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 ROM legacy Heroclix collection

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I've loved dioramas ever since I was a kid, and this one comes to us by Gary Martin Jr.who did a fine job on it. The top left silver figurine is Ikon with some gold color variants that are supposed to be some kind of standard spaceknight soldiers in the Heroclix universe. Along the bottom to the left we have Forge from The X-Men which I'm sure most of you ROM fans remember as having had a pivotal role as an ally to ROM in the final days of the Wraith War both in the pages of The X-Men as well as in ROM spaceknight. Moving to the right we've also got Turbo from The New Warriors although for nostalgia's sake I wish they had made that figure outfitted with the original Torpedo costume as opposed to the updated version as seen in the 2nd New Warriors series.
Moving on to the right we've got the bad guys starting with a standard female dire wraith along with the dire wraith queen Volx. Notice how Volx is made of the exact same mold but done in green. Last up in the top right corner we've got the worst of the worst when it comes to ROM's enemies. Arguably the best sculpt of the bunch that there is Hybrid. Spawned of a dire wraith father and human mother Hybrid was a mutant of sorts possessed of vast powers both mental and physical.

It also so happens that this past weekend I was at the latest San Jose Super Toy comic and collectibles show. I really like this con I've been to it a few times now over the past couple of years it's not as big as most other cons but it's not bad at all and for a measly $10 admission fee (plenty of free parking nearby to) you get quite a lot of bang for your buck as the saying goes. It was kinda cool to see a dealer decorate one of his comic boxes with ROM 18. Also, Sam Jones from the awesomely cheesy 1980 Flash Gordon movie and more recently from the Ted movies was there.

1989 Oakland CA Wonder Con convention program

October 7 Update: First off I wanted to say I'm disappointed to not see some words of appreciation for that ROM legacy Heroclix diorama which no doubt was a real labor of love for Gary. Ok moving on, here's a little retrospective when it comes to the local convention scene. I just found this in an old 1989 Oakland Wonder Con convention program I still had. Ofcourse I've sung the praises of Akin & Garvey's work on ROM numerous times here over the years but I hadn't realized until today that they had also done inks on the Micronauts (Vol. 2) as well. I don't know about the first ever Wonder Con in 87 but I know they were also guests at the one in 88. Looking back I wish I had made a point to see them while I was there but unfortunately back in the late 80s I was in a different head space. The names behind the comics I loved to read and collect were not that big of a deal to me as hard as that me be to believe in the here and now.

New fan art, new curating and a look inside the ROM zero issue

 

Last weekend was one of those weekends where I got to chill the whole time and as a result was able to get some cool stuff done in the way of fan art and curating. Although I hate most of what marvel has come up with in recent years I always felt like the Ikon character had promise even though she was no ROM. In fact, the last time I had any hope for marvel to finally do a modicum of justice to the legacy of the greatest of the spaceknights was when we were treated to a panel in the pages of The Avengers of Ikon leading a squad of classic spaceknights to face some mysterious enemy looming over Galador. Anyways, even today I still think ROM returning and having Ikon at his side would have been pretty cool.

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Picked up this book at the library last weekend. I've seen it before but last weekend I decided to to give it a closer look to see if we might find ROM anywhere in the Marvel Comics The Untold Story. Needles to say I found the following passage rather interesting although it's hard to say how credible that claim is but I certainly hope it's true. There are two other passing references made to ROM later in the book in regards to Nova losing his powers and Secret Wars II tie-ins.

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As you can see I even did some other fan art of a satirical nature this past weekend.

ROM 2016

Alright so let's get to what you folks really want to talk about here today because everything on this posting was pretty much done by the end of this weekend. First off a big thanks to Lee Seitz for bringing this to my attention yesterday. If you haven't checked out the first few pages of the ROM zero issue for FCBD then do so now at the link below before you read on. I like how ROM makes planet fall at Pismo Beach California I was just there as part of a road trip with my wife on New Years weekend. So on another high note the art work looks great it's nothing at all like steve ditko thank god. Although I would have to say I found ROM's new design a bit jarring.
Now I don't say that because I think his new armor design sucks per se, but more because the cover art certainly didn't leave me with the impression ROM's new armor design would deviate that much from the original as seen in this clip art. It's kinda odd that a company would spend 10 years fighting through legal red tape to obtain the rights to a character and then make such drastic changes to their appearance. In fact, ROM some what resembles the watch wraith androids he used to fight in the original series. Just not sure it's the right look for him or maybe it's just a matter of getting used to it? I guess only time will tell. This has been a pretty labor intensive posting with all this art work, curating, writing and what not so this will most likely be my last one for quite a while. But I'm looking to hear from you people I want to know what's on your teeny tiny little minds about all this stuff I'm throwing at you in this posting . . . don't let me down . . .
http://www.previewsworld.com/catalogimages/STK_IMAGES_PDF/STK680001-700000/STK698017.pdf

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And a big thanks to our first commentator today for bringing some of the Micronauts cover art from IDW to my attention. This is pretty damn nice! Assuming the cover art we see here is an accurate reflection of what these characters will look like on the inside well then I gotta be honest I'm feeling a bit more optimistic here then I am about ROM. Baron Karza looks exactly the same as he did in Marvel and they gave Acroyear an updated look that's really slick but it's still in keeping with how he also looked in Marvel and also a bit like the original Mego toy.

