For this 4th of July 2025

Since it's the 4th of July let me open up this month's posting with some new fan art that features the red, white and blue by Greek artist and my friend Kapandais Nikolause. Actually, it's not exactly new per se, I used photoshop to take two separate fan art pieces from Nikolause and put them together into one scene with Captain America and Sabra together. I think Contest of Champions and Incredible Hulk 279 were the only times where these two characters appeared together in the same comic book story lines.

Now if there's any writer in Marvel that can get the hopes up of ROM fans only to shoot that hope down in flames it's the asshole known as Jonathan Hickman and this is exactly the kinda shit I talked about last month (*see previous posting). This panel featuring Ikon looking like a has been spaceknight suffering from depression in an alien dive bar is from Imperial issue 1 which is a new cosmic series. Now in Hickman's mind he might have actually believed he's paying tribute to the ROM legacy with sorry ass shit like but in reality he's doing it a disservice. It's shit like this along with IDW's ill conceived reboot is what made ROM fans give up on any sort of hopes for a return of The Greatest of The Spaceknights in contemporary story lines and instead pivot thier hopes toward stuff like Omnibus reprints and an articulate action figure which they finally got as of this year. One last thing, I'd like to give a not so honorary mention to writers Abnett & Lanning who gave us The Annihilators which was yet another big let down for the fans base.

THE COMING OF ROM: A Knight's Tale by Jim Shooter June 2011 http://jimshooter.com/2011/06/coming-of-rom-knights-tale.html/

This year has seen the loss of some major talents who have contributed to all things ROM over the years in one way or another. Jim Shooter passed away at pretty much the exact half way point of 2025. A controversial figure in some ways, he never the less was a big part of what made the Marvel 80s so epic with the Secret Wars series being just one of the many examples. On one hand, Shooter helped get greenlit Bill Mantlo's idea for the Micronauts and reached out to MEGO so ofcourse that was awesome. And ofocurse he was instrumental to getting the ROM series launched. But at the same time we know they also had a tenuous working relationship as well and unfortunately we'll never get Mantlo's side of the story about all that for obvious reasons.

 

Earlier this year we also last Peter David  and Butch Guice. Guice, who was an overall phenomenal artist (as seen in the pages of the before mentioned Micronuats) also did the cover art for at least three ROM issues (55,58 and 70) that I know of. Peter David never worked on the original series but he certainly made sure to help keep the legacy of ROM going in a big way with the Rick Jones wedding issue of The Incredible HULK. David also included  some clever ROM and Dire Wraith references in other HULK issues as well as in Captain Marvel in the 90s.

Rest in peace Kenneth Colley, you served the empire with honor & distinction

 

Bill Mantlo Sal Buscema and what could have been as we watch Captain America 4 nose dive

Sometimes when I reflect on Bill Mantlo’s legacy it’s not just about what was, but also about what could have been under different circumstances. A big thanks to Greek artist and friend Kapandias Nikolaos for helping make this imaginary cover art possible. Like many of you we sure do wish it had been a published hard copy found on a spinner rack back in the day. 

And speaking of spinner racks. I'm sure you've all seen this photo before with this George Lucas looking guy it's been posted all over social media countless times over the years. By chance I recently found this color version on X/twitter. 

 

 Back to more collaboration fan art with my before mentioned Greek friend. I dressed up some fan art of his from 2021 to make a ROM Annual 3 cover variant. Now, no disrespect to Bill Sienkiewicz who did the original cover art we all still very much love. It's just that a different interpretation some times can be interesting and enjoyable as well. 

If you grew up in the 80s and don't remember the show Airwolf, well I don't know what to say because I sure do remember it. Back when ROM annual 3 came out I noticed something very familiar about the helmets featured for the Wraith Hunter Rangers. I would find it hard to believe that redesign concept was not directly influenced that cool helmet design from the show.

 

Also, my hypothetical Tales to Astonish publishing those untold Mantlo stories would be penciled by just about any other artist other then Steve Ditko. Sal Buscema ofcourse would have been ideal but Bob Layton would have been a good alternative. The same Bob Layton who did this spectacular SABRA commission late last year. 

