You may have noticed I've not had much to say about the specific content of the books I've been discussing thus far. If so, congratulations! You have hit upon a very important point: namely, that my understanding of quality with regard to story and art was still, at the age of 13, somewhat underdeveloped. Larry Hama's G.I. Joe scripts were adequately compelling in the way that soap operas and other serials are compelling, and you could, for the most part, tell his characters apart from one another without having to resort to looking at their uniforms. Likewise, Rod Whigham's pencils (among many others') illustrated the characters and, perhaps more importantly, the military hardware and vehicles with workmanlike precision, but without anything that my young teenage mind would identify as artistic self-expression. In other words, if you asked me to distinguish Whigham's pencils from those of fellow Joe pencilers Mike Vosberg or Frank Springer--or even Herb Trimpe--I wouldn't have been able to do it.
Enter Michael Golden. In the G.I. Joe Yearbook 2, Golden penciled the book's one story, about the Joes' Soviet doppelgängers, the Oktober Guard, battling Cobra forces. The story itself involves Cobra laying a trap for the Oktober Guard to steal their new laser cannon, which they're field testing on some Afghan rebels, blah blah blah. It's no more interesting than any other story in G.I. Joe, but look at that those camels' faces! Setting aside the fact that they're being slaughtered by some seriously cold-blooded Soviets, those are some beautifully rendered expressions.
And check out Golden's rendition of Destro. Some Joe fanboys might point out that Destro is supposed to be wearing a rigid steel mask that doesn't change expressions, but with a panel like this, who cares? Golden has filled Destro's face with more life in this panel than Destro had in all the other panels in which he'd been drawn (by other Joe artists) combined.
Yet even though Golden's forte is clearly people and faces, you can see from this panel that he could instill the vehicles and weaponry (which were so important to this serial 32-page advertisement for war toys) with just as much life and action as the characters.
And finally this page, on the left, may be the best drawn page in G.I. Joe's history. Look at the Televipers flying off the HISS tank in the first panel, the Baroness's hair in the second, Daina's little 'x's for eyes after the Baroness clocks her in the third, Daina's revenge in the fourth, and Firefly's bug-eyes in the last panel. Brilliant visual storytelling.This is the book that showed me what comic book artists could be capable of creating. After reading the G.I. Joe Yearbook 2 I had much higher expectations, and finally began to develop my artistic tastes.
