Marvel Universe fan art trading cards by Greek artist Kapandais Nikolaos

It seems years of nagging my fellow artist and friend about trying out doing some sketch card fan art has finally paid off, and in a big way. He cranked out a bunch of these awesome kick ass business card sized fan art pieces over the course of just a couple weeks. You might say the ones you see above are the Bill Mantlo subset collection but there's many many more . . .

What I posted here are just a few samples, there's nearly a dozen in all check em out over at his deviant art gallery...

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

I was browsing at one of those over sized hard bound Marvel encyclopedia books a couple weeks ago when something occurred me when I was looking at Sabra's bio. Writers for comic books actually have a better grip on reality then leftist antisemites do. You see up there where it reads "BASE Jerusalem Israel"? One of the things antisemites love to ramble on about on social media is how Jerusalem is actually in "palestine". And that's despite "palestine" not being listed on virtually any geographic map or even on whatever GPS app that is on your phone. Ya see even within the fictional world of The Marvel Universe there are certain basic facts that are a reflection of the real world such as the existence of gravity or that the planet earth is round and not flat. Another basic fact, Jerusalem ISRAEL nuff said.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/sabra-ruth-batseraph-x-men--308707749468370811/

If you're any kind of Marvel 80s fan then you shouldn't have too much trouble figuring out the cover art this commission fan art piece by artist Carlos Franco is based on. 

August 9th Update: A big thanks to Eclectic Lee for the heads up on this dire wraith reference made in the pages of Avengers Annual 13 (1984). I love it when this kinda nostalgic 80s stuff turns up, it's right up there with the discovery of great new ROM related fan art. 

 

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.

Chadwick Boseman, you left us too soon wise king. May your after life rewards be great.

The Black Panther is dead at 43? I just don't even know what to say about this bomb shell of a news story today. Right now it doesn't even quite feel real. I want to wake up tomorrow and have this God awful news story be nothing but a bad dream. In recent years I've almost grown accustomed to celebrities from my child hood passing away but this is really different. Just because of his age alone, in a way this feels like more of an emotional gut punch then when Stan Lee passed away. This kinda feels like the real life version of the iconic and classic 80s Death of Captain Marvel graphic novel. Just so sad, I really fucken hate 2020. Boseman was diagnosed with colon cancer 4 years ago which means he was still working as an actor while fighting this shit disease. Truly a real hero both on and off screen.

I think we can all relate a bit more to these panels especially from The Death of Captain Marvel (Jim Starlin).

 Chadwick Boseman with vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris who I'm prying will be our next vice president. In a bit of irony here, The Black Panther movie opens up and ends in Oakland California which is where Harris is from. So tragic also that he didn't at least live long enough to vote in November.

One of the best SNL episodes in years!
 

The greatest of the spaceknights vs nobody's favorite superhero and how comics tackle racism

Left click to enlarge

This guy I used to know on social media who was both a ROM and Captain Atom fan used to call Captain Atom "Nobody's favorite superhero". Can't seem to recall what exactly he meant by that but unfortunately he's disappeared off the grid and now hasn't been seen for years now so I guess I won't ever get a chance to ask him again. Those of you who saw my last posting will no doubt recognize the source material for this art. I had some down time recently so for the Hell of it I decided to print out the sketch and try out adding some color to it. Can't imagine what kind of scenario would have these two heroes unleashing holly Hell on each other like this but it's not like we've never seen this sort of thing before right? But it's never the less interesting and creative and it's just the sort of fan art I like to post here.

Allow me to pivot here. I saw Blackkkklansman on it's opening weekend and I loved it and I hope some of you will see it while it's still in theaters. I thought the movie did a great job of telling a fascinating story based on a real life situation back in the 70s while drawing a straight line to today's troubles in race relations and political partisanship. There was also a lot of great humor but aside from all that I thought it was very interesting and unexpected with how it dealt with Adam Driver's character. For some people (some "very fine" people I'm sure) this Spike Lee joint might have been a bit too heavy handed or even over the top. A minor issue at best, this was never the less a great film on many levels with much contemporary relevance.

