When it comes to the toys of our youth, G.I. Joe is one of the most successful ever. With a hit cartoon, multi-million-dollar movies, and the longest-running toy tie-in comic ever (that’s still going to this day, FYI), it’s a property that spikes interest with mere mention. And that interest officially spiked big time when Robert Kirkman recently announced that the Energon Universe would reboot G.I. Joe and Transformers in the same universe. At the time, it was known that writer Joshua Williamson would headline the comic series Duke and thus set the stage for what this new G.I. Joe universe would like. No pressure, right?
Joining Williamson is Tom Reilly, an artist who has risen up in recent years with incredible work at Marvel. Together, the two are focusing our attention on Duke, one of G.I. Joe’s biggest heroes. A deeply grounded character, he’s suddenly witnessed a fighter jet turn into a robot and is on the hunt for answers. That adventure officially begins with Duke #1, which arrives in comic shops on December 27.
Similar to Duke himself, I was on a hunt for answers when I spoke to both Williamson and Reilly during a recent call. We dug into their approach in starting this side of the Energon Universe, how they were brought in, beloved heroes, and so much more!
This interview has been edited. Be sure to check out the AIPT Comics podcast in the coming weeks for an extended edition of our chat.
AIPT: When did you guys get the call? Or, maybe it’s conscripted to join the Duke project? <laugh>
Joshua Williamson: <laugh> I talked to Skybound, probably like, almost five years ago. Maybe six years ago. There was a conversation I had with Sean Mackowitz, easily five years ago. One of the things that came up was if I would ever do a license book. ‘Cause I had sworn ’em off. If I’m doing work for hire, it’s Marvel or DC, or it has to be something that I am in love with. He called me, and he was like, what are some properties you would find interesting? No. 1 would be G.I. Joe.
He’s like, Robert [Kirkman] has this idea of doing a creator-own book, and it comes out, and the last page is a twist; it’s a Transformer. That’s an awesome idea. I love it. But that was so long ago. So every time Robert has had a new book out since then, I was always like, there’s gonna be a Transformer in the book.
Maybe two years ago, they kind of were like, “Oh, this is getting more serious and, and would you be interested?” It just worked out, it was just like this ongoing conversation and we kept talking about G.I Joe and I wasn’t sure I was actually gonna be able to do it. I was pretty thankful ’cause it felt like it was always kind of mine. Like I was always the name attached to it. Like, they didn’t really go to anybody else because we’d been talking about it for so long.
Tom and I were working on a creator-owned book a few years ago before he went over to Marvel. I don’t remember exactly when they reached out to you.
Tom Reilly: It was while we were doing, Knight Terrors: Superman. Sean reached out to me and said that you wanted me to draw the Duke book.
Courtesy of Skybound.
AIPT: You know, with a licensed project like this, I always wonder, there’s like a Star Wars story group. Is there a Hasbro story group, or does Robert have any say in what you guys are plotting since I know this is kind of tying into the Transformers stuff?
JW: Early on, I already had a lot of my own ideas. Yeah. Skybound had a plan, like Skybound as a company had a plan even before I was really brought in. I had talked to ’em about stuff, and it was like, “Oh, we’re gonna do origin stories, we’re gonna do stuff at the beginning.” I had certain things with Cobra that I’ve been obsessed with for years, and I was like, here are some things for Cobra I wanna do. They really wanna focus on Duke at first. They built a plan and they went to Hasbro with that plan.
Hasbro was really impressed by their plan. There really isn’t like a group, don’t get me wrong. Hasbro looks over the stuff we’re doing. But again, there’s been so much trust. For the most part, you know, I mostly just deal with Robert and Sean and, and we have an editor named Jonathan, and I just talked to them.
TR: It’s not too bad for me either. Things have to be on model, and they’ve got the visuals that they want me to like, hit, and make sure things look right. Big story decisions are kind of above my pay grade. A lot of the things that I’m drawing are like, not based on toys though, so. They’re pretty receptive to new ideas, which is very cool.
