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.

He is best known as a writer and editor for Marvel Comics, where he wrote the licensed comic book series G.I. Joe, A Real American Hero!, based on the Hasbro action figures. He has also written for the series Wolverine, Nth Man: the Ultimate Ninja, and Elektra, and he created the character Bucky O’Hare, which was developed into a comic book, a toy line and a television cartoon. During the 1970s, he was seen in minor roles on the TV shows M*A*S*H and Saturday Night Live, and he appeared on Broadway in two different roles in the original 1976 production of Stephen Sondheim’s Pacific.

Larry took a little of his time his week to talk to Hero Spy, so before we go any further we want to first thank Larry for the pleasure.

Shawn of Hero Spy: Larry you have had a very interesting career spanning over three
decades. Did you start out wanting to be a writer, musician, actor or
artist?

Larry Hama: I went to the High School of Art & Design in New York. When I first
got there, I had an odd fantasy of being a painter and starving in a
garret in Paris. On my first day of school, I met JD Smith (who is
now pretty famous custom knife maker) who asked, “hey, do you like
comics?” I wasn’t particularly interested but since I had nothing
else to do, I went along with him to meet Larry Ivie, who was art
director of Castle of Frankenstein magazine. It was through Larry Ivie
that I met Wally Wood, Roy Krenkle and a host of other Upper West Side
comics folks. I guess that was the beginning of my corruption!

Hero Spy: You sold your first comic work when you were only 16 years old, that’s
impressive, can you tell us how that came about?

Larry Hama: It was a series of one-pagers called “The Axe-Murderers” for Castle of
Frankenstein. Bhob Stewart had taken over as art director. Bhob and I
did a strip for Gothic Blimp Works, which was sort of the Sunday
funnies for the East Village Other. It was put out by Vaughn Bode,
Trina Robbins and Kim Deitch, and that was when I met them all. Also
knew Spain Rodriguez from that time. Art Spiegelman had a strip
running in it at the same time. So did two new kids from out of town,
Bernie Wrightson and Mike Kaluta!

Hero Spy: You’re best known for your writing in the 80s comic G.I. Joe, you had
already done some editing on books like “The Nam” but you seem to have been
an artist primarlily up to this point in your career. What made you decide to write G.I. Joe?

Larry Hama: I was an editor at DC before all of that. I worked on Wonder Woman,
Super Friends, Warlord, and Jonah Hex. I also had the honor of
working with the late Marshal Rogers on Mr. Miracle. I gave Michael
Golden one of his first pro penciling jobs drawing an issue of Mr.
Miracle- I got Russ Heath to ink it! Sorry, I digress– I was not
having a lot of luck getting writing work from Marvel- it was a
“writer’s camp” and I was a penciler. They said, “you can’t write,
you draw.” I think it’s kind of threatening to editors who can’t
draw, if you come along and can do the whole package yourself. (I was
also a letterer and a colorist) I was the last person they asked to
write GI Joe. Nobody else wanted it. I figured, “well, they aren’t
offering me anything else, and I needed the money.”

Hero Spy: Is it true that one of Hasbro’s G.I. Joe action figures is based on your
likeness? If so that must have been wild to own your own larry doll.

Larry Hama: That was pretty strange modeling for Tunnel Rat, but a few years
earlier, I had modeled for the heads that went on the Japanese figures
in the Asian wing of the Museum of Natural History. That was even
stranger.

Hero Spy: You have written Wolverine, Fantastic Four, X-Men and Batman just to
name a few, what was your favotite writing gig in comics?

Larry Hama: The ones that caused the least anxiety and were the most fun were
Bucky O’Hare, Nth Man, Venom, Blaze, Avengers, and Mort the Dead
Teenager! I chewed a lot of antacids while working on Joe and the ol’
Canucklehead.

Hero Spy: Are there any comic characters you would love to write?

Larry Hama: Uncle Scrooge and the nephews!!

Hero Spy: Do you have any projects we should look for in the future?

Larry Hama: STORM SHADOW from Devil’s Due. ROBOTBOY on Cartoon Network. OUT OF YOUR MIND a downloadable game from GameLab/Curious, and some more
Graphic History books from Osprey.
Hero Spy: What was it like to be on SNL and how did that opportunity arise?

Larry Hama: My agent sent me over. They were casting extras for a skit about
Apocalypse Now and I had really long hair at the time, so I got to be
one of the weird tribesmen who wore loincloths and were painted all
white. I remember being very cold and uncomfortable, but I actually
had lines to say, so I got upgraded and got more money. The cast and
crew at that time were very nice. Al Franken was notably gracious and
thoughtful.