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.

Speaking of all things TRON and 80s this seems like a good time to share photo of me from back in the day playing with my Castle Greyskull playset in my TRON pajamas. What a decade!

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

ROM Spaceknght 50 tribute fan art

 

This piece is a combination of what is mostly black n white art work borrowed from 4 different artists and arranged together and colored in photoshop. The Torpedo is by Anderson Mendes, ROM is by Steve Butler, Starshine is by Kapandais Nikolaos and the Dire Wraith and Skrulls are by me. 

 

As you can see by the signature this Ron Joseph piece was done 7 years ago and although I've posted Ron's stuff here in the past I never posted this one for reasons I can't explain. Well, I'm gonna correct that little oversight right now.  

Here's another one that's been around for years now but I never posted it before for whatever reason. But I think it deserves a second look obviously. The scene here between ROM, Firefall and The X-Men's Dark Phoenix certainly suggests an interesting story going on here. Would have been nice to get artist Scott Reed's take on his inspiration for this piece.

Here's some more stuff from Ron Joseph with some embellishments from me again. In this case I added ROM to this scene of The Soviet Super Soldiers trying to take down The Hulk and added a little bit of depth with some shading effects. Check out the original source material from Joseph at these links...

 https://www.deviantart.com/ronjoseph-artist/art/THE-HULK-vs-the-SOVIET-SUPER-SOLDIERS-11x17-888596989

https://www.deviantart.com/ronjoseph-artist/art/ROM-vs-THE-HERCULOIDS-pencils-pg02-544320560

 

Here's some unpublished Michael Golden Micronauts art I came across last year. It would make for a nice coloring project. albeit a bit a labor intensive and time consuming one.

ROM the original by Tone Rodriguez

The two awesome ROM pieces by Tone Rodriguez have been around for some year now but this outstanding Torpedo fan art piece by Anderson Mendes was done just last month. And he does commissions  anders.mendes@hotmail.com

 

Calgary Herald October 22 1979

Dec.8th Update: Just came across this archival newspaper article someone posted on twitter from the Calgary Herald back in October 22, 1979. That's pretty amazing that ROM's debut issue got any kind of mention in a mainstream Canadian newspaper to say nothing about an actual full blown article. The author Patrick Tivy, may or may not still be around today but if he is it would be interesting to talk to him today in reflection to this article he wrote over 4 decades ago. The article offers some interesting insight into the comic book collecting scene at the time. It's an enjoyable read but the very last part of it annoyed me a bit.

Dec.14th Update: Seeing cool fan art from other artists almost always makes me want to do something new myself so here we go. This is a tribute to ROM 19 in which we learn of the fateful show down between Firefall and a deathwing during Galador's first spaceknight battle with the dire wraiths. Firefall's (Karas) final fate as a soul trapped in Limbo was always a loose end I wish that had been tied up by the end of the series. Could have been something cool for Marvel to use in the post ROM spaceknight series years. But instead, true to form for Marvel they've done almost nothing but shit instead for the last 20 years.

 

ROM spaceknight issue 32 spotted in the making of Black Panther feature

So this past Memorial Day weekend I was watching a special behind the scenes making of Black Panther. Unfortunately this smart phone snap shot of the tv screen was the best I could do with capturing the moment where a copy of ROM 32 is briefly spotted as Black Panther director Ryan Coogler is reminiscing about his experience growing up in Oakland and seeking out comics that featured black super heroes. Ya know it was kinda cool to see a contemporary TV program that had a ROM issue in it even though it's appearance was purely coincidental.

In other news of this past weekend I saw Solo a Star Wars Story in Alameda which is a city that sits on an island right next to Oakland. I didn't think too much of the movie but the theater it's self is always fun to go to for a number of reasons including the cool promotional props they usually have there.

May 31st Update: Apparently these new spaceknights Heroclix figurines are the latest buzz among ROM fans. For some reason they looked really fake to me at the website they were first found on it's as if they were just some sort of fan produced digital art or something. So for the sake of verification I went to ebay and sure enough I found them so it appears they are quite real.

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Ya know I gotta ask. Do people ever buy these type of gaming figurines or ships/vehicle sets like from Star Wars and Star Trek (I have a couple) to actually play the games or to just have the pieces to play with or for display purposes? I don't know one person who actually plays these games in fact.

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June 4th Update: Saw this Thanos issue at a comic shop yesterday in Oakland and I knew right away what 80s classic cover art it was paying homage to.

Avengers Infinity War and the deleted scene you never knew about

Thanos is not the only threat facing Wakanda, this is a still image from a deleted scene in Infinity War. In the scene trump also goes on to say that Wakanda is just another a "shit hole" country.

