It recently occurred to me that there was a stained glass themed cover in the original ROM series as well although I have no idea if that served as any sort of inspiration for the Onyx 3 variant. Not much new going on but I do have something cool to share I've been sitting on for a while for reasons which I can't quite remember. This ones comes to us from the letters page of New Warriors 65 (thanks Gary).
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My collaborator Gary Martin Jr. wanted me to include the following information in this posting. Apparently it's possible we might see some sort of sneak peak of the new ROM series as early as later this month. But don't quote me on that because here's the following from Gary and I quote . . .
"Chris Ryall had mentioned on twitter recently that he has sent the cover art & issue info of ROM The Space Knight #0 to Diamond Distributors, who would then reveal all to the public sometime in December. Diamond's Previews catalog that came out last week says that next month's issue, Previews #328 due to be released 12/23/15, will have extensive information about all of 2016's Free Comic Book Day comics, of which ROM #0 is our most anticipated participant. Depending on whether or not Onyx #4 would have an unexpected sneak-peek or, more surprisingly, would come out ahead of Diamond's reveal...PREVIEWS #328 should be the first printed appearance of IDW's new ROM!"
December 2nd Update: Big thanks to Joseph for giving me a heads up on this from farcebook! Looks like Gary was onto something obviously but I dare say even he didn't see this coming this soon. Its' gonna take a bit of getting used to with ROM having fingers and all but so far this is looking good. For ROM fans seeing this cover is the equivalent of fans of STAR WARS seeing that scene from the trailer where Han Solo says "Chewie, we're home". Really looking forward to that to it better not suck like those shitty pre-quels!
http://csuhsux.deviantart.com/art/Optimus-Prime-Bluestreak-fan-art-sketch-card-575875140
Rom 0 cover is out by mike mantlo on Fb. He has a round head and fingers!!!
ReplyDeleteROM-A-LOM-A-DING-DONG!!
ReplyDeleteQUITE excited!
Although, I have no idea what ONYX is, or about... Are they going to be linked series or somehow connected?
Time to do some research, I guess...
TO THE INTERNETS!!
Yeah had to give you guys the heads up. It looks like Michael deleted his post over on Facebook. Maybe he didn't realize he was leaking it a few weeks early. Micheal refered to the ROM fans in his photo posting (leaking)as ROManatics. I dig it. He also included a quote from Ryall that said how he was trying to do everything he could to make sure Bills work was represented in the new ROM. It was a "we're home " level moment for sure for me. I was blown away I was seeing it.
ReplyDeleteAwesome Bluestreak sketch david . He gets overlooked far to often compared to the other autobots. Prime looks awesome here and dare I say one of your best sketches of him. Love how he is looking downwards on Bluestreak.
needless to say i was quite surprised to find that the cover of the zero issue had already been leaked this early. the post on farcebook having been taken down kinda makes me wonder if Michael Mantlo jumped the gun on something Ryall passed along to him? they're pretty tight but sometimes a miscommunication between two people can lead to something like that happening. which in turn makes me wonder if i'm eventually going to be contacted about having posted the cover art here. well we'll see. glad you liked the sketch card i was inspired to do it because of some wedding gifts this guy gave me. first he gave me a Skywarp masterpiece figure at my wedding back in September. and recently he got me a Bluestreak masterpiece figure (Google em) because he thought i should have an autobot to and he knows Bluestreak was my first autobot toy back in the day.
Deletecheck out this posting and my comments from back in September http://pleasesavemerobots.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-last-transformers-i-will-ever-buy.html
Lol last transformer i will ever buy. I am quilty of saying that quite a few times. Ryall says coincidence but he did use that ROM cover on one of his personal bound editions of ROM.
DeleteYou're right that I wouldn't have predicted a leak this early or that source for it, but I did kind of anticipate (& hope) Diamond or Ryall might show something on the 'net ahead of the Previews, so I was careful to say it should be the first *printed* appearance.
ReplyDeleteThe art shows a lot of promise for the series I think. The separated fingers were probably inevitable, if anything was to be changed of course that would be the obvious choice, and the rest of the armor is surprisingly & pleasantly faithful.
