Shipwreck In A Perfect Storm

It’s not a secret that as a kid I was a huge G.I. Joe fan, both of the cartoon and the MARVEL comic run. As you get older two things happen, one, while you still love it, the cartoon becomes a bit harder to re-watch. You’re still smiling for sure, but half the time you’re laughing at yourself. The comic, however, holds up pretty well an even lends itself to be expanded upon internally (as reader are want to do).

In both formats I was always a fan of Shipwreck. He was hard to miss, both as a character (talked a lot) and because he wore a Navy uniform in what was predominately an Army outfit. My pop was in the NAVY for over 30 years (though he identifies more with Marines, being a corpsman with Marine Force Recon during two tours of Vietnam) so I’ve always gravitated toward Shipwreck, and even beyond that, one of my comic collecting focuses are Navy/Marine covers. As most people know, some of the all time great comic book covers ever can be found on Golden, Silver, and early Bronze Age War titles graced with the talents of Joe Kubert, Jerry Grandenetti, Russ Heath and many, many others. Again, the vast majority of these depict Army stories, and thus covers, but recently I stumbled on to a modern find.

G.I. Joe? Check. Navy/Marine theme? Check. Shipwreck? Check.

Are we getting there? Not yet, more stars to align.

I also collect comic book original art. One of my favorite current artists is a chap I  talked about previously in  Boogeyman Nights, where I praise the talents of Charles Paul Wilson III for his work in the more than just a little nifty The Stuff of Legend title.

Artist I dig? Check. Comic Book OA? Check.

Have I mentioned that I love the hell out of IDW’s reboot of the G.I. Joe franchise?  Admittedly, I think their run will gain a lot from being read collected in large chunks, because it may suffer a bit as a month-to-month at its pace. Also, at times I have found the art lacking on several issues throughout the family of titles, but some of it is clearly in my favored stash of reading over the last couple of years. Chuck Dixon’s career is defined by a natural inability to be less than solid and is always a threat to be great, while at other times, one Mike Costa strikes me as one of the new writers to watch in this entire game.

Worthy addition to the throne? Check.

A Storm of Swords. Stormbringer. The House of Storms. Ororo. Daenerys Stormborn. Gandalf Stormcrow. The Nothing. Yup, ye land lubbers, we have ourselves another  perfect storm!

I was ecstatic about being able to land this cover (G.I. Joe#22) that so perfectly fit so many of my focuses. You get Shipwreck in his element, which was often not the case in previous venues for several environment specific/specialist characters– though in 1994 Shipwreck was re-offered to fans as a S.E.A.L — and a Cover Girl angle (non-JOE fans know her as  the character that the great  Karolína Kurková portrayed in the live-action film that I’m trying desperately to expunge from my mind) by an artist I admire in a series I very much enjoy — the scan does not do the in-hand piece justice.

Even beyond that, though my parents supported my childhood hobbies like champs, they did so as non-participants. They were simply not shared interests beyond my participation in them. Now as an adult – still armed with some of the same hobbies – I get this very unique feeling when I’m able to share an  acquisition with my father that he knows he helped inspire.

I have another piece by Charles Paul Wilson coming, though the next item I’ll share will either be a recently acquired painting or a another piece by a favorite of mine, the always amazing Agnes Garbowska.

Oh. Karolína Kurková? Check. Mate.