If you’d like to read about airports or Des Moines’ skyway system, check out my 2022 and 2023 reports. For the 2024 report, I’m jumping right in, minus this sign on the way from the airport to the hotel. Why, yes, that meatball is a spear-wielding Centurion. (It wasn’t dark out, my camera was just exposing for either the illuminated sign or the restaurant exterior, and can’t do both.) Jump ahead to Friday/Part Two] [Saturday/Part 3] or [Wrap-Up/Part 4]. Click all photos to enlarge.
Josh Eggebeen, After Action Report co-writer and co-publisher, was waiting in the hotel lobby for whoever might show up. He’d driven 32 hours from California, although that did include some sight-seeing breaks. Jason Murrell of the Order of Battle podcast walked up, and we three talked about house moves and living in different cities at different times in our lives.
In my room, I looked at the newest commissions in Murrell’s sketchbook.
Murrell and Eggebeen headed out to meet up with a larger group of about 30 for dinner next door, a get-together I would miss. Instead, I had dinner with comics artist and con guest Ron Wagner. We know each other from my book interview, and from similar dinners a year and two prior. Wagner lives here in Des Moines, so this an easy con for him to do. And probably the only con he does! Wagner had steak and I had salad with shrimp, and carrots and brussel sprouts, my first real meal after nearly missing both of my flights and running through a connecting airport. Wagner and I talked about the news of the day. We also talked about what he might draw in the middle of next year when his current project wraps up, a book I’m sure you’ll hear all about in 2025.
I was reminded that Wagner worked in the video game industry and in animation storyboarding, which explains some gaps in his comics output over the years. He told me a few Gray Morrow stories, and we noted similarities between the late Morrow and the late Wally Wood — the former being Wagner’s mentor and the latter being Larry Hama’s. Mr. Hama would arrive the next day, I’d moderate their panel, which would be only the third time the pair were in the same room in maybe fifteen years. Also, the dark chocolate mousse was excellent.
Near the end of dinner, and on the drive back to the Hilton, we also talked about Elvis Presley — his career, his comebacks, those two recent biopics. Wagner sings and plays guitar and has an interest in music. Before I exited his car, Wagner queued up a song through his car stereo. This was a single he had recorded, a project spread out over the last year. It felt like a bookend, as I remembered that when he showed me his drawing studio exactly one year earlier, he talked about a then-imminent recording studio session he’d booked. This song sounded great. I didn’t know what to expect, as I don’t have much of a sense of Wagner’s output. Rock, a little doo-wop, maybe a touch of rockabilly. We sat in front of the Hilton entrance, me smiling the whole time. A car is a great acoustic environment in which to listen to music, and except for a 9pm alarm dinging in the back of my head for the next convention activity, it was great to just sit there, taking up the airport shuttle’s parking space. I thought that my wife would appreciate Ron’s musical creation, and made a note to ask him to email it.
Inside the hotel, up in a deluxe suite, I talked with con organizer and graphic design whiz Brian Sauer while we waited for a few more people to show up. Sauer has had a busy year of design jobs, and spoke of his hopes and expectations for Assembly Required’s attendance. Having Larry Hama as a guest, as well as the 2023-2024 G.I. Joe renaissance (think Classified toys and Skybound comics) was key. I talked about G.I. Joe comics ordering and sales, and my hopes for the Tom Reilly signing at my shop, scheduled for a week later. (I’ll post about that here at the blog after my AR multi-parter is done.) Here’s a photo of us from the next night:
Please note the hilarious convention badge that Sauer wears in the photo. Assembly Required 2024 was Destro- and Iron Grenadiers-themed, and the top people not only got a red necklace jewel image for their badge, but a gold chain (referring to Destro’s 1983 costume, of course!) rather than black shoelace thread. This is the kind of detail that separates AR from other shows, and let’s put two and two together here: Brian Sauer is a talented graphic designer, and co-runs the show, and in fact he designed that badge, and all the other badges and signage.
