The Marvel Team Up issue you never saw coming

It's been a long time since any brand new ROM related fan art has come along that I thought was pretty good outside of the collaborative efforts of myself and my Greek friend  https://www.deviantart.com/nikoskap. This fan art piece by Lou Russo is essentially what the opening page might look like in some sort of Marvel Team-Up issue with ROM, Spider-Man and The Micronauts going up against the combined evil of Baron Karza and The Dire Wraiths. A really creative piece with some obvious Marvel 80s nostalgia. ROM could use a bit of tweaking from a figure composition stand point but still overall this is some nice fan art. Wish something like this would come along more often then just a couple times a year.

https://brainstomping.com/2017/03/08/rom-el-mas-grande-de-los-caballeros-del-espacio-y-bill-rayos-beta-separados-al-nacer/

 

                

June15th Update: Revisiting some random fan art of my own from over the years that I recently realized I hadn't never posted on this blog for reasons unknown. 

I Love The 80s...except when IDW reboots it

So a couple of months ago I saw this at the library and figured what the Hell I'd give it a read all I had to lose was time. And indeed I did, and those precious couple hours or so of my life are now lost for ever. I was thinking I'd do a review back then but just never got around to it. Going into it I already had issues with ROM and The Micronauts as you all know.
But I also didn't like some of the Autobot line up I would have stuck with Autobots that were just from the first two generation of toys as opposed to these other later and more obscure Autobot characters (Windblade was it?) and I was never into the whole concept of female cybertronians even back in the 80s. And then ofcourse they had to make the Matt Tracker character from M.A.S.K into a black guy. I mean I understand the whole socially progressive thought process behind that but it didn't work for this M.A.S.K reboot in the same way that it did for the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the Nick Fury character. I guess G.I.Joe was handled ok but I didn't give a rat's ass about Action Man.
Ya know when I finished reading this trade I could hardly remember what the story was about it, the whole thing just seemed like a series of splash pages with an incoherent story line. Or maybe it just seemed that way because I just wasn't that into it for the before mentioned reasons and it didn't hardly at all invoke any sense of that 80s nostalgia with me. Kinda like all the Transformers movie after the first one. This whole thing was one big hot mess and felt like IDW threw all these 80s properties into a blender and poured out the hack job results on a printing press.

Even when you're knee deep in mud on the shores of The Dead Sea (Israel) it's still a good time to read some classic ROM spaceknight. I'm still trying to figure out my iphone I just found this photo from summer last year in some obscure location in it (the cloud maybe?). So I figured I might as well throw that into the mix here. Aside from the original ROM I sure do miss all things authentic 80s which brings me to the next items in this posting.

I found this cool Gobots fan art on deviant art a couple weeks ago. Pathfinder was always one of my favorites he looked cool in his robot mode and transformed into one of the coolest vehicles in the collection by far. That was a good 80s toy line it's a shame they never gave them a good back story and on top of that they had a God awful shitty cartoon series.

Speaking of authentic 80s awesomeness, remember Choose Your Own Adventure books? They used to have these books in the class rooms of my elementary school. On a whim I bought a copy of Underground Kingdom and it finally showed up in the mail yesterday. Not exactly great literature but still kinda fun to read with a strong dose of nostalgia.

One last thing I wanted to add to this posting. Just saw Wonder Woman today and I just gotta say, I love Gal! I wrote a brief spoiler free review over at The Suicide Squad blog for anyone who's interested....
http://suicidesquadtaskforcex.blogspot.com/2017/06/wonder-woman-review.html

