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.
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.
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