Well it's just a few more days till Halloween and when I think of some of the scariest moments in the Rom spaceknight series this gate fold from issue 49 comes to mind. Shortly after the introduction of the female dire wraith witches to the series we see them waste little time in plotting their revenge on Rom and Starhine as they descend upon the unsuspecting town of Clairton in what would be a massacre giving the readers some of the most shocking moments ever in the pages of Rom.
Looks like this guy is ready for Halloween all he needs now are some dire wraith cosplayers. Rick Hansen sent me this Rom cosplay photo through face book. Unfortunately no details about who, what or where came with it. So if any of you know something about this speak up, don't leave the rest of us in Limbo. All that aside I just love seeing new Rom fandom turn up week after week in one form or another.
And speaking of the Massacre of Clairton lets have a moment of silence for one of the fallen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . However although fallen but thus far not forgotten we have this custom Torpedo figurine I found on ebay
out of Italy of all places. But apparently there is a limited run of
these given that two have sold at this time. The thighs are a bit on the
bulky side but it other wise looks pretty good.
By the way wouldn't that be cool if somebody came up with some Torpedo cosplay? I can't imagine that being a costume too terribly difficult to fabricate. Hell, even a sexy dame doing some Turbo cosplay would be pretty great too. Some Sabra cosplay would be great to see as well.
Last up, here's something I found from 2012 MTV Geek
I remember a couple of years ago I had this friend and fellow comic book nerd from my high school days asked what could I possibly have to blog about every week given that the series ended back in 85? The fool :) I explained it as best as I could at the time to him. But you guys who come here get to find out right away about most of the coolest shit out there rather it be Rom turning up in an article for a recent publication (Geek mag.), some undiscovered clip art from back in the day (New Warriors Annual #1), a cool Marvel rap video paying tribute to fans calling for the return of Rom or the latest art work that kicks ass. A big thanks to all of you who have contributed to these postings lately you guys have provided some awesome blogging material.
Speaking of which, here's my latest coloring job of a commission piece that was done by Ian Akin from the dynamic inking duo Akin & Garvey. There's only one thing that always bothered me about this other wise kick ass work of art. The right leg is too short, it never looked quite right to me so I made a cropped version which I colored. You can see the original here http://www.akinandgarvey.com/commissions/index.htm#
just look for the thumb nail button on the left.
If you're noticing any difference in this posting today from the day before when I published it that's because Rom curator Gary Martin Jr. informed me of an over site. In other words I fucked up, indeed there was a not one but two cameo flash back panels in the Nova back story of What If #36 volume1 (1982). Oh and it gets better I actually used to have this issue but don't ask me how the fuck I managed to fucken forget about these fucken panels.
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And of course as I mentioned before the Dire Wraiths would show up as part of some parallel universe story line years later in What If #39 volume 2.
And as i mentioned in the beginning of this posting how cool Rom related things are turning up on a weekly basis here's the latest. So I'm going to make yet another edit today with Chris's latest custom spaceknight figure, Javelin.
So I'm going to open up this posting with something from the past when Marvel was actually cool. I want everybody to give it up for The King of Thessaly (K.o.T) for sending me this clip art from New Warriors Annual #1 (1991). Can't believe I didn't know about this already! As you can see this Rom cameo flash back is making a reference to Rom #24, however the editorial seems to be a bit off there were no spaceknights in that issue it was only Rom himself fighting along with the Champions of Xandar against a Skrull invasion. Hey K.o.T, was this issue one of your flea market or dirt mall questing finds?
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Moving right along, let's talk about the present, which is a not so good time for Rom fans when it comes to Marvel. I told you all a while back when Infinity #1 came out that jonathan hickman would do this. This panel which came from the recent Avengers Infinity #21 (thanks for the heads up Gary Martin Jr.) is some of the table scraps that I told you all hickman would throw to Rom fans to try and keep us on the hook.
This doesn't even make any sense. The character intro at the beginning of the issue shows a head shot of Starshine as the armor was in it's original incarnation (more or less) that we saw in Infinity#1. So why are we seeing the Starshine 2 armor (but with a pony tail) here? I don't have to tell long time Rom readers why that doesn't make any sense. And as you can see Ikon is there too which also makes no sense since they were both on Galador when it was destroyed. Is hickman gonna come up with some "creative writing" or is this just some inconsistency they didn't think anybody would catch? Whatever, hickman you're still a douche so you don't get my money on this one either. LAST CALL! Look, speaking of douche bags don't be one and let Bill Mantlo's birthday come and go this year with out showing this great man a sense of gratitude in a way that's the next best thing to telling him in person. Even if you live on the East Coast if you can get off your ass and get a card into the mail addressed to me in the next 2 - 3 days that should still leave enough time for it to arrive before I send the whole thing to his brother.