Well isn't that cool BACK ISSUE Magazine printed one of my letters again

BACK ISSUE Magazine 88 letter column

Big thanks to ROM curator Gary Martin Jr. for finding this in the letter column of BACK ISSUE Magazine 88 (May 2016). I had actually forgotten about having written this letter which as you can see was in response to BACK ISSUE Magazine 82 which had a long article about the Secret Wars series both I and II (see blog link below). Ironically I had picked up issue 82 because that issue had a letter of mine in it as well which was feed back from yet an earlier issue featuring The Micronauts. Unfortunately all print copies of issue 88 are sold out so for now I won't be able to get a copy to add to my growing collection of comics and magazines that have my letters published in them. I didn't have any luck on ebay either that blows.
http://romspaceknightart.blogspot.com/search?q=back+issue+magazine

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August 20th Update: Just found this Spanish language cover art for ROM 72. Aside from the obvious (spanish and not english), notice some other differences from the original? The left hand corner art has the Beyonder instead of ROM and instead of the little Secret Wars logo dog eared in the opposite corner they have a tag line running along the bottom. For those of you who don't have a copy of the original here's a link for a quick reference to compare...
http://marvel.wikia.com/wiki/Rom_Vol_1_72

2016 Let the 80s revival continue

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2015 certainly has ended on an interesting and in some cases a hopeful note. If you do a key word search for "Rom spaceknight Hasbro" on Google you will get close to a dozen articles all saying the same thing about future movie prospects for these properties: Micronauts, ROM, G.I.Joe, Transformers, M.A.S.K, Visionaries as well as rumors of a shared universe in IDW comics. Same goes for doing the same key word search on youtube. As I said in the previous posting It's just too early to get worked up over any of that especially the movie talk. By the way, did  you all know that a live action JEM and The Holograms movie (who was the genius that came up with that idea?)  came out earlier this year? I'm sure most of you know JEM was an 80s cartoon that IDW picked up and made into a comic series. Anyways, as I understand it that movie is still trying to recoup it's 5 million dollar budget.
The Micronauts art work seen above turns up a lot in reference to those articles and videos and I'd love to know who did it and why. Is it some promotional stuff from Hasbro or IDW or just some really cool fan art? I'm inclined to think the later since it contains Marionette and Bug which are marvel properties. I think I'd prefer space glider in his more traditional head gear but this is otherwise a way cool updated interpretation of The Micronauts and done by one Hell of an artist obviously. All this has me wondering if IDW will have anything for The Micronauts on Free Comic Book Day this year like they will for ROM. I sure hope so.

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January 7th Update: Here's a little something from Rom curator extraordinaire Gary Martin Jr. found in the pages of Tony Isabella's 1000 Comic Books You Must Read. This Isabella guy has good taste to get a better idea what else is in his book go here: https://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=19662600

And there's more from Gary brought to you from the pages of Mediascene magazine issue 37 (May-June 1979). Well as we know the joint marketing efforts for the toy by Marvel and Parker Brothers were in vain but for the comic series it's self was certainly another matter. A black n white image of ROM #1 went along with this blurb just so you know but how many times do I need to post that cover right it's not like we've never seen it before right?

ROM Jedi spaceknight. The Force is strong with this one! Yeah I just saw Star Wars

Fan art by J.K. Woodward

Perfect art work to go with this posting topic don't you think? In the back of my head I know I remember seeing some ROM wielding lightsaber fan art at one point and thankfully I was able to find it after doing a little digging. This concept isn't that crazy after all Jedi knights and spaceknights do have a lot in common.

But let's get on with what I really wanted to talk about . . . STAR WARS THE FORCE AWAKENS! Let me start off by saying thank god is wasn't The Farce Reawakens as in another prequel quality film. I don't know if it was that The Force was with Abrams or that it was George Lucas having nothing to do with the production. Or perhaps it was some kind of combination there of but either way we finally got a pretty good Star Wars movie even though it took 32 fucken years. It wasn't sufficient to simply get something that was better then the prequels that would have been too easy of a project. It didn't have to be as epic as the original trilogy it just had to a solid sequel to the original trilogy and have at least a little bit of that old school SW magic. And ofcourse, no major fucks ups although it having some little things to nit pick at was pretty much unavoidable.
Well I'd say this movie pulled it off for the most part. At this point we can regard the prequels as nothing more then George Lucas's private project of his interpretation of the back story to the original trilogy. I mean many of the basics such as events like The Clones Wars is established history ofcourse but specific shit like jar jar binks might as well just be some obscure character that briefly appeared in one of the countless comic book spin offs over the years. And speaking of comics, it's the same as I've been saying about all the ROM related shit marvel has pumped out in the last 5 years it just never happened as far as I'm concerned. Same goes for the 2001 Spaceknight mini-series. So, who else out there The Force Awakens? Likes, dislikes or general opinions about the movie I'd like to hear from you.

