Tom Feister has posted his cover for GI Joe Origins #15 featuring Snow Job on his deviantart page! The only cover available before was by Klaus Sherwinski. Here’s what Tom had to say about the cover:
Growing up in Eastern Pennsylvania was the perfect place for playing with GI JOE figures. I had woods and small pine trees for battle that took place in the forest, and a few months out of the year I had glorious snow to take my Snow-job figure out and put the Polar Battle Bear through it’s paces. I loved the con man aspect of the character. I loved the skis. I loved the idea of what he would look like blasting away as he sped down the mountain. I was thrilled when my pal Merrill got this gig writing a Snow Job story. He completely understands the character and what always made him so cool (no pun intended) to me. I begged to put the blue lazers on the cover but all I got was a polite laugh that meant an unspoken “no.”Thanks to HISS Tank boards member Merrill Hagan for pointing this cover out! Merril has also informed us that you can interact with him on twitter at http://twitter.com/merrillhagan. Click on the title bar to see the cover, and click on the discuss button to ask Merrill some more questions!
Merrill_Hagan says
Hey guys,
I have been posting at the IDW forums, but I wanted to drop in over here and introduce myself. I am the writer of the upcoming IDW GI Joe comic, GI Joe Origins #15, featuring the first solo story of Snow Job.
I am a massive GI Joe fan so this is like a dream come true for me. Although I have checked out the pictures of the upcoming Joe figures at HissTank a ton of times, I have never registered. So I thought I would drop in and say hello.
If you guys have any questions about the book or have anything you want to know about me or the title in general, let me know! I can say that I have seen the finished art by Klaus Scherwinski and it is something else. This dude is a future superstar. I think he has outdone his work on the recent Beachhead issue. The dude is awesome. And my really good friend Tom Feister has done an amazing cover for the book as well. I think it comes out the last week of May, but it should be available for pre-order at your local comic book store. Also, I think IDW has it for sale as part of a package with some other GI Joe Origins issues.
Anyways, if you have any questions or whatever, let 'em rip...
Grunt1162 says
Awesome. Snow Job was always one of my favorites.
Are you lined up to do any more issues of Origins or the other Joe books?
Monkeywrench says
What limitations, if any has hasbro and Idw given you? For example: Did they tell you that you had to put something in the comic or write a person a certain way? Or did they pretty much give you freedom to do what you wanted?
Merrill_Hagan says
Hey Grunt,
Glad you like Snow Job too. I hope I do some more GI Joe comics. We have talked about it some. Tom Feister, who does the covers on Origins, and I want to do a full issue together, but we haven't quite hit on the right story yet. But hopefully soon.
Monkeywrench: I didn't have any limitations placed on me by IDW or Hasbro. They dug the story pretty quickly and let me loose. I am a huge GI Joe fan and I have had some professional experience with the Joes before (I used to make toy commercials and I made the Adult Swim Resolute promos and trailers). So, I knew all of the characters pretty well. IDW and Hasbro have both been really awesome.
Monkeywrench says
thats good news. I can't wait to check it out
Troynos says
Did they give you a bible or character sheet on Snow Job, so that your story would fit within the established framework of the IDW Joeverse?
Were you limited in the characters available to use or was it a case of going "I want Snow Job"?
Sgt. Airborne says
Hey Merrill -
First off, kudos to you for stopping by and answering questions.
Second, are there any "origin" character spotlights that you want to do?
Third, in your issue will Snow-Job be selling freezers to Eskimos?
Merrill_Hagan says
Troynos,
That's an interesting question, and I don't know exactly how much I can say. When I knew I was going to do GI Joe, IDW let me read all of the Joe issues that were done so far. It was cool to get an inside look at where GI Joe was going and I got a feel for the universe pretty quickly.
I pitched Andy (the editor) a bunch of stories with characters I personally liked. There really wasn't anyone I was told that was hands off. There were some characters that I knew there were plans for, though (like Zartan), so I tried to avoid them.
The truth is, I pitched Andy my favorite Joe characters. And the Snow Job story was the one we liked the best of those. Maybe some of the other characters I wanted to do as well will show up down the line.
Merrill_Hagan says
Airborne,
Happy to be here, man. There are some other Joe characters I would love to tackle. To be honest, I get a little intimidated of writing some of my favorite Joes, but I would love to chance to work more of them. I am not sure how, where or when yet, but I would kill to write Flint. He was in several early drafts of this Snow Job story, but I finally thought he was getting in the way of Snow Job's big moment. Cutting him from the script was heart breaking.
And Snow Job actually starts the issue off in Antarctica, so no freezer selling yet.
Troynos says
Thanks Merrill.
I always wonder how much leeway in story idea there is with something like the Origins book so that nothing there conflicts with future things in the main book.
Glad someone's making use of his rarely mentioned shooting skills.
Keep reading: GI Joe Origins #15 - Snow Job - Page 2
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