Welcome to Clairton West Virginia

Ya know I was thinking the other day if I keep making these sketch cards I might eventually have a enough for a deck. Kinda like those collectible of trading cards in the late 70s and 80s that used to come wrapped in that waxed paper with a strip of bubble gum inside.
In case anyone is wondering I do know about the ROM doll appearance in the recent Comic Book Men episode. It would have been nice however if they hadn't been whining so much about their conflicted adolescent feelings back in the day and maybe kept the focus more on ROM. Perhaps even share their thoughts about the new series next year? Just sayin.
So moving on, this weekend I'll be flying down to LA with my wife for a race she wants to participate in she likes running more then Forest Gump. We'll be staying in the down town area and thanks to a Google search yesterday I discovered about 3 to 4 comic shops within a five mile radius. And since we'll have a rental car and a few hours to kill I'll try to check at least a couple of them out. If I find anything new and cool that's ROM related I'll be sure to update this posting accordingly. One of the near by comic shops is called Mega City One how cool is that!?

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Left click to enlarge

Oct. 25th Update: Well it just goes to show you as the old adage says "What's in a name?". Mega City One was much to do about nothing as far as good comic shops go. However, Golden Apple Comics was a pretty damn cool comic shop however, among other things they had a pretty large stash of discount back issue boxes so I had plenty to read at the airport and on the plane even though LA to Oakland is a pretty short flight. Unfortunately I didn't find anything there cool that was ROM related I didn't already have. But on a high note in regards to my visit there my ROM t-shirt which I was wearing was very warmly received by some of the staff and customers alike. All the chatter about what made the series cool and the high hopes for the 2016 re-launch was the next best thing to finding something like my letter in that Back Issue magazine earlier this month.

Rom Annual 2 cosplay cover variant courtesy of Gary Martin Jr.

Halloween weekend update: Well I hope you all had a fun and safe Halloween. Halloween is still fun but it's not quite what it used to be back in the 1980s. An all around better decade where we had a new issue of ROM to look forward to every month, Marvel didn't suck and it was safe for kids to go trick or treating with out adult supervision.

My Spacenotes and Micromail in BACK ISSUE Magazine 82

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So yesterday I was in downtown Berkeley with some friends and I needed a mental break from all the gibberish they were talking so I slipped into a near by comic shop I like to frequent when I happen to be in the area. By chance I thumbed through a copy of BACK ISSUE Magazine #82 (Aug. issue) just for the heck of it and decided to buy it because it had some articles about the original Secret Wars I and Secret Wars II (with plenty of ROM & Micronauts references) series that looked pretty interesting. Plus I wanted something to read it didn't look like there was gonna be shit on TV last night.
Well imagine my surprise when I got to the letters page toward the end of the evening and found my letter there although I don't remember entitling it "Mantlo Booster" I think that's something they added. Plus it seems like they also may have tweaked my letter a bit to. In fact I had totally forgotten about the letter altogether seeing as I wrote and sent it back in December 2014 in response to a Micronauts article for BACK ISSUE Magazine #76 published October 2014. As far as published letters go this is the second one I've discovered this year back in May I learned about a 2012 Avengers Academy issue that printed my letter as well. Ironically I was giving them shit about some Avengers Academy issues which were written by Christos Gage who is slated to co-write the 2016 ROM series.

BACK ISSUE Magazine #82

Rather big or small BACK ISSUE Magazine once again showing they don't give a shit about copy rights issues when it comes to printing ROM. As many of you know there have been a number of reprinted material over the years in which Marvel removed ROM's likeness including in a color version of this poster art.

All the ROM and Micronauts stuff aside there were some pretty interesting topics in those articles being discussed. Apparently there was some kind of "disconnect" in the deal between Mattel's Secret Wars toy line and Marvel Comics. Ever wonder why Mattel came out with accessory toys like The Doom Roller or Captain America's Turbo Cycle which were never in the series? Or better yet why did they never make any figures of any female characters like She-Hulk or Enchantress? Or why would they make a figure for Kang who was "killed" off by issue #4 but never a HULK figure who was pivotal through out the series? Not to mention the figures that Mattel made like Daredevil, Iceman or The Constrictor who were never in the series in the first place. It's funny according to the Secret Wars article the comic book series was a huge hit which I certainly remember being the case back in the day but apparently the toys line was some what of a marketing failure much like the Parker Brothers ROM spaceknight doll. That certainly wasn't my impression at the time I had a few of the figures and they seemed to be fairly popular at the time although not quite as much as Masters of The Universe, G.I.Joe or The Transformers. However, just like the ROM doll the Secret Wars action figure line have become highly sought after collector's items especially the ones still in their original packaging.