G.I. Joe to Salute the Troops at Andrews Air Base

The new G.I. Joe movie doesn't hit theaters till Aug. 7, but some members of the military will see it a week early.

Paramount Pictures is announcing that it will screen "G.I. Joe: The Rise of the Cobra"
tomorrow night at Andrews Air Force Base in Camp Springs, Md., for "U.S. service members, their families and patients from Walter Reed Medical Center."

The film's stars -- including Channing Tatum, Marlon Wayans, Sienna Miller and Rachel Nichols -- are expected to attend the red-carpet event, which is hosted by the Army & Air Force Exchange Service.

Incarnations of G.I. Joe comics, of course, have been published by various houses over the decades, including Marvel, Devil's Due Productions/Image Comics, Dark Horse and IDW Publishing.

If you've never been into G.I. Joe beyond perhaps the Hasbro toy "with the kung-fu grip," this Riffster recommends listening to "the godfather" of Marvel's G.I. Joe, Larry Hama, a Vietnam veteran who retells how he ended up with the enterprise because no one else at Marvel wanted to be "saddled" with a comic based on a toy line:

Oh, and if anyone ever tries to convince you that Hama worked on the strip "Sally Forth," well, he did. On the original "Sally Forth," that is -- the Wally Wood comic for military newspapers. The Sally who's married to Ted "Grinch Hands" Forth wouldn't come along till about a decade later, in a completely unrelated strip.

(Note: Speaking of IDW, its company Animal Logic has just gained the film rights to the graphic novel "Night Mary," the chilling suspense comic by Rick Remender and Kieron Dwyer, the Hollywood Reporter has announced.)

ELSEWHERE...

In his new "2012," "master of disaster" director Roland Emmerich seemingly wipes out the entire planet. When the director ("Independence Day," "The Day After Tomorrow") was asked at San Diego Comic-Con what was left for him to destroy, he said wryly: "I have to retire -- because I have nothing left" to lay waste to.

Emmerich also said: ""I think I destroy [the world] so many times because I love it so much."

The footage that was screened at the Big Con was somehow both fairly riveting and toeing the line of "disaster campiness," as the sound blared loud enough to rattle your solar plexus.

To underscore how crucial sound (and graphics) can be, Comic Riffs was tipped off to this spoof video, which uses much of the actual "2012" footage seen at Con and puts it to a '70s sensibility. After sitting through hours of global destruction, this spoof is all the more appreciated:

By Michael Cavna |  July 30, 2009; 10:05 AM ET  | Category:  @San Diego Comic-Con , General , Superheroes
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Posted by: kilby | July 30, 2009 3:19 PM