The Nova vs the Dire Wraiths Halloween e-comic special is here! Also, Marvel published what?

Did you know that I just realized that Marvel Two-In-One 99 was written by Bill Mantlo? Given how the issue kicks off with this fantastic splash page I thought I'd open up this posting with this 80s nostalgia given that Halloween is tomorrow.

But onto with what this posting is really about I wanted to make sure anybody who stumbles across this blog knows about the Halloween e-comic special on deviant art that is now up. The guys who put this thing together really went balls on this project to bring something really cool to ROM and Nova fans out there so go check it out and let them know what you thought of it . . .
http://novaprime.deviantart.com/gallery/51674944/HALLOWEEN

Ok actually I've got one more thing to post that came later today courtesy of Gary Martin Jr. who found this on twitter. Apparently it's a page from the Marvel 75 Years Celebration one shot. I actually thought this was pretty cool even though it touches a nerve. I just don't get it. Clearly Marvel knows about the ROM fan base out there and they currently have merchandising deals with Hasbro who they obviously know own the rights to ROM. So why can't these two companies just work something out!!!? Other licensed properties present on this page include The Micronauts, Godzilla, Shogun Warriors and huh . . . NFL Pro.

FAN ART FURY!

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I know most of you have seen this stuff already but I've met some nice people on deviant art in recent weeks and along with some of the stuff I've done recently I'm gonna give their work a bit more brag space by posting it here which I think this blog is still a good resource for once in a while now that I think about it. The ROM vs Thanos was a 20 minute sketch art piece and the other one below it was done by a nice lady up in Canada who found my recent work and got nostalgic enough to do some ROM fan art of her own.

Nice, this one just turned up yesterday (Oct. 19) on DA . . .

Ok I gotta add this also to the posting even though now it's Oct. 24. We've seen a lot of Torpedo customs over the years but this is the first packaged one I believe. According to Gary Martin Jr. this sold on ebay for only a measly 50 bucks! The altered packaging comes from Hasbro's Avengers action figure line which pisses me off to know that the two companies currently have a number merchandising deals but all ROM fans get is some stupid heromugg.

I don't want this to vanish from the net after it sells on ebay

So as the posting title suggests I'm just throwing this custom Heroclix figurine up here because this is a really nice crafted work of art (especially when you consider how small it must be!) that should remain some where on the internet because quite frankly once it sells on ebay I don't know what will happen to the image in the long run. An articulate action figure would have been ideal to commemorate 35 years of ROM but I wish hasbro had at least done a small figurine like this just like those PVC ones you see in those plastic blister packages in stores sometimes.

I guess I might as well throw this new fan art up here too while I'm at it which I posted on deviant art a few days ago. ROM spaceknight 65, how much more awesome that epic issue would have been had it been penciled by ANY artist other then steve ditko working for Marvel at the time.

ROM spaceknight issue #22 commemorative fan art ( I really miss the 80s! )

I finally got around to  getting done the fan art that's been foremost in my collection of ideas for the past couple months.

Number 22 (1981) was the first ROM issue I ever had and in effect it started a chain reaction of fandom with me from the early 80s to today. So it seems this commemorative fan art is a good foot note to end things here. Yeah that's right, in my never ending quest to curb my time on the internet and lead a more productive life in the real world (mainly for more sleep and exercise in my schedule) I've decided to suspend writing any more of these time consuming postings indefinitely. It's no big deal I'll still be sharing all cool ROM related things with those of you I correspond with through other means outside of this blog such as on deviant art and by email, but I still don't do farcebook.

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But let me leave you with some of the cool stuff I saw last weekend while I was in Alameda for an afternoon. By the way that's the same city I ran into that guy who had the cool Nova t-shirt earlier this summer. Anyways, first up I took a photo of this cool new Star Wars window display at Toy Safari which as you can see carry's among other things vintage sci-fi and comic book based toys from the 80s.