I also have a message for marvel studios because even though the opening weekend of Captain America Brave New World is not quite over we can already do a post mortem. Well you idiots caved in to the BDShole woke antisemitic mob and how did that work out for ya? But that still didn't keep the hamas supporters from harassing Shira Hass at the premier in LA. Did you people learn nothing from the last election and see how all the double talk from the democrats on the war in gaza was just pissing every one off on both sides!? Like Nick Fury said in Captain Marvel ..."pick a side". 

I mean Shira Hass was a questionable person for the role in the first place given that she looks like she's barely old enough to drive but was playing a character who's traded punches with the HULK in the comics. But you people really screwed this all up even worse then expected. And Marvel/Disney has got another money losing disaster over the horizon in the form of the semi live action Snow Woke film. Just as gaza has brought all this misery and destruction on it's self as a result of the October 7th terror attack, you've done much the same with your financial miseries and brand destruction. Well deserved in each case!

Instead of wasting your money on Captain America Brave New Whatever, just watch this instead. It's free, a better use of your time and I heard it has better CGI effects.

February 27th Update: Holy shit I just heard the news about Gene Hackman, his wife and their dog having been found dead in their New Mexico home! I don't even know where to start with this one. My personal favorite Gene Hackman films are Superman I and 2, The Unforgiven, Crimson Tide, The Firm and The Poseidon Adventure. My all three of them rest in peace.

April 1st Update: And here we go again with the loss of another iconic actor for early 2025. My all time favorite Val Kilmer films are Top Secret, HEAT and Tombstone. Top Gun was good in a cheesy 80s action drama kinda way but Mavrick really ended up far exceeding my expectations for a sequel to a movie like Top Gun could be. I'm so glad Val Kilmer was at least healthy enough at the time for that heart warming scene between him and Tom Cruise it was one of those great moments that made Maverick so damn good. In terms of science fiction, Val Kilmer was in the film Red Planet. Not at all a bad film although not as good as other Mars based films like Mission To Mars and The Martian.

A Marvel 80s Hanukkha for 2024

Now this one here I retrieved from my fan art archives. It's the only Jewish culture and ROM crossover piece I've ever come across and unfortunately I still don't know who the artist is because I sure would have a few questions for him or her about it. The four or five of you who will see this posting probably aren't old enough to recognize the little "girl" here. She's an android from this late 80s sitcom called Small Wonder. This artist had a quite a vivid imagination. Well, Happy Hanukkha whoever you are. 

 

I really wanted to close out the year with some original fan art of my own so in honor of the first night of Hanukkah I came up with this sketch card a couple days ago. There ofcourse are a number of other Jewish characters from Marvel Comics such as Moon Knight and Alpha Flight's Sesquatch but I decided to use the ones that I think worked best for this gathering around the menorah scene. Please spare a thought and maybe even a prayer for the hostages still in the terrorist Hell hole of gaza who will be missing their second Hanukkah in a row now. Bring Them Home Now!

January 18th Update: Tomorrow will be the first day of phase 1 for the ceasefire for the hostages deal. Let's hope it holds and eventually results in the release of all the hostages in the coming weeks from those hamas bastards. 

Anyways, on a much much less serious topic . . . images of these new Marvel Legends action figures have turned up yesterday on social media. At exactly 20:20 in this presentation video we get a detailed look and description of the ROM figure.

https://www.youtube.com/live/u0wYt4ysVm8?t=1199s

Happy Birthday To Me

This is some fan art by Greek artist Kapandais Nikolaos that's based on the unpublished pages from Cloak & Dagger featuring Sabra as seen in the previous posting. I've had this art work for a little while now but I've been waiting for the right time to feature it as I love to do with good fan art. So with it being my birthday today I guess this is a good time as a treat to myself.

Coincidentally I also discovered this new fan art commission by artist Jeff Slemmons which was posted to Comic Art Fans just a few days ago. I would definitely say this is the best ROM related fan art for 2024 I've come across. ROM blasting away Dire Wraiths is nothing new when it comes to ROM fan art including this year with a fictitious cover by Bob Layton and a 3D rendering I saw on farcebook more recently that was kinda cool. But Slemmons does it best here hands down. 

https://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=2074609

 December 12 Update: And look what else I just found! A new commission piece by one of the best and possibly most under rated Marvel 80s artists Ron Frenz. All that aside I'm always happy to have more Jewish superheroes in my posts.