Fantastic Four 278 (1985)

Black Panther Civil War TPB 2007

Speaking of the history of taking on racism in artistic forums I had some thoughts about the world of comics. It's interesting when I look at comics of the 80s and how the writers seemed to take on racism in it's more blatant forms. But clearly in more recent years writers have become much more sophisticated with putting a spot light on the more subtle forms of racism. I think that's very commendable, especially during times like this with all the dog whistles, assault on the truth and pretenses to national security to what are largely policies and statements motivated by this culture war of race politics.

Holy shit is that Captain America in Hayward California!?

Highway 580 Hayward California

So all the stuff you see below this opening photo was stuff I was planning on posting along with a Black Panther movie review which I already have tickets to see on opening weekend. But when my buddy Sammy (fellow comic book/sci-fi fanboy) text this photo from earlier today while he was cruising down 580 I was like fuck it it's time for a new blog posting right now. According to Sammy this guy was really hauling ass but I betcha even a minor accident would have been a quick wake up call to this idiot that he's not a super soldier with an indestructible shield on his back. Among all the cities in the San Francisco metro area Hayward is certainly not one of the ones that you're likely to see some thing cool like this but once in a while you get lucky kinda like I did last fall when I saw the Batmobile at a down town vintage car show . . .
http://suicidesquadtaskforcex.blogspot.com/2017/09/black-power.html

Ya know it's funny, probably a third of the back issues I buy from discount boxes are of comics I had back in the 80s but some where along the way over the years lost or traded away. Sometimes I think it's worthwhile to pick something up again and give it a second look with a fresh pair of eyes.
One such issue is Avengers 253 which was kind of a cool issue aside from the ROM connection. In it, The Vision's conscience enters a number of global computer networks around the world in an ill conceived plan in order to take over the world and make it a better place. There's clearly some elements of TRON in that concept as well as the computer intelligence taking over the world narrative which have spawned a ton of sci-fi movies like The Forbin Project, The Terminator, I Robot or The Matrix.
For those of you who've read ROM 43 remember that The Living Computer Quasimodo had possessed ROM's armor but was driven out by the mind controlled Brandy Clark who was merged with the Starshine armor at the time. Now they never really explained after having been driven out what happened to Quasimodo his conscience represented as this ghost image just kinda disappears in the air and keep in mind all that shit happened at some kind of secret base in The Soviet Union (or call it Russia if you prefer but who gives a fuck same difference).

https://www.zipcomic.com/the-avengers-1963-issue-253

Back in the mid 80s when I first had this issue I completely missed this. Despite the absence of a foot note (dumb ass writing over site) it's pretty obvious Quasimodo is making a reference to ROM 43 which I was able to confirm on the Quasimodo entry page in The Ultimate Marvel Universe Handbook (issue 10 Vol. 2).

Avengers 252

Oh and look at this clip art from the previous Avengers issue. Even though it was written in 1985 talk about no truer words ever spoken in the current political climate of this country. Chris Evans has done such a great job with the Captain America role it makes me want to see him run in 2020. Pretty sure unlike trump, Chris Evens wouldn't get an endorsement from that racist and anti-Semitic piece of shit david duke.

In case you didn't happen to have seen this before. Oh my goodness how could you not love the 80s? Poly bag sets, spinner racks, comics at your local liquor store and 7-Eleven not to mention none of this $2.99 and $3.99 cover price bullshit.

Also pretty cool in case you didn't happen to have seen this before. Now I know what some of you might be thinking right something along the lines of "hey wait a minute those are dire wraiths from IDW and you had that ROM in name only reboot".

Yes that's true, however the dire wraiths from Marvel were shape shifters as well so if we stretch our imaginations a bit one might say this is the original ROM busting up and banishing these fools. Anyways, I found this on deviant art and the guy who staged this has a bunch of other cool toy scenes based on comic book clip art. Especially cool if you're an 80s Transformers fan . . . 

https://urbn1nja.deviantart.com/gallery/

Ok it's back to more Star Wars stuff. I recently recovered this old passport (long story don't ask) I had as a kid I totally forgot about it. It was valid from 1978 to 1983. I'm guessing I was around 8 or 9 when I did this Empire Strikes Back doodle and clearly at that age you don't understand that it's not legal to be drawing fan art on federal documents.

