Good times at the 2018 Ottawa Comiccon

The 7th edition of the Ottawa Comiccon -- which ran from May 11 - 13, 2018 -- was held on some of the sunniest days we've had in Ottawa so far this year.

This year's guests of honour included Jason Momoa (Justice League, Aquaman, Game of Thrones), Karl Urban (Star Trek), and Matt Smith (Doctor Who). [Before you ask, the answer is 'no, Jason Momoa was NOT giving interviews to the media'. Shucks.]

Jason Momoa (circa 2017). Photo by Gage Skidmore.

There was a little something  for every genre of fan this year -- featured guests included Brent Spiner (Star Trek: TNG), Finn Jones (Marvel's Iron Fist on Netflix), Doug Jones (Shape of Water), Joe Flanigan (Stargate: Atlantis), Julian Glover (Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back), Laurie Holden (The Walking Dead), and Trish Stratus (WWE).  Mike Colter (plays Luke Cage in the Marvel Netflix series) was scheduled to appear, but had to bail at the last minute. How cool would it have been to have a photo op with Power Man AND Iron Fist? Maybe next time.

All this sounds very impressive (which it is), but what really blew me away this year were the two of the featured comic book pros appearing this year: Jim Shooter AND Neal Adams! I've been wanting to talk to Shooter for a long long time (he hasn't been to Ottawa Comiccon in about seven years), as well as Adams -- who I was hoping to interview at the 2016 Montreal Comiccon with Mark Belkin, but missed out on due to scheduling conflicts. James O'Barr (The Crow), Geof Isherwood, Ty Templeton, Dan Parent (Archie), Marco Rudy, Richard Comely (Captain Canuck), Tom Fowler (Rick & Morty), Richard Serrao, Andy Bélanger, Ken Lashley (X-Men Gold), and Ron Sutton. A few of these creators were brand new to me and, God help me, I would've interviewed them all if I could.


The doors opened at noon on Friday May 11th, and by 2pm the EY Centre was already packed with fans sporting early-bird and VIP passes.

packed by 2pm. photo by Adrian K.

Our first interview was with Neal Adams. We talked about his newest DC series (2018 Deadman series) and how it tied into his other recent DC work (2010's Batman Odyssey, 2017's Superman: Coming of the Supermen), and then he was immediately rushed off to host his Q&A panel (which we also attended). Lots of great stuff in the interview and Q&A panel, which we'll be posting shortly for your reading pleasure.

Neal Adams at 2018 Ottawa Comiccon. Photo by Justin Francoeur.

Our second interview was with Jim Shooter. I know what you're thinking: 'Jim Shooter was the Editor-in-Chief for MARVEL COMICS from 1978 to 1987. Why would DC in the 80s be so excited to interview him?' Because Shooter dealt with A LOT of DC/Marvel writers and artists during that time period and he's got stories for days. Don't believe me? Check out his blog. In the meanwhile, we interviewed him and we'll post that interview shortly. 

I don't usually pose for photos with the comic pros I interview... but this was a once-in-a-lifetime
opportunity. Jim Shooter and I. Photo source: Jim's lovely assistant.

Our next interview was with Marco Rudy -- artist for DC (Final Crisis, Swamp Thing) and Marvel (Marvel Knights Spider-Man, Bucky Barnes: The Winter Soldier). We talked about which 80s comics he read growing up, and which artists inspired him. Really friendly and talented guy.

Marco Rudy at 2018 Ottawa Comiccon. Photo by Justin Francoeur

Geof Isherwood was too busy with commissions to chat with us, but he did manage to strike a pose for us. When asked about his late 80s/early 90s run as penciller/inker in Suicide Squad v1 (issues #33 to #66), he replied "I didn't really have much to input into the series (as far as plot was concerned), Yale and Ostrander were already doing a great job as it was." Regarding which comics he was reading in the 80s? "From 1983 and onward I was too busy drawing to really be reading any comics." We really hope to catch him next time and bug him with more fanboy questions.

Geof Isherwood at the 2018 Ottawa Comiccon. Photo by Adrian K.

While I was conducting these interviews, our photographer (Adrian K) was scouring the facility for cosplay shots. Here's what he came up with:

Poison Ivy by Peekaboo Cosplay

Rorschach (left) and gender swapped Joker and Harley Quinn (right) cosplay

...and some non-DC cosplay, too:

Ms Marvel (Kamala Khan) cosplay (left), and Josh Graham [@ottawasstarlord] and Landon Graham as Star-Lord and Rocket Raccoon (right)

That scout trooper who had his speeder bike stolen by an Ewok in Return of the Jedi.