 December 21 Update: Here's the color version. I can't decide which version I like better . . . 

https://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=2079247

The Official Handbook of The Marvel Universe issue 9 re-covered sketch card

Hopefully you're familiar with the 80s Official Marvel Universe Handbook series? Anyways, here's issue 9 for you to reference  . . . 
https://viewcomiconline.com/the-official-handbook-of-the-marvel-universe-issue-9/

What I did here was replace the characters on the front page cover with characters on the page page cover with the one exception being ROM whom I just repositioned on the front cover. Interestingly enough as I was working on this labor intensive sketch card I realized that Sabertooth was completely absent from the cover art for issue 9 despite having his profile in the issue. I've had this issue since the early 80s and I'm just noticing that for the first time. His profile shares the same page (15) along with Israel's Sabra. I'm thinking that might have been some sort of over site at the time. Anyways, I decided to add him to the mix. 

March 30th Update: Well I thought I was gonna have to finish up this month with out anything else to update this posting with when by chance I came across this gorgeous gouache painting of The Mad Thinker with his awesome android by Dan Orgil which also happens to contain a ROM Easter egg. A reference to ROM the events in 14 and later recapped in Captain America 311. In a description attached to this illustration Orgil goes on to say that he likes to give a little love once in a while to non A list characters. Thank you Dan we appreciate that and you taking us on a little trip down Marvel 80s memory lane. 

 

 March 22nd 2025 Update: This is the latest update from when I originally published a posting that I've ever done. For some reason this just hit me for the first time after literally all these decades! And this is coming from someone who was an art major and who's owned ROM 14 since I was a teenager. I'mreally curious to know if this was Buscema or Mantlo's idea but I suspect we'll never get the answer to that.

July 18th Update: Time to showcase some newly discovered public art! For years I've had this love hate relationship with the city of oakland, or Wokeland or Oaklandistan as I like to call it. But since the October 7th terror attack in Israel, I just simply hate this town for the antisemitic and crime ridden urban Hellscape that it is. But even so, once in a while you will actually find something cool.

 

Enter 2024

I usually don't care much for character study type fan art. I much prefer fan art that involves some sort of scene that tells a story or pays tribute to an awesome moment comic book or sci-fi fandom. But once in a while I make an exception and this would be one of those times. This is just excellent from a figure composition stand point and in general really encapsulates that greatest of the spaceknights vibe. Compliments of artist Patrick Goddard 

That's a pretty good deal when you consider that the ROM Spaceknight 1 facsimile goes for 5 bucks. With that TPB you get 4 ROM issues for just a little more. Get your copy in 2024. 

Once again, it was nice to see a ROM publication on a new comic shelf. And even though it was a reprint, at least this time it was something that featured new original cover art unlike in the case of the facsimile. Perhaps we're inching ever closer to the day where we will have new stories of the one and only Greatest of The Spaceknights appearing every month on new comic book day?

Although I'm always on the look out for anything ROM related that's cool I've had other matters on my mind in recent weeks and it's not looking like that's gonna change any time soon. Are sick and tired of seeing this so called flag and all the propaganda, thuggery, mayhem and vandalism that comes with it? Then this part of the posting is for you my friend. 

 

 January 13th Update: So as with all my postings for many months now I had to add some Sabra into this one. That aside I was long over due to do something with Sabra fighting islamic terror this one became my first fan art piece of 2024.

January 23rd Update: Today a buddy of mine texted me the sad news about Gary Graham having passed away. I met Gary at a con in San Jose California about 7 or 8 years ago. He was at a booth with the late sci-fi legend Richard Hatch (Apollo from Battle Star Galactica ofcourse, RIP) promoting Star Trek Axanar. I told him how at first I was skeptical about him playing a Vulcan diplomat on Star Trek Enterprise after having enjoyed him several years before as a smart mouth but street smart detective on ALIEN NATION. But he pulled it off brilliantly, and he seemed to be quite delighted by my compliment. Ofcourse I was also sure to let him know that I was a faithful viewer of both shows and that I felt they ended long before their time. Gary Graham was only 73 and reportedly died of a cardiac arrest. 

