ROM Spaceknight fan art rewind and more!

 

Pretty much put this ROM vs Hybrid scene together in the same way I did the one in the previous posting. Moving on we're going to be revisiting some really professional looking past fan art piece from years ago that for reasons I can't remember I didn't feature here at the time. So let's get to it...

And speaking of beautiful custom figures related to the ROM series, this Torpedo one has gotta be one of the very best I've ever seen and I've seen quite a few over the years.  

This one come from artist Eteuati J Lalau. I'm assuming that's Galactus's hand that ROM is either perhaps materializing from or away to where ever Star Trek transporter style.

 This one is from artist Nalldo Ribeiro. Now normally ROM wouldn't have much to worry about from a single dire wraith trying to get the drop on him but this one looks like it's jacked up on roids or something. I also like this spaceship type corridor this scene is taking place in. It tells a story that your imagination can run with.

This cool space battle scene comes from artist Brian Douglas Ahern (a.k.a Brizy) who's work is no stranger to this blog. 

This sketch card scene taking place in the skies of Israel's capital of Jerusalem was inspired by a splash page in Incredible Hulk 250 (1980) in which The Silver Surfer flies all over Earth lamenting his terrestrial imprisonment by Galactus. In the process he has these scant encounters with various international characters (like Sabra ofcourse) which acted as a prelude to their eventual Marvel Comics full appearance in upcoming issues of The Hulk...

 https://earthsmightiestblog.com/hulk-250-1980/

But, in 1996 a Fantastic Four animated series would utilize that same Silver Surfer story line which gave us an animated version of Sabra's encounter with the surfer as seen here...

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWKyH94Ie9g

 It's been awhile since I've posted any local cool comic book/sci-fi pop culture public art. Here we have a fantastic mural of Godzilla, King Kong, Voltron and Ultraman playing the NES game system on Mecha Godzilla. It can be found in San Jose's Japan Town here in The San Francisco Bay Area. 

March 15th Update: Well we're only about half way through March and already we've had a pretty long list of celebrities that have passed away this year. For me, Raquel Welch, Tom Sizemore (died too young) and Jewish Israeli actor Topol have been the ones that have saddened me the most. I go way back with Raquel Welch with films like Fantastic Voyage and Topol in Flash Gordon. Tom Sizemore came along later and although his sci-fi stuff like Red Planet wasn't bad, HEAT, Black Hawk Down and Saving Private Ryan were his best moments as an actor.  

I have something better then flowers for Valentine's Day this year

Although this piece has been around for well over 2 years, for reasons unknown this is still largely undiscovered by ROM fans. I'm a bit more partial to ROM fan art that's a bit more creative theme wise, but still I gotta say I've got nothing but love for this one. Not because Valentine's Day is just around corner, but because the figure composition in this piece is so perfect along with how ROM's armor looks with this artist's (Idan Knafo) particular style. And the colors, the colors are almost down right mesmerizing. This is where I found it . . .

https://twitter.com/artofidan/status/1330456189294043136 

This is actually something I threw together in photoshop several years ago with some borrowed 3D renderings  I found online but for some reason I never posted it. But back then this piece only consisted of Brandy Clark and Hybrid. Thanks to photos that have turned up on social media in the past year or so of Alberto Diaz's insanely awesome custom electronic ROM doll I now can include him in the scene. 

For those of you who have never read ROM Annual 3 or maybe it's been a while I included this clip art in order to give the art work some context. That last panel still grosses me out to this day

I just by chance discovered this cool Sabra art work which belonged to a podcast episode from early December last year. The episode covered part of the Operation Zero Tolerance story arc in which Sabra was temporarily teamed up with some members of  The X-Men (Ice-Man and Marrow) as well as with Dr. Cecilia Reyes. Hopefully most of you noticed the Giant Sized X-Men Annual 1 cover art homage in David Wynne's art piece here.

Following up with the previous posting, there's actually a couple more pages of the unpublished Sabra story proposal by Matt Yocum and Jake Bilbao. Ofcourse the art work is great and the story is compelling but it also hits a bit close to home in terms of what's going on in recent weeks when it comes to real world tragedy so I decided to post those pages else where but here are the links in case you're interested in checking them out...

https://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=1894654

https://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=1894656

February 14th Update: A poll closed this afternoon on the BacktotheBronzeAge twitter page. They periodically have these polls and sometimes ROM shows up in one of the categories. If memory serves me right, more often then not his category gets the most votes just like it did today. ROM had an early lead but toward the end The Micronauts started to close the gap but couldn't quite catch up by the time the poll closed.

Sabra vs Captain America and new ROM in The Microverse fan art

The sketch card you see below was originally done by artist Erik Roman. I liked it, but at the same time I felt it was missing something and that it had the potential to be turned into a great ROM and Micronauts cross over fan art piece.