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Saturday, May 12th was another beautiful day in Ottawa. This was also the day that Jason Momoa would be appearing, so I opted to arrive early (before 10am) before the parking lot filled up. I'm glad I did.

9:30AM Saturday -- Ottawa loves it's Comiccon. Photo by Justin Francoeur.

Seeing as how Jason Momoa was the MAIN event today (I'd say about 80% of convention attendees were there to see/meet him), we saw a lot more Aquaman and Mera cosplay than usual.

Photos by Justin Francoeur

Photos by Adrian K

The 1pm Saturday panel was kind of a dilemma -- do I attend the On the Couch with Jim Shooter Q&A session hosted by Ty Templeton (which I know will be good)... or do I attend the Jason Momoa Celebrity Q&A session and hope to get the chance to stand up in front of a crowd or people and ask him if he read comics as a kid? Ultimately, I went with the Templeton option because he did such a great panel with Bob Layton last year.


We were able to grab interviews with Ken Lashley and Andy Bélanger about which 80s/90s comics they read while they were younger. One of these two will be helping to relaunch an older DC imprint that started in 1993.  Find out who in our upcoming interview (no, this isn't considered clickbait since we don't have advertisers.) 

Ken Lashley at Ottawa Comiccon 2018. Photo by Justin Francoeur

Actress/Director/Comedian Abby Hagyard -- best known as 'the mom' on Canadian sketch-com TV series You Can't Do That On Television -- was at Ottawa Comiccon doing photo ops and promoting her newest project. DC in the 80s was actually invited to attend the filming of her new project that evening (we signed a release form and everything), but unfortunately we could not make it due to schedule conflicts.

Yes, these are the ORIGINAL lockers from the 1980's YCDTOTV set.

You Can't Do That On Television ran from 1979 - 1990, and then as reruns on Nickelodeon until 1994. I actually remember this airing on Canada's YTV while I was in elementary school, and being one of the last shows I could watch that evening before having to start my homework. As a sketch comedy show aimed at a teen audience, I felt pretty 'grown up' being allowed to watch this -- I also felt pretty 'grown up' that I was allowed to read Mad Magazine at the time. The most memorable gimmick about this show was slime being dumped on the heads of any actors who said "I said don't know" during a scene. It made for pretty entertaining television when you're eight years old, so let's not judge here. Apparently, YCDTOTV also launched the career of Canadian alternative rocker Alanis Morrissette. All this to say, Ms Hagyard is a talented actress and I regret not being able to make it to the filming that evening. Check her out at abbyhagyard.com.


I spent a bit of time walking the floor, talking to people or just taking pics of whatever I found interesting (these are probably my favorite things to do at comic conventions, TBH). I've had a bit of an obsessive streak with collecting sew-on patches and pins for my jackets and etc, and did a double-take when I saw this guy:

Photos by Justin Francoeur

Now, I'm usually more of the 'less is more' school of thought when it comes to adding patches and stuff to your jackets, but this guy really pushed it to the limits. "I traveled around Europe last year and picked up a patch from every place I visited", he explained to me. You can literally point to a patch on his back and he'll tell you a story about the place. "And these cub scout badges are ones I've earned while I was a cub scout." I like this jacket because it's an automatic conversation starter.


Next up was this guy who was seriously trying not to laugh as I took his photo:

photo by Justin Francoeur

I personally don't like pins on my jackets -- they jangle when you walk, sometimes the pin comes undone and pokes you, and sometimes you mysteriously lose them in your daily travels -- and big pins (like, bigger than 1") are the worst culprits. I appreciate this gentleman's dedication to the cause -- the cause of keeping the dream of the pin alive. Sometimes you need to suffer for 80s fashion.


Raven Banner Entertainment, a Toronto-based production company, was promoting the new animated series they had saved from extinction. Todd & The Book of Pure Evil ran for two seasons on the Space Channel before being cancelled (they still had a third season in the works). Raven Banner's Todd & The Book of Pure Evil: The End of the End concludes this series in an animated film and brings a sense of closure to the series. Always great to see a production company step in and see a prematurely cancelled Canadian animated series get a respectable ending. More info here.

Photo by Justin Francoeur

The Capital City Garrison (of the 501st legion) were back again this year raising money for the Make-A-Wish foundation. This year's diorama? The Mos Eisley Cantina scene from Star Wars: A New Hope.

