Neal Adams, the passing of a titan 1941-2022

With William Hurt's reoccurring role as General "Thunderbolt" Ross, this is now the second time this year someone who made their mark on the comic book genre industry has passed away. In honor of Neal Adams legacy in all aspects (as an artist and advocate for artist rights) of the comic book industry I'm posting this mind blowing splash page of Armor 2 from Continuity Comics that Adams penciled. This scene definitely gives new meaning to the splash in splash page. His art work is really timeless. You could take anything he did like on Batman or in The X-Men of the late 70s and it'll hold up to anything in contemporary comic book art. Unlike Ditko, Adams would have made a great replacement for Sal Buscema on the ROM Spaceknight series. On an interesting side note I just learned that Neal Adams was Jewish although as far as I can tell Adams is the family name he was born with.

And speaking of all things ROM, here's the latest envelope fan art for my friend and artistic collaborator in Greece. Turns out aside from our mutual love of science fiction and comics we're also on the same page politically on most things so bonus points to the 4 or 5 people who will see this posting and get the significance of ROM and company attacking the military forces that this tank belongs to. 

It's been quite a while since I've had something to post outside of fan art so today is a pleasant change of pace. This is no doubt one of the most obscure ROM Easter eggs I've ever come across. This panel is from issue 11 of the mid to late 80s comic book series X-Thieves published by COMICS Interview Publications. From what I've seen of it online it's a rather quirky and all around bizarre story line that probably is best enjoyed if the reader doesn't expend too much time and energy trying to make sense of it. I don't think it's any coincidence that right next to the ROM mask is another one of a toaster oven.

 May 7th Update: It's down right creepy how the death of yet another legendary artist from the comic book industry (George Perez ofcourse) should not only happen basically a week after Neal Adams passing but also on this year's Free Comic Book Day. As an artist, pretty much all the words of praise I gave to Adams also applies to Perez. His work was timeless in it's quality and appeal. Rest In Peace George.

June 5th Update: I just got back from a weekend in Sacramento California and I saw this Thanos mural in the downtown area so I was like...."yeah I need to do one more update to this posting". It's a real pleasure to post some little known sci-fi or comic book based public art once in a while. I have no idea who did this all I can tell you is that upon a closer look I could see this was painted on two separate horizontal pieces of plywood like boards.

From the pages of Wizard Magazine issue 114 March 2001

Grabbed a random Wizard magazine issue today out of a quarter box for some lite reading and woe and behold look what I found in the back pages. It's a nice little find but at first I had a bit of trouble trying to understand this graph but then it sunk in. Interestingly enough here's another one of those examples where a publisher with out the property rights printed ROM's likeness with out any legal fuss. Anyways, getting back to the graph. Notice how the amount of titles published by Marvel were on the rise all the way up to the early 90s only to make a nearly 50% drop over the course of the next decade and quite literally leading into the new century? I wonder if something similar was the case for DC? If so, the 90s must have been something of a down turn in the comic book industry.

Ya ever been to either a comic shop or a convention and saw something that you used to have but totally forgot about it even though it's as cool now as it was then? I had one of those moment when I saw this movie poster through the window of this collectibles shop. Brings back good memories my dad got this for me back when I was a kid I'm glad I was able to at least find a descent image of it on the internet to post here. When you think about it I'm a lot like Dr. Jones. He hunts for ancient relics that usually end up in a museum or government warehouse. In a way I do the same thing when it comes to little known ROM related relics which usually end up in a posting.

New ROM commission Fuck Yeah!

Aw Hell yeah look what I just found! What we have here is a mixed media commission piece by Ed Hannigan. Ok so the left leg needs a bit of work and conceptually it's not especially original but I like the energy in it. It makes me wanna say ROM, FUCK YEAH! just like the Team America: World Police theme song. And speaking of all things Bill Mantlo and Ed Hannigan this ROM easter egg comes from Spectacular Spiderman #72. The clip art is courtesy of Gary Martin Jr. "A Rom curator". I've been sitting on that one for a while now just waiting for the right time to present it.

Sept. 12th update: Speaking of artists who have worked with Bill Mantlo the legendary Sal Buscema was just recently at the Baltimore Comic-Con http://thejadegiant.wordpress.com/2013/08/17/sal-buscema-rare-convention-appearance-at-the-baltimore-comic-con-next-month/