A number of photoshop tools and some borrowed elements from some Micronauts fan art of mine (see link) from many years back was all it took to give this sketch card a digital upgrade . . .

 https://www.deviantart.com/csuhsux/art/Micronauts-MEGO-toy-line-based-comic-strip-concept-865196068

 

 These are a couple of a few unpublished pages having to do with stories about Israel's premiere super hero Sabra on the farcebook page of writer Matt Yocum that was posted back in 2013. It turns out they were pages that Yocum pitched to Marvel in order to give more exposer to artist Jake Bilbao in the hopes they would hire him for a Wolverine story Yocum wrote. However, despite the quality of Billbao's work Marvel instead hired Yocum to write a Sabra story. Matt Yocum is a United States Air Force veteran with a history of deep ties to Israel both in a personal and in a professional capacity. The Sabra story that Yocum wrote was a fantastic 8 page Astonishing Tales (digital only unfortunately) feature which was beautifully illustrated by Brazilian artist Adriana Melo.

https://cmro.travis-starnes.com/detail.php?idvalue=27154

 

It's 2023 but I'm still missing the 1980s

Ya know how some times you just find yourself in the mood to showcase a given collection of something that makes you happy? I think often that might happen toward the end of  a year or more at the beginning of the next one.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uR48t3di9Iw

Here's a youtube video I discovered recently that's worth having a look at. It won't have much of anything you haven't seen or heard before but it is very well produced. And it some how has managed to visually "repackage" and present the source material in way that makes the video not feel so redundant and boring like the majority of ROM related features on youtube.  

 

I haven't done any ROM related fan art yet this year nor have I come across anything that I thought any good. I the stuff I have done this year has been to some degree in response to a lot of the hate I saw online in late 2022. First up is this Contest of Champions fan art. I just don't understand all the hating on the Disney Plus She-Hulk series. I mean it wasn’t without it's problems but most of the social media bashing on it was so over the top especially when it came to all these right wing type hang ups. And ofcourse around the same time Marvel announced the upcoming debut of Sabra into the MCU which  predictably stirred up the usual trolls made up of leftist antisemites and people from certain corners of the muslim world with anger management issues. 

If you happen to be a Star Wars fan then you no doubt noticed all the hating on the first season of The book of Boba Fett. Again, it wasn't with out it's problems but over all I think it had way more pros then cons plus the season finale was awesome. So I say fuck all the haters on all that to.

 

January 28th Update: I was hoping to have some fan art to add to this posting but I seriously doubt anything new that doesn't suck will turn up any time soon so I decided to dig into my archive collection. After some minor tweaks here and there to enhance it I'm presenting it again for your viewing pleasure. This was originally done by Greek artist Kapandais Nikolaos who also happens to be a collaborative partner and friend.

ROM Annual 3

Will 2023 be a Happy New Year?

For openers, I wanted to repost this fan art that I originally did right after I saw Captain America The Winter Soldier when it came out in theaters. Yeah, it's been almost 8 years now since that movie came out. Yeah I know, where does the time go right? But when I first posted it I only had Sabra and Captain America along with ROM. All these years I never quite felt like the scene was truly complete. So I recently added Iron Man and the Monica Rambeau Captain Marvel. There was too much unused space before so now it looks right. Perfectly balanced, as all things should be.

Now here's something new! This awesome splash page style fan art may look familiar to you. But at the same time you're sure you've never actually seen it before. I believe the art work was done by Alan Davis who's easily among the best of the best when it comes to Marvel 80s artists . . .    https://romspaceknightart.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-nova-vs-dire-wraiths-halloween-e.html

With just two months to go before new year's eve I find myself wondering what kind of year 2023 will be for a number of reasons. When it comes to Captain America: New World Order we're not gonna be able to see it next year but you can bet there's gonna be plenty of promotional marketing and leaks for fan boys to discuss and debate all year long. No doubt through out next year we'll also start to get a better idea of the MCU's interpretation of the Sabra character. I can't help but wonder if that will prompt another wave of antisemitic nut jobs on social media acting like a bunch of babies with soiled diapers. 

Then ofcourse there are the other questions about 2023. Is covid going to be even further in the rear view mirror? Will there be any progress made on any meaningful steps to mitigate climate change? And then there's the war in Ukraine brought on by putin's insane invasion. I don't even want to think about how many different ways that could get even worse but I'm still so impressed with the gains Ukraine have made and in general with their tactical ingenuity and fighting spirit. I hope putin gets testicular cancer, Lou Gehrig's disease and complications from an enlarged prostate all at the same time next year. 

 

November 15th Update: I managed to see Black Panther Wakanda forever on opening weekend and I enjoyed it for the most part. The cast really raised their game in the absence of Chadwick Boseman's presence and the writing was well done as both a sequel and in regards to paying tribute to Boseman's legacy. I'm still on the fence about the MCU's interpretation of The Sub-Mariner character and there's a few relatively minor aspects of the film that could have been handled better or but like I said overall it was pretty good.

I'm a bit late to the game on this recent bit of sad news from last week about the passing of Batman voice actor extraordinaire Kevin Conroy. In the past few days I've learned a little more about the man aside from his many years of work as a voice actor, he seemed like a really nice guy. I gotta wonder if his volunteer work at ground zero right after 911 had something to do with the damn cancer that ended his life at only 66 years old?

November 29th Update: Just did this latest sketch card over the Thanksgiving Day holiday weekend. It's been a while since I've done any fan art with The Torpedo.

