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.
I asked the dude who posted this on twitter where this came from but he never responded so unfortunately I can't tell you if this is some sort of fan art or if it came out any publication.
So today I bought a brand new Marvel comic for first time in almost years. Marvel's treatment of the ROM spaceknight legacy has prompted me toward a personal boycott of new comics to say nothing of the cover prices these days. But I finally made an exception for this one shot issue of Magneto & The Mutant Force which has Sabra among the cast of characters. I'd say it's been around 3 years since she last made an appearance in any Marvel title so I had to check this out.
In this alternate reality there are no Avengers and Sabra is part of a mutant rebellion led by a paraplegic Magneto against the government which Squadron Supreme are agents of. It would have been nice had there been a bit more of her in the issue but over all I thought it was ok. Been out of the loop for quite a while when it comes to all things going on in the published Marvel Universe so I'm sure there's some context to the story I'm missing here.
And here we have the latest commission piece from our pal Sal. Unfortunately I don't have any details about about who it was for or how much whoever paid for it which I think we all are curious about. I think this is the best commission form Sal in quite a while.
Some dire wraith infestation perhaps. But no Covid-19 pandemic or IDW at least. Long live the 80s!
"ROM original" accept no substitute
I posted this from Comic Scene Magazine issue 2 (1982) back in September of 2013. But in honor of Joe Sinnott who recently past away I think it would be fitting to post again.
July 4th Update: I recently discovered a number of cool San Francisco murals of Marvel superheroes so I decided to post my favorite ones. They were mostly located in the North Beach district but a couple were also downtown.
Commission art by Steven Butler
July 24th Update: Finally, something has come along worth posting here from an artist other then myself and my friend Nikoskap. This is absolutely every thing I like to see when it comes to fan art (commission or other wise). It's creative, professional in quality and takes me back to the 80s in the way good nostalgia fan art should do. Hats off to artist Steven Butler and his master piece. You've done the ROM Spaceknight legacy justice.
by Jeff Slemons
And look at this ROM 27 homage piece by artist Jeff Slemmons. Two awesome pieces of ROM fan art in one week, this is truly unprecedented. The Gods of Galador be praised!
Happy New Year from ROM's man cave (location unknown).
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January 2nd Update: Speaking of totally awesome 80s stuff let's get back to Star Wars when it was good. My rebel fleet has gotten a bit bigger today with the arrival of my hammerhead corvette in the mail from ebay. Now I'm ready to ram the nearest and preferably disabled star destroyer. I'm sure most of you remember that epic scene from what as far as I'm concerned now is the only good Star Wars movie made since 1983.
January 3rd Update: I wanted to throw something elseunto this posting more on the comics end of the 80s as well. Marvel Team-Up 130 (1983) features some really fantastic classic Sal Buscema art. If you're wondering what's going on here The Vision's android body has been temporarily taken over by some villain named Necrodamus. Not to be confused with Dave Chapelle's Negrodamus mind you. The clip art I posted here is just a sample of the action packed dynamic pencils by Buscema as Spider-Man and Scarlet Witch trade blows with the possessed Vision until they finally figure out a way to drive Necrodamus out of Vision's body.
Ya know I gotta be honest with you guys, the vast majority of ROM fan art that turns up on twitter sucks. But once in a while something good turns up like this one from Preston Asevedo. Couldn't find the artist's name so that I could accredit it accordingly but perhaps it'll turn up later for me to update this posting. This guy has got some real illustration skills both ROM and the dog are drawn really well nothing amateurish about it. I also dig the back ground to, it's a nice touch.
It reminds me a lot of this part of ROM spaceknight #2. A good moment early in the series that helped establish ROM's humanity to the readers. Ya know how it is when you see a dog get killed in the movies or on a tv show you gotta be some kinda dick for it not to choke you up a bit. Then there's those SPCA commercials.
Thought it might be fun to throw on my ROM t-shirt and try to get an impromptu selfie with my wife's dog for this posting. She's a 12 year old corgie and beagle mix named Chevy. As you can imagine it took several attempts to get this shot ya know how it is when trying to take pictures with pets the challenge of getting them to hold still for two damn seconds. Just for the record I also like cats I used to have several when I was a kid I wouldn't mind having one today again but I'm afraid Chevy just wouldn't have it.
