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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.
EARLY LIFE AND CAREER Larry Hama is a third-generation American, born in , 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 (finishes).]] Larry Hama is best known as the original writer of the popular 1980s comic book '' G.I. Joe ''. According to Hama's interview in ToyFare #105, he was given the job by then editor-in-chief Jim Shooter after every other writer at Marvel had turned it down. The comic ran 155 issues (Feb. 1982 - Oct/ 1994). Hama had recently pitched a series, ''Fury Force'' (also in the ToyFare interview), about a daring 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were named after Hama's family, friends, and comrades who died during the Vietnam War, or otherwise had hidden historical references.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 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 without Title} OTHER WORKS From 1986-93, Hama edited the acclaimed comic book '''' (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 Sidekick s 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
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