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Just by chance I came across what seems to be a largely undiscovered piece of fantastic ROM fan art by artist
John McCrea. Damn this is bad ass and I found it on some twitter page that's full of a bunch of worthless crap consisting of lousy fan art, ROM fans trying to be cute to the point of ad nauseum and the usual uninteresting IDW ROM in name only crap. I really like this it's a bit reminiscent of
Bill Sienkiewicz's style
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In other recent goings on today
I saw
Ant-Man and The Wasp which I thought was pretty good.
Aside from the usual cinematic elements that make the MCU turn out hit after hit I just really dug how the movie took place in San Francisco as well as over in Berkeley which is right across The Bay. That was also part of Black Panther's charm for me with it starting and ending in Oakland which is right next to Berkeley.
Now I also did just hear about the news of
Steve Ditko's passing. Knowing how much I've gone off on him over the years you might be wondering about my reaction to this news. To be honest with you I really just don't feel anything about it. And I say this being fully aware that I probably should try to look at Steve Ditko's work more in it's entirety then just simply through the narrow lens of his work on the original ROM spaceknight series. But ya know what? When you're 12 or 13 you're not really especially mindful of the names or reputations behind the comic books you like. You just know what you like or don't like when you open up an issue and flip through the pages it's that simple. And back in the mid 80s when Ditko's retro style art started to replace the more "Marvel way" dynamic art style of
Sal Buscema that I had loved for years and was part of what hooked me on the original ROM series in the first place I'm afraid it just left such a bad impression on me I've never been able to really get over. Maybe that makes me a dick? I dunno but it's just how I honestly feel in the here and now.
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Going totally off topic here with this last thing I wanted to cover. I just recently broke down and bought this
1981 Datsun 280 Z Turbo by toy car manufacturer Johnny Lightening on ebay from this toy scalper. I called the seller a toy scalper because the car came in this Johnny Lightening packaging with a
"Toys R Us exclusive" label on it. I contacted the seller through ebay and asked him how he had gotten a hold of it given that I'd never seen it in stores and he just straight up told me he used to wait on truck days and go right after the doors open. Man I hate that shit, and I wonder now that Toys R Us is gone how that will impact the toy collectibles market when it comes to new stuff.
Anyways, I've always liked this car especially in the blue and grey color scheme. It's so classic 80s, it even makes me sentimental about one of the earliest Transformers toys (Autobot Bluestreak) I got back in the day as a kid. The photo in the parking lot is a little over 3 years old and it's the only time I ever saw a 280 Z in person in a blue and grey color scheme paint job. It was parked at a Burger King only a couple blocks from where I live. I regret not having tried to find out who the owner was at the time I could have at least just asked em a few questions about it.
Nice art there by mr. McCrea,very dynamic piece. As for Ditko's art everyone is entitled to their opinions and likes and dislikes but I believe every comic book fan owe him for bringing to life characters like Spider-man and Doctor Strange.
ReplyDeleteRemember how in Avengers Age of Ultron when ever someone would bring up Tony Stark it pissed off Ultron? It’s kinda like that with me when it comes to Steve Ditko. When I hear the name I can only think of the work he did in the 80s and 90s, it’s just a thing with me. I think maybe if he had retired in the early 70s I probably would have held him in much higher regard. Ya know it’s kinda like rock stars who stayed around too long and tried to go and perform on stage as if they were still in thier 20s or 30s. You just can’t really pull that off in your 60s especially if you’re also trying to wear the same stage out fits as well.
DeleteHahaha, still I shed a little tear when I learned of his passing,I was a big fan, love his weird art even his later period.
DeleteThere's something you and Ditko have in common... I read somewhere that he also disliked the IDW ROM in name only.
ReplyDeleteYa know what my friend? If that turned out to be true I’d sure like to know more about that. I’ll have to look into that Reno, thanks for swinging by with that comment.
DeleteAs lauded as Ditko was he could replace Sal's style and weight on the books. I felt his take was as impactful as Buscema's art. To me the best artist to tackle Rom was Sal's interiors and a toss up between Senkiawich and Golden on covers.
ReplyDeleteI’ll assume you meant to say “couldn’t replace”. If so, I couldn’t agree with you more and I’ll thank you for sharing your thoughts here.
ReplyDeleteYeah I wasn't too shocked or overcome with emotion about his passing either. Yes it's still sad a legend such as Ditko passed, but then again he was really old and had lived a very long and productive life. Other than the proper financial compensation he was due, what else more could you want?
ReplyDeleteI'll still maintain that art-wise, he peaked during the late 60's. Everything else after that was pretty much permanently stuck in that time period, never evolving. So yeah, in later years, after the hyper-detailed styles we were used to seeing, looking at later Ditko art just seems to lacking minimalist in a bad way.
Again, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and I didn't much beauty in his later work.
I'd still recommend his 50's and 60's horror works though which are collected in trade. Now THAT's worth checking out.
His later work....not so much.
That is pretty damn cool John McCrea ROM art though. Damn, I'd be down to see ROM short stories with his work on them.
The only thing I liked Ditko on was his original run on Spider-man.
ReplyDeleteyeah i'll give you that Bill. it was good stuff for it's time, thanks for swinging by.
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