October 1st Update: Just got back from the San Jose Comics and Vintage Toy Show at The Santa Clara Fairgrounds where I saw this. Tell me that is not one of the funniest things you've ever seen. On a side note here I didn't run into any loose Hasbro ROM figures I was kinda hoping to just to see what dealers would be asking for it. Makes me all the more happy I snatched up the one from ebay for the straight $43.
Any body remember these little pink figurines called M.U.S.C.L.E.S? They certainly had their 15 minutes of popularity back in the 80s. Usually today you find em at collectible shows or in comic shops going for around 2 -3 dollars apiece. They usually came in a package of about 5 or 6 figures and if you can still find an intact package that can go for a pretty penny. This one in particular was always my favorite as far as I can tell he was supposed to be some sort of futuristic cop or something along those lines. I don't believe these figures had any sort of back story to speak of.
The 80s will never die. And I ain't just talkn about Cons and comic shops check out this new GEICO commercial.
So I was looking to solicit some opinions of what you folks think of the re-panel verses the original splash page from ROM annual 2. The original ofcourse is penciled by Sal Buscema with inks by Akin & Garvey as opposed to the re-panel by Chris Batista and Brian Garvey. The original features a more dramatic pose for both ROM and his fellow spaceknights but at the same time I find the re-panel having a figure composition appeal I also really like.
Just gonna go off topic a bit here because I'm so stoked that they were finally able to post the most epic scene from Wonder Woman on youtube with out it getting yanked down by the studios. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIEwkn-Q2Oo
July 7th Update: And we're back with some new cool ROM stuff . Thanks for the heads up on this Victor (see comments).
From the pages of Incredible Hulk 288 (Bill Mantlo) this clip art of the Abomination being tortured into submission by Modok represents some of the most awesomely stunning art work from Sal Buscema I have ever seen from him out side of the ROM series. It's past time I made sure this takes it place on the internet for any body any where in the world to enjoy. I mean just look at how dynamic the action is drawn it almost seems to come right off the pages. Plus it also helps the reader really empathize with what the Abomination is going through. Such a damn shame that a certain washed up has been artist (who shall remain nameless) tried to fill Buscema's shoes on another title (which shall remain nameless) Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema had worked on.
Well you can all thank ROM curator Gary Martin Jr. for this weekend's blog posting. This letter page that Gary sent me is from a digital copy of "Rom the spacknight" issue 4. Gotta say I was pretty surprised IDW printed that one. Well I'll tell you this Mr. Ryall, I'll take the "knee high metal disco boots" over the anime style metal snow boots you came up with for your ROM in name only series. I think Ryalls reasoning for having ditched ROM's classic hardware was also bullshit. Prior to this letter being published I had several correspondences earlier this year with IDW by email in regards to my ROM re-design grievances. And each time their responses becameare more baffling I feel like we're really talking two different languages just as you see here with chris ryall's reply to my letter. I mean we might as well be a Clinton and Trump supporter debating political-ideological differences which as you can imagine would be as pointless as a tic tac toe game or a dog chasing it's own tail.
Have you seen the cover variants for that issue yet? Most of em look like shit, all these cover variants idw keep doing are the same thing over and over again do you think it would kill em to make a cover that's a reflection of the story inside the issue for a change? So now I have to deal with the dilemma of "to buy or not to buy" ROM in name only number 4. I vowed to never buy any of IDW's shit ever again after the shitty Micronauts #1 but I might have to make an exception for this issue given that it does have a letter from me giving me now a total of 4 different titles I've now had my letters published in.
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Also from Gary we've got some old school stuff. This here comes from a Comics Buyer's Guide special on HULK back issues complete with a price guide and brief review on all the issues it covered. The special also included an entry for Incredible Hulk 262 (dire wraith back story) but I'm just featuring the entry for 296 because this one has a been of interesting commentary. Gary also found some entries for X-Men 187 and 188 for an X-Men Comics Buyer's Guide Presents special. But the asshole who did those entry write ups was a real dick head with his smart ass remarks about how the dire wraiths were some kinda second rate villains and what not. I'm not posting his shit fuck him.
