Larry Hama
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Larry Hama (born June 7, 1949) is a Japanese American writer, artist, actor and musician who has worked in the fields of entertainment and publishing since the 1960s.
He is best known as a writer and editor for Marvel Comics, where he wrote the licensed comic book series [[G.I. Joe#G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero .281982-1994.29|G.I. Joe, A Real American Hero!]], based on the Hasbro action figures. He has also written for the series Wolverine, [[Nth Man: the Ultimate Ninja]], and Elektra, and he created the character Bucky O'Hare, which was developed into a comic book, a toy line and a television cartoon. During the 1970s, he was seen in minor roles on the TV shows M*A*S*H and Saturday Night Live, and he appeared on Broadway in two different roles in the original 1976 production of Stephen Sondheim's Pacific Overtures.
Early life and career
Larry Hama is a third-generation American, born in Manhattan, New York City, New York, and raised in Queens. He "played Kodokan Judo as a kid" and later studied Kyudo (Japanese archery) and Iaido (Japanese martial art swordsmanship) [link]. Planning to become a painter, Hama attended Manhattan's High School of Art and Design, where one instructor was former EC Comics artist Bernard Krigstein. Hama sold his first comics work to the fantasy film magazine Castle of Frankenstein when he was 16 years old. After high school, Hama took a job drawing shoes for catalogs, and then served in the United States Army Corps of Engineers from 1969 to 1971, during the Vietnam War, an experience that would inform his editing of the 1986-93 Marvel Comics series The 'Nam. Upon his discharge, Hama became active in the Asian community in New York City.High-school classmate Ralph Reese, who had become an assistant to famed EC and Marvel artist Wally Wood, helped Hama get a similar job at Wood's Manhattan studio. Hama assisted on Wood's comic strips Sally Forth and Cannon, which originally ran in Military News and Overseas Weekly and were later collected in a series of books. During this time, he also had illustrations published in such magazines as Esquire and Rolling Stone. Through contacts made while working for Wood, Hama began working at comic-book and commercial artist Neal Adams' Continuity Associates studio. This in turn led Hama to freelance comics penciling work for the seminal independent comic book Big Apple Comix #1 (Sept. 1975) and for DC Comics. In a shift to another part of the field, Hama became an editor of the DC titles Wonder Woman, Mister Miracle, Super Friends, The Warlord, and the TV-series licensed property Welcome Back, Kotter from 1977-78, then joined Marvel as an editor in 1980.
G.I. Joe
Larry Hama is best known as writer of the 1980s comic book G.I. Joe. The comic ran 155 issues (Feb. 1982 - Oct/ 1994).
Hama had recently pitched a series, Fury Force (also in the ToyFare interview)[[Citing sources citation needed]], about a daring special mission force. Hama used this concept as the back-story for G.I. Joe. He included military terms and strategies, Eastern philosophy, martial arts and historical references from his own background. Hama also wrote the majority of the G.I. Joe action figures' file cards [link] — short biographical sketches designed to be clipped from the G.I. Joe and COBRA cardboard packaging.
Many of the characters were named after Hama's family, friends, and comrades who died during the Vietnam War, or otherwise had hidden historical references. The Arctic trooper Frostbite was given the name Farley Seward in reference to United States Secretary of State William H. Seward, known for Seward's Folly, the then-infamous purchase of Alaska from Imperial Russia in 1867. Quick Kick, G.I. Joe's Japanese-American martial arts expert, was named "MacArthur S. Ito" after U.S. World War II Gen. Douglas MacArthur and Japanese Lt.-Gen. Takeo Ito, who was convicted of war crimes and sentenced to death in 1946. Other characters were given tongue-in-cheek names: Hovercraft pilot Cutter is Skip A. Stone, named after the pastime of stone skipping.
Hama earned an unexpectedly strong female following for GI Joe by writing strong female characters (Cover Girl, Lady Jaye, Scarlett) who fought equally along their male counterparts. The title was also praised for unusually positive representations of minorities in a children's series for the time.
Hasbro sculptors sometimes used real people's likenesses when designing its action figures. In 1987, Hasbro released Tunnel Rat, an Explosive Ordnance Disposal specialist, whose likeness was based on Hama.[link]
Other works
From 1986-93, Hama edited the acclaimed comic book The 'Nam, a gritty Marvel series about the Vietnam War. Additionally, he wrote the 16-issue Marvel series [[Nth Man: the Ultimate Ninja]] (Aug. 1989 - Sept. 1990), concerning the adventures of John Doe, an American ninja and Special Forces commando in an alternate reality in which World War III is sparked after the world's nuclear weapons stockpiles are all destroyed. Hama also edited a relaunch of Marvel's black-and-white comics magazine Savage Tales, overseeing its change from sword-and-sorcery to men's adventure.Other comics Hama has written include Wolverine, the Wolverine / Fantastic Four spin-off The Fantastic Adventures of Logan and Ben Grimm, and the X-Men brand extension Generation X for Marvel; and Batman stories for DC Comics. He wrote filecards for Hasbro's line of sci-fi/police action figures, C.O.P.S. n' Crooks and contributed to the relaunch of the G.I. Joe toy line and comic book in 2000.
While working at Neal Adams' Continuity Associates, Hama developed a series he first created in 1978, Bucky O'Hare, the story of a green anthropomorphic rabbit and his mutant mammal sidekicks in an intergalactic war against space amphibians, which went on to become a comic, cartoon, video game and toy line.
As of 2005, Hama is married and has a teenage daughter.
References
- [Hama Talks: G.I. Joe: Declassified by Dave Richards]
- [Comics Interview #37 (month n.a., 1986): Larry Hama interview]
- [JoeGuide.com: 1998 Larry Hama interview]
- [UnderGroundOnline.com: Larry Hama interview]
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