Not seen in this photo: there was someone in a Greedo costume wandering around.
Very sorry I missed them. Photo source: Justin Francoeur.

How about more DC cosplay? Great! Here we go:

Hot damn! It's Death of the Endless (left) and lady Joker (right). Photos by Justin Francoeur.

Batman, Supergirl and Robin (left) and Parasite (right). Photos by Justin Francoeur

Batgirl (left) and Harley Quinn (right). Photos by Justin Francoeur

Batman Beyond and Green Arrow. Photo by Adrian K.

Joker and Harley Quinn (left) and Starfire of the Teen Titans (right). Photos by Adrian K.

Photo by Adrian K

And some of our favorite non-DC cosplay we saw:

Bender(s) from Futurama. Photo source: Justin Francoeur

Megaman family. Photo by Justin Francoeur

One of the last things I typically do at any comic convention is wander around the vendor booths and try to find something cool to buy and show you guys. (Kinda like show & tell, but for fans of early 90s DC nostalgia.) This year, I managed to pick up a full set of 1995 Fleer/Skybox DC vs Marvel trading cards. This is a set I would normally overlook, but Marvel vs DC nostalgia seems to be all the rage with kids nowadays (and to be honest, this is a pretty nice set -- probably the LAST really nice DC set produced before the whole trading card market collapsed in the mid-90s), so I thought "why not?". I actually can't wait to dig in, give you a review and brief history of these cards (because I'm actually pretty curious myself). Something to do during a 'slow week', I'm sure.

1995 Fleers/Skybox DC vs Marvel cards. Photo by Justin Francoeur

Another impressive acquisition was one of the last bits of 1989 Batman movie memorabilia I had been keeping my eyes open for: a full set of Post Cereal 1989 Batman movie motion cards. Yep, that's right. I am now, officially, *that* guy who collects cereal box promos... but listen, this is legit... I actually owned one or two of these when I was younger and -- God help me -- I really don't know how I lost them since I absolutely cherished them. Anyways, we've been reunited again, and the dealer even included the box!

1989 Batman movie motion cards. Mine at last! Photos by Justin Francoeur

And of course, I picked up another full set of those promotional Batman Returns cards issued by Zellers in 1992.  Mainly because they were sitting on a dealer's table in the clearance section. Whatever. Totally my gain.



Well that wraps up our review of the 2018 Ottawa Comiccon. I hope you felt my sheer enthusiasm for this event emanating from the several thousand words I just typed. I hope you check back to read the interviews (because they're REALLY good). Thanks to Leeja Murphy and the rest of the Agence Pink for putting on such a wonderful event (they are organizing the Montreal Comiccon in July, FYI). Very big thanks to my photographer, Adrian K, who volunteered his time to snap some pics of cosplayers and anything else that looked interesting.

Justin  


P.S. If we snapped a pic of you and you didn't see it on this page, check our Facebook page.

DC in the 80s reviews the 1991 GI Joe Impel trading card set - part 2

Why is DC in the 80s reviewing a non-DC affiliated trading card set? Read the intro.

Continuing along with our card/character review, we are once again joined by Chris Sheehan (of Chris is on Infinite Earths) and Aaron "Head" Moss (G.I. Joe: A Real American headcast) along with myself, Justin Francoeur...

Justin: There seems to be a subset within this set dedicated to the ‘original Joe team’ (aka: the first wave of G.I. Joe characters introduced in the comic books and action figures). The original group of Joes were the blandest and most boring characters I’ve ever seen or read (with the exception of Scarlett, Snake Eyes and Stalker). I mean, I can hardly tell them apart - they’re all dressed in green with matching green helmets. Thankfully the toy line got more ‘colorful’ by wave 2 (1983) otherwise I don’t think anyone could have retained interest.

Chris: I’ve always had a soft-spot for Clutch… who now goes by “Double Clutch”, friggin’ copyrights… at least he’s not “G.I. Joe’s Double Clutch”, I guess.

Aaron: Yeah, the action figures looked pretty much the same (except for the ones mentioned). I think a lot of the appeal to these characters is due to Larry Hama and the way he wrote them in the comic. It turned characters like Clutch from a run of the mill military toy into a character you can love. But giving credit where credit is due, if not for that first wave, we never would have gotten the later figures. Speaking of that first wave, me and my co-hosts talk about them on my 2015 Christmas special of G.I. Joe: A Real American Headcast.