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Here's a cool photo of some of the smaller transports, freighters and fighters in my rebel fleet collection as seen in the battle of Scarrif from Rogue 1. Did I happen to mention how much I loved Rogue 1? It's the same as with Avengers Civil War I can't see either of those two awesome movies enough times. Oh Infinity War please don't suck!

Now that fan art is the ROM spaceknight we all know and love!

And yes I did hear the news about what will most likely be a ROM in name only movie possibly being in the works as part of a hasbro franchise cinematic roll out. As I said in the comments section in the previous posting in order for a movie like that to have broad appeal for a contemporary cinematic audience it's highly unlikely that it will be the ROM you remember from the 80s. I think the best we can hope for is for it to be a well written sci-fi movie that pays tribute to the comic book series in a thoughtful manner. A armor redesign that didn't totally suck (hint hint idw) would certainly be a step in the right direction.
Oh well I guess we'll just have to wait and see for now. But in the mean time I'm much more concerned about the disturbing reports in regards to a season 2 for Netflix's Defenders which is apparently not likely going to happen. I really think that fucken sucks, among other things I was really hoping to finally see Misty Knight with her bionic arm and a Punisher appearance.

Firefall seems to be a reoccurring theme with my postings lately. Far as I know, this Marvel Two In One issue 99 (1983) tribute art from Bob Hall is the only decent ROM related fan art to show up on the internet for the past month. Basically since my sketch card (see previous posting). But if there's something else out there I don't know about please feel free to let me know about it . . anyone? . . anyone?

So is anybody out there getting tired of me taking swipes at the married but no condom wearing porn star fucken trump on this blog? Or perhaps you're sick and tired of me for still bashing on idw's pathetic ROM reboot? Not happy about my lack of enthusiasm about the prospect of an upcoming ROM movie? Didn't see season 1 of  The Defenders or you did see it and didn't like it? Well then, if the answer is yes to any or all of the above questions then please say hello to my little friend.

April 3rd Update: Somebody today just brought this Marvel 70s tribute fan art to my attention. I had seen it before a couple of years ago or so but kinda forgot about and it for whatever reason and it doesn't really ever turn up whenever I do random internet searches for ROM related things. This is actually a cropped version of the original which included Deathlok along with ROM and Omega The Unknown (who!?) as you see here but I always felt like Deathlok never really worked in the scene for what was other wise a well done fan art piece. Compare this cropped version with the original and tell me if I'm making any sense here . . .
https://error-imagenotfound.deviantart.com/art/Return-To-The-1970-s-712259686

April 5th Update: These two beauties (Valkyrie form Thor Ragnarok and Misty Knight ofcourse) just showed up in the past couple days in the mail box. They're going to make a great addition to the Black Panther figurines displayed in my wife's office at work I can't wait to surprise her with them. Oh and by the way I also just found out today that Misty Knight will debut in Cage season 2 with her bionic arm so that certainly eases the pain of the bad news for The Defenders.

ROM and the spaceknights of Galador vs Ronan The Accuser epic cosmic throw down

Here's my latest 3 1/2 X 5 sketch card fan art after months of not feeling motivated to actually produce anything despite some of the ideas I've had rolling around in my head. Some of those ideas included a hypothetical encounter between ROM and Ronan the accuser and doing something (as a separate piece) with one of the most bad ass looking spaceknights ever, Gloriole. So I decided to just put it all together as one scene and later added Firefall which I thought was a nice touch. This would have been so awesome! Almost as much as Terrax The Tamer mixing it up with Galador's spaceknights in ROM 26 (thank you Bill and Sal!) when Galactus showed up to make Galador his latest meal. Just as Terrax was forced to contend with all those different spaceknight powers so to would Ronan in some other type of confrontation scenerio. Like I said it, would have been awesome.

The official handbook of the Marvel Universe #9 back in 1983 was actually my first introduction to the Ronan the accuser character. Quite literally over the decades I've seen him evolve from what basically was a Fantastic Four villain to a much more complex character and ultimately something of a anti-hero  in Marvel cosmic story like The Annihilation Wave and War of Kings.

1985

March 3rd Update: A little something interesting I found today in regards to some of Bill Mantlo's thoughts on the cancellation of the ROM series. Issue 66 was the official end of the Wraith War on Earth but the series went on for another 9 regular issues and 1 annual. As those of you who have read the series know the story concludes with a post apocalyptic situation on Galador in which a new generation of spaceknights went rogue and turned on the rest of the population in a "Skynet" kind of way.

