Detroit finally gets it's Robocop statue and it's about damn time

Anyways, back in early 2018 my wife and I decided to go visit some family in Detroit but the trip didn't happen until later in the year. In the run up to our trip I learned about the Robocop statue project which was supposed to get it's unveiling just before our trip so I was pretty excited about that. Unfortunately that didn't happen and there would be over 7 years worth of delays. But as of November last year, the the seemingly endless delays finally came to end and Detroit has it's Robocop tribute statue for all to enjoy. I may be due for another visit to Detroit this year.

January 27th Update: I don't know any details as of yet but I just literaly learned a few minutes ago about the passing of the great SAL BUSCEMA! In some ways Sal Buscema is even more responsible for getting me into ROM then even Bill Mantlo given that I was following the stories in comics from the art more then from the writing back in the early 80s. Afterall I wasn't even quite into my teens back then. Sal also co-created the Sabra character which I'm a fan of so I'm grateful for that as well. Rest in peace sir, your work was one of the many things that made the 1980s epic.

Sal Buscema's last issue on ROM was issue 58. After that there was ofcourse a noticable decline in the quality of the art work. But thanks to the embellshments of other artists on Ditko's pencils the art work was still decent from issues 59 thru 63. In a sense it was the last issue in the series I was able to enjoy both from a story and visual stand point. After that it was only Bill Mantlo's story telling that made it possible for me to get through the rest of the series which ran for another 12 issues and 1 final annual.

March 16th Update: I came across this splitscreen art work in a youtube tribute video that was uploaded in recent months. I knew right away it wasn't actual clip art from the series yet it looks like it could be so ofcourse I wanted to know who the artist was. But after passing it along to a freind and fellow ROM fan it was suggested to me that it might be AI which actually makes sense. Well regardless of wherever it actually comes from I love it. It captures that late 70s and 80s Marvel vibe perfectly and in general is just all around damn good. This sort of look and quality art would have been a worthy successor to Sal Buscema in my humble opinion.

June 15th Update: Yeah I know all about this new blind bag M.A.S.K Energon Universe whatever so called ROM issue from Image and Skybox. From the preview clip art I've seen so far this might as well be idw ROM reboot 2.0, hard pass.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DZh5f09nDHW/?img_index=7

August 27th 15th Update: I've been a Transformers fan since the first commercial promo for the original comic book mini-series back in the day. And off and on through out the years I've talked plenty on this blog about the comparisons between Optimus Prime and ROM. So this was some pretty sad news today about Peter Cullin passing away but at 85 I'm glad to know this voice actor legend lived a pretty full life. Tributes have been all over social media today about his large body of work although I wish more of them would mention his epic voice over for the intro on the Voltron cartoon series.

It's 2023 but I'm still missing the 1980s

Ya know how some times you just find yourself in the mood to showcase a given collection of something that makes you happy? I think often that might happen toward the end of  a year or more at the beginning of the next one.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uR48t3di9Iw

Here's a youtube video I discovered recently that's worth having a look at. It won't have much of anything you haven't seen or heard before but it is very well produced. And it some how has managed to visually "repackage" and present the source material in way that makes the video not feel so redundant and boring like the majority of ROM related features on youtube.  

 

I haven't done any ROM related fan art yet this year nor have I come across anything that I thought any good. I the stuff I have done this year has been to some degree in response to a lot of the hate I saw online in late 2022. First up is this Contest of Champions fan art. I just don't understand all the hating on the Disney Plus She-Hulk series. I mean it wasn’t without it's problems but most of the social media bashing on it was so over the top especially when it came to all these right wing type hang ups. And ofcourse around the same time Marvel announced the upcoming debut of Sabra into the MCU which  predictably stirred up the usual trolls made up of leftist antisemites and people from certain corners of the muslim world with anger management issues. 

If you happen to be a Star Wars fan then you no doubt noticed all the hating on the first season of The book of Boba Fett. Again, it wasn't with out it's problems but over all I think it had way more pros then cons plus the season finale was awesome. So I say fuck all the haters on all that to.

 

January 28th Update: I was hoping to have some fan art to add to this posting but I seriously doubt anything new that doesn't suck will turn up any time soon so I decided to dig into my archive collection. After some minor tweaks here and there to enhance it I'm presenting it again for your viewing pleasure. This was originally done by Greek artist Kapandais Nikolaos who also happens to be a collaborative partner and friend.

ROM Annual 3

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.

Galadorian Horror Story variant

 So hopefully you've also seen the original version of this fan art in the previous posting. This past weekend I decided to try out some other ROM related fan art source material from the same artist and photoshop it into the piece in the last posting. I think it turned out pretty good, we now have a version of the Galadorian Horror Story in which ROM is facing a more defined and familiar threat.

