From the pages of Wizard Magazine issue 114 March 2001

Grabbed a random Wizard magazine issue today out of a quarter box for some lite reading and woe and behold look what I found in the back pages. It's a nice little find but at first I had a bit of trouble trying to understand this graph but then it sunk in. Interestingly enough here's another one of those examples where a publisher with out the property rights printed ROM's likeness with out any legal fuss. Anyways, getting back to the graph. Notice how the amount of titles published by Marvel were on the rise all the way up to the early 90s only to make a nearly 50% drop over the course of the next decade and quite literally leading into the new century? I wonder if something similar was the case for DC? If so, the 90s must have been something of a down turn in the comic book industry.

Ya ever been to either a comic shop or a convention and saw something that you used to have but totally forgot about it even though it's as cool now as it was then? I had one of those moment when I saw this movie poster through the window of this collectibles shop. Brings back good memories my dad got this for me back when I was a kid I'm glad I was able to at least find a descent image of it on the internet to post here. When you think about it I'm a lot like Dr. Jones. He hunts for ancient relics that usually end up in a museum or government warehouse. In a way I do the same thing when it comes to little known ROM related relics which usually end up in a posting.

ROM the action figure arrival for 43 dollars

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Well here we go folks my figure just arrived in the mail. Yep, I just decided to say fuck it and hit that "Buy Now" button on ebay when I saw it for only $43 with free shipping. That was by far the cheapest deal I had come across after having looked around for the past couple weeks. I didn't really see much point in waiting another two weeks or a month on the chance it turns up by another seller for a few bucks less I just wanted to see what the figure is like beyond photos on the internet sooner then later. Plus the seller I bought it from very quickly answered my questions before I committed to the purchase which pretty much was the final selling point, customer service really can go a long way with prospective buyers. As for the dealer you might be interested to know according to him he purchased two of the Hasbro sets for the express purpose of breaking them apart and selling off the individual pieces. So now that I have it I'm pretty happy with it despite what ever imperfections it might have. Shit, I don't understand why there aren't any better photos of this thing on the internet it's virtually as articulate as a Micronauts or G.I.Joe figure. As an over all product for a ROM fan it is still profoundly more satisfying then the the poorly handled ROM related continuity from marvel in the past 17 years and more recently that horrible mighty mugg doll and ofcourse IDW's Rom in name only series. Coolest ROM spaceknight merchandise I've gotten since my T-shirt from Redbubble a while back . . .
http://romspaceknightart.blogspot.com/2014/09/gods-of-galador-my-new-rom-t-shirt-fits.html

Any of you out there watch The Defender's first season yet? I went through the whole season last Sunday and damn I have to say it was pretty good. I know the whole independent heroes becoming reluctant allies thing in the Marvel Universe might be a bit of a cliche at this point but it's still fun as hell to watch if it's written well as was the case also for The Avengers. The chemistry between the characters is great and the quips gave me more then a few good laughs. The other strong selling point is that the series seems to have found a really good balance between the original source material and the NetFlix reinterpretations of the characters and that includes Elektra. And it some ways that especially goes for the Misty Knight (SO HOT!) character you'll be like "holly shit" when you see what happens to her in the final episode. The only little bit of a let down I had was that I was hoping to get a Punisher appearance some where in the season even if it had just been as part of a cliff hangar at the end of the final episode. Can't imagine him not showing up at some point in the following season or seasons of The Defenders.

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I thought this might be a good time to share this from The Fear It's Self series a few years or so ago. The dire wraith appearance in this story line never was explained or other wise made any sense but this was kind of a cool moment with Luke Cage.

ROM vs ROM in The SD Comic Con Universe

So I feel like it's time for me to weigh in on this. Have you noticed how many of this loose ROM SDCC figures which are originally part of a Hasbro set have turned up on ebay already!? The price range seems to be between 50 to 60 dollars. Makes you really wonder where the Hell these people are finding these things but I'm sure the answer to that is multifaceted. Now as for the figure it's self I'm not sure why, but I'm glad it fundamentally is based on the original ROM spaceknight design as opposed to IDW's version which I really hate as you all well know.
For some old school ROM fans the fingers alone are gonna be a deal breaker but I've never really minded the concept of an updated version of ROM having fingers so that's not much of a problem for me. I do wish however that it twisted or other wise moved at the waist which it does not appear to do upon close inspection of larger resolution photos on the internet. But still, what a massive improvement on all accounts over that stupid ass hero mighty mugg whatever bullshit from the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con. That thing was garbage and it was sad to see some ROM fans out there be in denial about it just like some Star Wars fans when The Phantom Menace came out. So at least now there's actually some none comic book ROM merchandise worth buying out there....for the right price that is. And that might take some patience and time. Trivago might be able to help you find the right hotel for the best price but when it comes to a loose SDCC ROM figure you're on your own.

Side walk chalk drawing at Calicraft Brewing Company Walnut Creek 

August 7 update: Just as an after thought I thought I'd add some cool images of public art I've spotted in The San Francisco Bay Area in recent days, enjoy.

Public art on city utility station, Hayward

By Preston Asevedo

Aug 11th update: A bit more of a thorough job of inking would have gone a long way to giving this scene a bit more depth but this is other wise some pretty solid fan art for both ROM and Starshine. Brings back some good memories of the good ol days.

Seattle 2017

Just got back this past weekend from my latest trip to Seattle and I had a few things I wanted to share with you all. Seattle is hands down my favorite city in the entire United States of America. I feel like it has the best of what The San Francisco Bay Area has to offer with less of the things about The S.F. Bay that get on my nerves but in general there's just something about The Great Pacific Northwest that makes me feel most at home.

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I got some great photos of The Space Needle which is Seattle's most recognizable land mark. Built in 1962 for The Worlds Fair I've always felt it was one of the finest examples of the best of both worlds when it comes to engineering and elegant design.

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For many years the Aurora avenue bridge has become a haven for drug addicts so the city had this giant sculpture commissioned, it's known as The Fremont Troll. Don't know if it was intended to have a scarecrow like effect or if they knew it would become a tourist attraction. But I suppose it worked, I can't imagine stoners or meth heads wanting to get high around here with all the people climbing around this thing at all hours of the day.

This picture of the police spinner from Blade Runner is actually from my 2014 trip to Seattle at the museum of music history and sci-fi. I'm such a big fan of the original Blade Runner film I really really really hope the sequel that comes out later this year doesn't suck. We'll find out soon enough I can't believe it's August already where the Hell did the first half of this year go!?

By Cesar Hernandez

August 2 update: Just happened to find this last night before I hit the sack. Ironically only 3 days after the previous blog posting this They Live inspired commission piece with Squirrel Girl (a character I admittedly know of but really nothing about) holding ROM's neutralizer was posted to deviant art.

But before I went to bed I whipped this up in photoshop for the sake of a little fun with this whole They Live theme.