European Joe

Comic book update

I’m very pleased to tell you all that I have received the Marvel #144 and #152 comic book today. I was able to buy these for a reasonable price from smalljoes.com.

With these last 2 comics, I now have the entire Marvel A Real American Hero run complete.

Ever since FCB back in 2010, I’ve started seriously collecting the Joe comics. First the IDW run that started (including all the new runs they introduced), but I soon discovered the original Marvel run. I had a few TPB’s of Special Missions that were translated in Dutch from the nineties, but I never would have believed it was possible to collect the entire Marvel run here in Belgium.

Six years down the road, my comics collection has expanded well beyond the ARAH run, with also the Image and DDP comics, as well as most of the convention exclusives.

I think that on the next leg of my comics journey, I’ll try and find all the Dutch comics I can find. I already have 4 TPB’s as mentioned above, but I’m still missing one. So that will be the first one I need to find.

Next to the comics, I’ve also gotten my hands on several of the Find your fate books. It will be nice to have the complete set of those as well.

Plenty more to collect I guess. Better get to it 🙂

Happy collecting and YOJOE!

EuropeanJoes becomes EuropeanPony’s

Okay, bit a drastic change.

As of today, I will sell of my Joe collection and start collecting My Little Pony’s.

Have a Pony Weekend and Happy Collecting!

Impel Trading Cards #10

It’s a stormy day here in Belgium with gusts of wind going well over 100 kph/60 mph. Nothing the Tomahawk, the all-weather, twin-engine, twin-rotor heavy lift and troop transit helicopter from the Joe team, couldn’t fly through.

I didn’t own the Tomahawk as a kid, but it was one of the first pieces I bought as a collector. I do remember having a friend who owned both the Tomahawk and the Killer W.H.A.L.E. and I went over to play with my Conquest X-30 and Warthog A.I.F.V. Strangely enough, we didn’t have any Cobra vehicles, but the bad guys always got the chance to hijack one of the Joe vehicles.

The card art for the Tomahawk is nicely done. It shows the helicopter in mid flight with it’s six-barreled 20mm cannon blazing. Their fire caused serious damage, if you can go on the smoke seen on the left. It’s a shame that there are no figures shown in the cargo area. You can however see the chairs , so nice details.

I’ve always been very fond of the Tomahawk (and also the new released Eaglehawk) as it is a very multi-functional vehicle. You can use is as a troop transport, but it can also stand on it’s on in a battle. The story from Special Missions #19 is one of my favorite stories in the Marvel run and shows the Tomahawk in all it’s glory. Like the Joes themsleves, even tough their battered up and tired, they get the job done.

Leave a comment if you liked/disliked or want to add your personal thoughts on the Tomahawk.

Until next time, YoJoe!

DISCLAIMER All these cards are in my private collection and were scanned by myself. I don’t hold the rights on the card art or any text displayed on the cards.

Exciting news

As you all know, I’ve been posting about the 1991 G.I. Joe Impel Trading Cards and I plan to explore the other available G.I. Joe trading cards.

On Instagram, I’ve been following Gijoe365 for a while now and I must say that I am a really big fan of the artwork there. So go find him on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and his own site (http://gijoe365.com/) and like what I like 🙂

The bit of exciting news is the fact that there are plans to turn his art into G.I. Joe trading cards. I’m following the developments in this and will post a review here when/if I get my hands on them.

YoJoe!

Terror

I will still put posts online about the Impel Trading Cards (and in the future, about other trading cards – if all goes well), but I wanted to write something about the events of this week here in Belgium.

We’re all still coming to grips after the terror attacks in Brussels from Tuesday and maybe it’s my inner child and Joe fan that is talking here, but we really need a Joe team busting up the IS. I believe that no God or country is worth killing or dying for. We only have one world and we are all humans.

I could start quoting John Lennon, but there is a Flemish singer-songwriter who wrote something in the line of Imagine and I’ll just let his words speak for me (Translated from Dutch so the rhyme and rhythm is off).

You won’t find any virgins, nor spoons of gold

These holy scriptures are confusing and old

It is not written that any fool

may kill and abuse in the name of God

Because God is love and definitely not hate

There is no reason for abuse or a phony caliphate

It says so in both the Bible and the Qur’an

Without love, there is no heaven

I don’t care if you pray to God, Allah, Vishnu, the Flying Spaghetti Monster or you just believe in yourself. There are universal values that are found in any religion. We should respect these and – as humans – be bigger than religion or country.