November 5 update: Buying a copy for the IDW Rom in name only series for me is a lot like casting a ballot in the 2016 presidential election. Most people don't want to do it but feel like they have to in order to keep the option they hate even more out of the Oval Office. In my case I don't want to give IDW any of my money but not having a copy of my letter might be a worse option then this one time only purchase. Figures my LCS (CRUSH COMICS) only had one of the shitty cover art variants in stock. Apparently the ROM in name only series is selling better then the shitty Micronauts reboot from IDW according to the owner of CRUSH.
November 6 update: This is why I like people who leave comments I basically had no idea the cover variant I picked up yesterday was done by Al Milgrom and was a homage piece to Iron Man 80. Although I think it worked much better on the Iron Man cover. And just for the record I'm not just beating up on Al I've also pooped on cover variants done by Sal Buscema and Michael Golden it just seems to me that these cover variants from IDW lately don't bring out the best in these iconic Marvel 80s artsists. Although I betcha if Milgrom had done this homage cover in the RTO (Rom the original) series it would have come out much better then this RINO crap (Rom in name only).
After nearly a year delay the over sized hard cover COMIC BOOK FEVER from Twomorrows Publishing (Back Issue Magazine) finally came out. And thanks to Gary again who's already got his copy we now know about the ROM related stuff in it. It has me feeling kinda sentimental which in turn is bringing out my creative side after it's been on a bit reclusive in recent weeks. Aside from that doing something with ROM and Iron Man has been on the back burner for quite a while.
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Getting back to Comic Book Fever, it's compilation of the comic book industry from the mid 70s to the mid 80s and it includes a 3 page chapter devoted to ROM. One page is just a splash page with the doll with star field background but the other two pages are editorial and include some clip art from the original series. The information for the most part is redundant although it also has some new commentary from editor Joe Duffy about her experience with working on the original ROM spaceknight series.
Now ROM does turn up in other sections of the book and it was a chapter on Sal Buscema whereI found the most interesting ROM related information. When it comes to the behind the scenes talk in regards to the original series the most interesting thing to me has always been what effected me the most as a fan and reader back in the day. And that is, Sal's departure from the series which gave way to a very low point in the art work on the in the series. The quote seen above seems to suggest that Bill Mantlo and Sal may have had some creative differences very early on in the series which ultimately came to a head a few years later. Just imagine if Sal had penciled ROM spaceknight 65 it would have made the wraith war conclusion so much more epic. You can preview some of what's inside of Comic Book Fever here . . . http://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=95_94&products_id=1195
August 28 update: I noticed a copy of the 2nd issue for the IDW ROM in name only series and while I was browsing through it a certain familiar name got my attention. By April of this year my enthusiasm for this new series was buried under 50 feet of shit in a casket made out of utter dismay and disappointment. But I'm still going to post Gary's letter because it's his birthday today and he's also such an all around stand up guy. Happy Birthday Gary and welcome to the published letters club.
This morning I came across this cover art for one of the myriads of cover variants. This particular one is one of the few examples of the endless interpretations of ROM that IDW likes to keeping putting out there. Apparently some sense of consistency with ROM's design when it comes to these cover variants is not much of a priority. However, it so happens that this particular interpretation represents what I think would have been a good or at least acceptable updated look for a 2016 ROM spaceknight series. We'll assume he doesn't have the over sized anime feet bell bottom look going on in here but that aside what you see here is a look I could have gotten into. I'm at such a loss to understand why this kind of look couldn't have been just as marketable for a new ROM series here in 2016 same as what IDW ultimately came up with not to mention it would have gone a long way to not alienating so many of the faithful such as myself. Especially if they had stuck with the original concepts for ROM's neutralizer, analyzer and translator barring some minor design updates. And to think IDW actually had something like this at first (zero issue cover) but continued to make more design changes until they ended up with what you now see when you actually open up the zero issue and ROM #1. It just blows me away that these concepts and final decisions for this new series were made by old school ROM fans. And now, some of my favorite moments in terms of art and writing from the one and only Greatest of the spaceknights.
Damn straight!
August 11 update
Custom dire wraith figure by Chris Motito
Here's a little something from the good ol days that turned up on deviant art if you want to see more with different angles go here http://custom777.deviantart.com/ I'm sure Chris will be happy to tell us more photos about his latest custom including what he used as the base figure and so on. Also, be on the look out for a recent Rainbow spaceknight custom figure when you're in Chris's art gallery.