 December 6th Update: 

Truth be told, I'm not really a big fan of Kirstie Alley as a person. But in light of her sudden passing from cancer (which a happened to fall on my birthday of all days) I still feel obliged to give her a shout out for some of her past work as an actress I've enjoyed. That work being her appearances in films like Runaway, Village of The Damned and ofcourse as Lt. Savvik from Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan.

Lafayette California Stands with Ukraine

Easter eggs and cameos

Today I inadvertently came across this really cool fan made cover art homage to All Star Squadron issue 1. It was on some site called Tumpik which I've never heard of before. The Tumpik page this art work was labeled as "Art Edit Credit to Roberto Coltro" so I guess Mr. Coltro is the artist. If you're a comic book fan then it's a good chance you've seen the source material this homage is based on but if you don't recall what the original cover art looks like a Google search take care of that easy enough. But this piece has a lot going for it along with being a nice cover art homage.

Although I'm quite grateful that among this multiverse Easter eggs collection we have The Greatest of The Spaceknights present, there's a lot of other great ones as well spanning from many different genres of sci-fi and comic book pop culture. I mean look at them there's Mr. Spock, Space Ghost, Silver Hawks and even The Mandalorian just to name a few. Also, the cover art has both Flash Gordon and Star Lord in it even though that's not the MCU or even the contemporary Marvel Comics Star Lord. It reminds me of the scene from Avengers: Infinity War where Tony Stark sarcastically refers to Peter Quill as Flash Gordon in which Quill responds by letting Tony know he considers that a compliment. 

What you see here is a page from some sort of UK publication from the 90s that I think was affiliated with Marvel some how although I don't think there was any sort of official cross over story lines with the main stream Marvel Universe at the time. I'm not a big fan of the artist's caricaturist style when it comes to drawing people and the coloring needs some work. But the dire wraith is drawn quite well and having Forge's Neutralizer in the scene is a nice touch. Gotta think the artist and or writer was a ROM fan.

I was reading a copy of Incredible HULK yesterday and discovered two things. The first being that Sabra actually made a cameo appearance, meaning that technically speaking Incredible Hulk 256 was not her first Marvel Comics appearance. Considering how big of a Sabra fan I am I'm kinda embarrassed I didn't know have known that already. And the letters page also had this informal ROM promo. After reading that letter it's hard to imagine even a sub standard inker making Sal's pencils look lack luster.  

I recently found out that Marvel Comic Books is actually not the only media Sabra has appeared in. She also made a cameo appearance in the mid 90s Fantastic Four cartoon series episode 26. Her cameo was proceeded by a few others as The Silver Surfer flew through various parts of the world. I think that was a nod to Incredible Hulk 250 in which we see a similar event that gave us cameos of what was then new Marvel characters like Sabra and The Arabian knight among others.
 

October 13th Update: Ya know it really pisses me off what celebrity deaths the media chooses to give a lot of attention to and which others they hardly make any mention off. I just found out about the passing of Louise Fletcher late last month. Fletcher was best known for her antagonistic roles as Nurse Ratchet from One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest and as Kia Winn from Star Trek: Deep Space 9. That was a great Star Trek series and she played one of those characters you love to hate, but in a good way. When you look back at her decades old acting career you'll realize she's popped up in many other roles you may not have recognized her in at the time such as in the 80s science fiction horror classic Firestarter. Fletcher was 88 years old.

October 21st Update: Well here we go again with note worthy celebrity deaths missed by the media. I just found out that actor David Warner passed away at 80 way back in July. Ya know, it's not like his acting career consisted of just some commercials and as an extra on a few TV shows or something. TRON, Time Bandits, numerous Star Trek characters, The Titanic, Time After Time and the list just goes on forever. Rest in peace David and fuck the mainstream media for hardly saying a thing about your passing or the amazing work you did for decades but gave us 24/7 coverage of Queen Elizabeth's death for almost 2 or so goddamn weeks.

Legacies

So from time to time I like to post public art I discover that's related to the comic book/sci-fi/fantasy genre that I discover by chance. Well here's the latest on, which I found in San Francisco recently. As you can see it's clearly derived from TRON Legacy. A really beautiful mural especially on the details on her face it's just too bad it wasn't done on a smoother surface instead of a corrugated roll up door.

And I just wanted to also remind you that the TRON Legacy trailer 2 included a brief shot of ROM spaceknight 26 along with some other cool 80s Easter eggs.

In this latest sketch card fan art, an unknown spaceknight takes center stage in repelling a dire wraith invasion war fleet. 

https://www.deviantart.com/nikoskap/gallery

September 11 Update: On something of a side note here. I have to mention how much of a pleasant surprise last week's announcement of Sabra's inclusion into the MCU was to me. As was the casting choice of Shira Hass given her age and physic. What wasn't a big surprise at all was the antisemitic backlash on social media. The MCU's interpretation of the Sabra character in Captain America: New World Order will be interesting to say the least and needless to say I'm looking forward to seeing how this continues to unfold over the next year or so. https://www.jpost.com/omg/article-716850