GI Joe A Real American Hero #271: A Calm Before A Really Freakin’ Huge Storm

I have zero artistic ability at all. None. But I have a number of comic book artists that I call friends and whenever I ask them what they hate to draw the answer I hear most frequently is “cars. Or any type of machinery that exists in the real world”. Artists used to have huge amounts of books for reference and made almost daily trips to their local library for books filled with pictures of whatever they needed. I’m sure that ended with Google image search, but I don’t know how much that helps artists Robert Atkins. He has to not only draw real cars, weapons, and technology but he also has to draw fictional vehicles, weapons, and technology. Thankfully Atkins is a first-class artist who’s drawn GI Joe books for some time, so this is nothing new to him. Still, what Atkins pulls off this issue is amazing. I seriously lost count of the number of huge vehicles and characters that are featured in this issue. To say that this issue is packed is a major understatement. Yet, Atkins pulls this book without it looking rushed or hurried. His storytelling ability is phenomenal and he’s able to guide your eye right where he wants it to go, there are no messy pages where you get confused as to what’s going on and believe me there’s a lot going on this issue.

As I mentioned earlier, there’s a lot happening in this issue. There’s the main Hunt for Snake Eyes plot and at least three others that retaking place at the same time all of which blend beautifully into one cohesive story. Hey, they don’t call author Larry Hama “the Godfather” for nothing. Just one of the things I love about this book is its consistency. In one form or another, this is still the same story that’s been taking place since this book’s launch in 1983. You don’t get that kind of commitment from a creator now, and honestly, that’s part of what’s kept me reading the book this long. Every month I get a new chapter in a story that’s interested me for almost 40 years.