IDW Publishing Forums

[Ro-Dan]

YES!!!!!!!

Finally official word. My favorite comic book company (IDW, of course) is going to be publishing G.I.-freakin'-Joe! Star Trek, Transformers, aaaaand now G.I. Joe published under one banner.

Thank you Chris Ryall and IDW Publishing. You people are all amazing!
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[jamarmiller]

Ill support all your JOE books IF and ONLY if there is at least one book that continues the continuity that we all know and love

no continuity continuer and Im out completely

not mad just dont have it in me to start all over at the beginning again

wish IDW the best of luck though whatever happends I just hope Im there with ya

[Skywarp]

Seeing IDW has this license now has got me curious. I read a little from the Marvel days and the early Devil's Due, but never really stuck with it.

I notice people are mentioning to reboot or not reboot. My question is, what continuity are people talking about? Marvel or DD (or maybe DD followed on from Marvel, I can't remember).

IDW having the license would make me curious to pick this title up, but I would be less interested if it was already bogged down in continuity issues. That's not to say I wouldn't pick it up initially, but it may cause me to lose interest if I don't know what some plot points/references are related to.

[jamarmiller]

DDP followed Marvel so its all one continuity

I actually dont read or watch things until there is a lot of issues or episodes out so I like lots of backstory

for example I just watched the first 4 seasons of lost and cant wait until the seaseon final.

[Rockhammer]

[Oracle1984]

Reboot. (Though why does the decision have to be so stark? Why couldn't it be based in part on the original Marvel continuity, but with flexibility to deviate. So some of what you know as history is fixed, but parts that are less the 'core' of the original storyline are discardable. Artistic license.)

I'm not a huge 'Joe fan, but I'll have to pick up IDW #1.
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September 17, 1984. MTME Part I. The world changed forever.
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"Nobody ever died for a typewriter." Road-Block, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero (Marvel) #69 (p.4)
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(Okay to print)

[Denyer]

I've asked this before, but other people may have different input on it -- how much previous material would a new reader want or feel they have to read in order to get up to speed if an ongoing continuity was followed?

And does it involve reading 'classic' material with production values that tend to put off readers of modern comics?
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[Oracle1984]

Take the original GI Joe comic -- Issue 1 starts with a Joe team already in place, and they're off to the races with virtually no backstory. You could do the same here, except accept that there is a backstory, which could be nodded to along the way, in the same way that Marvel filled it in from scratch. You don't have to know what came before, but if you do, it adds another dimension.

But Denyer's point is a good one. I guess the question for Ryall boils down to this: who's going to be buying these books? If its a younger, newer audience, then you want a new story in which they don't have to know much at all (sure, some tips of the hat to the old, but not anything dependant on it). If its a hardcore existing fanbase that's been holding its breath waiting for someone to pick up their old stories and run with them, well, that's a different product.

My instinct is that its more the former than the latter. But that's based on the fact that most tv advertising is aimed at teenagers for a reason.
_________________
September 17, 1984. MTME Part I. The world changed forever.
---------------------------
"Nobody ever died for a typewriter." Road-Block, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero (Marvel) #69 (p.4)
---------------------------
(Okay to print)

[polystyleneman]

I say start fresh. 25 years of continuity is too much for creators and new readers to keep track of.

Plus, the backstories of the 80s continuity go all the way back to Vietnam. That would mean almost 40 years of active service for some of these cats.
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Andrew Griffith
http://glovestudios.deviantart.com
http://glovestudios.blogspot.com

[Oracle1984]

[Ro-Dan]

[ny4eva]

[jamarmiller]

[nacho]

I notice all the guys with TF avatars are pro-reboot, while the long time Joe guys are mostly against it. TF needed a reboot, as it was pretty messy, but Joe just isn't that cumbersome. It doesn't need a reboot. What stories would they tell in a new continuity that they can't tell now? New origins? No thanks. There aren't many dead characters and they could bring a few back with some choice retconning. Boom, continuity preserved.

I know many hardcore Joe fans want a new series to succeed, but starting over from square one seems both unnecessary and painful. The TF reboot was slow enough, even though it was warranted. Let's not put Joe through that unnecessarily.
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Silver surfer vaporizer

[jamarmiller]