Will 2023 be a Happy New Year?

For openers, I wanted to repost this fan art that I originally did right after I saw Captain America The Winter Soldier when it came out in theaters. Yeah, it's been almost 8 years now since that movie came out. Yeah I know, where does the time go right? But when I first posted it I only had Sabra and Captain America along with ROM. All these years I never quite felt like the scene was truly complete. So I recently added Iron Man and the Monica Rambeau Captain Marvel. There was too much unused space before so now it looks right. Perfectly balanced, as all things should be.

Now here's something new! This awesome splash page style fan art may look familiar to you. But at the same time you're sure you've never actually seen it before. I believe the art work was done by Alan Davis who's easily among the best of the best when it comes to Marvel 80s artists . . .    https://romspaceknightart.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-nova-vs-dire-wraiths-halloween-e.html

With just two months to go before new year's eve I find myself wondering what kind of year 2023 will be for a number of reasons. When it comes to Captain America: New World Order we're not gonna be able to see it next year but you can bet there's gonna be plenty of promotional marketing and leaks for fan boys to discuss and debate all year long. No doubt through out next year we'll also start to get a better idea of the MCU's interpretation of the Sabra character. I can't help but wonder if that will prompt another wave of antisemitic nut jobs on social media acting like a bunch of babies with soiled diapers. 

Then ofcourse there are the other questions about 2023. Is covid going to be even further in the rear view mirror? Will there be any progress made on any meaningful steps to mitigate climate change? And then there's the war in Ukraine brought on by putin's insane invasion. I don't even want to think about how many different ways that could get even worse but I'm still so impressed with the gains Ukraine have made and in general with their tactical ingenuity and fighting spirit. I hope putin gets testicular cancer, Lou Gehrig's disease and complications from an enlarged prostate all at the same time next year. 

 

November 15th Update: I managed to see Black Panther Wakanda forever on opening weekend and I enjoyed it for the most part. The cast really raised their game in the absence of Chadwick Boseman's presence and the writing was well done as both a sequel and in regards to paying tribute to Boseman's legacy. I'm still on the fence about the MCU's interpretation of The Sub-Mariner character and there's a few relatively minor aspects of the film that could have been handled better or but like I said overall it was pretty good.

I'm a bit late to the game on this recent bit of sad news from last week about the passing of Batman voice actor extraordinaire Kevin Conroy. In the past few days I've learned a little more about the man aside from his many years of work as a voice actor, he seemed like a really nice guy. I gotta wonder if his volunteer work at ground zero right after 911 had something to do with the damn cancer that ended his life at only 66 years old?

November 29th Update: Just did this latest sketch card over the Thanksgiving Day holiday weekend. It's been a while since I've done any fan art with The Torpedo.

 December 6th Update: 

Truth be told, I'm not really a big fan of Kirstie Alley as a person. But in light of her sudden passing from cancer (which a happened to fall on my birthday of all days) I still feel obliged to give her a shout out for some of her past work as an actress I've enjoyed. That work being her appearances in films like Runaway, Village of The Damned and ofcourse as Lt. Savvik from Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan.

Lafayette California Stands with Ukraine

Easter eggs and cameos

Today I inadvertently came across this really cool fan made cover art homage to All Star Squadron issue 1. It was on some site called Tumpik which I've never heard of before. The Tumpik page this art work was labeled as "Art Edit Credit to Roberto Coltro" so I guess Mr. Coltro is the artist. If you're a comic book fan then it's a good chance you've seen the source material this homage is based on but if you don't recall what the original cover art looks like a Google search take care of that easy enough. But this piece has a lot going for it along with being a nice cover art homage.

Although I'm quite grateful that among this multiverse Easter eggs collection we have The Greatest of The Spaceknights present, there's a lot of other great ones as well spanning from many different genres of sci-fi and comic book pop culture. I mean look at them there's Mr. Spock, Space Ghost, Silver Hawks and even The Mandalorian just to name a few. Also, the cover art has both Flash Gordon and Star Lord in it even though that's not the MCU or even the contemporary Marvel Comics Star Lord. It reminds me of the scene from Avengers: Infinity War where Tony Stark sarcastically refers to Peter Quill as Flash Gordon in which Quill responds by letting Tony know he considers that a compliment. 