Well I supposed with Thanksgiving being a bit later this week I should make a mention of what I'm thankful for this year. There's the obvious stuff ofcourse such as having my health and gainful employment in the midst of this never ending pandemic. But I'm also thankful for BILL MANTLO who just turned 70 earlier this month. Without Mantlo, the 80s would have been a bit less awesome and his legacy makes it possible for us to still enjoy reading and re-reading his stuff today not to mention the inspiration for all this ROM related fan art that's still being put out in the here and now. 

 

 I'm gonna make another addition to this posting. Here's something I've been sitting on for a while now that I never got around to posting for whatever reason. It comes from New Warriors 35 (1993). I only came across this as a back issue a few years ago but when I read it I realized how much more abilities the torpedo armor gave it's user then we knew of when Brock Jones was using it in the ROM series. As the reader you can draw your own conclusions why that may have been but I'm guessing the writers of New Warriors came up with some of that for the sake of making Turbo a bit more interesting and or formidable.

Galadorian Horror Story

I've been bugging my good friend (and fellow artist and ROM fan) from Greece for the past couple months or so to do a little more ROM fan art. And sure enough on Halloween day no less he sends me this amazing piece. When asked what was his inspiration for it he replied with the following . . . . 

"Well, for me reading Rom always felt a bit like a horror story so I wanted to draw something that gives a sense of that and making the threat vague to the viewer I believe it works better sometimes."

Starshine Unleashed

My Greek friend Nikoskap has been hitting out of the park lately with a lot of good Starshine themed sketch art that's turned into some collaboration pieces between us which I felt deserved a little more exposure beyond twitter, farcebook and deviant art. Clearly this blog is not entirely defunct as I had intended November of last year I keep making exceptions for the occasional posting.

September 6th Update: And speaking of all things Greek, I just dropped this in the mail earlier in the week let's hope The Enigma Force and the Gods of Galador insure it's safe arrival...

Ringing in the new year with some fan art that kicks ass!

I had been bitching to my good friend and fellow artist and ROM fan in Greece https://www.deviantart.com/nikoskap recently about how December was so fucken devoid of any new ROM related fan art that was worth a shit with November not having been much better. Now one of the reasons I consider this guy a friend is because he actually checks and responds to his emails on a pretty consistent basis which is rare these days even the other ROM fans I've connected with over the years are such assholes when it comes to that. So woe and behold after I woke up on New Year's day a sketch had been emailed to me from my Greek friend which I thought was great.

Didn't have to go to work today ofcourse and I had plenty of spare time on my hands so I decided to color it in photoshop. I know I'm not really blogging here any more these days but I'm pretty damn sure this will probably be the best ROM related fan art for much of . . or most of  . . or maybe for all of 2019 at this rate. So yeah I'm gonna post it here seeing as this is something of a special occasion although certainly not nearly as special as my Stan Lee posting.

Look what was just posted today. This is fucken awful...
http://gramha.com/media/1947937774984684833

Here's something I neglected to post all these years so I guess I might as well now. It's from the last couple panels from Avengers 243 (1984). Speaking of all all cool things from the 80s . . .

I saw Bumbleebee last weekend. I wouldn't say I loved it but I did like it and I think it was a much over due sea change for the franchise. Ofcourse it taking place right here in The San Francisco Bay Area during the 80s was a big plus for me. The movie wasn't with out it's problems though the story line had more then a few logic gaps and at times got a bit too tongue n' cheek for my taste. Although I appreciate how this one was closer to the source material I still really like even till this day the first Michael Bay TF movie but as ever all the sequels aren't worth a shit and I'd like to forget they ever happened.

Back to the 80s one more time with a totally awesome Back to The Future themed chalk drawing on this sandwich board sign outside of  High Scores (80s video game arcade) in downtown Hayward. Trust me, that's a good deal!

Jan 6 Update: Since I used to watch Lavern & Shirley when I was a kid I feel like I'm obligated to make a mention about the passing of Penny Marshal with only days having remained for 2018. I was kinda disappointed that it drew so little attention in the mainstream media I don;t remember seeing anything about on any major news outlets.

Also, here's a thumbnail preview of something I uploaded just this morning. Just did this on a whim and partly through the inspiration of other artists who are friends of mine. The link below will take you to the full size image . . .
https://www.deviantart.com/csuhsux/art/Transformers-and-Rom-spaceknight-recornered-779992170

Jan 15th Update: Well, we're now 2 weeks into the new year and not a single descent thing turned up when it comes to good ROM related fan art but there is this. But I did I happen to see this on the back of a van by chance as I was out and about last week. The 80s just seems to be every where I go.

