Random Box of Comics: The A-Team

I was looking for a book.  This happens from time to time.  I don’t have enough shelf space for all the books.  So some still live in boxes. Searching around, I could not find the book, so I started looking in other places – like my comic book short boxes.  I have been known to use those for other things.  Sure enough, I found what I was looking for, but I also found some other stuff.

Like some pretty random comics.  These are so random, I never bothered to bag em.

I took some pics using my iPhone – sorry if the quality isn’t fantastic.

The A-Team

I pity the fool don't have this comic

If you were a child of the 80’s, you probably watched The A-Team at some point.  It was cool, funny, cheesy, even.  People got help each and every week, and although people got hurt, they never died.  Perfect for boys of a certain age.  Like a live-action G.I. Joe where the guns shot bullets that always managed to miss the bad guys while still scaring them into changing their ways or giving up.

The premise was: an elite team of Army Special Forces soldiers, are framed for a crime they didn’t commit.  They escape the military and go on the run where they work as mercenaries but only for people who need help.  They never take on a job unless its a cause they can get behind, and they use their unique skills to beat back the bad guys while still running from the Army, who wants to put them behind bars.  (there was even a Colonel who was chasing them around or something)

Let’s face it, the writing wasn’t all that great.  But the show was a hit, and a hit deserves a comic book adaptation, which Marvel provided.

Every issue introduced you to ‘the team’:

At the time, Mr. T was a huge star.  I mean, he was everywhere.  Even had his own cartoon every Saturday morning. So the 1st issue had a lot of his character, B.A. Baracus, prominently featured along with his trademarked line:

I PITY THE FOOL!

They also has him looking particularly buff, in the Marvel style, for the fight scenes:

And, oddly, in both the comic and the cartoon, he never wore a shirt.  I seem to remember him wearing shirts in The A-Team show.  Weird.

As you might expect, the writing on the comic wasn’t much better than the show.  Each issue was a standalone ‘episode’.  By the 2nd issue, you had more of the other team members getting panel time.

BUT, you also had B.A. fighting a sumo wrestler in the end.  Just like with the show, they had to come up with ways to get B.A. to fly.  Like hypnotists:

Or just drugging him:

Issue #3 was much of the same formula:

Sadly, like on the tv show, Amy had little to do in these books.  She actually disappeared from the show in the 2nd season.  In the books, she helped out here and there but didn’t really take off as a character.

From a nostalgic point of view, these are a nice little trip down memory lane.  But they won’t win any awards for art or writing in my humble opinion.  Still, fun to see again.

~P