Welcome again as I take a look at a GI Joe book and judge it solely by its cover. Why? Because it’s fun, that’s why. This time, the subject is a Marvel coloring book, entitled Mountain Attack! It looks to be action packed, maybe even in the vein of the opening of a Bond film. As we see our intrepid
Read moreYes! The Cobra Tele-Viper gets some serious play with a novel cover. The communications specialists wouldn’t be one’s first thought to grace the front of an action-packed media tie-in, but I’m not complaining. They made a fair number of appearances in the Sunbow ‘toon, and even showed up (in both original and Python guises) in the debut DIC mini-series. In
Read moreHoly cow! Now this is action! I really want to see what happens in this book, but unfortunately that’s not the point of the Captivating Cover feature. We simply judge the book by its–you know… The book appears to feature the relaunch series version of Frostbite. However, like other covers in the same series, the character design differs from its
Read moreI’ve found several of these GI Joe vs. Cobra books of late, and I find myself fascinated by the fact that in the early 2000s, the brand was deemed viable enough by Hasbro to procure licensing deals to produce ancillary bits of cross promotion. Some of the books lack the boldness of the 80s offerings, but this one I find
Read moreI never thought I’d use the terms generic and ninja commando in the same sentence, but this early 2000s coloring book has forced my hand. I’ve found the most interesting coloring book covers of the past incorporated either a multi-character scene, or even an out of the ordinary fourth wall breaking subject. Speaking of which, and I know I’m straying
Read moreI used to love Night Flight, with its eclectic mix of music videos, old-timey short films and just plain oddness. It’s too bad such a thing doesn’t exist any longer, and probably won’t ever again. I long for the golden age of cable TV, a time before an endless mess of instantly available viewing material was available at one’s fingertips.
Read moreIt’s another cover focused entry today. This time, we’ve got a coloring/activity book from 2003. The relaunch era provided some of the most extensive ancillary product since the heyday of the 1980s, and the first couple of years really seem to be a feeling out period for just what this new GI Joe would become. Scholastic published a series of
Read moreContinuing the new feature in which I judge a GI Joe book by its cover, here’s another Captivating Cover. This time, we’ve got a coloring book released by Marvel in 1984. Marvel covered a variety of action figure properties with coloring and storybooks in the 1980s, from heavy hitter toy lines like GI Joe and Transformers, to lesser knowns and
Read moreSince I’m often pressed for time during this little blog adventure of mine, I’m starting up a new feature that I hope will allow me to contribute a wider variety of interesting content without taxing my time too much. Two birds with one stone! Focusing on GI Joe media, particularly comics, novels and the like, I can get away with
Read moreGI Joe not only dominated the boys toys aisle in the early 80s, but also assaulted all fronts of the market with a barrage of ancillary merchandise meant to raise the visibility of the brand. Much like the pioneering Star Wars sales juggernaut, the GI Joe characters were plastered on everything from puzzles to plates to bedroom decor. Books were
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