Rom fan art with The Hulk in color and my favorite Dr. Strange cosplay again

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You can see the original black n white line art by Laurent Sieurac here: http://laurentsieurac.blogspot.com/2010/11/rom-spaceknight.html

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As most of you know I already had the photo images of the Rom and Dr. Strange cosplay I had made like over  ayear ago for other fan art projects featured here. So one day I came across this Living Tribunal art on Deviant Art and it totally reminded me of one of my favorite Rom issues. So I started playing around in photoshop and turned out something pretty cool I think. As this started coming together it made me feel down right nostalgic. I sure do miss the 80s I just can't get into the new stuff these days from Marvel or DC. The original Living Tribunal art work (by Daswook) is actually near a full body image which can be seen here: http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=&section=&global=1&q=living+tribunal#/d4mwbd7


For those of you who are interested in also reading some of Mantlo's non-Rom related work you may want to check out some back issues of The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu magazine. Bruce left a url in the comments section of the previous posting that will take you to a back issue log featuring various kung fu masters of the Marvel Universe including White Tiger. In order to download and read the issues you will need a Rapid Share account and some kind of Comic Book Reader (CBR) software installed. In issue #22 Bill Mantlo gives us a showdown between White Tiger and the unlikeliest of opponents, The Jack of Hearts.

The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #22  1976  (left click to enlarge)

But if all that with Rapid Share and CBR jive is too much hassle for you then at least take a look at some of the clip art from the issue here at Bruce's site: http://admiradoresdebillmantlo.blogspot.com/2009/01/entrevista-bill-mantlo-del-fanzine-bem.html

More newly created fan art coming up next!

What other Marvel characters did Bill Mantlo create?

I was a little surprised to find out in my last posting about some of the Rom fans out there who also like Cloak & Dagger but didn't know that Cloak & Dagger were co-created by Mantlo. So it looks like I'm going to continue my Bill Mantlo themed postings to make sure you're all up to speed. Ok so I guess you already figured out that The Jack of Hearts is also from Mantlo along with Keith Giffen (loved his work on the late 80s JLA series!) assuming you didn't know that already of course. They also created Rocket Raccoon together but the less said about that the better. On to Marvel characters that were a bit more obscure . . .

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Also created by Mantlo, The Human Fly was actually inspired by the career of a real life stunt man Rick Rojatt. In the comic book (1977) most of the bones in the body of a stunt man were replaced with metal (no it wasn't adamantium) due to a crippling accident and after a long physical rehab process embarked on a career as a superhero. The series ran for 19 issues and featured guest appearances by Spiderman, Daredevil and White Tiger. Speaking of  White Tiger Mantlo co-created the character with artist extraordinaire George Perez.
 As far as I know White Tiger was Marvel's first Peurto Rican super hero (Hectar Ayala) and had powers that were derived from the mystical amulets he wore around his neck. The Human Fly is no longer around unfortunately but the White Tiger brand has gone through several people over the decades and today is being carried by Angela Del Toro. Remember Captain Universe? . . .

Captain Universe, the Enigma Force powered cosmic superhero who could be anyone first appeared in Micronauts #8. The character is still very much around today and I hope you figured out by now that he was created by Bill Mantlo and one of my all time favorite artists Michael Golden. And did you also know? . . .

Bill Mantlo wrote the Transformers 4 issue mini-series that launched the first ever TF ongoing series? Oh I remember how excited I was as a kid when #5 finally came out after so many months of anticipation. Remember that awesome Shockwave illustrated cover art for issue 5? What started as just a limited series eventually got an extension due to the success of issues 1-4 and the wildly popular toy line.
Unfortunately despite also having been written by Bill Mantlo Sectaurs wasn't a commercial success as a comic book series or as a toy line. The series was cancelled after only 8 issues.

 I thought with all these postings about Bill Mantlo this might be a good time to showcase this HULK and ROM piece by French artist Laurent Sieurac. And yes I will be posting a colorized version of it so be back here in a couple days because on top of that there will be even more brand new fan art!

A tribute to custom made action figures inspired by Bill Mantlo titles

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I was planning on taking some time off from this blog but the previous Bill Mantlo posting just kinda blew up in the comments section so I felt motivated to fast forward to my next posting. So here's something I put together mostly from various images of some of the best custom figures I've seen on the net along with a really nice 3-D rendering of the Endeavor.
I thought this might be a good time to share with you all the very first Rom spaceknight and Micronauts issues I ever owned. I was probably about ten or so when I got these as a result of nagging my parents after the covers had caught my eye where ever it was that I saw them. It wouldn't be for several years later that I would start picking up Rom on a monthly basis or be able to start hunting down back issues for on titles.

And as good fortune would have it I was going through a bunch of $1 bins this past weekend and I came across a pretty sweet find. This is Cloak & Dagger #1 (Vol.2) published in 1985 and written by Mantlo. If you look just below the Cloak & Dagger logo you can see it says "Created by Bill Mantlo and Ed Hannigan".

This issue was a thoughtfully written story that touched on the problems plaguing the mean streets of New York city such as drug abuse, police corruption and child exploitation. This sort of street level narrative that Bill Mantlo explores with Cloak and Dagger seems to imply he wanted to create some public awareness about these social ills that were very much in the real world as well.