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March 4th Update: I recently added another blockade runner to my growing rebel fleet. This one has more of a blue stripe color scheme and is with out the battle damage detailing.

Hayward CA

March 12th Update: Mondays suck as we all know. Finding these awesome Black Panther and Okoye PVC figures on my door step went a long way to getting over a case of the Mondays. And just for the record, even before I heard the unfortunate news about the Toys R Us chain closures I would have been happy to buy these at my local Toys R Us store had they carried them. That Hayward store has been around since the early 80s and I used to go to that Chucke Cheese as well back in the day when it was full of video games.

Infinity# 1 - Oh Marvel, what have you done with Mantlo & Buscema's ROM series this time?

Well by now I'm guessing most of you have either picked up this issue or know about what happened in it. Yes it seems Galador and all the spaceknights were obliterated just as sure as Alderaan was by the fucken Death Star in STAR WARS. Well obviously I'm not happy about that and I'm clueless what Hickman's thought process was in regards to doing away with Galador, the recently resurrected classic spaceknights and Marvel's premier spaceknight Ikon. Was that the sacrificial lamb for drama's sake for this latest cosmic cataclysm story line? Is that all that Rom's legacy is worth to Marvel? And for that matter, was bringing back some of the classic spaceknights for a "New York minute" and then utterly destroying them just some cheap marketing stunt? Or is there going to be some sort of time space rectal continuum explanation later in this mini-series or perhaps in a later series that will some how magically restore what happened to Galador?
It's a shame actually cause all that aside this was a pretty good read. But I don't see myself being able to really enjoy this mini-series with all these questions about Galador and it's spaceknights. Ya know I said a couple of postings back that Marvel never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity to get me on board as a regular reader of their stuff as far as going out to buy something every month. There are those who might say to be patient, don't have a panic attack over the first issue and keep reading the series and see what happens. That's a good point but damn, we've been waiting for over 12 years to get some real satisfaction when it comes to Marvel continuing ROM's legacy and this time it felt like it was so very close starting with Avengers #16 Prelude to Infinity. But at the end of the day I came away disappointed yet again with what Marvel is doing. It seems like no matter how much of today's writers at Marvel are fans of Mantlo's work on Rom spaceknight they just can't seem to deliver a satisfying product that will work for current story lines along with the old school fans. As if Sabra getting shot in the back by a fucken nazi wasn't bad enough (more on that later). For now I'll keep following Infinity on the internet cuz Marvel ain't getting any more of my money for this shit.

Let's see if I can end this posting on some what of a high note. It appears Sabra may not be dead after all. Follow the link and scroll down to the clip art for X-Men#31 which comes right after the panel with that douche bag Crossbones. The New Warriors and Fantastic Four clip art is also worth checking out if you have time: http://arousinggrammar.com/2013/07/02/superheroes-and-judaism-pt-3/
And in other news of The Empire today . . .

Infinity #1, Bill Mantlo, Rom & Me, New fan art, Nuff said . . .

 Well folks as you can see here Infinity #1 does have your spaceknights and Galador. Seven pages worth to be specific although rather you are happy or not with what happens in those seven pages is another matter. But since I know almost all of you will not have had a chance to pick this up until later today or this weekend I'll refrain from posting any more clip art or talking any more about what happens especially since I probably won't get a chance to give this double sized issue a thorough read until tomorrow or Friday. At that point I may post again with my thoughts on it and so on but we'll see.

 Here's something new I recently found from Dann Phillips. I like the unique nature of the scene my first thought that it's some kind of space vessel that's been talking over by Dire Wraiths that maybe was able to send a distress signal before the Wraiths got to em. Or maybe it's a Wraith warship that ROM is boarding right after he got done giving it a beating in battle. Dire Wraiths can with stand the vacuum of space as far as I know but hey, I'm just nit picking now.
Also, here's some other stuff worth looking at. It's a homage to X-Factor #1 that features a number of characters from several publishers including two from Marvel with one happening to be one silver spaceknight: http://dashmartin.deviantart.com/art/Multiverse-II-161977028
GLORIOLE! http://nikoskap.deviantart.com/art/Gloriole-392214802

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Moving right along I wanted to leave a message for Ceoria from the ROM and Me web site. So by now many of us know about your bad experience from before. But if the title of this blog is any indication that sort of bullshit won't happen here. This blog site was created to be a community of Rom fans as well as others who like comics and sci-fi to share news, art and ideas. So if you're out there I'm extending an invitation to join us here it's all good, the past is the past.

 Here's a nice photo of Bill Mantlo from last weekend with his sister in law in which she was able to get him outside of his hospital room which sadly doesn't happen very often.