February 3rd Update: Carl Weathers is dead at 76, and It's hard to even write that as a statement of fact as of yesterday. So many great 80s memories (Rocky and Predator ofcourse) going back with this guy to say nothing about his more recent notable work in the Star Wars franchise. Been finding out a lot of interesting stuff about Weathers that I didn't know in recent hours about his time as a professional athlete as well as his work in films and TV both in front and behind the camera. Way too much to write about here but I did want to make a mention of his appearance on The SHIELD which is probably my all time favorite cop drama TV show. 

The Greatest of The Spaceknights enters the war on terror

I recently decided to make some new corner boxes out already existing fan art of mine. Sabra comes from a sketch card posted here two postings ago. Added some color to a sketch card of ROM from the previous posting so that's where that one came from. And Misty Knight is from some fan art I did a few years back. 

I've actually been thinking of doing something like this for years now. I even had this idea in my head of portraying a ROM vs islamic terror scene like this using the cover art of ROM 3 as a template. Obviously recent events in The Middle East has given me the final motivation to get this done even though I ultimately decided to go with a less challenging composition then the Frank Miller cover art from ROM Spaceknight #3.

Shogun Warriors 13 was one of the very first comics I ever which at the time I used to have to nag my parents to buy for me. A few years ago I stumbled across a copy of issue 12 in a dollar box so I figured what the Hell let's check it out. And I was treated to yet another pleasant surprise when discovered one of the most rare ROM spaceknight house ads on the letters page. 

And look here, we also have another rare ROM house ad in the letters page of Micronuats 18.

https://bayareatelegraph.com/2023/11/16/pro

Marvel Universe fan art trading cards by Greek artist Kapandais Nikolaos

It seems years of nagging my fellow artist and friend about trying out doing some sketch card fan art has finally paid off, and in a big way. He cranked out a bunch of these awesome kick ass business card sized fan art pieces over the course of just a couple weeks. You might say the ones you see above are the Bill Mantlo subset collection but there's many many more . . .

What I posted here are just a few samples, there's nearly a dozen in all check em out over at his deviant art gallery...

https://www.deviantart.com/nikoskap/gallery

I was browsing at one of those over sized hard bound Marvel encyclopedia books a couple weeks ago when something occurred me when I was looking at Sabra's bio. Writers for comic books actually have a better grip on reality then leftist antisemites do. You see up there where it reads "BASE Jerusalem Israel"? One of the things antisemites love to ramble on about on social media is how Jerusalem is actually in "palestine". And that's despite "palestine" not being listed on virtually any geographic map or even on whatever GPS app that is on your phone. Ya see even within the fictional world of The Marvel Universe there are certain basic facts that are a reflection of the real world such as the existence of gravity or that the planet earth is round and not flat. Another basic fact, Jerusalem ISRAEL nuff said.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/sabra-ruth-batseraph-x-men--308707749468370811/

If you're any kind of Marvel 80s fan then you shouldn't have too much trouble figuring out the cover art this commission fan art piece by artist Carlos Franco is based on. 

August 9th Update: A big thanks to Eclectic Lee for the heads up on this dire wraith reference made in the pages of Avengers Annual 13 (1984). I love it when this kinda nostalgic 80s stuff turns up, it's right up there with the discovery of great new ROM related fan art. 

 

HEAVY METAL

About two or three weeks ago I stumbled upon some new ROM fan art on social media but unfortunately thus far I haven't had any luck finding out who the artist is. Now I don't know if the setting is original art or if it was lifted from some other source but ROM himself was directly taken from the final page of ROM annual 2. Usually I'm not big on facsimile fan art because of its inherent unimaginative nature but this one was some what of an exception to me. It kinda had this 70s/80s sci-fi fantasy art style to it that had me feeling a bit nostalgic. Then I got to thinking about what it would have looked like on the cover of HEAVY METAL Magazine.

And speaking of nostalgic mock covers, this Strange Magazine cover art is apparently a convention sketch by Bob Layton who is in Lyon France. I'm almost certain that's ROM's neutrilizer in his right hand ... or at least it was. I guess there must still be some ROM fans in France.

