Thank the Gods of Galador there's finally some good new ROM fan art to enjoy

Well, after more then a two month dry spell of any worthwhile ROM related fan art we finally have something in the form of this ROM spaceknight 18 cover art homage commission piece by Jeff Slemmons. This is exactly the sort of fan art I love to find. It's creative, well illustrated and nostalgic. A winning combination that's sorely lacking in most of what I usually come across. You might say this sort of fan art is my "happy place" that I like to retreat to in the face of the ongoing disservice both marvel and idw publishing have to the legacy of the classic 80s series. 

 https://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=1751944

The legendary Sal Buscema made a recent appearance at a comic shop in Gainesville Virginia which unfortunately is about as far away as you can get from what part of The United States I'm in. I know exactly what I would say to him if I ever got the chance to meet him. Other then some obligatory words of praise I would have to let him know how heart broken I was back in the day when he left the ROM series. Silly as this sounds I kinda still am to this very day actually.

 

August 31st Update: As you may have noticed from the previous posting, on occasion I like to post really cool local public art related to the sci-fi/comic book genre. I just discovered this anime mecha mural in San Francisco today and I wanted to share it with the 3 or 4 or maybe 5 people who will read this posting.

ROM's Cafe

Located on A street in Hayward California I swear when I first saw this place the logo looked like it was directly taken off from any issue of the ROM spaceknight series. Just a coincidence I'm sure but pretty cool to see just the same.

A new commission fan art piece by artist Jim Califiore. Well I'm posting it here so obviously I like it and I don;t even mind the minor artistic liberties Califiore took with ROM's armor. In fact, this is a nice basis of what IDW's reboot could have looked like. I'm quite positive this would have gone over much better with the fan base both new and old.

 

One of the things I love about fan art is that you don't have to worry about any sort of legal red tape when it comes to who you want to feature together. This latest here is by you're truly. I've had this cross over character concept idea for a while now I'm glad I finally got around to getting to it.

 

I spotted this a couple days ago along the side of some kind of portable office for a moving company in San Francisco. Just another good example of the cool public art you can find around here when it comes to all things comics and sci-fi.The first two films from the ALIEN franchise were absolutely classic iconic sci-fi horror and I love em both. However, I can't say the same for the rest unfortunately. 

I was recently reflecting on the "ROM Remix" project from several years ago https://romremix.tumblr.com/ as a concept it was kinda cool but ultimately poorly executed due to the poor quality artists that contributed to the project. The lone exception being Robert Duckett who did page 4. He did a fairly good job especially in the first few panels.

Pick the ROM issue Spidey!

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.

Totally awesome fan art by Dakota Alexander

 

 

After coming across this fan art on social media I reached out to the artist and had a nice chat with him. According to Dakota, ROM is a visaully fascinating and challenging character to draw and very symbolic of the 80s. Which as we all know is the greatest decade in human history. He wanted to give this piece a sci-fi movie poster feel bolstered with some Akin & Garvey style line art. I'd say it all came together quite nicely which is why it gets a spot on blog site for ROM fans who aren't dicks. Dakota's Instagram account @drumsoftheserpent

 

Also very cool, but unfortunately just a fake. But it looks pretty damn real though, wish I had one.

Here's something else cool I just found on farcebook. Unfortunately I don't know the original source material for this old promotional Marvel superheroes photo but I as you can see it's at Rockefeller Square in New York City.

What a ROM and Daredevil 2021 team up might have looked like

 I usually don't do humor/satire based fan art but once in a great while I get inspired to come up with something. Not exactly the team up you were thinking about I bet.

And here we have some borrowed images from different fan art pieces that digitally re-purposed into a new scene.

I recently by good fortune came across this rare photo of the man that so many of us have so much to be grateful for. It really pisses me off about the shitty things that happen to good people (while still fairly young) rather we're talking about Bill Mantlo or Chadwick Boseman. And on the other hand pieces of shit like donald trump in their 70s get covid-19 and make a full recovery. That shit just ain't right, seriously.

 

Seattle's salute to the legacy of Chadwick Boseman

One of the many things I love about Seattle is that no matter how many times I come here I always discover something new and awesome during my visit. As one example of my most recent visit is this mural celebrating the film legacy of the late Chadwick Boseman. Unfortunately I couldn't find a damn thing on the internet about it so all I can tell you is that it's located on the outskirts of the downtown area.

I wish I could have taken this photo with out all those cars in the way but parking in and around downtown Seattle is almost as bad as San Francisco these days. So on the left we have two American legends James Brown and Jackie Robinson as played by Boseman in the films Get on Up and 42. Ofcourse in the center is Boseman as king T'Chala a.k.a The Black Panther and next to that a straight forward Chadwick Boseman portrait. I can't be one hundred percent sure but to the right of the portrait is Boseman from Spike Lee's post Vietnam era drama Da Five Bloods. Now, aside from the photos posted here I do also have this short video of a less obstructed view of the mural, please share... 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIUZ3nJgcHc&lc=UgybkkZlibid57GBLhR4AaABAg

 

Not to be totally out done by Seattle when it comes to public tributes to all things Black Panther and Chadwick Boseman here we have this awesome mural located in San Francisco's Bay View district. And like the one in Seattle I can't find anything online about for some weird and annoying reason.

 And when it comes to all things Black Panther here's a dire wraith reference published from the Skrull Secret Invasion story line. Turns out in their collective alien arrogance the skrulls seriously under estimated the Wakandan's and their king. I know this is open to interpretation but that would be cool if he was referencing the skirmish in ROM spaceknight 50 as opposed to a much older confrontation in this ancient alien family feud.

P.S. Wakanda Forever you skrull scum

Much like the skrulls in the above panel here we have Rick Jones lamenting his uncanny survival skills against hostile aliens which includes dire wraiths ofcourse. To the best of my knowledge this panel comes from Incredible HULK 341.  

April 16th Update: Thanks to this commission art by Keith Williams that was posted on Farcebook this morning we now at least have one good piece of ROM fan art for the month of April.

ROM spaceknight 48 spotted in the Star Wars tribute comedy FANBOYS

 It's currently a short list when it comes to known movies that ROM issues have been spotted in (Robocop, The Lost Boys, Explorers, Unbreakable and TRON the sequel) but it just got a bit longer now that I just saw Fan Boys (2009) for the first time today. Here's the scene  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_aAMNEqylU

On something of a side note here, this movie is actually pretty funny and has a great soundtrack.

But also there's some sad news today. Yaphet Kotto has done a lot of work in both films (The Running Man, Live & Let Die from the James Bond film series, Raid on Entebbe etc.) and TV through out his career but my favorite role with him will forever be Parker in the sci-fi horror classic ALIEN. Much to my surprise right after learning about Kotto's passing I also found out that he was Jewish. I also wanted to mention the passing of Christopher Plummer earlier this year who was another good actor with films to his credit like Dreamscape, Dolores Claiborne and Star Trek The Undiscovered Country. Rest in peace gentlemen.

March 23rd Update: Just by blind luck while screwing around on twitter tonight I discovered this seemingly unknown awesome commission ROM art by artist Armando Ramirez.

 https://twitter.com/MandoRam21