Jan 26th Update:
HAPPY BIRYHDAY SAL!
https://www.deviantart.com/csuhsux/art/Happy-Birthday-Sal-Buscema-ROM-cover-concept-782841722

Jan 31st Update: Just happened to see this vintage Star Tours bumper sticker today. This really brings back some great memories from the early 90s when I first went on the Star Tours ride.

Everything is Stardust in the solar wind

Here ya go folks what we have here is a tribute for ROM spaceknight annual #1 which hopefully will take you down memory lane in only a way that the authentic ROM can do. Fan art compliments of my Greek friend from Crete Nikoskap (deviant art handle). Long live Greece, long live ROM the original and fuck IDW. Fuck donald trump also he's such an asshole.

Left click to enlarge

July 28th update: Saw this today during my delivery route while I was in the city of Pleasanton (San Francisco Bay Area) and had to pull over and get some photos to post.

I sure hope these guys appreciate the free advertising I'm giving them by posting their business van here.

This on the other hand I found on the internet. It's a billboard in Mexico City and if you've ever seen John Carpenter's THEY LIVE with all it's heavy handed socio-political imagery then you'll know why this had me cracking up and why I had to post it. Although a variation of this with a Soviet flag in the background and the tag line "Make Russia Great Again" would have also been pretty damn funny and oh so appropriate.

My short Spider Man Homecoming review

Well after 5 Spider-Man movies with the last 3 being somewhat less then great I have to say I think I was getting a bit of Spider-Man movie fatigue. Avengers Civil War helped in starting to turn that around and I'm glad the rebooted cinematic Spider-Man franchise has gone in that general Avengers spin off direction. But at the same time part of me felt like there were a few things things here and there they could have left on the cutting room floor to make the film a bit more concise. Perhaps a bit too much time was devoted to Parker learning the hard way about the whole power and responsibility lesson . . maybe?
Some of the best high lights of the movie were the cast performances, I really enjoyed seeing the pupil/mentor relationship develop between Parker and Stark. Michael Keaton was great although I think a bit more screen time for his character would have been helpful. The Star Wars references were cool and the opening and ending scenes of the film were down right epic if you've seen the movie already you know what I'm talking about. We also got to see some genuinely unexpected twists to the story line that I also enjoyed and as expected there were quite a few of those classic Spider-Man quips we've come to expect. Specifically there was one scene I didn't like, it had to do with the ferry disaster I dunno something about it didn't quite sit right with me. However, over all Spider-Man Homecoming was pretty good it's got me a bit more stoked for Black Panther in the same way Wonder Woman did for me and The Justice League.

Cesar keepn it real

Here's what's coming next weekend, Planet of The Apes WAR. This is another iconic franchise reboot I've been pretty happy with so far so I'm planning on seeing the latest installment on it's opening weekend as well. I might even do an update to this posting with a brief movie review. From what I can see already it's going to be a strong character driven story line and the cgi looks great.

Making ass kicking new fan art out of the older stuff plus LOGAN this weekend

For the past couple days I've been doing some experimenting in photoshop with combining elements of past fan art projects of mine to create new scenes. I got some pretty damn good results if I do say so myself the source material is all stuff I've posted here over the years but I'll provide you with links to my deviant art gallery for easier and quick references of the before mentioned source material ...
http://csuhsux.deviantart.com/art/Rom-spaceknight-Silver-Surfer-Nova-Quasar-368979222
http://csuhsux.deviantart.com/art/Spaceknights-over-San-Francisco-528693529

http://romspaceknightart.blogspot.com/2017/02/x-men-vs-dire-wraiths-tribute-art.html
http://csuhsux.deviantart.com/art/Rom-spaceknight-and-Onyx-team-up-sketch-art-550782374
http://csuhsux.deviantart.com/art/Rom-spaceknight-Beta-Ray-Bill-team-up-sketch-art-485359416
By the way deviant art just recently was purchased by Wix which is an online do it yourself web page building site perhaps you seen their TV commercials? As I understand it it's mostly used by business owners with no web skills to build professional looking websites for their business on the cheap. Turns out Wix is an Israeli based company which I had no idea about it always makes my day to learn more about the robust business dealings between America and Israel. I'm sure deviant art will be in good hands.

Left click to enlarge

March 12 update: No you're eyes aren't playing tricks on you if you've previously visited this posting I swapped out this photo image with the finalized product. Each side panel has a mirror opposite as far as the art work goes so effectively you're actually seeing the whole thing in this one photo.

