working for Wood, Hama began working at comic-book and commercial artist Neal Adams' Continuity Associates studio; with other young contemporaries there, including Reese, Frank Brunner and Bernie Wrightson, Hama became part of the comic-book inking gang credited as the "Crusty Bunkers." His first known work as such is on the Alan Weiss-penciled "Slaves of the Mahars" in DC Comics' Weird Worlds #2 (Nov. 1972). Hama began penciling for comics a year-and-a-half later, making an auspicious debut succeeding character co-creator Gil Kane on the feature "Iron Fist" in Marvel Premiere, taking over with the martial arts superhero's second appearance and his next three stories (#16-19, July-Nov. 1974). He went on to freelance for start-up publisher Atlas/Seaboard (writing and penciling the first two issues of the sword & sorcery series Wulf the Barbarian, writing the premiere of the science fiction/horror Planet of Vampires); some penciling work on the seminal independent comic book Big Apple Comix #1 (Sept. 1975); and two issues of the jungle-hero book Ka-Zar before beginning a long run at DC Comics. At DC, Hama became an editor of the titles Wonder Woman, Mister Miracle, Super Friends, and The Warlord, and the TV-series licensed property Welcome Back, Kotter from 1977 to 1978. He then joined Marvel as an editor in 1980. Acting Hama had a brief acting career in the mid-1970s, despite never having pursued the field. The casting director for the musical Pacific Overtures, Joanna Merlin, called Hama because an actor friend of his gave her his name when asked if he knew any other Asian actors. He told her that he had never acted before and could neither sing nor dance, but Merlin was persistent, and when informed that casting was less than a minute away from his workplace at Continuity Comics, he agreed to audition and was ultimately cast in three roles. He also played a role in the 1976 M*A*S*H episode "The Korean Surgeon" and a Saturday Night Live spoof of Apocalypse Now. However, though he had made a living as an actor for roughly a year, Hama ultimately discarded his acting career, explaining, "I always basically saw myself as an artist, not as anything else." G.I. Joe Hama is best known as the writer of the Marvel Comics licensed series G.I. Joe, based on the Hasbro line of military action figures. Hama said in a 2006 interview that he was given the job by then