Fan art . . .the good, the bad and the bizarre

Think of this posting as a public service announcement. Kinda like an emergency broadcast on your TV once in a while.

https://www.deviantart.com/nikoskap

The two works above are examples of the good. Well illustrated and creative while also being faithful to the source material. Everything below, would be good examples of the bad and the bizarre which unfortunately are far more commonly found then the good stuff. Yeah I know I'm kinda of being a dick by doing a posting like this but truth be told I had wanted to do this since early last year but had always felt it was kinda of crossing a line. But now, with this being a semi-retired blog these days I'm not really too worried about making new friends or my reputation. I'm just so very happy to finally really make this point.

All this shit should be banished to Limbo

I really love it when I come across some kind of ROM related fan art that reminds me of the good ol days of when I had a new issue of ROM or some kind of tie-in to look forward to every month. None of that kind of shit does that for me. When I see that stuff it's like that feeling you get when you see a dead animal on the road or people who spit in public all the time.

San Francisco's Mission District

March 30th Update: And speaking of good art. Here's some local stuff of a more large scale and public nature.

Oakland's China Town

June 12th Update:  I wanted to do something different for a change and feature ROM with his translator. I always thought that was a cool reveal from issue 50 so I imagine at some point ROM would have had to use his translator during his time hunting down the dire wraiths within the Skrull empire.

Rom spaceknight 50

June 20th Update: It recently occurred to me that I've never done any fan art of the male dire wraiths so here we go.

June 22nd Update: The greatest of the spaceknights vs Deathwing, nuff said. You might say this was a David and Goliath kinda match up.

June 29nd Update: Here's something from artist Lou Russo worth having a look at if you're a ROM fan who also happens to like Star Trek and ALIENS (the first two movie only) like I am. I'm not a big fan how he draws ROM most of the time but he came out ok here and as always I give Russo high Marks for creativity. The link below has the full size image...
https://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=1559313

July 18th Update:  Looks like I had one last sketch card up my sleeve as the saying goes.

Envelope fan art by David Holsey

August 14th Update: I really love envelope art especially when it arrives to it;s final destination still looking ok.

 

 

A reason to feel a bit more optimistic about IDWs ROM reboot

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From the pages of Comic Heroes Magazine issue 27. Allow me to bring your attention to the paragraph inside the red square. Perhaps there's some hope in regards to the questionable ROM redesign as seen in the Previews clip art that had everybody (myself included up in arms) up in arms. But again there's no way to know for sure until the series comes out so ultimately the jury's still out on this but in about two weeks from now (FCBD) we should be able to get into more serious deliberations.

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On the flip side the IDW Micronauts series has generated next to no controversy and as far as I know will be turning up on comic book shelves on new comic book day this upcoming Wednesday. I have every intention of making it to the store that day to get a copy of issue 1. For which I will most certainly update this blog posting with after I get done reading it so be on the look out for that. Years ago I came across a letter to the editor in an old issue of Marvel's Micronauts with a good question a reader had that Marvel had no answer for but gave a "no prize" recognition for. If a person traveled to a planet much larger then Earth they would be subject to some serious gravitational pull they wouldn't be used to. So how come visitors from The Microverse to Earth don't seem to be impacted by what most certainly would be for them the higher gravity? I think I'll throw that physics question at IDW in a letter and see if and how they respond to it since eventually even the rebooted Micronauts will find themselves on Earth.

My impersonation of Gary Martin Jr. A ROM curator

If there's any confusion about this photo spoof please refer to the comments section. I remember back in the 80s how they used to rope us into buying more new comics with countless references being made by characters with all those asterisks * referring to the footnote boxes with the see this issue or see that issue and as told in the blah blah and so on. Today's comics seem to do the same thing with all these goddamn cover variants and with these cover prices! Although to be honest I don't mind these cover prices as long as the product is what I'm looking for. I mean really what's $4 or even $5 a month for a new ROM series that turns out to be a pleasant surprise? Same goes for The Micronauts. But ofcourse I'm just speaking as someone who's interested in just following the main story for which I don't need to buy multiple covers or any publication that even makes a ROM reference. That can really add up as we can see. It kinda reminds me of popular cities with notorious tourist trap area and attractions.

