ROM and Dr Doom face off in Strange magazine

Ok enough of all this IDW shit for a while it's time to get back to some old school stuff again. This comes to us from Gary Martin Jr. proving once again he is a ROM curator through and through. I'm actually a bit sketchy on the details here but I believe this comes from the activity section or page of the Marvel mostly reprint French magazine STRANGE issue 166. Interestingly enough notice how the rendering of ROM here has him with fingers instead of mittens? This will most likely be my last posting of the month but as I've mentioned to some of you I have another posting idea for early next month that involves some exotic locations on the other side of the world I'll at starting late next week.

One other thing. I wanted to thank EVERYONE who's come to visit this blog recently especially if you left a comment. It's been a LOT of fun for the past couple weeks with all the back and forth here with those who share the same opinions or have a different point of view rather it be about the zero issue or Civil War and whatever. I know some folks over the years have had issues with everything from my sarcasm, cynicism and even the very blog title it's self. But if nothing else I keep it pretty interesting here much of what I post you won't find on other blogs, twitter or farcebook with ROM fan boys. That was my primary mission when I started this blog actually. But even more importantly you will not be ignored here or have your comments go unanswered. I've just always thought that's a dick move.

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.

What's up with What If?

I remember a couple of years ago I had this friend and fellow comic book nerd from my high school days asked what could I possibly have to blog about every week given that the series ended back in 85? The fool :) I explained it as best as I could at the time to him.  But you guys who come here get to find out right away about most of the coolest shit out there rather it be Rom turning up in an article for a recent publication (Geek mag.), some undiscovered clip art from back in the day (New Warriors Annual #1), a cool Marvel rap video paying tribute to fans calling for the return of Rom or the latest art work that kicks ass. A big thanks to all of you who have contributed to these postings lately you guys have provided some awesome blogging material.
Speaking of which, here's my latest coloring job of a commission piece that was done by Ian Akin from the dynamic inking duo Akin & Garvey. There's only one thing that always bothered me about this other wise kick ass work of art. The right leg is too short, it never looked quite right to me so I made a cropped version which I colored. You can see the original here  http://www.akinandgarvey.com/commissions/index.htm#
just look for the thumb nail button on the left.
 
If you're noticing any difference in this posting today from the day before when I published it that's because Rom curator Gary Martin Jr. informed me of an over site. In other words I fucked up, indeed there was a not one but two cameo flash back panels in the Nova back story of What If #36 volume1 (1982). Oh and it gets better I actually used to have this issue but don't ask me how the fuck I managed to fucken forget about these fucken panels.

Left click to enlarge

And of course as I mentioned before the Dire Wraiths would show up as part of some parallel universe  story line years later in What If #39 volume 2.

And as i mentioned in the beginning of this posting how cool Rom related things are turning up on a weekly basis here's the latest. So I'm going to make yet another edit today with Chris's latest custom spaceknight figure, Javelin.

Left click to enlarge