This digital fan art of Sabra vs antisemitic dumbass ruffalo Hulk is actually from last year I just didn't post it here at the time for what ever reason. Anyways, fuck mark ruffalo. And as stated so pointedly by front man David Draiman at a Disturbed concert in Tel Aviv a couple nights ago "FUCK roger waters" to . . .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSKzoC5xxMQ

4 of July Update: Someone posted this (Hembeck ofcourse) on Farcebook recently and I'm always happy to discover some new archival ROM related stuff out there. I remember an old interview with Stan Lee in which he explains the HULK was originally intended to be grey but because of some glitch they couldn't fix at the printers he ended up being green so Stan basically just went with it. In regards to ROM, I did notice how his armor was introduced as grey but shortly later took on a more blue look but I never really gave it any thought for some reason. I do like the blue tone a bit better but at the same time when I see the more "Grey ROM" it kinda feels more classic Marvel 80s.

July 9th Update: I don't know about the 3 or 4 of you out there who have read this posting but I'm loving The Secret Invasion series on Disney Plus. Woke up this morning in the mood to draw something having to do with The Skrulls here we are. I ended up doing this sketch card which is based on the history of the Dire Wraith and Skrull conflict as explained in ROM Spaceknight 50.

https://marvelcrossovers.blogspot.com/2018/10/wraith-war-1984-1985.html?sc=1691337863733

 

Cosmic Marvel Dream Team

So this one here actually started off with a fairly recent Silver Surfer fan art piece by Greek artist Kapandais Nikoloas. I took into photoshop on a day where I had some spare time on my hands and played around with it and started added other characters from separate fan art pieces from his gallery. It took a little time to get them to all blend in so that the finished piece didn't have too much of a "patch work" look to it and I think I was fairly successful in that endeavor.

 

Also recently, I was reading through a bunch of back issues online of Marvel Age Magazine. I came across this letter in issue 19. I remember back in the day when I got my hands on that copy of that Marvel Universe Handbook (issue 15) and thinking the exact same thing. I dunno why I never wrote any letters to comic book publishers back in those days I really regret it now.

Sabra by Kapandais Nikoloas (2022)

 May 22th Update: I have to admit for years now every time a ROM fan would wish for a omnibus collection I used to snicker to myself because it seemed like such a pipe dream. Well, not any more so I guess the laugh is on me this time. This is definitely the coolest thing to happen for the ROM spaceknight character since that action with several points of articulation came out some 5 years ago. I don't know if this will open new doors for MARVEL and Hasbro when it comes to all things ROM but this certainly comes as welcomed news just the same. After more then 2 decades it's nice to see MARVEL finally show some degree of respect to the ROM fan base. Would be really interesting to see what went on behind the scenes between MARVEL & Hasbro to make this happen.

Well it certainly wasn't all good news today. Actor Ray Stevenson passed away at only 58! As I was going through his filmography I realized all these years I had him mistaken in the movie Book of Eli for Sex and The City actor Chris Noth. Ain't that some shit!? Not seeing much about his time on Dexter in his acting credits which is a shame because he was good in that to. Now I find out he's supposed to be this bad ass in the upcoming Ashoka series so now I'm looking even more forward to that. Rest In Peace Ray. 

May 24th Update: I don't know what the Hell is going on this week. But now we just lost the legendary Tina Turner who I think most would agree was a national treasure. Among other things, I've got so many great 80s memories from Turner especially when it came to her music videos on MTV. It's too bad she didn't do more acting work back in the day, she had great on screen presence in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. 

June 14th Update: Just heard the sad news about the passing of John Romita. I don't have much to say that hasn't already been talked about by the millions of fans out there on social media about his epic and legendary career. On an interesting side note, his son (John Romita Jr.) penciled the ROM sales pitch art as seen above and some years later penciled Uncanny X-Men issues 184,185,187 and 188 which were some of the most pivotal ROM spaceknight-wraith war tie-ins of the 80s.

It's been a while since I "book ended" one of my postings with recent photos of local public displays of solidarity with Ukraine. Here we are now well over a year into this shit. Fu#% russia, & the same goes for the regimes in iran and china to.