YO Joe Interview with the Creator of the Fire Safety Comic

[Antarctica]

The Fire Safety Comic is a specially produced comic that was created in 2008.

Here is an exclusive interview with the creator of the comic.

He is also here on Joe Reloaded to answer any additional questions.

1. Tell us a little about yourself?
I am a Firefighter with the Norwood Park Fire Protection District, just outside Chicago, Illinois. I have been a firefighter there for just over ten years, a good portion of those years I have coordinated various public education and fire prevention programs.

2. When did you become a GI Joe fan?
I have been into G.I. Joe forever it seems! I played with the Adventure Team Joes in the 70’s, and although I was getting just a little too old when the Real American Heroes figures debuted in the early 1980’s, I have two younger brothers who kept me in that game for probably much longer than I should have been! Although there were some down times in terms of collecting, Joe has been constantly there in one form or another since my childhood.

3. What was the inspiration for the creation of the comic?
Part of my job as a firefighter includes working with kids to prevent injuries and accidents and sometimes with the consequences of youth firesetting, etc. In reviewing materials available to us professionally, I always found there were issues regarding believability in our materials, or a message not communicated well in order to move a story forward. Although firefighters and teachers could find these occasionally, the kids would lock onto these errors almost immediately and veer away from the point we were trying to get across. An example would be a hero such as Superman. On the face of it, an excellent role model for teaching behaviors we would want. However, we found in (informal) focus group studies that kids would relate TO Superman and model their behavior on his…a man who cannot be hurt by flame and goes into burning building to save people, exactly the opposite of what we’re hoping to teach! Most of those stories also included a villain or non-natural event which removed the realism (such as it is) from the fire, and the threat. So I wanted to know if we could use “real” people instead, who don’t have all the answers, who CAN be hurt, and have the children learn along with them instead. G.I. Joe was tailor made for this type of adventure.

4. What type of approval did you have to get to produce the comic?
Well, we’re almost putting the cart in front of the horse with this question! I floated the idea up the chain of command where I work, and the answer was usually the same…As long as it was free I had everyone’s blessing! I initially approached Devil’s Due about doing the comic back in 2004. There had been several attempts to meet up with them, but it was at the Chicago Comicon that I had my eyes opened into just how hard getting this project started up might be. I went to meet Josh Blaylock at Rosemont’s convention center in my dress uniform and was mistaken for some character while trying to get to their booth. While making my initial pitch for something like this (standing next to what looked like a Green Lantern Dog-Person) I came to realize I might not be the only overweight balding male in a funny outfit with a great comic idea! Josh (and in fact everyone there) were very patient with me, and when they realized I wasn’t going to give up they started outlining the sorts of obstacles I would need to overcome with them. That’s when we went to work!

5. How long did it take from start to finish?
Start to finish it took several years, most of which was spent getting the funding. The comic was a tremendous effort and we knew up front what it would cost. Devil’s Due, through Kunoichi, inc. developed fundraising materials to help us through this process, but we were also blessed in that we were able to secure a public education grant from FEMA which covered most of our costs. Once the ball got rolling, Devil’s Due was able to get the comic out in under six months with Hasbro’s blessing and approval.

6. Was DDP (Devil’s Due Publishing) involved from the start?
Devil’s Due really were the only people for the job, in my opinion. One of the hardest things a person in any profession can do is try and work with people outside of their profession on a project like this. I knew what I wanted, they knew what could be done (and in a few important cases, what shouldn’t be done), and had to find a way to communicate with me and find that blessed middle ground. As time went on and we each won various battles over how it was going to be we really developed a great rapport for what this project was going to become. They brought their ‘A’ game to the table and made this project happen, and for that I can’t thank them enough!

7. What was the working procedure with DDP?
As a local business, we were able to meet face to face with Devil’s Due more than most outside people would, which was a great help. At any particular step of the work they would submit their drafts to us for review and suggestions, and also to Hasbro for their approval. All the corrections had to be done the same way, and so in addition to being the producer of the work, they had to be the conduit between myself and Hasbro, and accommodate both of our wishes-not an easy task! Once the storyline and script were done we went through pencils, inks, colors, the whole deal one step at a time. For me it was a tremendous education in seeing what kind of work goes into making the comics my kids read at home!

8. How did it feel to create a GI Joe comic?
‘How did it feel to create a G.I. Joe comic’…well, it felt GREAT! To see something you’ve had bouncing around in your head suddenly become real, and really useful to kids is a tremendous validation, and to know I got to play in Hasbro’s sandbox with their characters was just a kick! It was a lot of work but a whole lot of reward!

