G.I. Joe fans around the world were eager and willing to check out G.I. Joe: Operation Red Retrieval when it hit late last year, and now director Mark Cheng and star Joe Barbagallo are partnering to form a new production company, Planet Nerd Rage.
Thriving on the micro-budget concept, this production company takes big ideas and makes them look big without big money. It has the promise of some very cool things for the micro budget film phenomenon.
So why would G.I. Joe fans care, you ask?
Well, a couple of projects currently in the works involve one of all of our favorite creators, Larry Hama. The first project is based a novel that Mr. Hama wrote several years ago, entitled The Wrong Chinaman, and another project is entitled Ghost Source Zero, with a script by Cheng, currently being worked on by Larry Hama as well. It would seem like a match made in heaven.
Be sure to keep your eyes peeled to Planet Nerd Rage, and for more information, check out Episode 47 of What’s on Joe Mind where Mark Cheng, Joe Barbagallo, and Larry Hama himself made this exciting announcement! We were very honored that they chose our podcast to release this information to the wild, and we will all be closely following the progress of these works and this studio.
Nothing has gotten the fans in an uproar more with G.I. Joe: Retaliation than the idea that Snake Eyes and Roadblock may possibly be Arashikage ninja brothers. While I’m sure there’s much more to the story than that, it’s obvious that the two are somehow linked, and it would appear that the third issue of the G.I. Joe: Retaliation movie prequel is going to touch on that connection.
IGN.com has posted a preview of the comic, which comes out on Wednesday. You can see it right here.
Loikamania is a mostly comic-based podcast, which occasionally drifts over into wrestling talk, but comic professionals make regular appearances throughout podcast episodes. Special attention from G.I. Joe fans should be paid to Episode 81, which was actually released a couple of weeks ago.
In Episode 81, Pat Loika brings in Christos Gage and Mike Costa and does a blow-by-blow “writer’s commentary” of G.I. Joe: Cobra Volume 1. The two writers of the series talk about the evolution of the best G.I. Joe book on shelves today and offer some great behind the scenes intel and conversation about the book.
Very cool stuff. Check out Episode 81 of Loikamania right here!
Every once in a while a fan project comes along and pretty much destroys you. It makes you question what you’ve been wasting your time on over the past several years while folks are toiling away at something far cooler than you could ever conceive of.
The G.I. Joe: Attack on Cobra Island video game is one of those projects.
Imagine for a minute that you travel back in time, and you’re playing the Coin-Op game “Final Fight”. You know, that awesome side-scroller where you stroll through streets of enemies and smack the crap out of them? Imagine, as a young G.I. Joe fan you take that experience and say “wow, it would be awesome if there was a G.I. Joe game like this”. Then imagine you are Range Viper from HissTank.com and you don’t just imagine it, you freaking MAKE IT.
Yes, that’s right, someone has actually made an awesomely retro G.I. Joe side-scrolling game along the vein of Final Fight, and it looks awesome. It’s still a week or two from general release, but they have posted a whopping 20 minute YouTube video showcasing a bunch of game play. So. Cool. Check out the YouTube video below, and trust me, as soon as I know when this thing is released, I’ll let everyone else know. A truly awesome project.
You can also check out a thread here and check out the Beta, though the Beta version does not have all of the features the full release game will.
Over the past number of days the GIJoe Collectors’ Club has been revealing carded images of upcoming G.I. Joe: Retaliation figures. Well, the latest installment is the G.I. Joe: Retaliation Zartan.
It’s an interesting subject because obviously as we’ve seen, the cards themselves are not at all different, it’s more an exploration of how the figures might look from a more final perspective. The slot in Zartan’s head for the light piping seems to be striking a negative chord with fans, but I don’t mind a whole lot, and I think the idea of glowing eyes is pretty neat.
Check out GIJoeClub.com or the mirrored image below.
We have had a massive restock of new and vintage collectibles over the
last week! Lots of great items for every collector.
2012 Retro Classics Ninja Turtles Pre-Orders are now available. Each
Turtle stands 6-inches tall, includes signature weapon accessories, and
personalized signature base. Follow the link to jump to our pre-order
page. http://nerdragetoys.com/?page_id=184&shopp_category=52
Our Star Wars section has undergone a massive expansion. Several new
categories have been added, with tons of new and old figures. Follow the
links below to jump to a specific category.