Quickie sketch by yours truly

So the other matter I'd like to discuss here is the latest ROM related rumors swirling around the internet. In particular about a possible movie project for which I've received links to by several people already. Keep in mind ROM movie rumors have been around for many years now and they've proven to be as substantive as the rumors about ROM's return to marvel which we've had no shortage of over the years as well. And even when the director of The Guardians of The Galaxy talks about how he would like to include ROM in a future movie it doesn't make it any less fan boy wishful thinking then when some anonymous person says the same in an article. I mean is it possible it might happen someday as it did for The Transformers or G.I.Joe? Sure, but it could just as easily not ever happen and I'm not gonna get all sprung on something so very speculative at this time. The ROM Zero Issue in May next year and the series to follow are all coming that's for sure the rumors are long over so that's where the focus of my excitement is. Aside from that there's also talk about how ROM, The Transformers, G.I.Joe, M.A.S.K and perhaps even The Micronauts may inhabit the same IDW Universe. That's probably more plausible to me then a future ROM movie. If that is the case the cross over story line potential would be huge and would need to be handled by some very talented writers in order to do the characters justice. But even that stuff is probably a ways off if it happens, right now I just want to see a good ROM comic book series and hopefully the same for The Microanuts.

P.S. Venom spaceknight has nothing to do with actual spaceknights or ROM himself. It's just a title marvel added to Venom now that he's gone cosmic. So stop getting all worked up it's more of much to do about nothing from the assholes who are running marvel comics these days.

By Dann Phillips

Dec. 22 Update
It seems I'm not the only one who's been recently inspired to do some fan art with the IDW version of ROM.

Damn, both my letter and fan art made it into Onyx

Onyx #3 November 2015 left click to enlarge

I seem to be on a roll lately with discovering my letters turning up here and there. First it was Avengers Academy 27 from 2012, then earlier this year it was BACK ISSUE Magazine 76 and this week it's with Onyx 3. The funny thing is I never wrote a single letter back in the late 80s when I was at my comic book collecting peak. You can get a better look at the art work here . . .
http://csuhsux.deviantart.com/art/Rom-spaceknight-and-Onyx-team-up-sketch-art-550782374

My Spacenotes and Micromail in BACK ISSUE Magazine 82

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So yesterday I was in downtown Berkeley with some friends and I needed a mental break from all the gibberish they were talking so I slipped into a near by comic shop I like to frequent when I happen to be in the area. By chance I thumbed through a copy of BACK ISSUE Magazine #82 (Aug. issue) just for the heck of it and decided to buy it because it had some articles about the original Secret Wars I and Secret Wars II (with plenty of ROM & Micronauts references) series that looked pretty interesting. Plus I wanted something to read it didn't look like there was gonna be shit on TV last night.
Well imagine my surprise when I got to the letters page toward the end of the evening and found my letter there although I don't remember entitling it "Mantlo Booster" I think that's something they added. Plus it seems like they also may have tweaked my letter a bit to. In fact I had totally forgotten about the letter altogether seeing as I wrote and sent it back in December 2014 in response to a Micronauts article for BACK ISSUE Magazine #76 published October 2014. As far as published letters go this is the second one I've discovered this year back in May I learned about a 2012 Avengers Academy issue that printed my letter as well. Ironically I was giving them shit about some Avengers Academy issues which were written by Christos Gage who is slated to co-write the 2016 ROM series.