JW: It’s important to us that it doesn’t feel like it’s a toy tie-in. We wanna make sure it’s its own story. It’s its own universe. And again, like we’re starting at the beginning of this story. And so it’s different for everything else that’s going on in the line. Even when you look at the way Duke looks. Duke does not look like Duke. Right?
AIPT: What made you take this angle with Duke on the run?
JW: Early conversations with Robert. Robert was like, “Oh, I really wanna do something where it has Duke on the run.” That was from the very beginning. He was like, I think Duke on the run would be interesting. We wanted to be this espionage thriller, and we wanted to see different version of Duke. Once I started hearing that, I was like, OK. For many, many years now, I’ve heard how people don’t like Duke. Right? They see he’s kind of stiff. I was like, “Dude, let’s break him. Let’s like break this guy. Let’s show how he became Duke, right?” Let’s break him down a little bit and show him a little differently and show him getting there, you know? And then we get to build him into something different and new with him. But you get to kind of see that evolution.
The thing about storytelling of like, when you live in a very grounded world, and then one thing changes, whether it’s supernatural or just out of this world, it can completely obliterate your worldview. And then he sees something completely outta left field and how he reacts to that. Show him kind of losing faith in the things he believes in, in the story.
And that also works in parallel with Cobra Commander because in the Cobra Commander book, it’s a very similar thing about this person dealing with what they believe and how they handle what they believe. And so I got to do this parallel story with, with both of ’em. And they really are intended to be read together. You could read Duke by itself. You could read Duke by itself if you wanted.
Courtesy of Skybound.
AIPT: You can use Duke as a lead-in and the surrogate for the reader. How do you wrap your head around these alien robots showing up?
JW: The comics are really good, and they have a lot going on. Then you watch the cartoon, and the cartoon is super weird. So it’s like trying to find that balance. The world of G.I. Joe, it’s a weird one. <laughs>. There’s a lot going on.
AIPT: What has been the most fun taking this on?
JW: It’s less for me upgrading than it is like, downgrading stuff. ’cause these sorts of things that you know and love from G.I. Joe technically don’t exist yet. So what do those things look like before they’re like the established G.I. Joe kind of visuals that, you know. That’s kind of what I’ve had to deal with. Less an upgrade, more of like, like you said, a grounded take on stuff before things get more outlandish <laugh>, because things do get weird with G.I. Joe. You got Shipwreck the sailor with the parrot. Sergeant Slaughter, the wrestler.
One of the jokes with the book is I’m impatient, so I keep wanting to add more characters. That’s why, with a lot of the characters, I try to give ’em these big moments. You know, like, there are a couple of introductions in issue two that are really big. We try to give ’em big splash page stuff.
TR: Patience is key. Even visually laying the groundwork is kinda what I’m doing for people after me to come up with the crazier stuff.
AIPT: I can only imagine you’re itching to use a character or maybe homage, story, or story element.
JW: I think there’s some homaging of stuff. It’s tricky because you don’t want this…we do this at DC sometimes too much, where it’s like, stories about older stories. And so with this one starting at the beginning, I’m trying to do a little bit less of that, but it is difficult in places. I think starting with Duke gives it that help with making it different. ‘Cause if we started with Snake Eyes, I think we would’ve been doing a silent really fast. Who knows when Snake Eyes is ever gonna show up if he ever shows up?
Courtesy of Skybound.
AIPT: Did you guys have a favorite G.I. Joe growing up?
JW: Man, that’s always tough. I was always a big Cobra guy as a kid. Which is part of why there is a Cobra Commander book. Originally there, there was not a Cobra Commander book. It came about again organically, but it was just because I really liked that character and I felt like we needed to do more with him. So I almost feel like Cobra Commander and all the all of the Cobra people. Like I loved Zartan, he was my favorite toy as a kid. Cobra Commander, Destro, Barness. Firefly, too. I really liked Shipwreck and I like Rock ‘n Roll.
TR: Just visually for me, I mean, when I was a kid, you probably have to subtract the ninjas, Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes because they’re automatically the coolest. It might be Sergeant Slaughter for me. I love his look. I love the hat. I love the sunglasses. He looks great.
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