Bill Paxton passes away at 61 so to the grim reaper I say "Fuck you asshole!"

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Unfucken believable! I literally only 30 moments ago just read the sad news about Bill Paxton having passed away during some sort of surgical procedure. Here we go again with yet another iconic actor from the sci-fi genre of the 80s passing away and we're not even done with February yet. Many people wouldn't know that his list of credits both in front and behind the camera is very extensive but I'm not going to get into a long winded posting about his fantastic career. But suffice it to say I loved Bill Paxton he's been in some great films both big and small that I've enjoyed since the mid 80s.
The land mark role that put him on the map no doubt was private Hudson from ALIENS but we actually saw Bill before that in a small part in the original classic Terminator film. Since then he's played in a number of great films like Tombstone, Apollo 13 and One False Move. He's also done some work on the small screen I remember him in particular most recently from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D when that show was actually watchable. Bill was also in another great yet little known film that's one of my favorites from his acting resume. The movie is a modern day vampire film from the late 80s called Near Dark in which Paxton plays a psychotic vampire with an entertaining and twisted sense of humor when it comes to hunting his prey.

As most of you know we've lost a few celebrities this year so far I've posted about (Miguel Ferrer, Gordon Henley, Richard Hatch and now Bill Paxton). It's ironic that it would be a couple weeks ago that I would happen to spot this clip art in an issue of Battlestar Galactica. I say that because of the Star Wars reference in it (good for you if you can find it) and given that it was an actor from both Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica who passed away this month.

Customizing your comic collection box lid

For many many years my dad used to work in data processing going all the way back to the tail end of the 70s. He used to bring home "computer paper" boxes like the one you see here for storage purposes and one day some where in the mid 80s I think I started using them for my growing comic collection at the time. At one point I had about 7 of these boxes filled with comics but I've down sized over the years to now only 3. In the past I've decorated my comic boxes with pasted on clip art from beat up issues that were worthless but had cool and corresponding art with whatever collection I had in that box.
So right now I have a ROM spaceknight box, a Suicide Squad box and one other newly acquired box re-purposed (I like that word) for my miscellaneous issues that didn't contain any art work on it. But it does now, although not with published clip art. Instead I wanted to personalize it a bit more by using color copies of my own fan art featuring ROM with other Marvel characters. Maybe some day I'll get around to also covering the sides of the lid and perhaps the whole box to but this will do for now.

A couple weekends ago I picked up this People magazine special on Carrie Fisher. It was really interesting especially in regards to a lot of crazy shit going on behind the scenes during the shooting of the original STAR WARS trilogy including and affair with Harrison Ford and even Fisher doing coke in between shoots. I also really liked some of the vintage photos of Fisher and felt like posting them for other fans who might not know about this issue of People.

X-Men vs The Dire Wraiths tribute art

This is a commission art piece done by artist Peter Nguyen based on X-Men issue #188 which was the climatic ending of a 5 issue story arc (184,185, 186, 187, 188 all by John Romita Jr. and Chris Claremont) covering the assassination attempt on Forge by the dire wraiths. Ofcourse that broader story line of Forge's involvement in the Wraith War would continue in the pages of ROM. No ROM spaceknight collection is truly complete with out these important X-Men tie-in issues.

Just noticed this in the latest Incredible Hulk trade paper back (Future Imperfect) just published last month. The TPB includes the Rick Jones wedding issue and I was happy to see the panels with ROM were not left out but that didn't come as much of a surprise given that ROM was not in his cyborg armor. Although even that may have been an over site given that Marvel these days isn't even willing to have ROM in any new stories as even human and being referred to in some other way then the name "ROM". And I would know because I've suggested it to them only to have that idea flatly rejected back in 2011 and again 2012. But Marvel definitely made an over site in the back pages featuring reprinted clip art in black and white which has a panel with some skrulls impersonating superheroes that Rick Jones has been a side kick to over the years. Quick, somebody go tell Hasbro (just kidding like they'd care). Well Gary (a very dedicated ROM curator), even though you already have all the individual ROM related Hulk issues it looks like you're gonna have to open up your wallet yet again and add this TPB to your collection.

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February 14th Update: Started this sketch in the morning and finished it after I got home from work tonight. Just found my self in the mood to draw Storm today.

A fond farewell to Richard Hatch

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It's looking like 2017 might be another shit year for more of the actors from some of my favorite childhood sci-fi genre movies and and TV shows passing away. This afternoon I just got the sad news about Richard Hatch (age 71) passing away as a result of pancreatic cancer (just like Patrick Swayze RIP). Most of you ofcourse know him as Apollo from the original Battlestar Galactica which I loved back in the day and for many years continued to watch as reruns. Hatch would also go on to play a semi-regular character on the SyFi channel Battlestar Galactica reboot in the mid and late 2000s.

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I actually had the privilege of meeting Richard Hatch a little over a year and a half ago at the BIG Wow Comic Fest in San Jose CA. where he was at a table promoting Star Trek Axanar. Axanar is a very well done independent production for youtube that chronicles the original war between The Federation and The Klingon Empire in which Hatch played a high ranking Klingon commander obsessed with defeating The Federation. Hatch's acting career included a lot more then what I've mentioned in this posting ofcourse for example did you also know he replaced Michael Douglas's character on the 70s TV show The Streets of San Francisco? 

Exactly one month ago in a posting I featured an old photo of part of my toy collection back in 1981 that among other things included a few Battlestar Galactica figures. So I guess this seems like a good time to showcase the one toy I have these days from Battlestar Galactica. This was something of a rare find it was one of those toys that never seemed to appear in regular retail stores you just always saw the other ships you really didn't want that much and then one day you see it at a comic shop or at a convention going for twice or three times what it retailed for. Well anyways I saw just one at  a Walmart back in 2007 and snatched it up with out second thought.

ROM, Panthro and Snake Eyes . . . nuff said

Damn, is it just me or did January seem to come and go in the blink of an eye!? I have the feeling 2017 is gonna fly by like 2016 did. Anyways, it would be pretty hard to have ROM, Panthro and Snake Eyes together and it somehow sucking. And all the better if you throw in other characters I like who are licensed properties from the 80s and cool DC characters. Anyways, that's all I've got to say about that and here's a link to where I found this . . .
http://www.scrollboss.illmosis.net/blog/?p=1753

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I also wanted to use this posting today to feature the art work of an artist you've probably never heard of before. As you can see in terms of style and theme it's a complete departure from how I opened this posting. He's a fellow by the name of Paul Sloan and he's done a number of these apocalyptic ice age fantasy art piece featuring famous cities like Seattle (which I visited late last year as some of you may recall) and San Francisco.

Getting back to the superhero genre fan art here's something new from my good friend and fellow ROM fan from the island of Crete (Greece). I've featured his work here before and have even been inspired by his stuff in regards to my own fan art. He recently did this sweet piece with Storm from The X-Men. But to see the full body view in her Savage Land costume variant you need to go to the link
http://nikoskap.deviantart.com/art/Savage-Land-Ororo-659747348