The emperor's new clothes

Let's open up this posting with a big happy 78th birthday to Sal Buscema! Can't say enough good things about this guy's work other then that it is timeless it would look as impressive in today's comics as it did 20 or 30 years ago as seen here in this clip art from ROM 24 and his ROM/Mars Attacks bonus pin up page from IDW last year. Blasting away with his neutrilizer while simultaneously bitch slapping skrulls and chocking the shit out of Martians now that's just bad ass all the way.

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Speaking of artists from Marvel Comics in the 1980s . . . .

When it comes to Steve Dikto's work in the 80s and 90s it's like the Emperor's new clothes. That is to say that no matter how lame the emperor's new clothes are because it's the emperor the people around him will always say he looks great. Now at least I got you all to admit (albeit begrudgingly) that Dikto's run on Rom was far inferior to Buscema's but there's always a bullshit caveat that comes with that admission like "but I'm still glad he worked on the book" or "but I still liked it".

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Ya know what I say about that? That's fucken BULLSHIT because if that same art work was attached to any other name other then Steve Dikto and you were taking it at face value none of you would have any problem saying straight up this sucks and we both know it.
But hey, why should I have all the fun here? One of my favorite videos from The King of Thessaly (K.o.T) actually has a review of a Speedball issue (at 6:50 into the video) written and drawn by Steve Dikto. May the Gods of Galador smile upon you bro for this one I miss your vids. Aside from that how can you not love a guy who stores his _____ in a tin adorned with anti-drug super heroes like Cloak & Dagger?

Hey Torpedo look out behind you!

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I'm so sprung today I finally finished my last day of this month long of 6:30 A.M. to 10 P.M. work days. My crewmen relief period for this time is finally over it's just one job (for the time being) for a while now. And not a moment not too soon I have just enough time to throw this posting together of Chris's latest custom figure before I'm off to the night job. But at least I got all weekend to chat it up with you guys. 

The Micronauts & Spaceknights join forces against the ultimate threat

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Thanks to a descent amount of sleep I managed to get in the last 15 hours I had this after thought to throw this scan from Incredible HULK 288 on top of this posting. I wanted you guys to see the clip art that proceeds the stuff I posted last weekend. For those of you who did not or do not have this issue is just pure awesomeness. To bad we never got to see a confrontation between ROM and The Abomination back in the day.

Folks, I'm so friggin tired right now but this needed to be posted here asap for obvious reasons. Oh I bet Bill would love this. Here's where I found it I'm afraid I just don't have enough energy to write any more on this tonight  . . .
http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=1086661&GSub=104286

Also, the cover art for the Rom remix project recently turned up. In many respects it's a well done illustration but some how it just doesn't capture the essence of the greatest of the spaceknights. Still, it's better then most of the crappy art that's comes from that project thus far http://www.deviantart.com/art/Rom-Spaceknight-full-colour-428424541

Drawing the Marvel Way

I think 288 (1983) was the first Incredible Hulk issue I ever had. My mother grabbed something for me from a gift shop to help pass the time at an airport. So when I saw it at my local comic shop a couple of days ago for a few bucks I bought it in order share some of the best panels in it. I remember being blown away by the art work it was so dynamic you could practically feel and hear the action in it. That kind of drawing style is a good example of what's known as "the Marvel way". Little did I know at the time that it was written and drawn by the same two guys who were working on ROM which I already had had a few issues of.

Now it so happens that Incredible Hulk 288 had a Bullpen Bulletin page which included a Mighty Marvel Checklist that had Rom #47 listed among the other titles out that month. That's ironic given that I had mentioned #47 in the previous posting in reference to Shang Chi The Master of Kung Fu.

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So that tells us at least some of what else Sal Buscema (and Mantlo of course) was working on at the time. But unlike The Hulk title Sal's penciling was complimented by the beautiful inks of the dynamic inking duo Akin & Garvey. Look at that line work in those Rom 47 panels, it's like the brush strokes of a master piece panting. That Mighty Marvel Checklist also included a small feature about the debut of the Cloak & Dagger mini-series so we see that Bill Mantlo had plenty of work on his hands at the time as well.

ROM and The Master of Kung Fu

Here's something that's been on deviant art for a while now it's done by an artist by the name of Scott Reed. This is an interesting collection of characters (Shang Chi, Dracula and Sheena) to put together with ROM but maybe that's why Reed named this fan art "Unusual Heroes" in his gallery? I've featured his stuff here before he did one of the best Rom/Galactus fan art pieces I've ever seen it's unfortunate however that he doesn't  seem to be big on replying to comments . . .

http://scottreed.deviantart.com/gallery/?offset=0

But perhaps we know why he included Shang Chi in it. AFter all The Master of Kung Fu appeared in Rom spaceknight 38 and 39. We would later see him in a cameo flash back (along with some words of praise from Rom) in issue 47 and he was among the Marvel heroes ROM has teamed up with that were part of a bonus pin-up page in issue 50. Shang Chi was one bad mofo in those issues and proof that you don't have to be a spaceknight or even have super powers to kick some serious ass  . . .
http://www.supermegamonkey.net/chronocomic/entries/rom_38-39.shtml