March 4th update: So first of all I just wanted to say that if you thought this movie based on the trailers was gonna be anything like the other Wolverine solo movies then you're an idiot. It most certainly was not, and I mean that in the best possible way. This was a very serious and melancholy film that at times got down right depressing. Part of that had to do with it dealing with a lot of of serious social themes such as coming to terms with growing older and the emotional challenges of caring for the elderly. Things I think more of us are dealing with these days then care to admit.
   The movie had as expected a lot good action scene which I think were the way Wolverine fight scenes should have always been portrayed all along. You don't just see him swinging his claws at someone that just falls over I mean we're talking full on dismemberment Conan The Barbarian style. We also get a lot of good trash talk humor that's anything but campy especially with Charles Xavier dropping a few "F" bombs here and there which alone is almost worth the cost of admission. At times the feel of the film was much like Steven King's Firestarter (great 80s film) with the whole little girl with super powers on the run theme in which you knew it was just not going to end on a happy final note. There are those who would say that the story line is a bit slow paced at certain points and I think there's a case to be made for that but this was a really strong character driven movie. Characters with a lot of history that we all love who are going through a crisis unlike any we've ever seen with them before you can't make that feel rushed it needed to be handled right.
   Finally, everybody in the film was great with especially powerful performances from Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart with Dafni Keen and Boyd Halbrook also handling their roles quite well. Although not the more high society sophisticated James Bond type villain as we know him from the comics I also liked how they handled the Donald Pierce character (Halbrook). He was more of a wise cracking down and dirty mercenary type but it worked pretty good for the story. Are there things I could nit pick at in the movie? Yeah sure, but nothing that serious that takes much away from what the movie has going for it. The end was kinda predictable but still managed to be fairly suspenseful and in the case of Logan himself rather ironic. If you want to discus the movie in any more detail go ahead and leave a comment, remember when you guys used to leave comments?

Left click to enlarge

April 11th Update: This fantastic comment was found under a recent Bleeding Cool article about some law suit that is or was going on between Marvel Comics and idw publishing over the legal rights for usage of the term Dire Wraiths. Personally I could give a rat's ass about the law suit since marvel hasn't done anything with the Wraiths in years that was worth a shit and don't even get me going again on idw's shitty ROM reboot.

Ever had your fan art show up at some comic shop over 3000 miles away from you?

Left click to enlarge

Just when I think I've finally run out of ROM stuff to blog about look what comes my way. Have a look at this photo Gary Martin Jr. sent me recently during a trip to Bridgeport (West Virginia) while at a mall comic shop (Four Horsemen Comics & Gaming). I wonder if whoever decided to lift my fan art off the net and make it part of this interior design series Marvel cover corner of wall tile had any idea that the ROM piece is just some fan art and not something that was ever published by Marvel? I made that almost 5 years ago originally for the now defunct re-cornered blog http://corneredblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/david-holsey-corners-rom-spaceknight.html but I've seen it turn up on Pinterest and who knows where ever else. I mentioned this before whenever I see this sort of thing I have mixed feelings about it. Just on general principle I think it's kind of a dick move to use someone else's art work with out they're permission or even at least accrediting them accordingly. On a side note I bet it cost who ever at The Four Horsemen a bit of a pretty penny to have a small image on the internet blown up into a large format print out.

Left click to enlarge

Just wanted to ad something here. This is a scan from my copy of a program guide for the 1989 Wonder-Con Comic convention in Oakland California. As you can see Miguel Ferrer was there who I just got the sad news about only moments before midnight today. I knew Miguel best from his fantastic role in the original Robocop film and from a small part he played in Star Trek III The Search for Spock. I also remember him guest starring along with another actor from the Robocop cast in the cop drama Hooperman which starred the late John Ritter who you probably best knew from the classic 80s comedy sitcom Three's Company.

The most under rated Marvel artist Ron Frenz

Let me just talk a little bit about THOR 383 first because it's really an excellent tie-in to the original Secret Wars 12 issue series. In the Secret Wars story line at one point The Enchantress temporarily magically transports herself and THOR off The Beyonder's Battleworld only to return there right in the middle of Dr. Doom's army of super villains. Not only in THOR 383 do we find out where they went for a while but we also get to see a recap of the entire fight between THOR and Doom's forces played out (as seen in Secret Wars 4) with new art work by Ron Frenz.

As you can see the art work kicks ass I mean seriously this is Sal Buscema level quality and that's pretty high praise coming from me as you all know. This is exactly what is meant when you hear about comic book art being done "The Marvel Way". It's very strange how Frenz doesn't have more notoriety in the industry like I said a really under rated artist.

It's rather sad that many of the same people who would practically drop to their knees upon hearing the name of a certain other artist who's work was out dated and woefully inadequate back in the 80s would probably be all but clueless about Ron Frenz and his fantastic work. That's just wrong.

Commission art by Ron Frenz