The following April 28th update will just consist of a copy and paste of my latest letter to WTF Publishing.

When IDW released online all The Micronauts cover variants earlier this year I have to say I was very pleased with what I saw when it came to Acroyear and Baron Karza. For Acroyear, there had just been some minor design updates that I felt were done in good taste just like with ROM on the cover of his zero issue. And as for Baron Karza it pretty much looked like you guys just went with his classic look which I was cool with because like Darth Vader that look works just as well in 2016 as it did in the 80s. But it all became a different story once I read Micronauts #1.
With Acroyear you guys stayed consistent as far as character design goes with the interior art but what is up with Baron Karza!? Why did you guys find it necessary to change his head/helmet design like that? I also don't like the new look for Space Glider, as you did with Acroyear I would have much preferred a design that looks something closer to the original Mego figure. And especially that "tail" on this new Space Glider suite that has got to go! I know part of my negativity here has to do with my weariness from all the controversy earlier this year surrounding the first clear look at ROM spaceknight as seen on page 3 of the zero issue preview but all that aside I'm sorry guys this new series is not off to a great start in the opinion of this old school Micronauts fan. 

ROM issue # 1 signed by our pal Sal and some mind blowing sketch art!

Gary Martin Jr. gave me a heads up on this at the CGC Collector's Society website. It came with the following caption, "Sal Buscema signature and head sketch on cover - very difficult to get and only one in the census".

Proper proportions, perspective the interplay between light and shadow, foreshortening and other principles in good figure composition is a tireless craft you have to be honing all the time if you want to be able to do it well. And let's not even get into the art of drawing hands, feet and facial expressions. Practice practice practice it's what all artists have to do for years in the slim hope that a few of them will be able to make a living at it some day. A big thanks to Jack Crowder for bringing this sketch (deviant art) to my attention.

And a big thanks to Rick Hansen for sending us this commission sketch from the recent C2E2 con. This is what I always imagined a dire wraith would look like if illustrated by greats like Berni Wrightson, Gene Colan and Mike Ploog.

And for a bit more of a finished piece here's the latest from Dann Phillips talk about the fight that should have but never happened back in the day. As irony would have it just prior to Dann giving me a heads up about this I had been telling him how I had this fan art idea of a Baron Karza vs Hybrid piece I really like the idea of the Micronaut's arch enemy having a throw down with what could arguably be Rom's. Too bad Sal Buscema never penciled at least one Micronauts issue.

Oh and look what else just turned up, an extended ROM vs Firefall CG video fight scene  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVX-DIBAgdo

One last thing folks, it looks like my farcebook account got suspended for good this time. Oh well I kinda saw it coming : ) You can always email me for those of you who have my email address or find me here as usual.

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?

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

Bill Mantlo from this past weekend

Just wanted to share with you all this nice photo of Bill from his brother's latest visit. As you can see he came bearing gifts. Regardless of most anything going on in your life if you're a fan of Bill Mantlo's work it's gotta make you feel better about things over all when you see happy moments like this for Bill.

 

The following clip art was published in Marvel titles (Captain Marvel #6 vol. 3 2001 & Universe X #3 2000) for issues that came out right after Marvel lost the rights to both Rom and The Micronuats. What I like about these panels is how the respective artists managed to represent both Baron Karza and Rom with out actually drawing them technically speaking. That sort of thing takes a unique skill set as an artist. So here comes my pun you might say in the case of Baron Karza you might say he's just a shadow of his former self in comparison to my last posting.

Unlike Rom spaceknight and The Micronauts The Human Fly was not inspired by a toy line but instead by real life daredevil Rick Rojatt. There's not a whole lot of fan art for The Human Fly out there on the internet but I would have to say this rendering I found on Deviant Art is the best I've come across so far.

Also, there's a number of  fan art pieces in the Cloak & Dagger fan folder on Deviant Art. be sure to scroll through all 6 pages there's some really great stuff there http://cloak-n-dagger-fc.deviantart.com/favourites/?set=48825402&offset=0