ROM zero issue FCBD and Avengers Civil War

Left click to enlarge

What a thoroughly underwhelming introduction this zero issue was for this supposed revival of the greatest of the spaceknights. All those months of hype, controversy and even anticipation and this is the result. There's really not much point in summarizing the 13 page story it's pretty much what you'd expect. ROM makes planet fall, encounters some local cops and the military . . turns out the military are dire wraiths . . .fight ensues . . human cops get a reality check. Not much more to it then that and the couple little nuanced stuff in it is really not worth talking about.
Well, like Micronauts #1 the ROM zero issue is DOA. I still hate the way his armor looks they should have left the design concept alone after releasing the zero issue cover art. Hate this neutralizer it looks like something you'd see in an infomercial. But not the good kind like slapchop more like a shakeweighty kind. The new analyzer concept consists of these ruby red eye looking things on his wrist, that's also stupid the people at IDW are trying waaaaay too hard to make this new ROM concept uniquely IDW. The art work isn't ditko bad but it's pretty unimpressive as well it feels very flat and in some panels really looks much like some of the mediocre fan art we've seen over the years.

Now for those of you who are about to reply with a "well it's just the zero issue give it a chance you can't judge it yet oh and somebody come change my diaper . . " and so on. I challenge you all to grab your copy of ROM #1 (Sal and Bill ofcourse) and give it another look. That was done in 1979 and it kicked ass in every way from ROM making planet fall to when he blasts for the first time a pair of dire wraiths. And this is what IDW came up with after all these years here in 2016. It's hard to believe this is what some old school ROM fans came up with given all the resources at their disposal as a major comic book publisher.

There's a full page add in the back of the issue for ROM#1. It has the the following tag line in it "The beloved galactic warrior is reborn for a new generation!". They're very much right about that, because from what I've seen so far this stuff IDW has come up with is not for my generation and further more Micronauts#1 and ROM zero has served to remind me why new comics are just not for me any more. I'm not gonna twist any body's arm here but I'll be writing a short and not so sweet letter to IDW and if you feel the same I would recommend you take a few minutes to do so as well. Because if you find yourself around 6 months from now seriously missing having a good ROM series to read you only have yourself to blame ROMcomics@idwpublishing.com

Moving on to the better half of my day, Avengers Civil War. I liked the first Avengers film and Age of Ultron seemed to get better and better the more times I watched it. But I gotta say, it was a nice change of pace to not see The Avengers fighting another CG army of aliens or robots. This was a really well done film especially the way it handled all the character development. At no point in the movie do you ever question the motivations behind everybody's actions. This was not just due to good screen writing but also due to the exceptional effort by all the actors involved. There's a lot going on in the movie just by virtue of the massive cast ensemble but it's all handled in a cohesive story line that flows well.
They also did a good job with just the right amount of screen time for the new characters into the Avengers cinematic universe such as Spiderman and Black Panther. Again, we understand why they are on Iron Man's side and we see and understand it in a way that doesn't feel rushed or added into the script at the last minute. Ofcourse we're treated to a lot of great action, drama and shocking revelations that further fray some of the relationships. It also appears that Avengers Civil War is in part a set up for the future Black Panther movie which I'm more excited about now thanks to the Black Panther character having been handled so well in this movie. An all around good film off hand I have nothing to nit pick at I'm looking forward to seeing it again.

Avengers Civil War fan art by Nikoskap

So a big thanks to the Marvel cinematic universe for giving us yet another epic film to enjoy for years to come. However when it comes to the more mainstream Marvel print universe I say yet again fuck you marvel. I present to you this lame ass response from Marvel to a fan of the original ROM spaceknight series. We know all about those "all new all different spaceknights in the pages of guardians of the galaxy" by now don't we? This comes to us from the letter column of Venom spacewhatever 006. So thanks Gary yet again for taking another one ($) for the team.