ROM #32 Cover art re-imagined

I really like where the artist was going with this it's too bad they never quite got around to finishing it. I don't think I ever had a name to go along with this art work but if the artist should happen to find this posting please let me know who you are so that I can properly accredit your work here. At any rate good job this coould have made for a really good variant cover of this issue that features the return of one of ROM's most deadliest enemies.

A BIG thanks to all the commentators & what sets ROM apart from other toy based comic book titles

Thank you everybody who left a comment of support in the previous posting in regards to my ROM out of Limbo initiative. We can only hope that Marvel is paying attention because certainly they are aware of the cult following by now for this character. The Floating World fund raiser auctions for Bill Mantlo's medical care (all ROM fan art), the first Annihilators series, the continued presence of Ikon on the team and even Jonathan Hickman's nod to the ROM legacy in FF#9 which only came out a couple weeks ago is clear evidence of that. And the Dire Wraiths who are synonymous with ROM have been a pretty regular menace in the Marvel Universe for over 30 years now.
I know just as there are ROM fans out there, there are also those who don't understand all the bruhaha over him. All I can say is that for those of us who grew up with him he was the Optimus Prime/Robocop of his time. Like Optimus he was a powerful and noble figure with obvious leadership qualities but as a cyborg he also was in constant torment like Robocop always yearning for his former life as a man. As a kid you could look up to him but also relate to him as a stranger in a strange land who was often uncomfortable in his own "skin".
Also consider this when thinking about comic book titles that are based on toy lines which basically fall into two groups. On one hand you had comic book titles that had the benefit of toy lines that enjoyed some success on the market first. In the case of The Transformers and G.I.Joe we're talking about wildly successful toy lines. In other cases like The Micronauts and Shogun Warriors it was toy lines that enjoyed at least some success for a period of time. But there's more titles then I can remember that were based on toy lines that were virtually D.O.A when they hit the market for which the comic titles they inspired soon followed usually cancelled within 4 to 9 issues. The Inhumanoids, Visionaries, Sectaurs and Air Raiders are among the many who are good examples of that. Don't feel bad if you don't remember or otherwise have never heard of these titles you obviously didn't miss much.
But not ROM Spaceknight! Despite being based on a single electronic doll that was poorly marketed and fell flat with the public his series never the less spanned 75 monthly issues and 4 annuals. And that was over 25 years ago and as you've read already in this posting ROM still has plenty of staying power despite this licensing bullshit that's dogged the mythology. All we can do at this point is hope that my correspondence with Dan Abnett will be the first step to something great happening in the near future as opposed to just going nowhere. Any new information that comes my way on the matter I'll be sure to post it here right away.
Another good reason why Marvel needs to bring ROM back is because he's bad ass rather a spaceknight or human. At one point during the series ROM makes a deal with Quasimodo The Living Computer to exchange his armor in return for being cloned from the living cells contained within the armor. The deal goes bad when ROM realizes that his new body is faulty and starts to decay. Despite this however when ROM crosses paths with Dr. Dredd (a wraith warlock) who he instinctively recognizes as a Dire Wraith he attacks him unarmed with out hesitation. Despite Dredd's shape shifting abilities and ROM's dying body ROM manages to strangle Dredd to death with his bare hands! In or out of Galadorian armor ROM is bad ass and that's why Marvel needs to man the f__k up and get him out of legal limbo and back into the mainstream Marvel Universe again!

Barring anything Earth shattering ROM related falling into my lap I'm probably gonna be on something of a hiatus for a while but I'll still be checking and responding to comments.

Dan Abnett's response to my idea about how to bring back ROM! Hope we can hopefully believe in

I just came up with the idea of trying to contact Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning on FB yesterday and woe and behold look who I hear back from first thing early in the morning about taking my idea to Marvel's legal department. I replied to Dan by letting him know about what I've seen and heard about the buzz surrounding ROM on this blog as well as stuff like the Comics Alliance ROM http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/03/09/rom-spaceknight-comics/ posting just before the 1st Annihilators series and more recently what went on at Jim Shooter's blog http://www.jimshooter.com/2011/06/coming-of-rom-knights-tale.html So let's just hope Marvel's legal department seriously takes this under consideration. So while we wait here's some for your viewing pleasure in the mean time . . . .

Left click on FB screen image capture to magnify This is a commission piece that had been worked on for some untold melania now by Scott Rosema for Tony who is one of the billions of followers of this blog. But now that it's done we can all marvel at it. There's so much cool stuff going on I don't even now where to start. The colors are the first thing that really grabs me about this. The flames on Firefall, Starshine's light eyes or the reflections on the Deathstar like flooring are just a few of the features that makes this such an awesome illustration to ogle at. Be especially mindful of how the artist maintained the integrity of the Galadorian Hall of Science setting and the attention to detail. Tony, the proud owner of this piece has a few words he wants to share with the viewers,
"This is another awesome commission piece done by Scott Rosema for my buddy Tony the Fyrfall. Set in the Hall of Science, we can see the Spaceknights defending their human remains against some unseen threat. Notice the attention to details like the reflections, colors, wall art, and names on the crypts."

