Comments on: G.I. Who?

By: Keith Lawler

Keith Lawler — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 22:12:03 +0000

Finally, B. P. Levenson started getting back to the “original” G.I. Joe. My understanding is that the Mauldin caricature was based on an actual soldier … Joseph F. M. Wilson… to wit, G.I. Joe. If anyone can confirm or refute this, I would really like to know. Joe Wilson was station in Bavaria in 1945.

By: Barton Paul Levenson

Barton Paul Levenson — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 19:27:41 +0000

I dislike making G.I. Joe into some kind of superhero. The whole point about the original G.I. Joe (the Bill Mauldin cartoon character) is that he wasn’t anyone special; he was the average Joe who’d been drafted and found himself fighting a war overseas. He stood for the ten million citizen soldiers who defeated Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo. The ’80s cartoon lost that altogether, and probably so will this upcoming film.

By: Impium Orexis

Impium Orexis — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 18:26:13 +0000

By what logic did you arrive at that assertion? There were toys, and there was a cartoon, therefore the cartoon was a commercial for the toys which makes it a sellout just doesn’t cut it. By definition, you say? Let’s see.

sell·out
[sel-out]
–noun
1. an act or instance of selling out.
2. an entertainment, as a show or athletic event, for which all the seats are sold.
3. Informal. a person who betrays a cause, organization, or the like; traitor.
4. Informal. a person who compromises his or her personal values, integrity, talent, or the like, for money or personal advancement

Which of these definitions were you citiing? It seems to me that by definition, you are wrong, ie. deviating from truth or fact.

Yes, all business is about making money, but G.I. Joe being a cartoon didn’t sell out the culture that created it.

By: sirjonsnow

sirjonsnow — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 12:53:59 +0000

Um, GI Joe in the 80’s was a weekly half hour commercial for toys – by definition your childhood WAS a sellout. Doesn’t mean it wasn’t fun though.

Anyway, if they turn this into an R-rated action fest for the people who saw the cartoon originally (and are now 30+) it might be okay. But, instead I’m sure it’ll be a PG-13 two hour commercial for NEW toys.

By: Impium Orexis

Impium Orexis — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 21:22:38 +0000

I would watch it, except it’s no longer Government Issue Joe. It’s just not cool to be American anymore, so G.I. Joe has been changed from real American heroes to G.I.J.O.E., Global Initiative Joint Operating Entity, or some such horse manure. I get that movies are released globally, but I refuse to fund the selling out of my childhood.

By: Skeptigator

Skeptigator — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 20:39:23 +0000

You know that’s funny. Most of my GIJoes suffered horrible deaths via firecrackers, small fires and being chemically dissolved. Which now that I think about it also coincide with my awareness of girls.

Is it possible that women have the power to destroy armies?

By: Chip

Chip — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 19:17:55 +0000

When I was a kid, I didn’t have G.I. Joe, but my militant period was covered by the Airfix HO scale WWII era soldiers which consisted of 48 plastic figures in each box representing various ranks and positions in WWII armies: US Marines, US Army G.I.s, RAF ground crew and pilots, British Army, Royal Marines, French Army, German soldiers, German Luftwaffe ground crew and pilots and Japanese soldiers. They bloodlessly swept over my HO train layouts until Allied victory was declared and peace treaties were signed, all coinciding with an awareness of girls.