result of such a phase-out.

P: You used to contribute text to the G.I.Joe product line - with the resurgence in the Joes' popularity, is that something you might start doing again?

LH: If you are talking about the file cards (I always called them dossiers!) on the backs of the packages, I did most of them for the previous runs. I am now writing them again (with a few exceptions which had already been written in-house before I came back on board). I am also writing the scripts for the mini-comics that will be included with some toy packages.

P: Does it surprise you at all that the Joes are going through this resurgence?

LH: Totally flabbergasted.

P: And how do you like being looked upon with such reverence from G.I.Joe fans? Lots of fans area really looking forward to seeing some new Joes stories from you...

LH: Reverence? I dunno, I'm quite happy with a smile and a handshake. I wrote the stuff to entertain, and if it made people happy, then I'm happy.