9. Where were these comics available?
The comics had a pretty big first run, 180,000 copies in English, 10,000 copies in Spanish, and 5,000 copies in Polish. Because these were a fire prevention tool, they were distributed to our target audience directly from fire departments (mostly in Illinois, however several departments from Georgia to Texas were able to get them for distribution). Departments were asked to distribute them through the local schools and various fairs, open houses, etc. We wanted these to get right into the kids hands as quickly as we could-and I’d say since they seem to be hard to come by now we did a pretty good job!

10. Why were there translations? Who did them?
We translated the comic into two foreign languages initially. As we were developing the fire education side of this project studies demonstrated a statistical significance when it came to language and cultural barriers and education. We wanted to chip away that barrier a little bit and make this a tool which could be used where English as a language might not be practical. In our targeted communities, for example, 12% of the children we were trying to reach were Spanish speaking only, and it was the primary language spoken at home. It was very important to us that family would be able to read what the kids bring home and learn from it. Polish as the second language we chose was more regional for the Chicago area than nationwide, but no less critical for the children involved. Devil’s Due again came through for us on the translating. They have a very talented person in house who was able to do the Spanish translation for us, I think an outside company was used for Polish but I don’t remember the details on that offhand.

11. Any additional Comments?
First off, thanks again for giving me the chance to talk about this. I know I probably said more than you wanted to hear-but I feel like I only scratched the surface when it comes to the particulars on this project! When I was in High School I was told something by an extremely good friend, Adam. We were discussing computers and games, and all when I asked him if something I had in mind was possible. He stopped me dead and told me never to ask that question. Instead, he said, always ask “What would it take?”, and then do it. That’s more or less how this comic came to exist, and for people who have their Joe dreams to accomplish, that’s the surest way of doing it. If we could have G.I. Joe go to elementary school and save children’s lives in the real world, imagine what you can do if you apply those for words. Thanks again!

Here are the Yo Joe files of the Regular version, Polish and Spanish.

http://www.yojoe.com/comics/conventionspec/

http://www.yojoe.com/comics/conventions ... fety.shtml
http://www.yojoe.com/comics/conventions ... etyp.shtml
http://www.yojoe.com/comics/conventions ... etys.shtml

[Hebime]

I have a question.

It seems that Joe fans were very interested in this book, and it has a value on the secondary market.
I feel this is bad, as every copy snapped up by an adult collector is a copy that can't be read by a kid.

Also, as a public service item, it should be widely available to help educate as many kids as possible.

Could a digital version of the comic be made available to A) adult collectors who just want to read the Joe story and B) kids outside of Chicago to read on a home computer without having to compete with collectors for physical copies.

I'd hate to think that adults are slipping 2, 3 or 10 copies into their bag while nobody is looking and then some kids get nothing.
Of course, I have no idea how these are distributed so it may not seem to be a problem.

A PDF version made available on public fire station websites or fire prevention websites would get the message of fire safety to as many kids as possible.

[DaSmokeEater]

Hi!

We did discuss attrition through collection when the project started, but there were several things that (at the time) caused me to downplay it as a concern. The first and foremost was that our initial distribution was to kids directly through Elementary schools, safety fairs, etc. Since they were distributed in goodie bags and there was no real prior notice, I'm sure we lost a few to collectors, but the sheer volume kept it from not reaching our target audience.

Realistically, it was always known (and indeed a little flattering) that collectors would move on these to some extent, sell them, hoard them, what have you. My job and my grants mandate were to get these to the kids, but once these are out there it isn't realistic (or fair given that adults and parents were a secondary audience we were hoping would check out G.I. Joe to see what he's doing in elementary school) to control what happens to them, or worry. Collectors also spread the word of the comics interest and generate more interest for fire departments to get future printings done when the details are worked out, so it's a good thing in it's own way too!

A bonus DDP worked out with us was working on a digital moving comic version for the internet, and production got as far as two messages being prepped for FD websites (for free) when the contract for Joe ran out on them and we could no longer use their images, etc. for new development. The messages were reduced in scope and changed to work on websites but as a complete stand alone it missed the punch we were hoping for. We have the original PDF on file (I believe in all three languages), and if we can find a way to get that out there we would without hesitation. One of the things I would like to talk about with a Hasbro representative in Kansas City will be permission to do that if the file we have is good enough quality.

More comics is up to Hasbro and the new comic company (who we've spoken with). Everyone is up for it all across the board, but the actual files used for comic printing are not currently available at Hasbro, so there's a holding pattern over reprints. It is not dead, but it's hibernating as they do have a few other irons on the FIRE!