Bill Mantlo's guest star appearance in the pages of Alpha Flight

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I just found something really cool. Alpha Flight #66 (Jan.1989) was the final issue of Bill Mantlo’s run on the book. He wrote 37 issues, which was a longer run than the creator of the book, John Byrne. The story is something of a tongue n' cheek farewell story for Bill Mantlo as one of Alpha Flight's characters (Manikin) makes a fuss over Mantlo's script with the issue. Although from what I can see Mantlo was never referred to by name in the story line but it's still pretty obvious it's him. I don't know how well you can see it hanging there in Mantlo's hospital room but somebody used some of the clip art from this issue to make a fictitious Alpha Flight cover. If you'd like a more extended and detailed account of the story with some more of the clip art go here: http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2011/10/27/meta-messages-bill-mantlos-bizarre-goodbye-to-alpha-flight/

In the 80s I had a small collection of Alpha Flight issues I had picked up sporadically over the years from both John Byrne and Bill Mantlo. But issues 33 and 34 which were written by Mantlo were among my favorites. This was the era where Wolverine was really starting to become a rising star in the Marvel Universe and I was pretty eager to pick up anything with him in it. Although Rom never appeared in the pages of Alpha Flight I'm happy to say that Alpha Flight did appear in Rom issues 56, 57 and 58.

I think this is a good stopping point for now I need a break but I'll still be checking the comments sections. That's not as time consuming as putting together these postings.

Darkstar, Marionette & Sabra, making the 80s look even hotter!

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First appearing in Rom issues 45 and 46, Darkstar and the Soviet Super Soldiers would again be called upon to aid Rom along with most of the rest of Earth's heroes against the Dire Wraiths war conclusion in issue 65. In between we also see flash back like cameo appearances in the Rom series. Much more recently in 2010 a new incarnation of Darkstar again did battle with the Dire Wraiths in the 3 issue Winter Guard mini series which in part continued a story arc from Rom 45 and 46.

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Although never having crossed story lines with Rom spaceknight because of those stupid copy right agreements The Micronauts was another good title compliments of Rom creator Bill Mantlo. This Marionette Heromorph image is by artist Daswook.

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Another Marvel character I like that never crossed paths with Rom unfortunately but it should be noted that Sabra's first appearance in Hulk#256 was written and penciled by the same dynamic duo Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema that made Rom spaceknight one of my all time favorite comic book titles.

Because there was no photoshop in the 80s nobody did any of this kinda sexy fan art with the Darkstar, Marionette and Sabra characters. But still, when I came across these photo images it still made me feel pretty nostalgic (among other things) about the greatest decade in human history.

Speaking of nice airbrush jobs in photoshop you all haven't forgotten about this one of Turbo from last year right? http://romspaceknightart.blogspot.com/2011/04/1-year-blog-anniversary-my-latest-what.html

How I miss those 70s and 80s Marvel back issues from my child hood

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This photo reminds me a lot of my child hood and early teens where I would spend hours sometimes with my comic collection back then. As you can see this collection in the photograph has no shortage of Rom back issues. You can see some Micronauts in the top right corner as well as some X-Men and Dr. Strange. I never had She-Hulk #1 but I did have about a half dozen She-Hulk issues at one point along with that Avengers issue which I got in a trade with my buddies.

I don't know about the rest of you guys but that's something my friends and I used to do in the 80s was swap issues. Of course my Rom issues were never open to negotiations but most of the other titles I had were depending on what the other guys had to offer in exchange. Getting to a comic shop in those days was a once in a while thing since I needed my parents to drive me there. So some of my comics were bought at local liquor stores, 7Elevens and then there were the ones I was able to get from swaps. There's an earlier posting of a better photo of this spinner rack just type "spinner racks" in this blog's word search to go to that posting. Man how I miss those days! Photo courtesy of a very cool Marvel 80s blog http://www.themarvelproject.com/

Got any fond memories from your early comic book collecting days? If so I'd sure like to hear about them, excelsior : )

Marvel Comics turns 25 for Rom spaceknight # 84

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A big thanks to Gary Martin Jr. "a Rom curator" for getting inspired from my recent stuff to do some new fan art for this blog. This another one of those What If? sorta things. Gary used some software called GIMP to do this. I'm not familiar with that program and when I hear the word gimp I'm more inclined to think of leather, chains and rednecks as opposed to graphic design. But I digress, here is Gary in his own words:
"As long as we're righting obvious wrongs, consider this What If scenario: ROM wasn't cancelled, and either remained in armor or circumstances required he don it again. Issue #84 would have been cover dated November 1986 and our favorite Galadorian would have participated in Marvel's 25th Anniversary cover month. It always irked me that ROM missed out on that awesome border dressing, so I've rectified it by bringing back prime Sal-on-Sal Buscema, flashy-burst eyes & all, for the cover art (clipped from one of my favorite published pages, ROM #10's opening splash). But while we're at it, let's assume he drew the pages inside, too!"

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Chicago Comic-Con 2012 photos from this past weekend courtesy of one of my favorite commentators and supporters for this blog, Randomnerd (Black Widow). Wish I could have been there too.

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