Here's my latest sketch card and as you may have guessed it's based on the events of issue 65 (1985). But in terms of it's layout it's loosely based on based on the movie poster for Iron Man 3. No particular reason why I just always thought the movie poster was pretty cool even though the movie certainly was not the best of the three Iron Man films by a long shot. Speaking of art, the art in most of today's comics is really outstanding but I never the less feel very uninterested beyond their visual appeal. More style then substance as it were.
Continuing the theme from part of the last posting in terms of the half baked continuity of the original one and only ROM series. I'm back to talking about Avengers Academy after having ripped into Hickman's Imperial in the last posting. Avengers Academy from 2014 saw the return of Hybrid in a 3 issue story arc. Unfortunately, unlike the 1997 X-Man (Nate Grey) Hybrid return one shot story this one was not at all written well and ultimately ended up being a big disappointment. I've got several blog postings and a published letter to the editor from back then expressing my grievances. For the one or two of you over the course of the next decade who might actually be interested in seeing those they're just a key word search away but I'm not going to go into all that now I don't want this posting to be any more too long winded then it already is. But those Avengers Academy issues did have one little bright spot of genuine 80s nostalgia in the form a single panel featuring a flash back of ROM 65. It also acts like a preview of what that issue might have looked like with a different artist then Steve Ditko.
One of the other things I miss about the Marvel Comics of the 80s are those corner boxes on the front pages. Although like every one else at the time I liked them, while at the same time they were such a standard fixture on Marvel covers to the point where you almost stopped noticing them on a conscience level. But, like many other things in life you sometimes don't miss something or really begin to appreciate what you had until it's gone. This one here is what a version with Starshine (art by Kapandais Nikolause) might have looked like back in the day.
Fast forward to today, more specifically to the San Diego Comic Con a couple weeks ago. This is the front and back cover art variants for the Comic Con one shot Dread The Hall H which is a satirical anthology of the challenges, mishaps and the sub culture of the world of Comic Con. ROM has made some waves in the past year between the Legends figure, omnibus collection and other reprint publications. Not to mention the actual ROM cosplay that has been at the Comic Con in recent years so it's nice that they were able to get him into the mix on that cover art.
I seldom post things here that are from the horror genre but this mural I spotted a while back is never the less worth sharing. Like most of the other murals I feature on this blog this one is also in the San Francisco Bay Area although I can't recall which city exactly but I'm pretty sure it was in or around oakland. Anyways, I like this it looks like something you'd see as the cover art for some kind of horror magazine or comic.
September 17th Update: I just heard the sad news about Terence Stamp having passed away this weekend. Between Stamp and Gene Hackman that's two main actors from the original Superman films we've lost this year. Aside from playing General Zod, don't forget Terence Stamp also was in the movie Red Planet along with Val Kilmer who as you know we also lost this year.
I saw these at a Half Price Book store the other day. Talk about bringing back great 80s memories. Too bad they were in a locked glass case it would have been interesting to see how much the set with the Shogun Warriors was going for as well.
October 30th Update: This morning I was watching a video about the rise and fall of the New Universe project back in the mid to late 80s when this still image of Archie Goodwin appeared with him holding a copy of ROM 5. Would have been interesting to hear what he was saying at that very moment in time.
December 16th Update: We lost Gil Gerard with just about 2 weeks left in 2025. Saw the theatrical movie in theaters back in the day and I loved the TV series as re-runs for so many years. Great memories, rest in peace Buck.