[Hebime]

You could create a rapidshare account, (or any other free file storage website) stash the pdf's there, and put the links on your website. That way you wouldn't have to pay for the download bandwidth. Of course, these sites are businesses and they will attempt to sell visitors a subscription, so that may violate your rules for linking to other sites.

Another way is bit-torrent. Yes, yes, I know, filesharing is the devil and will destroy Western Civilization. Buit bit-torrent is a -very- effective way of dispersing information. You seed it for a day or two on something like thepiratebay and it will live for ever on the internet, and possible reach more people than you printed versions ever could. I get the feeling that if adult collectors are reading it, they could lean a few things too (either stuff they forgot, never thought about, or things they can pass on to their kids)

If you get permission to distribute the pdf's, let me know, I'd be happy to help.

[DaSmokeEater]

Thank you, as things come together I may take you up on that (knowledge about the internet and files are NOT my forte). Here is a link to the Fire Safety Messages from the comic artwork that was being prepared for FD website use (as you can see, no Joes were used since the contract was ending)...it gives you an idea of where we were going, and from a child's educational point of view just how talented DDP was working with the fire service.

http://www.kunoichi.com/clients/firesafety/player.html

[scryptic]

Ok, so I'll ask... What did you think of Barbecue chopping up that robot with his axe in the recent IDW issue? BBQ's gotta be your favorite Joe right?

Seriously, that's a wonderful project. Thumbs up! If ever you need a French version for a Canadian release, I volunteer.

[Rockshield]

I am curious to know if the non-Joe characters in the story were inspired by any real firefighters, or if they were just creations of the writer/illustrators doing the story?

[DaSmokeEater]

The actual images are the illustrators 100%, although we pushed for a diversity in characters. There was talk of a more physical resemblance to people but the detail for that would have distracted from the comic instead of enhancing it.

That having been said, the names of all the firefighters (in the script but not the comic, again as it didn't add to the story and teaching) are all real people, and the people were credited on the back cover for allowing me to use their names, even invisibly.

The names of the two children are my niece and nephew (this is the one time he gets to be older than she is), and Ember is our real life firehouse dalmatian (and the comic does give a tip of the hat by rendering her more or less accurately).

As the comic progressed a whole series of fire and emergency response photos from our department were sent to DDP along with our academy manual (Essentials of Firefighting) and some videos for reference. Some scenes were kid friendly modified versions of the photos. The firehouse table is a grittier version of my stations kitchen/eating area and the layout is accurate.

The address the Engine is dispatched to is a tip of the hat to DDP's upcoming (at the time) comic Halloween, and there were a few 12" Joe references built into the characters words as we relaxed with the script and ironed out the rough patches.

I have not, by the way, read the latest issues of Joe so I have to hunt them down to see what they've done to my beloved firefighter in combat this time! I'll LYK my thoughts when I see it!

[warduria]

[quote="scryptic"]Ok, so I'll ask... What did you think of Barbecue chopping up that robot with his axe in the recent IDW issue?quote]
I want to know, too.

[warduria]

Ok, so I'll ask... What did you think of Barbecue chopping up that robot with his axe in the recent IDW issue? BBQ's gotta be your favorite Joe right?

Seriously, that's a wonderful project. Thumbs up! If ever you need a French version for a Canadian release, I volunteer.

________________________________________
Little Tom: Your mother wants you to take home michael jackson dvd collection|disney dvd collection|House M.D dvd. Be quick, she is waiting.

[DaSmokeEater]

Sorry about such a long delay in getting back to you guys! I did enjoy seeing Barbeque use his axe in the issue (along with some solid advice on knowing where to place the edge!!!). The character suffers from not being used regularly, and then only as a stereotypical firefighter in comics and on tv. Firefighters in reality are cross trained in many unique areas from hazardous materials and confined space rescue to vehicle extrication and more. This is usually ignored by writers in favor of more A list characters, and background ignored when being drawn. Like most ancillary (if it's fair to call him that) characters he just doesn't get more face time. At least he wasn't put up against Stromshadow this time!

Barbeque was THE character initially that we were going to use, btw, and the very preliminary sketches had Lifeline too. The initial napkin ideas I had were long enough ago that by the time Devil's Due and I were putting together the sample pages Hasbro was on to Sigma Six (the sample artwork used for fundraising was Sigma Six characters). Since Barbeque wasn't part of that continuity he was eliminated from drafts being developed. As the grant got approved Hasbro had just started ending the S6 line, but 8" was still being produced and Inferno was just released, so he was written in as our firefighter alongside up and coming (and also much more classic looking) Joes. I imagine had this been green lighted 6 months later we'd have had BBQ in it instead!