I wouldn't worry too much about the roundness of the head, look at any number of original-series drawings of ROM on the blog here, even the best previous artists didn't always depict it perfectly toaster-shaped.
I was glad Michael mentioned the ROM #0 cover he showed (& you currently have here) is a preliminary version because I hope they don't obscure the title logo as much on the final copy. Being the first comic back after so long, wouldn't you think it should be very, very clear this is ROM The Space Knight?
Speaking of how long it's been, ROM V1 #75 hit the stands almost exactly 30 years ago (early November 1985)! You couldn'ta leaked it just a few weeks earlier & made it a perfect anniversary, Mike? ;-)
oh so that's what you meant by the 30 year gap, good catch. well i certainly hope no one got into trouble over this art work being made public seemingly pre-maturley. but as of now i see no reason to take it down this posting has already gotten a lot of traffic in the past 24 hours i think the cat is already out of the bag if you'll pardon the cliche.
DeletePleasantly surprised by that Rom cover!
ReplyDeletewhat surprises you most? the fingers? the rounder head? or that it's really true a new ROM series is coming?
DeleteI like how his armor is faithful to the original design with minor tweaks.
DeleteI still feel reluctant for the series though mainly because it's a different universe.
I want to be excited. I really do.
ReplyDeleteAt this point, I would like to learn that Marvel has given all rights to all characters and situations Mantlo and company created TO IDW so that perhaps we can have something resembling the character we loved......... and not just a second attempt at turning a failed toy into something awesome.
I'm not holding my breath, but I AM hoping for the best. Rom is my Star Wars, my Star Trek, my Babylon 5, my Logan's Run, my Xanadu... all things I've loved over my lifetime (and more), but Rom has always been at the to of my list.
Long Live Rom.
www.RomSpaceknight.com
*always been at the TOP of my list.
Deletebravo Anthony that was the sort of comment i love to see when i check to see how things are doing here. passionate, opinionated and insightful comments are really the life's blood of this blog for me. i think i speak for most ROM fans when i say that in a perfect world it would have been marvel that renewed it's copy right to publish ROM again. it sounds like you've been following this blog for a while now and if that's so then you know i've talked about this issue a lot and the mystery surrounding it till this very day. but at the end of the day it is what it is. and what it is is that marvel will not be at the helm of a ROM revival and i'm at a point where i've accepted that.
Deleteit seems that IDW will thankfully keep ROM's classic look aside from some minor changes. we can only hope that IDW will also give us the ROM we know in terms of his personality as well. but outside of that it won't be the ROM we knew from back in the day. but in spite of all this i can't help but be excited knowing that next year i will pick up a new issue of ROM "the" spaceknight every month again like i did as a kid.
like with Star Wars later this month i'm prying that the ROM reboot series doesn't disappoint like the JJ Abrhams Star trek reboots did. Babylon 5 didn't get off to a good start but really picked up when Bruce Boxleitner joined the cast especially once the Shadow Wars story line got going. Logan's Run, classic 70s sci-fi just like Rollerball, Soylent Green, Demon Seed, The Omega Man and Planet of The Apes.
and lastly Anthony, i'm sorry you never really managed to get your ROM website moving along beyond the preliminary stages (more or less) but rest assured i always welcome worth while ROM related contributions to this blog if i feel it enhances the experience for it's followers. as you can see Joseph did us a big solid by giving me a heads up about the zero issue cover art and with out Gary Martin's regular contributions this blog would not be what it is.
RomSpaceknight.com has stagnated as I worked hard on my quintessential Rom movie script for a minimum 4-movie series, and depression over the years watching nothing happening except occasional teases (mainly by Marvel). I know I will get back into webmaster mode eventually and put more work into the site. (sigh)
ReplyDeleteGiven that, assuming IDW did NOT get any agreement with Marvel to acquire plots and characters, Rom The Space Knight will not be Rom Spaceknight, it's a total crap shoot. I read here and there that those involved with IDW's effort are "Rom fans". We'll see. I sent email through IDW's website twice asking to talk to Gary, et al, about things, as one "the" die hard lifelong fans of Rom and my own efforts to do things over the years - and of course was ignored as likely "just some guy not worth replying to". Oh well. It was wroth a try.