What you see here is a page from some sort of UK publication from the 90s that I think was affiliated with Marvel some how although I don't think there was any sort of official cross over story lines with the main stream Marvel Universe at the time. I'm not a big fan of the artist's caricaturist style when it comes to drawing people and the coloring needs some work. But the dire wraith is drawn quite well and having Forge's Neutralizer in the scene is a nice touch. Gotta think the artist and or writer was a ROM fan.

I was reading a copy of Incredible HULK yesterday and discovered two things. The first being that Sabra actually made a cameo appearance, meaning that technically speaking Incredible Hulk 256 was not her first Marvel Comics appearance. Considering how big of a Sabra fan I am I'm kinda embarrassed I didn't know have known that already. And the letters page also had this informal ROM promo. After reading that letter it's hard to imagine even a sub standard inker making Sal's pencils look lack luster.  

I recently found out that Marvel Comic Books is actually not the only media Sabra has appeared in. She also made a cameo appearance in the mid 90s Fantastic Four cartoon series episode 26. Her cameo was proceeded by a few others as The Silver Surfer flew through various parts of the world. I think that was a nod to Incredible Hulk 250 in which we see a similar event that gave us cameos of what was then new Marvel characters like Sabra and The Arabian knight among others.
 

October 13th Update: Ya know it really pisses me off what celebrity deaths the media chooses to give a lot of attention to and which others they hardly make any mention off. I just found out about the passing of Louise Fletcher late last month. Fletcher was best known for her antagonistic roles as Nurse Ratchet from One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest and as Kia Winn from Star Trek: Deep Space 9. That was a great Star Trek series and she played one of those characters you love to hate, but in a good way. When you look back at her decades old acting career you'll realize she's popped up in many other roles you may not have recognized her in at the time such as in the 80s science fiction horror classic Firestarter. Fletcher was 88 years old.

October 21st Update: Well here we go again with note worthy celebrity deaths missed by the media. I just found out that actor David Warner passed away at 80 way back in July. Ya know, it's not like his acting career consisted of just some commercials and as an extra on a few TV shows or something. TRON, Time Bandits, numerous Star Trek characters, The Titanic, Time After Time and the list just goes on forever. Rest in peace David and fuck the mainstream media for hardly saying a thing about your passing or the amazing work you did for decades but gave us 24/7 coverage of Queen Elizabeth's death for almost 2 or so goddamn weeks.

Legacies

So from time to time I like to post public art I discover that's related to the comic book/sci-fi/fantasy genre that I discover by chance. Well here's the latest on, which I found in San Francisco recently. As you can see it's clearly derived from TRON Legacy. A really beautiful mural especially on the details on her face it's just too bad it wasn't done on a smoother surface instead of a corrugated roll up door.

And I just wanted to also remind you that the TRON Legacy trailer 2 included a brief shot of ROM spaceknight 26 along with some other cool 80s Easter eggs.

In this latest sketch card fan art, an unknown spaceknight takes center stage in repelling a dire wraith invasion war fleet. 

https://www.deviantart.com/nikoskap/gallery

September 11 Update: On something of a side note here. I have to mention how much of a pleasant surprise last week's announcement of Sabra's inclusion into the MCU was to me. As was the casting choice of Shira Hass given her age and physic. What wasn't a big surprise at all was the antisemitic backlash on social media. The MCU's interpretation of the Sabra character in Captain America: New World Order will be interesting to say the least and needless to say I'm looking forward to seeing how this continues to unfold over the next year or so. https://www.jpost.com/omg/article-716850

Something Dire This Way Comes

Last weekend I got this idea to do a spot light piece for the dire wraiths. I wanted to do something in particular that was as menacing and creepy as possible with out depicting any sort of out right gore. My fan art that includes the wraiths usually features them getting banished, dismembered, stabbed or blown up so I decided to do something a bit different this time. Ofcourse I could never do anything that would come even close to the days of Bill Mantlo's writing, Sal Buscema's pencils with Akin & Garvey inks. But I'm pretty happy with this sci-fi horror movie poster kinda look that resulted from my efforts.

 

 

It's been quite a while since we've seen ROM or any reference to him in any sort of publication. But at least in this month's issue of BACK ISSUE magazine 137 he gets a name drop in an article about Power Lords which was a short lived toy line that DC Comics made into a 3 issue mini-series. It's nice to see that ROM still gets some recognition today when it comes to published articles about comics from licensed properties of the 70s and 80s despite more then two decades of Marvel's poor attempts at continuity for the original series and ofcourse idw's atrocious reboot. All of which can be said for The Micronauts as well.