BACK ISSUE Magazine #82

Rather big or small BACK ISSUE Magazine once again showing they don't give a shit about copy rights issues when it comes to printing ROM. As many of you know there have been a number of reprinted material over the years in which Marvel removed ROM's likeness including in a color version of this poster art.

All the ROM and Micronauts stuff aside there were some pretty interesting topics in those articles being discussed. Apparently there was some kind of "disconnect" in the deal between Mattel's Secret Wars toy line and Marvel Comics. Ever wonder why Mattel came out with accessory toys like The Doom Roller or Captain America's Turbo Cycle which were never in the series? Or better yet why did they never make any figures of any female characters like She-Hulk or Enchantress? Or why would they make a figure for Kang who was "killed" off by issue #4 but never a HULK figure who was pivotal through out the series? Not to mention the figures that Mattel made like Daredevil, Iceman or The Constrictor who were never in the series in the first place. It's funny according to the Secret Wars article the comic book series was a huge hit which I certainly remember being the case back in the day but apparently the toys line was some what of a marketing failure much like the Parker Brothers ROM spaceknight doll. That certainly wasn't my impression at the time I had a few of the figures and they seemed to be fairly popular at the time although not quite as much as Masters of The Universe, G.I.Joe or The Transformers. However, just like the ROM doll the Secret Wars action figure line have become highly sought after collector's items especially the ones still in their original packaging.

ROM and Micronauts 2016 unofficial house ad

July 18th Update:
And from the artist (Ron Joseph) who gave us the ROM vs The Herculoids sketch pages here's his latest fan art. Spaceknights are awesome but after looking at this one from Ron I doubt I have the "right stuff" to become one even if genocidal monsters like the dire wraiths or ISIS (actually those jihadi fuckers are trying to) were looking to take over Earth . . .
http://ronjoseph-artist.deviantart.com/art/ROM-the-man-the-machine-547243354

July 21st Update:
Can't believe after all these years I've had this blog and with all The Micronauts stuff I've posted that I never bothered to feature this retro art work of mine. But I guess I might as well now with what's coming next year. This is an 11 X 17 water color painting I did back in the mid 90s of the Micronauts Aliens line of action figures. I'd love to see IDW make good use of them.

 

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July 24th Update:
Just happened to have come across this custom figure of Stardust. Talk about a custom figure that visually looks just like the way the character was drawn in the comic book issues they appeared in! If your memory is a bit hazy Stardust was a villain written for and first appearing in ROM Annual #1 (front story) with a brief and much later appearance in the pages of Quasar see link below for a quick recap . . .
http://romspaceknightart.blogspot.com/2012/10/quasar-4-with-rom-spaceknight-tribute.html

Lesser known licensed properties of the 80s

A big thanks to Michael Mantlo for sending me this photo from this weekend's visit to Bill. As you can see I sent a copy of my ROM Micronauts holiday fan art to Michael just in time for him to have it for what was then the upcoming visit to Bill. It's so cool to think that the same guy who wrote the entire ROM series along with so much other great stuff for Marvel during the 80s is enjoying something I drew that's based on his prolific career. As you all know Bill had a knack for writing comics based on toy lines but let's have a look at a couple of toy based titles Bill didn't write that are worth having a second look at . . .

Another big thanks to the lovely and ever charming Randomnerd for loaning me her Crystar series. I've already read the issues I used to have and it's been a real joy reading them now as opposed to when I kinda sorta did in my early teens. They're actually pretty well written and ofcourse in general it's great to now be able to read all 11 issues of the series. Written by Jo Duffy by the way, you all should know of her aside from her career in Marvel Comics I've also posted about her here because of her editing work on ROM spaceknight.