Something I’ve noticed with the best graphic designers I’ve known in school, met since then, and worked with professionally, is that they tend to be good writers. Some of that is copy and copywriting, because a graphic designer is going to deal with someone else’s text, whether that’s a whole book, or a burst of hype, or instructions, or just a tagline. Here’s some from the surprisingly lovely AR program:
Near the middle of my composite photo is a black box that says “Destro Delivers and So Do We!”, followed by a sentence about ordering shirts and toy bits from the Codename: Iowa website. It’s witty. Destro is an arms dealer, and he sells and delivers weapons and armament. C:I puts on the AR show, and will ship to you fun merch you may have missed. Sauer is clearly having fun with the theme of the convention, and that tracks back to the website and its introductory text:
Polish your pauldrons. Shine your leathers. Grab onto your gold-hilt sabers. The best-dressed bad guys on the battlefield are taking over Assembly Required 2024. This year’s event celebrates the man in the mask who brings aristocracy to the arms race — James McCullen Destro and his Iron Grenadiers.
That paragraph kicks off some added flavor to your experience of scrolling through the website and considering your convention plans. In laying out the website and also writing that copy, Sauer doesn’t have to remind you that the Iron Grenadiers, with their fancy yet fun costume designs, are “the best-dressed badguys.” But to do so helps frame Assembly Required. I know my brother and I were struck by the formality of the Iron Grenadiers’ 1988 costume, and the leveling up of Destro from ’70s open-shirt villain to 1980s his-cape-only-needs-to-attach-to-one-shoulder. Perhaps you noticed the top two packages for convention attendees were Gold and Silver, which corresponds to Destro’s two helmet colors. That’s a fun detail.
And let’s spend another paragraph on the program itself. Last year’s AR was Dreadnok-themed, and the “Assembly Required” stencil logo was flat and Dreadnok-colored, dark aqua and dull lime (think Dreaknok toy vehicles from 1986). This year’s is dimensional, metallic, and in Iron Grenadiers red, gold, and black. That didn’t happen accidentally. A thoughtful graphic designer who knows G.I. Joe inside and out decided to pay attention to those details and make them awesome. Here’s another:
The original Iron Grenadiers logo is a Hasbro invention. (In fact, at the Saturday Declassified panel with Mark Pennington I learned that Pennington himself designed that 1988 logo, with the word “Destro,” a graphical take on Destro’s face, and a downward sword.) But Hasbro, Marvel, Skydance, Paramount, and Skybound didn’t take it a step further and design a coat of arms as far as I can tell. No, above left I believe that’s Brian Sauer, who’s just making his convention program look that much more rad, as an expansion of Pennington’s symbol. And then a banner flourish for the dates on the website, and combining Pennington’s logo with his own Codename: Iowa one (note the shape of the Hawkeye State with the G.I. Joe-ish star-and-stripes) for the back of the program. I don’t even need to mention the plaid, and then there’s the motto — something about money or profit. Sauer is leaving no detail unconsidered. There’s a deeply satisfying level of consistency and care here.
Back to Thursday night in Des Moines: Two other con attendees, Julian Wolfe and Bradley Dellow, joined. Wolfe and I spent 15 minutes talking about the Overlord. This is the kind of discussion that only happens at a G.I. Joe convention, examining the minutiae of a character’s costume, positing a theory about the toy’s creation or some key milestone in its development, recalling what Marvel Comics or Hasbro folks have said or not said, finding points of convergence or contradiction. Josh Eggebeen arrived, and at 10pm so too did Joe Roth of The Dealt Hand to officiate an informal game gathering. The day before, he and his business partner had refreshed themselves on all four Joe games, as they would be vendors/guides during the convention. While Roth had not been flying all day, he had just spent 10 hours at a library convention — libraries have games and are gathering places for all kinds of gamers, and this was a way to network The Dealt Hand’s services. I appreciated his commitment, starting yet another gig, teaching us a G.I. Joe board game, this late in the evening.
