Sparks/names memo – 1984

You probably come here for art, or maybe my essays, but some of the most interesting discoveries are text-only paperwork. It’s hard to make those exciting if you’re not already invested in them, but maybe I can try anyway.

Sunbow Productions in New York prepared for people working on the 1985 G.I. Joe animated series a two-inch three-ring binder called “GI JOE 1984 BRIEFING BOOK.” Filled with all black and white photocopies, it has an assortment of character and vehicle art. Some of that is copied from Hector Garrido toy package paintings, some is copied from Ron Rudat character or accessory sculpt input art, and some is Russ Heath animation model sheet art. (And some is animation model sheet art not drawn by Heath.) Larry Hama’s toy package dossiers have been copied, too. There are also some Polaroids of toys, (I posted one here once) again, all black and white photocopies. And while the artifact of a copy of a Rudat or Garrido piece that was in the hands of a writer, producer, or artist working on the cartoon in New York or Los Angeles is a cool object, I’ve seen all that art before. What fills in the gaps and gets my eyebrows up are the memos. Like this one:

The author here is a production assistant in New York, and the tenor of this one matches many others, This name has been cleared, please use it going forward. Or in this case, This name has been updated, and even more tantalizing, Don’t use this character anymore.

I don’t specifically know why Sparks meets his end here in October of 1984, but I can guess. Many Joe fans have long known that Sparks is an invented character who appeared only in cartoons, and not as a 1980s action figure. He’s a communications officer, which is odd since the G.I. Joe team already had one in the form of Breaker. But Breaker is a 1982 and 1983 character, and was phased off toy shelves for 1984, so Hasbro didn’t wish to promote him in Season 1 in the fall of 1985. I don’t have proof, but it’s clear to me that’s why Sparks shows up in the ’84 miniseries, why he’s created for the TV show. The narrative demands that the Joe team has someone at the console, but the brand isn’t offering a candidate. Logically all us fans know it wouldn’t have been a big deal if Breaker had gotten one line in a later episode or two, but that doesn’t follow the Hasbro rules — can’t much advertise a toy that’s not available, which really equates to can’t advertise a thing that won’t make us money. So Sparks has a window of about two years to shine, and then new communications officer Dial-Tone debuts in 1986, and Sparks is no longer around. Except in Dave Marconi and Flint Dille’s “Cobra Stops the World,” where both Sparks and Dial-Tone appear! (Not in the same scene.)

But Sparks gets an indirect send-off in that half-hour, no longer on the team, but helping out anyway! Here he’s in civilian network broadcasting, working at ABN TV, helping Flint and Lady-Jaye.

(I should note here as historian/archivist, I don’t exactly know how to name or title this memo, as it’s loose in the three-ring binder and not in a tabbed section. And in spite of my title for this blog post, Sparks is not necessarily the main topic of the memo. Real librarians might note who owned the binder, who wrote the memo, its date, and the name of the binder. And the binder was a kind of living object — its owner would have added to it throughout the year as more character sheets and similar memos arrived by fax or mail from New York. Fun!)

Sparks was a character in the 2001-2007 Devil’s Due G.I. Joe comic book continuity, too, since those series added a dash of the animated continuity with the Marvel Comics one, and Sparks did sort of get an action figure in 2007, but like Dr. Venom or Colonel Sharpe or Mara or Bongo the Balloon Bear, he’s a supporting character or a kind of NPC.

Fair well, Sparks! Once a Joe, always a Joe indeed!