And on the same day I got Random's Crystar collection so also arrived the 3 issue mini-series of The Power Lords from ebay. Ever since I coincidentally found issue one at a flee market last summer I've been wanting to read the other two issues again.  Back in the day (1983) I used to have issues 2 and 3 and shortly there after as a random gift selection my mother had gotten me a few of the figures for X-Mas. I think as far as the comic goes the big selling point for me back then was the inherent intriguing visual nature of the characters which I think Mark Texiera's dynamic pencils really brought out the best off.

In terms of the story and dialogue it was largely what one might expect from a toy based mini-series of the early to mid 80s but it wasn't a bad read in the here and now and it still brought back some good memories. But at the same time I think Mantlo and Duffy would have done more justice to it. The Power Lords franchise has earned a place in the 80s vintage toy arena despite it having been some what less then a success back then but like with Crystar I'll always have a bit of a soft spot for them.

Jan. 12 update: Gary, I don't know how you find this stuff! What a fantastic article this 2009 #32 of Back Issue magazine has about the Al Milgrom alternate ROM #1 cover art as well as on Bill Mantlo and the business of comic book titles based on licensed properties. So now we know where that "mock up" in my Jan. 1st posting came from.You can read a digital copy online at the link below . . .

http://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=98_54&products_id=735

But here's just a sample to whet your appetite . . .

But regardless of which cover you prefer thank the Gods of Galador the cover art for ROM #1 was never this version it almost makes the cover art for the ROM remix project look good . . . http://sanctumsanctorumcomix.blogspot.com/search?q=rom+1

ROM issue # 1 signed by our pal Sal and some mind blowing sketch art!

Gary Martin Jr. gave me a heads up on this at the CGC Collector's Society website. It came with the following caption, "Sal Buscema signature and head sketch on cover - very difficult to get and only one in the census".

Proper proportions, perspective the interplay between light and shadow, foreshortening and other principles in good figure composition is a tireless craft you have to be honing all the time if you want to be able to do it well. And let's not even get into the art of drawing hands, feet and facial expressions. Practice practice practice it's what all artists have to do for years in the slim hope that a few of them will be able to make a living at it some day. A big thanks to Jack Crowder for bringing this sketch (deviant art) to my attention.

And a big thanks to Rick Hansen for sending us this commission sketch from the recent C2E2 con. This is what I always imagined a dire wraith would look like if illustrated by greats like Berni Wrightson, Gene Colan and Mike Ploog.

And for a bit more of a finished piece here's the latest from Dann Phillips talk about the fight that should have but never happened back in the day. As irony would have it just prior to Dann giving me a heads up about this I had been telling him how I had this fan art idea of a Baron Karza vs Hybrid piece I really like the idea of the Micronaut's arch enemy having a throw down with what could arguably be Rom's. Too bad Sal Buscema never penciled at least one Micronauts issue.

Oh and look what else just turned up, an extended ROM vs Firefall CG video fight scene  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVX-DIBAgdo

One last thing folks, it looks like my farcebook account got suspended for good this time. Oh well I kinda saw it coming : ) You can always email me for those of you who have my email address or find me here as usual.

Check out this douche bag when it comes to toy based Marvel comics

In my trolling of cool Rom related stuff over the years I've come across all sorts of stuff including what you see here. It's a portion of a page that's one of several which summerizes the history of The Micronauts toy line written and illustrated by doug chapel. Because the art work was so shitty I never paid much attention to this before while browsing the internet but something recently prompted me to take a closer look only to find that this idiot not only dumps on the Rom spaceknight comic book series, but also that of the Micronauts, Shogun Warriors and The Transformers as well.
In a separate spoof piece focusing on the Rom electronic doll he features the tag line "Based on a comic that basically went no where" 
http://www.dsquared.org/art/rom_bw.jpg  I'd say 75 issues, 4 annuals and not too mention the continued use all the way up until today of the Marvel owned characters and concepts that sprung from the series kinda contradicts that moronic statement. Plus, the comic series came from the toy not vice versa hence the phrase toy based comics. I talk plenty on this blog about Rom of course and also about The Micronauts but I've also devoted some blog space in the past to both The Transformers and Shogun Warriors as well since I loved both those toy lines and had many of the issues from their respective series back in the day. In fact, Shogun Warriors #13 was one of the very very first ever comics I ever had which was at least a couple years before I ever discovered Rom. Sure everyone is entitled to their opinion but if you're going to dump on some of my favorite late 70s and 80s comic book sci-fi stuff on social media then get ready for some pay back.