Alright so let's end this posting on a fun note as with the latest video from The King as he shows us his extensive action figure collection along with some other things like published clip art from Marvel and DC that was so disturbing it'll have you saying to yourself "What the Hell were they thinking!?"
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Ok so one last thing here. I wrote this posting after midnight when I finally got home from work and this morning I end up finding this innovative fan art. This obviously doesn't fit a narrative of the Rom universe as we know it but then again it isn't supposed to since it's a homage piece to those old mystery and sci-fi novels of the 30s which were largely regarded by the "literary community" as pulp. But then again those are the same sorts who say that about comics and let's not even get into all the art snobs out there who think comic book art is beneath their notice. Remember I was an art major in college (multi-media) so I was around a lot of those assholes for years. Rather you like the concept or not you gotta hand it to the artist (Rob Reis) for having some serious illustration skills.
Here's another great cosmic team up that would have been right up there with The Silver Surfer and Rom . . .well almost as great. The artist who I lifted this awesome Captain Marvel rendering from doesn't appear to be responding to comments left under their work so I didn't even bother to ask about using it. So the best thing I can do is to make sure this artist gets due credit is to leave a link to their deviant art page. I guarantee you'll be blown away with the work you see there especially when it comes to the Marvel Cosmic, Transformers and Masters of the Universe illustrations: http://espeng.deviantart.com/gallery/
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Here's another sort of team up I would have liked to have seen back in the day when Marvel didn't suck like it does now.
Just a heads up folks, Bill Mantlo's birthday is November 9th. I'll be sending his brother Michael copies of some of the latest fan art that I've drawn. If you have anything for Bill rather it be some fan art of your own, a b-day card or even a donation (you'll make the check out to Michael) I'll be happy to include it with my package for the mail.
Speaking of B-days I'd like to extend a happy birthday weekend to one of my most regular commentators Joseph who turned___ yesterday.
After having read some of your comments earlier today and then taking a second look with fresh eyes I finally realized this is a fake. Sorry folks looks like we got bamboozled that is not an actual copy of Rom spaceknight #8 that Rahm Emanuel is holding. How could this have happened!? To me, the photoshop ninja.
So you're probably doing a double take at this seeing as I just posting it a couple of days ago. Well yes and no. In the previous version I had posted a scan that didn't have a back ground for or the Hulk's body (except his pants) colored yet so those items I did in photoshop for time's sake. But yesterday I finally got around to finishing the whole thing by hand and it came out so very differently then before.
Do you want to know how I did this particular illustration from start to finish? Well of course you do so I'll tell you but unfortunately I can't do it with a beat like that cool Marvel rap video from last week so you'll just have to read on.
1) First, put a hole in the box and then you put your . . whoops wrong explaination :) Pretty much like any other illustration this started as a pencil sketch. 2) Once I got it to more or less look the way I wanted it to I went a head and inked it. And if you're saying to your self about now "what do you mean you inked it?" then you've seen Chasing Amy one too many times (not really that movie rocks!). 3) All the color areas on ROM and Sabra were done with fine point coloring pens. So was the Hulk's pants. 4) Next came the Hulk's skin which I did using a combination of pastels (coloring chalk), coloring pens and coloring pencils. 5) And the last step was putting in the background which was just pieces of clothe with pastel powder on them smeared across the paper.
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Well even today Rom just seems to turn up in the damndest of places rather it be a rap song on Youtube or in geek magazine. A big thanks to Rick "smash" Hansen for the heads up on this which I just had to update this posting with for obvious reasons. The first half of the ROM entry is basically just a run down of the toy and comic book history nothing you all don't know already. Interesting that despite being well aware of the character rights legal issue Geek magazine never the less published the cover of ROM #1 which as far as I know they shouldn't have been able to do legally speaking. I guess like IDW Publishing earlier this year with that Rom vs Mars Attacks splash page they just didn't give a shit. It seems every other publisher out there has a bigger set of stones than Marvel which won't even give us a cameo of Rom even now that he's human.
So I finally got my copy of Marvel Team Up Annual #3 which I bought on ebay from a seller who really took their sweet time getting it into the mail. As such you may have noticed I just updated the clip art in the previous posting (The Delmar Connection) Brock Jone's meeting with Power Man & Iron Fist check it out. And you may have also noticed that over the weekend the addition of some clip art from Machine Man #19 of a cameo appearance by Brock Jones compliments of Gary Martin Jr. "a Rom curator".
