Wednesday, August 26, 2015

1st issue art comparisons



Nothing new this month folks as far as any news, cool Rom related tid bits from the distant past or fan art to post. But I've been thinking of posting this side by side comparison of ROM and Onyx #1 so I figured this month was a good a time as any although I was hoping to have something else to share as well. Emailed a letter to IDW last month and got a response about how it might end up in issue 3's letter column but I'll believe that when I see it. And speaking of future Onyx issues what's up with issue 2 it doesn't appear to have come out yet.

Left click to enlarge
August 27 Update: If you've read the opening comment for this posting this is one of the things Gary was talking about. The Easter egg in this panel intimates at something that could have been cool but because we're talking about something ROM related that marvel would have to do we can be sure it'll never happen. Again, thanks for nothing marvel you stinking douche bags.


And also we have this from the letter column of Incredible Hulk 421 (Sept. 1994). This was one of two letters that contained words of praise for the appearance of ROM and Brandy at Rick Jones's wedding in Incredible Hulk 418. What I liked about this letter in particular was actually the reply it got from the editor. It shows that even after nearly ten years after the last issue of ROM it's obvious he was still on many people's radar. Of course that was now 20 year ago, damn. Gary, this was a great find, thanks.

Obviously the rise of the internet in the late 90s gave a new forum for enduring ROM fans to continue to rally for his return which eventually paid off. I'm glad to see that IDW had a bit more faith in ROM's marketability then marvel ever did which is what I think this all boils down to when it came to the licensing hang up all these years. Fuck marvel, and as for Hasbro don't keep us waiting too long for some new and better ROM related merchandise.

9 comments:

  1. Hi Dave!

    Chris Ryall said on twitter last week that Onyx #2 would be out on Sept. 9th, Wednesday after next. Onyx #3 & the final issue #4 were solicited for September & October but I'd guess they'll be pushed back to October & November at least.

    Last week I saw some online solicitations for the new Venom series and it looks like the sub-title will be Space Knight as two words, so that's even more of a head-scratcher now. Still no clues of any connection to Galador etc., though the new Venom: Space Knight logo was shown small on an action figure variant cover, and a companion poster was solicited without art preview so it may or may not have the logo on it. Can anyone who gets Marvel Press Posters let us know if they usually have text on them?

    It will be interesting, I think, to see how all the licensing acrobatics shake out & shape up eventually...I mean, IDW's logo (as we've only seen in one teaser preview image) insists on "The Space Knight", presumably to distance itself somehow from the classic comic title or Marvel's one-word Spaceknights; now Venom in its second preview separates the word for probably a similar reason.

    Update: just found this... http://www.comicbookresources.com/article/thompson-goes-errant-in-marvels-venom-space-knight

    Series writer Robbie Thompson says "With regards to the Space Knights, we're not exactly doing the Galador Space Knights, but there's a sort of idea there we're going to be getting into in the long term of the book."

    So A) Marvel continues its inexplicable slide away from established lore like "Galadorian" becoming "Galadoran", and B) good luck keeping the train on the rails until the "Space Knights" "idea" can show up.

    One more groan-worthy tidbit for ya Dave: TwoMorrow's Comic Book Fever's release date was changed again to April 20, 2016.

    Can it all be saved with some great ROM mentions from the letters page of 1994's Incredible Hulk #421, a sly ROM reference in 2001's Ultimate Marvel Team-Up #9, or a ROM page from the recent book The League of Regrettable Superheroes: Half-Baked Heroes from Comic Book History? Let me know what you haven't seen yet & sounds interesting.

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    1. unfucken believable about Onyx and especially Twomorrow's Publishing of Comic Book Fever! and i don't even want to hear any more about this "Venom spaceknight" crap it just sounds so stupid. as for all that stuff in the last part of your comment Gary why don't you let me have a look at it all let's see if we can spruce up this posting at least.

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    2. Lets see what this stuff was all about!

      "Can it all be saved with some great ROM mentions from the letters page of 1994's Incredible Hulk #421, a sly ROM reference in 2001's Ultimate Marvel Team-Up #9, or a ROM page from the recent book The League of Regrettable Superheroes: Half-Baked Heroes from Comic Book History? Let me know what you haven't seen yet & sounds interesting."

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    3. Hi Dana, when I wrote all that, the only thing in Dave's main post above was the Onyx comparisons. He has since added 2 of the 3 items I showed him, so just scroll up for the Hulk letters page mentions and the Ultimate Marvel Team-Up gag. You might need a magnifying glass, tho. As for the League Of Regrettable Superheroes book excerpt, I think Dave caught a glimpse of Ditko artwork in it and straight into the trash it went before he could even consider posting it here. ;-)

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  2. Yeah, marvel letting a good number of 80's franchises leave the company is a pretty big head-scratching move when you think about how popular and how much money they probably made Marvel. GI Joe and Transformers alone did huge numbers. I will cede that by and large they were no longer cool by the mid 90's. Still. trends go through cycles, and now those two franchies are back and doing good numbers for IDW.

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    1. IDW certainly has an interesting business model it seems no licensed properties are off limits for them to try out rather it be 80s cartoons geared toward teenage girls like JEM or BBC net work shows like Orphan Black. and let me just say fuck marvel one more time for good measure.

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  3. I see you got the Variant Sal cover for issue 1 really is the best of them. I recently acquired this as well.
    Interesting about the letter pages as well.

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    1. i wish. i just lifted that image off the net for this posting i got stuck with one of the variants i didn't much care for. it's the one where Onyx is standing in a door way of a room with a bunch of dudes that all look like their from the Great Depression era of American history. truth be told my favorite cover is the convention edition http://tumblr.idwpublishing.com/post/121206812701/onyx-1-convention-variant-cover-by-gabriel

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