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    Larry Hama

    Person » Larry Hama is credited in 1408 issues.

    Larry Hama is a comic book writer with numerous credits, notably in the titles Wolverine, Venom Finale, Nth Man the Ultimate Ninja, and both G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero and its spin-off G.I. Joe: Special Missions.

    Short summary describing this person.

    Larry Hama appears in 1408 issues
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    Larry Hama last edited by nananightwing13 on 10/18/20 07:06PM View full history

    Personal Life

    Larry Hama was born on June 7, 1949 in Manhattan, New York. He was raised in Queens and is a third generation American, his family being of Japanese descent. As a child, he studied many Japanese martial arts forms such as Kodokan Judo, Kyudo (Japanese archery), and Laido (Japanese martial art swordsmanship). He wanted to be a painter so attended Manhattan's High School of Art and Design.

    He sold his first comic work at the age of 16 to the magazine Castle of Frankenstein. After high school, Larry drew shoes for catalogues before enlisting in the United States Army of Engineers. He served in the Vietnam War from 1969-1971, an experience that would fuel his writing and creating for future comic book projects.

    Larry Hama is married and has a daughter.

    Career

    After his discharge from the army, Larry Hama's high school classmate Ralph Reese helped him get a job at Wally Wood's Manhattan studio as an assistant. He would help Wood's on the comic strips Sally Forth and Cannon, which were published in Military News and Overseas Weekly. He also had illustrations published in Rolling Stone and Esquire magazines.

    During his time at Wood's studio, he would collaborate with Reese on the underground comix-style humor magazine Drool #1 in 1972. With the contacts he made at Wood's studio, he, along with Reese, Frank Brunner and Bernie Wrightson began working at Neal Adams' Continuity Associates Studio. He became a part of the comic book inking gang known as the "Crusty Bunkers". His first known works for the studio was in DC's Weird Worlds #2 on the story "Slaves of the Mahars" with Alan Weiss.

    It was here that he also created the character Bucky O'Hare, a green, anthropomorphic rabbit that fought along side other mammal sidekicks in a intergalactic war against space amphibians. The character would eventually go on to spawn a comic, animated series, toy line, and video game.

    Hama wouldn't begin pencilling himself until a year and half later, making his debut on the feature "Iron Fist" in Marvel Premeire issues number 16-19 in 1974. This was only the superhereo's second appearance and Hama would replace Gil Kane on the story. From there he would freelance for then new publisher Atlas/Seaboard (Wulf the Barbarian, Planet of Vampires) before beginning a long run at DC as editor of such titles as Wonder Woman, Mister Miracle, Super Friends, and The Warlord. He also worked on the TV-series licensed property Welcome Back, Cotter from 1977-1978. While at DC, he would also write for Batman.

    In 1980, Hama became an editor for Marvel. His editing credits include Conan, The 'Nam (1986-1993), which was a gritty comic about the Vietnam War and the Savage Tales reboot. He also wrote many comics for Marvel as well such as Wolverine, Before Fantastic Four: Ben Grimm and Logan, Generation X, and Nth Man: The Ultimate Ninja.

    Hama's most notable work was that as writer for Marvel's G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero and G.I. Joe: Special Missions series. He would write all 155 issues of the series from 1982-1994. Before working on G.I. Joe, he had pitched an idea for Nick Fury spin-off series Fury Force. His pitch was about a daring special mission force that included military terms and strategies, Eastern philosophy, martial arts, and historical references from his own background.

    The idea was rejected, but then editor-in-chief Jim Shooter gave him the opportunity to work on G.I. Joe, and the back story he had pitched for Fury Force would be used for this series instead. When writing for G.I. Joe, the characters names and likenesses were taken from his family, friends, men he served with in the Vietnam War, and historical figures. One of the characters, Tunnel Rat, was even designed to look exactly like Larry. The comic was well received and surprisingly gained a large female following because of Hama's writing of strong female characters (Scarlett, Lady Jaye, Cover Girl, Jinx) that fought equally with the team.

    The series was also praised for it's positive representations of minorities in a children's book at the time. Hama's work on G.I. Joe was not just limited to the comic book series. He also wrote the majority of the file cards for Hasbro's action figures; a company in which he would also write file cards for their sci-fi police toy line C.O.P.S. 'n' Crooks.

    2006 proved to be a big year for Larry Hama as Osprey Publishing announced that he would write a series of comic books about historical battles called Osprey Graphic History. That same year, Hama would also return to writing G.I. Joe for Devil's Due Publishing in a mini-series titled G.I. Joe: Declassified. The publisher would give Hama and other series for G.I. Joe in 2007 titled Storm Shadow.

    In 2008, he would again get an opportunity to write G.I. Joe in IDW's G.I. Joe: Origins series, which is a retelling of the formation of the G.I. Joe team. Initally the series was only to be a five issue mini-series written solely by Hama, but it took on a longer run where Hama would come back and write a few issues. Currently, Hama is writing G.I. Joe stories for IDW on the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero series, which is a continuation of his Marvel series of the same name. He also served as a consultant for the Paramount Pictures live-action movie G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.

    Bibliography

    Amalgam

    Atlas/Seaboard

    Continuity

    Curtis Magazine

    DC

    Devil's Due Publishing

    Eros Comix

    Hasbro

    IDW

    Image

    Marvel/Marvel UK/Panini

    Osprey Publishing

    Other Media

    Awards

    Inkpot

    • 2012

    Characters Created

    Continuity

    DC Comics

    Marvel

    Marvel-G.I. Joe

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