Poor Brock, longing for the good ol days of his football career stardom having to do the 9 to 5 routine in a business suite behind a desk at Delmar never really settled well for him. The random happenstance of having the Torpedo armor handed off to him like a baton from one runner to another gave him an opportunity he couldn't resist despite the danger to himself and even his family. Unfortunately on the heels of him finally being ready to hang up the super hero gig and go back to being a full time husband and father he had a first time encounter with the sorceress female Dire Wraiths and we all know how that story ended.
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And speaking of all things ebay I guess this is a good a time as any to share these two large scale sketch cards that I saw on ebay some time ago. I seem to remember the full body one going for about $70 and the other for $40. Pretty reasonable prices for some well done original art. Just for the record I didn't buy em I'm just featuring a jpeg file I made out of the ebay ads of them here for this posting.
I know most of you have seen this already but it ties into a little research I've been doing lately in regards to Brock Jone's participation in the Marvel Universe outside of his appearances as The Torpedo. I found out it pretty much revolves around Delmar Insurance which is where former pro football star Brock worked prior to his move to Clairton with his family to take a job as the local high school's football coach as seen in Rom #21. But as most of you know Machine Man's alter ego as Aaron Stack also worked at Delmar Insurance which is what prompted me to add The Torpedo into this fictitious cover which I did as an after thought.
First off I found this appearance of Brock Jones in Marvel Team Up Annual #3 (1980) featuring Machine Man, The Hulk, Luke Cage and Iron Fist and Delmar insurance.
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Also, while doing some research on Machine Man back issues I discovered that Brock was mentioned at least a couple of times in the series and may have had a cameo once. I also learned that Brock had a sister who worked at Delmar which I think I kinda knew about already in the back of my mind. Turns out she was a pretty regular character in that series and had a serious thing for Aaron. Imagine what a surprise that would have been when the lights go out. You know how Machine Man always had these special attachments added to him right? So I'm sure "Aaron Stack" would have come up with just the right attachment for that occasion too. Aaron Stack, that's a good porn actor name but then again so is Brock Jones.
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Brock Jones as himself and as the Torpedo first appeared in the Rom series in issue #21 in which we find out he didn't move to Clairton just to take a new job but also to keep his family safe from The Rocketeers he battled in his Marvel Premiere issues. Unfortunately we also learn in Rom #21 that the Dire Wraiths had infiltrated Delmar and learned of Brock's change of address leading to an action packed issue #22 in which Rom and the Torpedo battled a squadron of these now Wraith Rocketeers.
I did this last year for the Repaneled blog while it was still being updated. For some reason today I wanted to mess around with it a bit. I made some minor tweaks here and there but mostly I made some changes to the back ground color which I was never quite satisfied with when I first drew this. I also added the image of Kate and a tree which I didn't have the first time around. This scene is from Incredible Hulk #296 (Buscema/Mantlo). At the top of the right hand column you can find a link to the original.
Moving on to another issue of The Incredible HULK that Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema worked on. I've blogged a little bit before about issue 286 back in September last year and how it was loosely based on an old Out Limits episode written by Harlan Ellison called "Soldier". But what I didn't know at the time was that this issue turned into something of a controversy. Please read this short article it shouldn't take you longer then 2 or 3 minutes to get through http://www.sequentialellison.com/bibliography/?p=49
The Outer Limits episode can be found on Youtube easily enough just as a full synopsis on issue #286 can be found on the Marvel wikia site. According to jim shooter the fall out from this issue was the result of an act of plagiarism on the part of Mantlo. But I've read the issue and seen the episode and for me the issue always came off as more of a tribute to Ellison's work as opposed to a blatant rip off. But I'm more inclined to believe that given the tenuous work relationship
Mantlo had with shooter along with shooter's over all reputation for
being something of an asshole. Why Ellison was not given a foot note in this issue or other wise contacted before it was written I can't say for sure. But still I like how Mantlo took the very basic aspect of this Outer Limits episode and weaved into the fabric of the Marvel universe which included Marvel characters like Kang that had nothing to do with the episode. In a perfect world we would get to hear Mantlo's side of the story but of course that's not possible. Opinions anybody?
I don't care if you don't like rap or hip hop. If you don't find yourself moving to this awesome Marvel Comics rap song then you might be dead with out knowing it yet. The whole thing is great from start to finish but the line " . . . readership is ready for Rom to return . . " at exactly 1:30 totally rocks! I dunno who these guys are that made this video but clearly this is just more proof of an enduring fan base for the greatest of the spaceknights https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egQ3k3Kltns