And here we have Chris's latest custom who is no doubt one of the coolest spaceknight designs that Bill and Sal ever came up with. As you can see it's quite awesome even though what's not so awesome is the fact that Gloriole's only appearance ever was in a back story for Rom spaceknight annual 1

Someone over at Plaistallions really likes ROM

This photo turned up last week for the New Years Eve posting on Plaidstallions but in general I've noticed how Rom has been this reoccurring theme on that blog. Now of course as expected there's a fair amount of postings devoted to the Parker Brothers doll including stuff having to do with it's marketing campaign at the time.  But they also do a series of pod casts called Pod Stallions in which each posting for a new episode has some kind of specific art work for that episode's topic. They had a good one recently for the 1980 Flash Gordon movie. Even though I've seen that cheesy flick a million times over the years that pod cast still brought back some great memories. But regardless of the episode topic they always have ROM in the episode art work theme: http://plaidstallions.blogspot.com/search?q=Pod+Stallions
1/11 update: speaking of podcasts check out what just turned up for Rom # 8 and 9 http://bronzeagecomics.tumblr.com/post/72945655368/rom-spaceknight-9-why-is-it-ok-to-murder
For those of you who are fans of Bill Mantlo's work on Cloak & Dagger http://marvel1980s.blogspot.com/2014/01/1983-origins-of-cloak-and-dagger-marvel.html

1994 Marvel Bullpen Bulletins: Sal Buscema

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If there's something out there that's been published with the name Rom on it you can always count on Gary of finding it some how. This was found in Warlock 32. Ya know it really irritates me how even when people concede that Steve Dikto's run on Rom was clearly inferior to Buscema's but still feel compelled to qualify or other wise validate him having penciled the series after Buscema left (after issue 58).
When I open a comic I want to see two things, a good story complimented by good art. Your reputations doesn't mean squat to me if I open up a comic and your penciling sucks. Case and point, have a look at what this guy says in reference to the clip art with the two dire wraiths at the bottom of this page for Rom #58 and #59 review http://www.supermegamonkey.net/chronocomic/entries/rom_58-59.shtml

Incredible Hulk #297

I hope you all checked out that link it's quite ridiculous it's like yeah this new artist on this book I enjoy reading sucks but I'm glad he's doing th eart work for it anyways . . .WTF!?
This latest footnote comes to us by none other then  . . guess who? This panel (Sal Buscema & Bill Mantlo) with Gabriel Jones corresponds with Rom 53 in which Rom, Starshine and Nick Fury convince Ronald Reagen to go public about the dire wraith menace. As always thank you all for 2013 it was fun with you guys here. I know for some of you 2014 has gotten off to a rough start I sure hope things get better sooner then later.

Major props to The King of Thessaly for bring this song to my attention I dunno why I didn't post this last year. This song is funny as Hell here's how it starts, "Stop talking about comic books or I'll kill you . . I don't care if the Hulk can defeat the man of steel . . I'll rearrange your face if you continue to debate whether Logan's claws can pierce Steve Roger's shield . . . "

Step into the NOVA Year with some SABRA

I'm going to open up the New Year with something of a recap. I get the distinct impression that no one bothered to check out the Marvel Age 89 link to the Fred Hembeck two page spread for the Nova chronology a couple postings ago. That's a shame because when I read it I discovered some interesting things I probably should have known already.
Did you know that the original Nova series only lasted for 25 issues? Hard to believe considering the character's popularity today. It also puts things in perspective with Rom who's series lasted for 75 issues. The story line in Nova 25 (damn! I used to have that issue) didn't end with that issue but was actually continued in the pages of The Fantastic 4 and about a year and half later Richard Rider's adventures as Nova would come to an end (for the time being) in Rom 24 as you all know.

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Hat tip to Rick Hansen for sharing this with me. At first I wondered if this was some kind of photoshop none sense but after taking a closer look I'm more inclined to believe this is legit. No other information on this unfortunately.
 

Here we have Sabra rockin the Jew fro look. Along with Misty Knight, Sabra is the only other heroine in the Marvel Universe who can make that style look good. The posting I found this cool fan art at was a fun read. The artist isn't that familiar with the Sabra character apparently but was never the less inspired to draw her anyways because of all the Bill Mantlo related stuff I'm always posting on this blog. What you see here is probably the easiest digital coloring job I've ever done but of course you can see the original line art at the posting link below. This is a good example of the sort of art work that's easy to color unlike that Torpedo piece I did a few postings ago.
http://kimoyancey.blogspot.com/search?q=rom+

Behold, The King of Thessaly (K.o.T) has returned. On your knees dog!