Fan Service Highs, Fan Service Lows

Fan Service High:

G.I. Joe:  A Real American Hero #50

My memory of the G.I. Joe comic series remains much more fuzzy, but one thing in general I knew, comics in the 80s had no problem with fan service. This was previewed in G.I. Joe #50 to promote the Special Missions comic.

This moment of Lady Jaye mid-dress doing a quick change of clothes into a stewardess was something that caught my eye as a young boy, lol.   This was inkeeping with Lady Jaye's file card, no wigs, no rubber masks.  Becoming the role.

The art was good. The clothing on the page had texture, how it should drape across her mid-change.  Dynamic, created movement.  Lady Jaye looked like a real person, arm extended to get the outfit on.  Even in those two panels, a sense of location is provided.  

And yeah, that little panty flash.  That was intentionally in the preview pages of their mainline book, to get boys in turn to buy Special Missions.  

Fan Service Low:

G.I. Joe Special Missions #24 

How damn embarrassing!

Lady Jaye, Scarlett, Jinx and Cover Girl undercover as a part of a baseball stadium's dance team.  They were complaining about being objectified while... being objectified?  It's all words on a page, so they should have took it up with script writer and editor!   

Oh, it's written by Herb Trimpe, who was artist by trade, not writer.  Uh oh. 

This issue had the stink of a free-give-away comic at a State Fair.  New York Mites taking on the New York Dandees!  

And the objectifying was done oh so poorly anyway.  Cheesecake needed to look decent if it's going to be drawn.

The dance outfits weren't flattering at all.  Their faces contorted and unhappy.  The posing, the art, looked stiff and unnatural.  Feet out of proportion, too small in those heels.  The women are at an angle one after another, so the next leg fell slightly further on the page.  So, visual effect had their backs out too far, the impression seemed they would tumble down, fall flat on their butts. 

... they looked a bit better on other pages in the issue, but that's a low bar. 

Cobra also had operatives undercover, their's had a bit more dignity, sorry ladies.  Cobra plotted to kidnap the United States President using hypnosis, knockout gas, and even the Goodyear blimp.  This issue is almost certainly a clunky"homage" to the 1977 triller, Black Sunday.

This was the one time Crystal Ball was seen in Hama's world, evening using his hypno-shield to teach children the play pattern of his accessory.  Firefly threw some exploding hotdogs.  Zarana was a bat girl.  Cobra Commander at least wasn't apart of this, it was that bozo Fred VII instead.

This was deemed non-canon in the Hama-verse in any case. Very goofy, bad comics can be entertaining, but this was like a DIC quality episode of G.I. Joe animation in comic form.