ROM referrences from new comic book day this week, new digital art & my Youtube rant

I was tinkering around with this ROM drawing from his page in the Marvel Universe Handbook (#9 Vol. 1) art work. I ended up giving the drawing a black back ground, glowing eyes and some Micronaut style fonts. Then I came across what I think is the coolest Torpedo custom figure I've seen out there. And believe it or not this one is at least 1 of the 3 that I know of. His visor looks especially awesome! So I thought it might be cool to dress up the image with some cool fonts along with some lighting affects.
The link below will take you to my Youtube video on Annihilators Earthfall #1. I'm not happy with the decreased pg count and the cover price along with the RR back story but for what it's worth it did have some high points such as this nod to the ROM legacy with this line IKON drops on these aliens which happen to be disguised as humans.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2ueLWAmq9o

And here's something I just learned about Friday afternoon thanks to a comment left on the last posting before this one by a fellow who goes by the name of Brandon. The comment was vague but it prompted me to check out FF#9 on Youtube where I fortunately found a reviewer (majinoni6) who pointed this out. What you see here is one of several Reed Richards from different dimensions involved in some sort of conflict with the Inhumans. There is a sect of Dire Wraiths who are part of some alien cult that worships King Black Bolt. As you can see here "Reed" turns a familiar looking weapon on some Dire Wraiths. We've been seeing the Dire pop up in the FF series a couple of times now and I know we'll be seeing more of them in issues 10 & 11.
So if you've seen my Annihilator Earthfall Youtube video you know I'm not too happy with Marvel right now. But I must say this homage to ROM has made some in roads to Marvel getting back on my good graces. So last year we had Darkstar: Winter Guard and this year we've got the Annihilators and now this. It seems if nothing else the ROM buzz has made it's way to Marvel's high ups in the last year or two so I guess that's cause for some cautious optimism. Operative word here "cautious".

ROM Spaceknight custom vehicle art. Yes, on a real vehicle and no this is not photoshop this time!

Some of you who have been following this blog for a while now may recognize the art work you see here. If so that's because I featured it in a posting back in December but at the time the photo image I had found was only of the portion of the trailer that had the actual ROM illustration it's self with very little background. So it was next to impossible to tell what the image was painted on even though that didn't stop us all from wild speculation. Well now the mystery is over thanks to a link left a few days ago in the comments section of the original posting: http://romspaceknightart.blogspot.com/2011/02/galadorian-graffiti-rom-as-public-art.html What you are looking at here is a mobile laboratory from M.I.T. Unfortunately that's all the information I have on it but at least now the mystery is solved as to what and where this ROM "thumbs up" illustration is done on. Ya see folks, this is why I love people who take the trouble to leave comments on blog sites. The exchange of opinions and information really does make the blogging experience funner and because among other things it can lead to cool discoveries like this one.

September 20 update
Case and point, thanks to a comment left by ~P~ from The Sanctum Sanctorum on the previous posting I found out about a what I can only describe as a Defenders "where are they now" Marvel Handbook. I suppose it's some sort of index about the status of pretty much every one who's ever been a member of The Defenders. That includes The Torpedo who as I understand it was on the team between issues 62-64. You see him in the bottom right hand corner of issue 64 there? So anyways it looks like The Torpedo will not only get a mention in the book but he also made in on the cover which I think is pretty cool. The Defenders handbook is due to debut some where around December. For a Defenders #64 recap go to: http://defendersfan.blogspot.com/2008/12/defenders-for-day.html

Best Torpedo fan art I've ever seen!

Ok so maybe given that The Torpedo (the unofficial side kick of ROM) is even a more obscure 70s - 80s Marvel character then ROM to say that I've found the best Torpedo art ever isn't saying much. Especially since I'm pretty sure I could count all the fan art of the Torpedo ever done on both hands and still have some fingers left over. But that still does not take away from this being an awesome illustration in which we haven't seen The Torpedo looking this good since back in the day when Sal Buscema use to draw him in the pages of ROM. But I don't want to take anything away from other Marvel artists who have drawn him because he was done up pretty well also in his debut appearance in Daredevil and then later in Marvel Premiere. Here, I just love the colors and the action pose he's in. The artist has a great grasp on perspective and proper proportions that also look dynamic which is something I always like to see in comic book character art figure drawings. Also it is worth mentioning that The Torpedo has his own micro hero and that over the past year I've come across more then one custom figure made of him. In case you were wondering I found this on Deviant Art and it was done by a talented fellow by the name of Jordi Lupo. Be sure to magnify the image it's a pretty large file.

911 an "inside job?" You bet it was!

Yeah that's right an inside job. 19 guys came inside our boarders pretending to be here for legitimate reasons and hid in plain site (just like the Dire Wraiths and with that analogy we see again how art imitates life) until they hijacked four planes filled with civilian Americans and non Americans alike. They then crashed these planes into buildings full of more people who were just like you and me and unlike you and me. The people who were murdered that day were about as random as you could get being made up of many races, religions and other belief systems both political and social. One of the many ironies here is that each one of the hijackers came from a part of the world in which the governments who rule there are among the most brutal and suppressive on the face of the Earth. Not only that but the hijackers carried out their mission to murder out of some self righteous radical religious ideology thinking that the mass murder of random people will bring them 72 virgins in paradise.
Don't buy into that crap that this was all about America's foreign policy (which I'm not saying is beyond reproach) or that the hijackers came from any manner of moral high ground. Living here in the San Francisco Bay Area I've heard it all. An "inside job", really? Why wasn't anybody saying that after the first WTC attack in 94? Oh wait it was "because we're allies with Israel" really? Is that why all the 911 hijackers were from countries (egypt & saudi arabia) that are also "allies" with America. Egypt even has had a long standing peace treaty with Israel. I especially love the "what did we do to make them so angry at us" line of thinking. That's like being a Jew and spending time analyzing why neo-nazis and other anti-Semitic groups like the taliban hate you and want to see you dead. In the face of that kind of hatred one must always respond appropriately which is any way but nicely.
Yesterday I heard that just 8 weeks ago was the last time someone died of a disease they contracted as a result of being in or nearby ground zero on 911. We owe it to that person, as well as to the people who died out right that day and to God knows how many others that are sick in both body and spirit still today to see that everyone who was involved in that terror plot gets a surprise visit from a U.S. SEAL team soon.