I personally think that the... sameness, of that first wave was intentional, to make it seem more legit, if you will. More of a military look and feel. When they realized they had a hit, they were able to go more outside the box.

And don't get me started on copyrights... rumor has it, that's the reason we didn't get (I think) Roadblock in Rise of Cobra.

Justin: Speaking of the toy line getting more ‘colorful’ by wave 2, I’ve always wondered if that decision came from Hasbro or if it came from Marvel comics. According to Graphic NYC’s interview with Jim Shooter:

“Despite a batch of lousy licensed comics, about everything from truck drivers with metal cranial plates that received CB transmissions to Space Knights, Marvel hit gold when they teamed up with toy company Hasbro for their G.I. Joe license. Marvel did all of the character and creative development for this new line of action figures, and Hasbro offered cross advertising with Marvel.”

In the same interview, Shooter himself chimes in:

“The response to G.I. Joe surprised everyone but Mike Hobson, Larry Hama and me... Once G.I. Joe was going, it became its own little industry and did very well. We were so successful with it, we were doing backflips. Also with Hasbro, we did Transformers, which I did myself.”

Aaron: I haven't been able to talk with Larry Hama yet (Larry, if you're reading this, contact me!), but most things I've read, said that Hasbro gave Marvel (Hama) the toys (or designs) and Larry created the characters and history. But how much they gave and how much Larry and company created, I haven't been able to confirm yet....

But yes, after that first wave, the toys started getting more unique and colorful.

Justin: Snake-Eyes is “the man”. Bar-none the most interesting character on the G.I. Joe team and the fountainhead all other mute non-Asian military-oriented ninjas are compared to. He brought a Batman/vigilante element to an otherwise relatively-bland military adventure series (at least for the U.S. Marvel comic book series). Hasbro (and I’m assuming Larry Hama) were so confident that Snake-Eyes could carry the book, that sometime after this card set was released, Ninja Force was introduced and pretty much dominated the series until the end. (‘Ninja Force’ was Snake-eyes and a squad of other newly introduced G.I. Joe ninjas that went on covert missions.)

Aaron: Snake-Eyes... Of course one of my favorites. And a large reason for that was Larry's characterization in the comics. In the show, he was there but was very marginalized... so much so, that his "arch-enemy" was given over to Spirit and Quick Kick. And his lady, handed off to Duke. I think the writers of the show didn't know how to handle a mute character, unlike Larry.

In the comic, Larry was talented enough to get around the mute "problem" and make Snakes an interesting and beloved character... Larry gave Snake-Eyes a family and mutilated him and told us about it in flashbacks. Larry Hama made Snake-Eyes, da man. And like you said, eventually the series became "Snake-Eyes Guest Starring G.I. Joe"...

Chris: This was the guy we all wanted to be when we had our action-figure battles… until I talked myself into being more of a “Gung-Ho” guy. Dependent on when you got into collecting Joes, you may have had to wait quite a while to get your hands on a Snake-Eyes figure. In my neighborhood/social circle I only knew one kid who had a Snake-Eyes in his collection. Looking back, it’s kind of a mixed blessing… back then we weren’t bombarded with constant repaints or rejiggering of the main handful of characters year after year… but at the same time, I know the 7-8 year old me would have absolutely loved having a Snake-Eyes of his very own!

Regarding the tail end of the Marvel Comics run… Snake-Eyes and company did pretty much take it over… and brought with them a very dollar-store approximation of the early Image Comics aesthetic. Just frightening to look back on these days… and comes across quite cheap looking. A sad way for this enduring (and endearing) series to go out!

Aaron: ... I agree with Chris. The last few years of G.I, Joe (at least to me) wasn't up to the first decade of the series. In fact, that's about the time that G.I. Joe and I parted ways... sadly. In fact when I get to issue #120 and beyond in my show, that will be the first time I'll have read those issues.

Justin: Something else worth mentioning is the ‘Special Missions’ subset dedicated to the Marvel ongoing series of the same name (G.I. Joe Special Missions) that ran from 1986 to 1989. (That pretty much cements the idea in mind that this was meant to be a comic-oriented set first, and an action figure set second.) Herb Trimpe [and his Tijuana brass band] provided most of the interior art for all 28 issues in this series, while Larry Hama scripted. There’s a trading card for every issue in this series - showcasing the cover art of the issue and a brief synopsis of the issue on the back of the card..