Art by marvel and WTF Publishing

Jan. 25 Update: Two things occurred to me over the weekend. One is, that it seems like people are really squeamish about being forth coming about our first real look at ROM 2016. The second is how IDW's ROM looks more like the horrific manga inspired "spaceknights" of the 2001 mini-series then the Mantlo/Buscema series. I've always prided this blog on posting the sort of content you won't find anywhere else so here goes. I know most of you all are thinking this but I'm gonna just say it straight up, this new look for ROM sucks. After all the hype, fan support, lifting of the red tape and anticipation this is what we end up with? Well, I guess if it could happen with George Lucas then why not with Chris Ryall and Christos Gage as well?

MARVEL, the good ol days and the latest bullshit

So I'm going to open up this posting with something from the past when Marvel was actually cool. I want everybody to give it up for The King of Thessaly (K.o.T) for sending me this clip art from New Warriors Annual #1 (1991). Can't believe I didn't know about this already! As you can see this Rom cameo flash back is making a reference to Rom #24, however the editorial seems to be a bit off there were no spaceknights in that issue it was only Rom himself fighting along with the Champions of Xandar against a Skrull invasion.  Hey K.o.T, was this issue one of your flea market or dirt mall questing finds?

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Moving right along, let's talk about the present, which is a not so good time for Rom fans when it comes to Marvel. I told you all a while back when Infinity #1 came out that jonathan hickman would do this. This panel which came from the recent Avengers Infinity #21 (thanks for the heads up Gary Martin Jr.) is some of the table scraps that I told you all hickman would throw to Rom fans to try and keep us on the hook.
This doesn't even make any sense. The character intro at the beginning of the issue shows a head shot of Starshine as the armor was in it's original incarnation (more or less) that we saw in Infinity#1. So why are we seeing the Starshine 2 armor (but with a pony tail) here? I don't have to tell long time Rom readers why that doesn't make any sense. And as you can see Ikon is there too which also makes no sense since they were both on Galador when it was destroyed. Is hickman gonna come up with some "creative writing" or is this just some inconsistency they didn't think anybody would catch? Whatever, hickman you're still a douche so you don't get my money on this one either.

LAST CALL! Look, speaking of douche bags don't be one and let Bill Mantlo's birthday come and go this year with out showing this great man a sense of gratitude in a way that's the next best thing to telling him in person. Even if you live on the East Coast if you can get off your ass and get a card into the mail addressed to me in the next 2 - 3 days that should still leave enough time for it to arrive before I send the whole thing to his brother.

Alright so let's end this posting on a fun note as with the latest video from The King as he shows us his extensive action figure collection along with some other things like published clip art from Marvel and DC that was so disturbing it'll have you saying to yourself "What the Hell were they thinking!?"

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Ok so one last thing here. I wrote this posting after midnight when I finally got home from work and this morning I end up finding this innovative fan art. This obviously doesn't fit a narrative of the Rom universe as we know it but then again it isn't supposed to since it's a homage piece to those old mystery and sci-fi novels of the 30s which were largely regarded by the "literary community" as pulp. But then again those are the same sorts who say that about comics and let's not even get into all the art snobs out there who think comic book art is beneath their notice. Remember I was an art major in college (multi-media) so I was around a lot of those assholes for years. Rather you like the concept or not you gotta hand it to the artist (Rob Reis) for having some serious illustration skills.

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 . . .

Back to Galador with spaceknights that don't suck! (Avengers Infinity#16)

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Well hopefully I'm not getting a ahead of my self here but it looks like Marvel may have actually gotten something right for a change when it comes to the ROM spaceknight legacy. There's not much to go on so far and I as of yet I have not read Avengers #16 http://marvel.com/comics/issue/43546/avengers_2012_16 this clip art and information comes compliments of Ptor from the Sanctum Sanctorum blog. But if nothing else, gone is the Manga inspired spaceknight armor along with the panzy ass excuses for spaceknights from the Annihilators mini-series that were more useless then red shirted Enterprise security personal from the original Star Trek series.

I never really bitched much about IKON and although she can never truly replace ROM I've always felt like she as a character had enough going for her in order to give old school ROM fans something to actually enjoy provided she be surrounded with the right kind of spaceknights and a Galador that makes sense. And judging from this panel I'd say Marvel finally figured out how to bridge the gap between new readers and those of us who were reading ROM in the 80s by giving us these well done updated spaceknights that are still quite faithful to the originals. 

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 Anybody remember this Ikon fan art I did almost two years ago? And speaking of fan art that deserves a second look . . .

A while back I provided a link to this fan art found at deviant art by a Brazilian artist who goes by the handle dichiara. I liked it then but after taking a second look at it I think this piece is good enough to deserve a feature blog posting. I think Rom's neautrilizer could have been done a bit better but it's otherwise a solid illustration that captures the feel of the character and is done well from a figure composition stand point.

You guys remember the superhero pillow from a couple of posting ago right? Thanks for the heads up on this photo Rick it's always nice to see Bill Mantlo in good spirits.

And for some good laughs, socially significant commentary along with a trip down memory lane we have some new Youtube videos by The King of Thessaly. First up we see Dr. Strange vs Morbius The Living Vampire and Rob Liefield and women's bodies (part 1) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX04KOrPD8k
Part 2 features Quasar and Wonderman back issue tie-ins from Operation Galactic Storm, Eddie Brock's (Venom) mullet and a tutorial on how to make a white trash version of an Arnold Palmer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3o2ACEr9NmQ