Kurt Groen’s Cobra Zombie

Hey, all.  Sorry for the delay.  End of school and store events.  But, hey, G.I. Joe!

Today’s blog art comes from the pencil of Kurt Groen, one of the major G.I. Joe figure designers at Hasbro.  Two variations, the first which we might call “Cobra Zombie” or “Random Zombie Dude in Non-Descript Attire.”

And a second drawing of an ’86 Viper as a zombie.  (Customizers go crazy…  Now!)

But the back of the first pencil drawing gives us some story material, making it appear as if “Random Dude” is in fact random, and not a member of Cobra.  Which sounds a little like “Captives of Cobra” crossed with “The Phantom Brigade,” so I love it:

First off I have to state the obvious, that “Gummy brain, top of head comes off, kid eats brain” is astoundingly bizarre.  As a pre-teen that liked G.I. Joe to stay “realistic,” this would have been distressing.  As an aficionado on this side of hindsight, I love it.  I don’t know how the gummy brain feature would have been toy-ized, or if it was even possible given the vagaries of engineering and safety standards, but I am already enjoying writing the commercial for this figure in my head.

Some of you are thinking “1991 Toxo-Zombie!”  Indeed, that’s a good point of comparison.  Groen’s art above dates to July and August 1990.  I don’t have concept sketches for Toxo-Zombie, but I do have a copy of the turnaround, which is dated April 1991, and was also drawn by Groen.  And figures were developed over months, so zombies were in the air, and it’s reasonable to assume that the drawings above are part of the development process which netted us the ’91 Toxo Zombie.

You may now be inspired to hollow out your favorite Cobra’s head and place in it a drop or two of corn syrup, Pixy Stix powder, or a third of a gummy bear head.  Please send photos.