And speaking of invasions by evil and vile creatures, please stand with Ukraine.

 

Nichelle Nichols passes away at 89 but leaves a legacy for the ages

I had just completed putting this posting together prior to the sad news about Nichelle Nichols having passed away so for this posting I'm going to lead with her. I've been a Star Trek fan for pretty much all my life although my interest in Star Trek came on a bit more gradually and a bit later in my adolescence then in the case of Star Wars. I know that given the age of the original cast members that this sort of news shouldn't come as a huge surprise but it still feels like a punch bellow the waist.

Did you know that after season 1 of the original series that Nichols considered leaving the show despite Gene Roddenberry begging her to stay? Apparently it was Martin Luther King who ultimately convinced her to stay on the show. It can't be understated enough how much of a pioneer Nichelle Nichols has been in the history of America's civil rights movement with everything from the first interacial kiss on TV to her efforts for creating more diversity at NASA. She was 89, so when you think of all she achieved both professionally and personally you have to take into account what was going on in America in her life time as a black woman. A beautiful human being both inside and out, Nichelle Nichols leaves an amazing legacy for not just Star Trek fans but also for great achievements off screen to. 

 

 

 

Well the last posting featured fan made cover variant so why not one more to open up this posting to? This was originally a black n' white sketch card https://www.deviantart.com/nikoskap/art/Micronauts-sketch-card-922465755

But I felt it had potential to be something more so I colored it and added the other necessary embellishments to give it that Marvel 80s touch.

 

Here's my latest envelope fan art. This one has an 80s properties or what might be today a "Hasbroverse" kinda theme to it. I think the "Hasbroverse" concept works better as envelope fan art then it does as an actual story line we all remember what a train wreck that was with IDW.

No photoshop nonesense going on here. The Godzilla prop on top of that high rise and the full size Gundamn robot are both quite real. A friend of mine is on an extended stay in Japan right now and he's been sending me some fantastic photos in recent weeks. Some have to do with all things in Japan that are related to the comic book/sci-fi/fantasy genre. Of those, I wanted to share these two in particular because this stuff is awesome and you'll only find in Japan. Those must have been a Hell of a sight to see in person.

 

 

 Just on a whim today I decided to revisit a fan art piece that I did 11 years ago although it doesn't feel like it was that long ago. I was always happy with how Ikon came out from a figure composition stand point but I kinda lost my focus with the other elements in the sketch piece and as a result it never did look quite right to me plus it also felt like it was missing something to. you can see the original here romspaceknightart.blogspot.com

 

IKON was Marvel's attempt to fill the Greatest of The Spaceknights void. And at times there was some promising moments as we saw IKON team up with cosmic powerhouses like Beta Ray Bill, Gladiator, Quasar, Silver Surfer and Ronin. We even at one point got to see her lead a task force of classic spaceknights giving us a bit of the old Mantlo magic from the original series. But that was very short lived and Marvel true to form fucked it all up with her apparent untimely demise along with Galador. We would see a couple brief unexplained appearances not long after that and then that was it. Haven't seen her since 2014 so fuck you very much Marvel Comics. And don't think I forgot about you also IDW with your shitty ROM and Micronauts reboot fails you fucken suck also.

 

 

WELL SAID!

The Greatest of the Spaceknigts unleashed

Well just for starters I'm revisiting my ROM Spaceknight 16 cover variant (or re-cover) which is 10 years old now. It's always been one of my favorite fan art efforts.

But I also have some brand new kick ass Marvel 80s extravaganza fan art to showcase today thanks to my fellow artist in Greece (see link below). Here we have something of a mutliverse team-up cross over with G.I.Joe's Snake-Eyes and a number of Marvel superheroes. Now there's so many different story concepts that could work for what's going on in this scene but clearly these guys are getting ready to face some unseen menace. A menace that could be anything from Cobra, the Dire Wraiths, another russian invasion or for all we now the insurrectionist MAGA nut jobs from January 6th in Washington D.C. 

https://www.deviantart.com/nikoskap/gallery

June 25th Update:  I gotta tell ya, thanks to Disney Plus I've learned to love the Star Wars franchise again. Rogue 1 was clearly just a flash in the pan in what has other wise been an utterly miserable series of cinematic disasters for nearly 20 years now. I ended up liking the Kenobi series way more then I thought I would and the last two episodes just really hit it out of the park. Ofcourse I loved the Mandalorian from the very start and despite some of the belly aching from the fan base I think there was far more about The Book of Boba Fett to like then to dislike. Last night I was looking at Mandalorian fan art on deviant art and got the idea for this sketch card. I believe this is my first ever ROM Star Wars cross over fan art effort. It's about damn time!