Group hug everybody, let's enjoy some good art we can all agree on

So I think it's safe to say we've talked the Dikto controversy to death by now so I'd like to lay the matter to rest and get back to talking about something we all enjoy. I love this splash page from Rom 43. Just take a few seconds to look over the details of the scene. Just as Quasimodo marvels at how Rom's armor is a combination of living cells and circuitry so do we marvel at the combination of Sal Buscema's pencils with Akin & Garvey's inking embellishments.

Doesn't that splash page remind you a lot of this scene from an early issue of the Micronauts? Another great panel with lots of cool details both issues were written by Bill Mantlo but this came a few years before Rom 43. Damn, Karza looks bad ass here like Darkseid, Darth Vader and Doctor Doom all rolled into one. And no one ever rendered him better then Michael Golden although I must say Jackson Guice also did a pretty damn good job too. Hey, take a few seconds to check out who else does a good Karza  Phillips http://dannphillips.deviantart.com/art/Baron-Karza-197054493

Speaking of cool art having to do with all things Rom and The Micronauts I wanna give a shout out to Dann Phillips. It's very rare that any of the artists who's stuff I feature here ever come by and say hi much less actually join in on the conversations. Especially conversations as "lively" as the recent Dikto debate. For those of you out there who are smart enough to not be on farcebook don't worry you can always see Dann's latest work at his deviant art gallery. 

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And let us all rejoice that indeed there is something new to behold in Dann's gallery that was only uploaded a couple hours before I published this posting! Now there's also another piece of fan art in Dann's gallery which was added fairly recently and it features Black Bolt from the Inhumans fighting a collection of Marvel villains including The Abomination. In it there is something of a Rom related Easter Egg let's see if you can spot it. 

http://dannphillips.deviantart.com/gallery/

The emperor's new clothes

Let's open up this posting with a big happy 78th birthday to Sal Buscema! Can't say enough good things about this guy's work other then that it is timeless it would look as impressive in today's comics as it did 20 or 30 years ago as seen here in this clip art from ROM 24 and his ROM/Mars Attacks bonus pin up page from IDW last year. Blasting away with his neutrilizer while simultaneously bitch slapping skrulls and chocking the shit out of Martians now that's just bad ass all the way.

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Speaking of artists from Marvel Comics in the 1980s . . . .

When it comes to Steve Dikto's work in the 80s and 90s it's like the Emperor's new clothes. That is to say that no matter how lame the emperor's new clothes are because it's the emperor the people around him will always say he looks great. Now at least I got you all to admit (albeit begrudgingly) that Dikto's run on Rom was far inferior to Buscema's but there's always a bullshit caveat that comes with that admission like "but I'm still glad he worked on the book" or "but I still liked it".

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Ya know what I say about that? That's fucken BULLSHIT because if that same art work was attached to any other name other then Steve Dikto and you were taking it at face value none of you would have any problem saying straight up this sucks and we both know it.
But hey, why should I have all the fun here? One of my favorite videos from The King of Thessaly (K.o.T) actually has a review of a Speedball issue (at 6:50 into the video) written and drawn by Steve Dikto. May the Gods of Galador smile upon you bro for this one I miss your vids. Aside from that how can you not love a guy who stores his _____ in a tin adorned with anti-drug super heroes like Cloak & Dagger?