I bet you forgot about this one : )

Only a couple retail spaces down was this new place called High Scores Arcade which is a video game arcade that features exclusively old school games from  . . . . yep you guessed it the 80s! You can get a look at the inside of the place here  http://www.highscoresarcade.com/games.html

NOVA 619 vs the Dire Wraiths concept fan art

I finally had a complete chill day this past Sunday and I got one of my back burner fan art projects done. A couple months ago this British guy contacted me on deviant art about getting some input about this story line he and some friends had written having to do with this confrontation Nova has with the dire wraiths. As I understand it this is supposed to be some manner of online comic with something of a Halloween theme. Needless to say I liked their script and it inspired me to come up with some art work. At this time I don't want to give too much away about it but for now I can tell you this much, the dire wraiths are masters at deception which can be a formidable weapon that even raw power can't always over come as The Torpedo* found out the hard way. For this battle Richard Rider will need much more then his Nova Prime powers. Sometimes it's your will and even your imagination that makes the difference between life and death, in particular your brain getting sucked out of your skull kinda death.

For those of you who would like a comprehensive review of Nova's origins check out this cool video and yes they made sure to include ROM #24.

* Special note: The Torpedo and Nova were both co-created by Marv Wolfman

Sept. 23 Update: I just got confirmation today that the Marvel Age Magazine #7 "Ron" misprint has nothing to do with this custom doll for anyone who's interested in knowing.

Gods of Galador my ROM t-shirt arrived today!

Just got this baby in the mail a couple of hours ago! This is actually the first time I've ever bought any clothing online I've always had this standing rule about never buying anything I can try on first I'm a bit fussy when it comes to how stuff fits on me. But I had no choice Redbubble doesn't have any retail services from their San Francisco office. I don't know how they can get away with selling t-shirts of licensed characters with everything from Thundarr The Barbarian to The Shogun Warriors and even to The Micronauts but I gotta go back to S.F. early next week and now that I have my brand spanking new ROM t-shirt from these guys maybe I'll try to pay them another visit.

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This custom Torpedo figure has been around for a while but I felt like featuring it here basically because I really like it. The artist did a good job on making the Torpedo armor look very accurate to how it was drawn not to mention the transparent visor. I'm also a big fan of figures that have good points of articulation. Even when a figure has a good sculpt but is about as articulate as the original Star Wars action figure line well then it might as well just be a statue figurine which kinda defeats the whole point of producing an "action figure". Now here's an example of a custom Torpedo I'm not too crazy about for the before mentioned reasons . . .
http://www.figurerealm.com/viewcustomfigure.php?FID=60300

September 7 Update: A heart warming moment from the Bill Finger Awards presentation at the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con with our beloved Bill spaceknight Mantlo.

Analyze this!

Now that I'm seeing this in color I feel like this sketch card fan art by Mark Propst it begs to be one of those "caption this" kinda images. I mean just imagine what ROM would be saying to this dire wraith he's confronting. Well Gary you wanted to see this in color so here ya go bro. I'm not with Instagram but if any of you are feel free to share this with Mark so far I've never run into any artist who had an issue with me colorizing their work.
Along with New Mutants 24 I also grabbed a copy of the August issue of IDW's Rogue Trooper as part of my 3 for $1 grab a couple of weeks ago in S.F. Earlier this week I was browsing through it when I came across an IDW supplemental/promotional page with a crossword puzzle that had at least one question I knew the answer to before I flipped the page to see the answers. I retyped the clue but other wise what you see below is a scan of the puzzle key. I'm not on farcebook or twitter so if you know Chris at either of those social media sites feel free to share this posting with him.

Ya know I was thinking Gary with all these random findings lately I also can't help but wonder how much more is out there and how can we ever hope to find them all? Maybe we need something like this Wraith finder?

Well that's it for August I'm fresh out of stuff to post for now. But as we saw this month things just kinda turn up sometimes when you least expect them although I have at least one thing I'm anticipating getting in the mail (no not the mighty mugg) in the near future I think you all would like. Plus I've had this idea for a while now for doing some fan art that pays homage to issue 22 which was the first Rom issue I ever owned so ya never know.