It wasn’t unusual for guest artists to contribute a cover - flipping through these cards I’m spotting covers by: Mike Zeke, Dave Cockrum, Ron Wagner, Andy Kubert, and Herb Trimpe himself. John R Beatty, Dennis Janke, and Bob McLeod typically provided the inks on these covers. The G.I. Joe Special Mission comics were real gems, as they usually focused on a few characters at a time, and the stories *rarely* ran longer than one issue. We’re talking really tight character development with actual story resolutions here - often with a heavy morale message about war being hell. In researching this article, these were an absolute joy to flip through as opposed to the chore of slogging through the never-ending dramatic subplots that seemed to dominate the G.I. Joe regular ongoing series during the late 80s. Often, the Special Missions issues touched on story lines that were occurring in the regular ongoing series, but gave the writer the chance to explore things that were happening behind-the-scenes. I don’t feel bad saying I prefer one over the other because Larry Hama was writing them both.

Chris: These were probably my favorite cards in the set. I’m not only a sucker for comic book covers, but I dig the feeling of importance a given issue or story gets when it has a trading card devoted to it. I think back to all the “event” cards strewn through the Marvel Universe sets… it would make something as banal as Atlantis Attacks or the Evolutionary War seem to be the most important thing to occur in a generation!

Aaron: While I really enjoyed the Special Missions series as a whole, I liked the subplots and backstories in the ongoing G.I. Joe title. Not saying that I liked it more than Special Missions, as they were more or less different creatures, so I liked them both for different reasons.

Justin: I never understood why they made the 2 G.I. Joe “leaders” look exactly alike. Duke and Hawk. The only difference is that sometimes Hawk wears a brown leather bomber. Otherwise, they look like twins. One of my first childhood memories was owning the Duke G.I. Joe action figure and bringing him with me everywhere I went. For some reason I called him “Jon-Jon” (probably easier than saying ‘Duke’? I don’t know…)

Chris: It was tantamount to betrayal seeing that Duke wasn’t top dog in the comics. Who is this Hawk guy anyway? I was always more of a Flint guy, but was cool with Duke being “the boss” on the cartoon. Hawk… who now goes by General Tomahawk… or General Abernathy… depending on which way the copyright winds are blowing, was never quite as interesting to me. Though, I’ll concede that if I read the comics before “tooning” in, I may feel differently.

Aaron: I got started with G.I. Joe from the cartoon, so I too was surprised to see that Duke wasn't the big boss in the comic when I finally started reading it several years later. That and finding out that Scarlet was with Snakes instead of Duke. Though I did prefer her with Snake-Eyes much better.

Of course one thing that the cartoon did that was smart (IMO) was to give Hawk brown hair so he didn't look so much like Duke.

 

Justin: Just wanted to re-iterate that Cobra had the coolest characters. They had the coolest designs and almost ALWAYS won any battles I played them in. I was especially fond of my Astro-Viper and my Hydro-Viper. I’m especially intrigued with Range Viper, whose design appears to have been heavily influenced by the MARS ATTACKS! aliens:

Justin: It always bothered me that all of the other Joes got adequate helmets/headgear/flak jackets, meanwhile Hardball here rushes into battle with nothing more than a New York Mets jersey, his favorite baseball cap and a bloop gun. I’m no coward by any means, but if I was entering a firefight with heavily armed adversaries, I’d be wanting all of the headgear and body armor the army would allow me. I’d also be hiding behind the biggest immobile object I could find hoping a mortar shell or grenade doesn’t land on me. It’s not like he’s the only G.I. Joe to go into combat wearing minimal headgear/armor, amiright?

Justin: Heyyyyy. Wait a minute...

Chris: You’re not trying to say General Hawk is prejudiced against... baseball, are you? Oh, perish the thought, he’s a staunch Dodgers fan... a Brooklyn Dodgers fan! Sadly nobody’s told him they left New York like a hundred years ago. He still buys tickets for games at Ebbet’s Field for cryin’ out loud... and that place was demolished in the 60’s! If I can be serious for a moment, these cats can just pull of the hat look better than most.

Aaron: There were other Joes without hard hats, thank you very much... Like this one...

Aaron: ... oh... never mind...