I tend to be pessimistic (ahem).. so...
Micronauts now being on it's FOURTH publisher...
Shogun Warriors never survived - but they had stiff competition in oh-so-many similar lines of toys and comics...
I won't even try to summarize GI Joe's universe. Too convoluted. I was not into it, so irrelevant to me. But it WAS all over the place. No clue how continuity worked there.
I think my fears about Rom, other than this NOT being "Rom" that we know and love, is that comics in GENERAL these days are now doing the 1-3 year cycle of rebooting/ retconning/ etc the characters and universes.
Angela is a good example where for whatever reason, Marvel decided they wanted her to be the new ruler of Hel, and be from a new realm of the Nine, now Ten, Realms... and it seems to work so far.
Ugh. I have no clear direction in this message, sorry.
It amounts to something that was VERY IMPORTANT to me growing up being (perceptably) re-done by someone who had nothing to do with it and has no access to ANYTHING that made the character what I knew.
Waaaah. Whine bitch moan.
I'm REALLY HOPEFUL. :-/
IDW did a bang up job with transformers another toy line. They kept the stories of what happened in Marvel with what they did with their regeneration one story lines. Chris Ryall is a known ROM fan and I think he is honest is saying he will to everything he can to keep Bills ROM intact. I trust him not to mess this up.
Deletefor years now i've chronicled on this blog the steady stream of let downs for ROM fans compliments of the powers that be at marvel. everything from marvel's disinterest in reclaiming the rights to ROM to the abysmal continuity stories (spaceknights mini series The Annihilators etc) and the bullshit ROM return rumors (think Age of Ultron) that turned out to be much to do about nothing. as far as i'm concerned marvel has nothing for you to look forward to as a ROM fan. marvel couldn't even give us some brief appearances of ROM as a man being refereed to by some Galadorian leadership title so if nothing else Brandy wont be left as this grieving widow on the verge of insanity because her husband is "gone". moving forward here i'm ready for a fresh perspective with new adventures and a new cast of characters surrounding our favorite spaceknight. i'll always cherish the ROM we used to know but this ain't the 80s or 90s any more. in fact it's quite literally a new millennium so let's try to keep an open mind . . . for now.
ReplyDeleteWell I have a couple quibbles beyond the fingers. I'm cool with the hands but that upper chest armor looks too big, like ROM is wearing his dad's shirt. The bits that jut out from either side of his neck seem waaay too tall and angular. If they were going to soften the edges a bit they should have done it to the entire armor and not just the face! I hope this is just the artist's unique style or exaggerated perspective and not an indication of what the character design is really going to look like.
ReplyDeletei'm going to go with that the interior art is likely to be a bit less "exaggerated" in nature. as something of a skeptic of the new series i think today's posting might have something to offer you.
DeleteThe Rom cover is now on the artist's page on Deviant art: http://fav.me/d9jnve6
ReplyDeleteNice observation on the parallel between those covers - I think that Onyx cover had to be a nod to the ROM cover. I still have to check out Onyx, I've heard nothing but good things about it!
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned getting some Masterpiece Transformers figures - aren't they awesome? Getting Skywarp as a wedding gift is very generous, you're a lucky fellow. I'm also a huge G1 Transformers fan & have recently started collecting some of the Masterpiece figures (currently have Optimus & Tracks, Bluestreak & Smokescreen on the way for Xmas, and have pre-orders in for Ironhide & Ratchet coming in 2016). Cool to see you're a fan of Bluestreak too, nice fan art!
yeah they're cool but they take fucken forever to transform! a Rubic's Cube might have been easer to figure out. it's funny i was at a vintage toy show the weekend before last and i was just tickled with how easy transforming those early Transformers and Gobots was in comparison.
DeleteYeah, the transformations are really complex for sure - but I'm extremely impressed with the cleverness of the mechanism designs & how they allow for robot modes that are very accurate to the actual cartoon versions. Love those classic G1 toys too, but they really don't come close to looking like the on screen characters *in proper proportion*. Plus, the level of articulation makes for some great poses (when you do finally get them transformed, haha)!
Delete