Who you gonna call……Nerd Rage Toys! New to the store are various vintage
Ghostbusters figures, vehicles, and playsets including the original
Firehouse, Ecto-1, Ray, Peter,Egon, and much more! Follow the link to jump
to our Ghostbusters page. http://nerdragetoys.com/?page_id=184&shopp_category=6
Several new categories have also been added to our GI Joe section. We have
a little bit to offer every genre of Joe collector. Follow the links below
to jump to a specific category.
Nerd Rage Toys is going green! We have added over 100 vintage Ninja
Turtles items to our catalog including figures, vehicles, parts, and more.
These guys are flying off the shelf faster than a tuna fish, peanut
butter, and grape jelly pizza! Follow the link to jump to our Ninja
Turtles page. http://nerdragetoys.com/?page_id=184&shopp_category=19
Give the gift of Nerd Rage Toys! Now available are gift certificates for
nerdragetoys.com. Choose from multiple denominations to accommodate any
budget. You can find the gift certificate link at the top right of the
Nerd Rage Toys home page. Please refer to our FAQ page for further
details.
Be sure to check the rest of the great lines we have to offer.
Even if you’re not an IDW fan, I really hope you’re spending some time at Robert Atkin’s blog, because he has been knocking it out of the park recently with some great insight and preview artwork for his upcoming stint on Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow. But as good as his posts have been, they almost pale in comparison to what he released today.
Again, this is all from a comic artist point of view, but this is an amazing look into the process of designing a G.I. Joe character and it’s pretty astounding just how much thought and behind the scenes detail work goes into it. Atkins spends two fairly long blog posts going into pretty much every angle and every part of the inspiration for the updated uniform for Snake Eyes in the IDW comic. Part G.I. Joe: Resolute, part G.I. Joe: Renegades, and part real world military, Atkins does some incredible documenting of the build up to this Snake Eyes design.
It is really, really awesome. Even if you’re not big into comics, or big into IDW, this is the kind of thought process that most folks use when creating these figures, and I cannot thank Robert enough for spending some time outlining it. Some great art, some great ideas, and it’s really terrific seeing the process fleshed out like this.
Check out the links below to get the whole lowdown on the updated IDW Snake Eyes design!
And it’s a whopper! We had initially scheduled this episode to post an interview with Flint Dille, and we certainly accomplished that…but not only that, we also feature G.I. Joe legend Larry Hama, and G.I. Joe: Operation Red Retrieval masterminds Mark Cheng (director) and Joe Barbagallo (Beachhead). Mark, Joe, and Larry come on the show to make a very special announcement, and you will hear it FIRST right here on the podcast!
Check it out on our Podbean Page, or listen via the embedded player below. Don’t forget, show notes are after the jump!
It’s been a long time, but the national nightmare is over… the JoeCanuck newsletter has returned!
With the Canadian JoeCon coming up in August, things look like they’re rolling along again with the JoeCanuck newsletter, with a change in release schedule to quarterly, but the same exciting newsletter content!
Great articles about G.I. Joe: Renegades, G.I. Joe articulation formats, and an interview with Gary from What’s on Joe Mind, there’s a bunch of great stuff crammed inside one awesome PDF. Check out the latest newsletter right here.
Also make sure you keep your eyes on CanadianJoeCon.com for the most up to date information on the Canadian JoeCon, coming up August 10th and 11th.
As great as the recent IDW Cobra Command story arc has been, and as well suited to the story Alex Cal’s artwork has been, a big part of me really misses Robert Atkins’ work on a G.I. Joe title. Well, thankfully that problem gets rectified very shortly!
With Atkins slated to return to the art chores for Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow starting with issue #13 and I couldn’t be more excited. And as if I wasn’t fired up enough already, Robert updated his blog with some art for the issue. This includes the cover and interior art for one of the pages inside! Oooh boy this looks awesome.
Check out the links below for the various blog posts:
Love the looks of this. The style is so different from Alex Cal, yet awesome in its own right. Crisp, clear, awesome detail work, and I love the designs of those Red Ninjas. The pencil and ink work all belongs to Robert, with colors by the excellent Simon Gough, who has also posted some great detail shots on DeviantArt as well. You can find his work at Spidermanfan2099.deviantart.com. The links to the other pieces are below:
