So I'd seen this before, but yesterday it hit me that this could be inspiration for Zartan

Big Jim – Zorak
http://www.big-jim.eu/bigjim_zorak.html


No shirt? Check
Brown hood? Check
Different Faces (disguises)? Check

Thought it would be an interesting discussion.

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With this and Man-E-Faces, Mattel really likes the face-changing gimmick, doesn't it?

I still hoping for a cool 3 3/4 Big Jim PACK line.

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Since it's a Mattel property, you'll be hoping for a looong time on the "cool" and "3 3/4" parts of that.

Retaliation Zartan reminds me of Zorak.

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Heh, I like this picture, where his faces go from "holding a fart" to "Aaah, hope nobody heard that.":

Yes, I know that...

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Will it be done with current cutting edge Mattel technology?

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It's said that Zartan's name was an anagram for Tarzan. Strange my brothers and I figures that out in the 80's. I don't see why that is, swamp guy = jungle lord?

A lot of GI JOE that was inspired by existing pop culture. Look at the 1970's Red Panzer character from Wonder Woman and then look at Destro. (Destro's more military costumes really make the two look similar.)

That's a whole topic itself.

In my verse and for the figures that Dr. Bindy and I made Zorak is Zartans Father. ( we have no made zorak yet)
Big Jim and the Pack are an offshoot of the Adventure team and Zorak still causes them trouble.

Retaliation Zartan will be my Zorak and I'll put some white pants on a Snake Eyes V54 to make Jim.
Take that Mattel, I'll make my own.

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I always thought Zartan was inspired by the Mad Arab (Later renamed abdul alhazred) from teh old Tarzan comic (I believe he appeared in the Edgar Rice Buroughs novels as well).

His discription nearly matches Zartan, so much so that when Marvel did a series his likeness was nearly exact (Some 8 years before Zartan came out), I'll try to find a pic, but the resemblance is uncanny.



Not the best pic, I will try to scan in the one I was thinking that looked exactly like Zartan later.

That's really weird. The Mad Arab, Abdul Alhazred is borrowed from H.P. Lovecraft's mythos; Alhazred is responsible for writing the Necronomicon, and he's mentioned in many of Lovecraft's stories. I had no idea that the character had been used in Marvel's stuff, but it's an interesting way to integrate Lovecraft's ideas into their universe. It doesn't sound like they did a whole lot with the concept, though; from what I just read, the Marvel version sounds like a garden-variety mystical villain.