July 7th Update:  Just did this Uncanny X-Men 222 homage cover art Wraith War sketch card on the fly last night. Getting home from work at a reasonable hour does wonders for the imagination. This dire wraith is going to be in for some serious disappointment if it tries to tongue spike Wolverine's adamantium laced skull.

Not too long after I posted my new sketch card today I found out the sad news about James Caan passing away at 82. I sure wish the media would mention some of his other movies that I really liked such as Rollerball, Alien Nation and Eraser. I enjoyed the Alien Nation TV series as well along with at least the first made for TV spin off movie. I think actors Gary Graham and Eric Pierpoint did a pretty good job of reproducing the chemistry of Caan and Patinkin.

The Marvel Team Up issue you never saw coming

It's been a long time since any brand new ROM related fan art has come along that I thought was pretty good outside of the collaborative efforts of myself and my Greek friend  https://www.deviantart.com/nikoskap. This fan art piece by Lou Russo is essentially what the opening page might look like in some sort of Marvel Team-Up issue with ROM, Spider-Man and The Micronauts going up against the combined evil of Baron Karza and The Dire Wraiths. A really creative piece with some obvious Marvel 80s nostalgia. ROM could use a bit of tweaking from a figure composition stand point but still overall this is some nice fan art. Wish something like this would come along more often then just a couple times a year.

https://brainstomping.com/2017/03/08/rom-el-mas-grande-de-los-caballeros-del-espacio-y-bill-rayos-beta-separados-al-nacer/

 

                

June15th Update: Revisiting some random fan art of my own from over the years that I recently realized I hadn't never posted on this blog for reasons unknown. 

Neal Adams, the passing of a titan 1941-2022

With William Hurt's reoccurring role as General "Thunderbolt" Ross, this is now the second time this year someone who made their mark on the comic book genre industry has passed away. In honor of Neal Adams legacy in all aspects (as an artist and advocate for artist rights) of the comic book industry I'm posting this mind blowing splash page of Armor 2 from Continuity Comics that Adams penciled. This scene definitely gives new meaning to the splash in splash page. His art work is really timeless. You could take anything he did like on Batman or in The X-Men of the late 70s and it'll hold up to anything in contemporary comic book art. Unlike Ditko, Adams would have made a great replacement for Sal Buscema on the ROM Spaceknight series. On an interesting side note I just learned that Neal Adams was Jewish although as far as I can tell Adams is the family name he was born with.

And speaking of all things ROM, here's the latest envelope fan art for my friend and artistic collaborator in Greece. Turns out aside from our mutual love of science fiction and comics we're also on the same page politically on most things so bonus points to the 4 or 5 people who will see this posting and get the significance of ROM and company attacking the military forces that this tank belongs to. 

It's been quite a while since I've had something to post outside of fan art so today is a pleasant change of pace. This is no doubt one of the most obscure ROM Easter eggs I've ever come across. This panel is from issue 11 of the mid to late 80s comic book series X-Thieves published by COMICS Interview Publications. From what I've seen of it online it's a rather quirky and all around bizarre story line that probably is best enjoyed if the reader doesn't expend too much time and energy trying to make sense of it. I don't think it's any coincidence that right next to the ROM mask is another one of a toaster oven.

 May 7th Update: It's down right creepy how the death of yet another legendary artist from the comic book industry (George Perez ofcourse) should not only happen basically a week after Neal Adams passing but also on this year's Free Comic Book Day. As an artist, pretty much all the words of praise I gave to Adams also applies to Perez. His work was timeless in it's quality and appeal. Rest In Peace George.

June 5th Update: I just got back from a weekend in Sacramento California and I saw this Thanos mural in the downtown area so I was like...."yeah I need to do one more update to this posting". It's a real pleasure to post some little known sci-fi or comic book based public art once in a while. I have no idea who did this all I can tell you is that upon a closer look I could see this was painted on two separate horizontal pieces of plywood like boards.