Justin: With the exception of the trading cards featuring comic book covers, this set holds true to it’s claim of ‘all original’ card art. The mystery of who drew which art for which card seems to be something either nobody knows or wants to divulge. Why didn’t Impel include this info on the back of the card? Was this at Impel’s request? The artist’s? Were the artists embarrassed about their contribution to this set? It’s a mystery to me - and I’m a sucker for a good mystery, so I’m going to try my hand at solving this.

click to enlarge image. please note: no artist signature anywhere on the card...

Justin: I don’t know who all drew these cards, but I can 100% confirm that M.D. Bright drew about one third of them. M.D. Bright and Randy Emberlin were the most consistent G.I. Joe ongoing series penciller/inker team prior to this card set being released - so this would make sense. (M.D. Bright also listed this info on his wikipedia page - unfortunately he doesn’t list which cards he drew.)

Mark D. Bright (aka M.D. Bright) illustrated a lot of Green Lantern comics in the early 90s 

Justin: If I had to take a wild guess, since this is a very ‘comic book heavy’ set, I’d wager Impel tapped a few artists who worked on the Marvel G.I. Joe comic book series in the late 80s/early 90s - so we’d be narrowing down our selection to Rod Whigham, Ron Wagner, William Johnson, Andy Mushynsky, Russ Heath, Randy Emberlin, Bob McLeod, Tony Salmons, Fred Fredericks, Tom Palmer, Paul Ryan, Geof Isherwood, Herb Trimpe, John Statema, Ron Garney, and/or Andrew Wildman. I’m going to confess that quickly comparing and identifying art styles based on previous sketches isn’t my forté [especially when an inker can really alter a penciller’s finished work. see: Joe Staton], but while Mike Zeck, Todd McFarlane, Andy Kubert, John Byrne, Dave Cockrum and Marshall Rogers contributed art to the ongoing Marvel comic book series during this time period, I seriously doubt they would’ve done any original card art. They were pretty high-profile by the time this set came out, and would’ve commanded higher prices for illustrations. I have a feeling that Impel wanted to produce a ‘good’ set, but nothing too expensive. My best guess is that Ron Wagner (with Randy Emberlin on inks) did a large majority, but only Ron would know for sure.

A little more ‘internet sleuthing’ uncovered that Herb Trimpe illustrated at least four cards in this set. Saying he only did four would be a long-shot - but those are the only ones I can confirm. Trimpe's original art for Dial Tone, Desert Scorpion, Dusty and Falcon recently showed up in an ebay auction and sold for a cool $408 USD. I’d be surprised if he didn’t illustrate the other one third that M.D. hadn’t - there must be more Herb Trimpe original Impel G.I. Joe card art floating around out there somewhere...

Justin: That still leaves 143 cards [200 cards - 51 featuring cover art + 2 checklists + 4 Herb Trimpe cards] unaccounted for. Anyone care to wages some guesses?

Aaron: Much like Justin, I'm not able to look at art and pick out the artist most of the time. There are a small handful, but not enough to be able to tell from this card set. Plus like you said, the tracer... I mean inker... can sometimes make a big difference. I also did a little Googling but I couldn't come up with any other names than Bright. But I would assume that Trimpe did a lot of the cards as he was "the artist" for the book.


UPDATES:

About twenty minutes after posting a link to this article on Facebook and Twitter, we had quite a few comments roll in. Popular guesses included Lee Weeks (when reached for further comment, Weeks told us he did not work on the G.I. Joe trading card set), Ron Frenz, Rod Whigham and Andrew Wildman.

Tweeter-extraordinaire @layne uncovered this gem from a 2015 e-bay auction:

...but of course, we couldn't make out any signatures on the art, so we're still back at square one. In case anyone was curious, this entire lot of 21 pages of original 1991 Impel G.I. Joe card art (illustrated on Marvel Comics Illustration Quality Paper) sold for a whopping $1,702.77 USD.

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That concludes this segment of the 1991 GI Joe Impel trading card review. Check in for part 3 when we examine more cards/characters and scrutinize more of this set. As always, I want to extend a big thanks to Chris Sheehan and Aaron "Head" Moss for assisting on this one. I really enjoy hearing other people's anecdotes about this influential toy set, so please feel free to comment below. If you happen to know who did the original art for these cards, for the love of God, I implore you to comment and share below. Seriously, I'm losing sleep over this.

All of the cards can be found online, at the Trading Card Database G.I. Joe checklist. (Yes, they may be viewable online, but it will never substitute for the REAL thing.)

Most images in this article were either "borrowed" from yojoe.com or The Trading Card Database. Both are fantastic sites and I can easily spend hours browsing through them.