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Mike Thompson breaks his G.I. Joe silence with some more RoC art!

Every Joe fan’s favorite package artist Mike Thompson had a stretch where he was posting several awesome pieces of his Joe art on an almost weekly basis.  Working as a package artist through the Rise of Cobra and into the Pursuit of Cobra era, Mike’s excellent blog, Mike T Artworks showcased his excellent renditions of characters like Spirit, City Strike Scarlett, and Whiteout.

He’s taken a break from posting G.I. Joe related art, most likely because he’s either shown most of it already, or is still waiting for them to be cleared by Hasbro to post…but today that changed!  During our interview of Mike Thompson on the What’s on Joe Mind podcast we were lucky enough to see some of his other pieces, and now he has posted them via his Twitter page.

These head shots were to be used on some canceled Wal-Mart 2-Packs featuring Nano-B.A.T., Zap, Budo, and Dr. Mindbender.  Check out these excellent images below.  Also make sure you keep your eyes on MikeTArtworks.com which is his main site featuring some fantastic work that he’s done over the years.  He has some amazing talent, even if you’re checking out some non-G.I. Joe work, I think you’ll appreciate what he does.  He’s obviously a geek at heart!

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To hear straight from the source about the process for producing this incredible artwork, hit up the embedded player below to listen to our interview with Mr. Thompson.  It’s enlightening to say the least!

Speaking of concept art… G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra production art emerges

Big thanks to the folks over at the MS GIJoe Collectors’ Club for directing me to this site, which belongs to Paul Christopher, a concept artist who did some work for G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.

Some very interesting stuff in there, including artwork from Cobra/MARS Industries’ Arctic fortress, among some others.  Very cool blue uniformed troopers as well, which were never seen.

Check out the site right here, and I’m mirroring some of the images below.  Check out the site to view the rest.

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Yes the art for EA’s Rise of Cobra game is better than the game itself

Wow.  Now maybe someone remembers me talking about this already, but I don’t think I did.

With the launch of the first G.I. Joe film in 2009, Electronic Arts released a licensed game as companies are wont to do, and the game was pretty widely panned as these licensed games generally are. However, one cool thing about the game, in my opinion, was the designs of the characters.  They took the Rise of Cobra aesthetic and tweaked it a bit with more military elements to pretty good effect.

But, thanks to notpicard and Greg from What’s on Joe Mind who pointed this art site to me, there was a nice amount of unused concept art that completely and totally ROCKED.  Stuff that wasn’t used in the game.  Sure, a lot of it walked that line between current military realism and future technology, but I’ll be damned if every one of these concepts isn’t really bad ass.  I would kill to see some of this stuff in toy form.

You can find the gallery at CGHub.com and I’ve also mirrored many images below.  There are a ton of great pictures hosted at the site, you should definitely check it out.  Now I feel like I want to go home and play this game again!

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Scratch Sienna Miller off the Rise of Cobra Sequel cast list

I think many of us suspected that Sienna Miller might not return in the sequel to G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, but even if we weren’t certain about that, an interview with Britain’s “Time Out” magazine pretty much confirms it outright.  As reported by IMDB, Miller feels as if she “compromised values” in her role as The Baroness in the G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra film.
The actress says “I’m not very good at fighting. And I’m not very good at guns. And I’m not particularly aggressive. I had to wear sunglasses because every time I shot my gun I would blink. I was completely out of place, like this little midget running round in black leather winning fights, which was just absurd. They did a wondrous job with my wardrobe to make me look threatening…”
From the sounds of it, she wasn’t really invested in the initial film, and certainly doesn’t seem to be interested in returning to the Hollywood Blockbuster realm.  She continues on with “…G.I. Joe (was) a great pay cheque. If, financially, I’m okay – which luckily I am – there’s no point in doing stuff that’s not right for me. It’s too much time away from home.”
So yeah.  I’d say her days in black leather are done.  Well, at least in the G.I. Joe franchise. :shifty:
I have no problem with this.  Granted, I think she was actually very good in her role and I was pleasantly surprised, however I hated the way The Baroness was written into the first film as Duke’s fiancee and Cobra Commander’s sister, so I think if they are going to separate from Sienna Miller, chances are all the better that we might get a more “proper” Baroness this time around, if she appears at all.
Big thanks to GeneralsJoes reader m6d for the intel.  Once again, check out the entire article on IMDB right here.