A tribute to the classic

I didn't think I was gonna do any fan art for the longest time. But this week something just came over me I don't know if it's nostalgia or this chill work week I'm having so far or a combination there of. Just started sketching something last night with some of my free time and it started coming out pretty good. Earlier tonight I colored it and viola....my image montage of the classic ROM series is complete.  P.S. Fuck IDW Publishing

Gordon Henley as rebel X-Wing pilot Red Leader

I feel like I should give another recently passed away actor a little shout out here who isn't a house hold name but never the less has managed to cement their place in sci-fi history. Gordon "Drewe" Henley earlier this month died at age 75 from chocking on some food he was eating. Something of a tragic freak accident I would say especially coming on the heels of Carrie Fisher's death. For those of you who saw Rogue 1 you may have noticed him in the film appear in a couple of scenes exactly as he was back in 1977 when he led the rebel squadron that attacked and destroyed the Empire's first Death Star.
Unlike with The Grand Moff Tarkin and Princes Leia there was no well done CGI going on with Red Leader. That's because the producers of Rogue 1 actually inserted cut scenes from the Death Star battle from A New Hope into the ending space battle in Rogue 1. I absolutely loved that it made Rogue 1 feel that much more like classic vintage Star Wars and it was also great in terms of continuity. I can only hope that Henley was able to see Rogue 1 before his accident. Think about it, watching cut footage of yourself intended for a movie back in 1977 being used for a movie in 2016 I mean seriously how cool is that!? It should also be noted the same thing was done with the actor from A New Hope that played the rebel pilot with the call sign Gold Leader.

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January 28 update: My sketch card collection so far as of today.

One more card up my sleeve

I totally wasn't expecting to do another sketch card any time soon but I saw something recently that gave me almost instant inspiration. But first things first. The closest thing we ever got to see in terms of some kind of ROM and Spider Man cross over was a cameo in ROM spaceknight 23. No doubt some kind of team up story between the greatest of the spaceknights and arguably Marvel's most popular character would have been nothing short of epic for ROM fans. So getting back to my inspiration it came when I saw this black suite Spider Man fan art by my good friend from Greece. It was one of the coolest and most creative web swinging poses I've ever seen and I knew almost right away I wanted to use it some how with ROM. I hammered this sketch card out it just one evening. Don't forget to check out part of the source material from Nikoskap ...
http://nikoskap.deviantart.com/art/Web-swinger-634802666

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And speaking of all things cool and Spider Man have a look at what I passed by just last week. This can be found in the city of Hayward at a custom plastics fabrication business called Bell Plastics (2020 National Ave.). But I'm also happy to say that Hayward has been home before to other public art of our friendly neighborhood Spider this can be found on Tennyson Road  Man http://www.itsadansworld.net/2010/09/united-by-style-marvel-takes-dc-to.html

Welcome to Clairton West Virginia

Ya know I was thinking the other day if I keep making these sketch cards I might eventually have a enough for a deck. Kinda like those collectible of trading cards in the late 70s and 80s that used to come wrapped in that waxed paper with a strip of bubble gum inside.
In case anyone is wondering I do know about the ROM doll appearance in the recent Comic Book Men episode. It would have been nice however if they hadn't been whining so much about their conflicted adolescent feelings back in the day and maybe kept the focus more on ROM. Perhaps even share their thoughts about the new series next year? Just sayin.
So moving on, this weekend I'll be flying down to LA with my wife for a race she wants to participate in she likes running more then Forest Gump. We'll be staying in the down town area and thanks to a Google search yesterday I discovered about 3 to 4 comic shops within a five mile radius. And since we'll have a rental car and a few hours to kill I'll try to check at least a couple of them out. If I find anything new and cool that's ROM related I'll be sure to update this posting accordingly. One of the near by comic shops is called Mega City One how cool is that!?

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Oct. 25th Update: Well it just goes to show you as the old adage says "What's in a name?". Mega City One was much to do about nothing as far as good comic shops go. However, Golden Apple Comics was a pretty damn cool comic shop however, among other things they had a pretty large stash of discount back issue boxes so I had plenty to read at the airport and on the plane even though LA to Oakland is a pretty short flight. Unfortunately I didn't find anything there cool that was ROM related I didn't already have. But on a high note in regards to my visit there my ROM t-shirt which I was wearing was very warmly received by some of the staff and customers alike. All the chatter about what made the series cool and the high hopes for the 2016 re-launch was the next best thing to finding something like my letter in that Back Issue magazine earlier this month.

Rom Annual 2 cosplay cover variant courtesy of Gary Martin Jr.

Halloween weekend update: Well I hope you all had a fun and safe Halloween. Halloween is still fun but it's not quite what it used to be back in the 1980s. An all around better decade where we had a new issue of ROM to look forward to every month, Marvel didn't suck and it was safe for kids to go trick or treating with out adult supervision.

ROM & Wonder Man team up sketch card

So in recent weeks I've been able to make it to a couple of comic shops not too far from me that have a pretty extensive collection of back issue discount boxes. A couple issues really stood out to me let's start with Wonder Man 1 (1986). Aside from the Kerry Gammill pencils and the Bill Seinkiewicz cover art what also made this issue cool was that it showed a very every day people side to the Wonder Man (aka Simon Williams) character we can all relate to. Struggling to manage his not so successful career as an actor with being a full time Avenger he finds even a cab ride is a luxury he can hardly afford. No Uber back in the 80s, too bad.

As I was reading this issue it occurred to me that Wonder Man was one of the many Marvel superheroes who appeared in ROM 65 sporting his signature leisure suite style costume. So all that combined with a nice and relaxing weekend made me feel like doing some art work and I thought it might be nice to do a sketch card for a change.

Avengers 226 letter column

I also picked up Avengers 226. Truth be told I haven't read the issue yet but based on some browsing I've done in it already it doesn't look like it has much going for it story wise. But the issue's letter column is another matter as you can see here. And check out the name of the dude who wrote this letter!

Avengers 221  Left click to enlarge