Assembly Required doesn’t start until Friday, but several people arrive early, and perhaps there’s more to do than socialize in the hotel bar. This game session wasn’t on the formal convention schedule, had only coalesced in the days before, and had started as a Facebook post — are there enough people for a game Thursday night? This year it would be G.I. Joe: Battle for the Arctic Circle. It’s a take on Axis & Allies, a game I’ve never played. (But I did play Risk once on a Mac in 1995, does that count?)
In this tabletop adventure with miniatures and dice, Dellow and I played as Keel-Haul and Snow Job, respectively, with Wolfe and Eggebeen as Cobra Commander and Destro. Each turn has a few steps, like moving, attacking, possibly retreating, and requisitioning. We played two rounds of an abbreviated game (which starts at round 2), didn’t finish (it can go to round 7) and called it a night. It was fun, and I appreciated finally getting to move little battle tokens akin to Risk’s cannons (but now Rattlers, W.O.L.F.s, and Snow Cats) across a board. I also appreciated that this first version of G.I. Joe A&A wasn’t “normal” or temperate, with obvious faves like Duke and Snake-Eyes. Rather, it had the Arctic guy and the aircraft carrier guy, and took place in an exotic location. I’ve always wanted to play physical Risk, and assumed Axis and Allies was about the same, but figured they were too complicated. I’m happy to report that A&A isn’t, or at least it’s not with an expert there to answer every question over and over. And whereas the G.I. Joe Deck-Building Game is chock full of art, Battle for the Arctic Circle is not, with effectively only four pieces of drawn or painted artwork. Those would be the new character cards for Snow-Job, Keel-Haul, and Cobra Commander. Artist Elizabeth Beals did a great job here.
The 3-D tokens are good, but I would have liked more detail, color, or heft. I imagine that would make an already expensive game out of reach. I was mighty tired during the whole game, which moved slowly because there was so much to explain. When it wasn’t my turn it felt like I might fall asleep, which wasn’t cool when all I’d done was sit on a plane and dash through an airport! But travel is tough and the days before a trip can wear you down. While I would like to purchase this game for myself and play it again all the way through, realistically I can barely keep up with Renegade Game Studios’ other fine G.I. Joe products.
I saw Chris Murray in the hallway, said hello, and I went to bed.
But that’s not the end of my Assembly Required Part One blog post! Because Thursday is short, I’m moving a few thematic and less chronology-based paragraphs and photos here, right after this last glimpse of Admiral Keel-Haul moving to a Weather Dominator-frozen hexagon tile.
Let’s tease the convention a little with some photos of toys for sale the following day and the day after! Mostly G.I. Joe…
And a little not-G.I. Joe:
Next up, not only are these 6-inch Classified toys available for purchase, so too is the stand-up display! I didn’t know they’d made these, and while I have no need for one, didn’t have a good way to get it home, and wouldn’t want to disassemble and then reassemble it, I momentarily thought about buying this. Especially at that price! (I bought a 1986 Transformers: The Movie now-on-VHS stand-up display at BotCon once for much, more than $35.)
Even though Larry Hama wouldn’t arrive until Friday, here’s Larry Hama!
Day 2 would also involve more dice rolling, but in a different game!
Hey Mark, hey Jay! That thing I don’t approve of! But look! A one of a kind artifact on display!
Looking ahead to Saturday, here were some donated items that would be raffled off:
And here’s a life-size Ravage that con chief Travis Webber 3-D printed for photo ops at Assembly Required. You would be correct in pointing out that Ravage is a Transformer and not a G.I. Joe/Cobra/Iron Grenadier character, but I think the connection here is from a Hasbro Joe/TF crossover toy set from several years back.
Also at AR24 there would be cosplay! Here are some members of The Finest, very much in theme. Even their backdrop! And look at Metal-Head’s giant missiles!
And this is what would be coming up on Saturday:
End part one!
In Part 2 of our exciting adventure, Tim rolls dice to see if Dusty can shoot that robot, takes selfies with friends old and new, and buys no toys! Then, in Part 3, skips a cool event for a different cool event, and continues to buy no toys! And finally, in Part 4, anything that didn’t fit into the first three!
A Real American Book! 