For this 4th of July 2025

Since it's the 4th of July let me open up this month's posting with some new fan art that features the red, white and blue by Greek artist and my friend Kapandais Nikolause. Actually, it's not exactly new per se, I used photoshop to take two separate fan art pieces from Nikolause and put them together into one scene with Captain America and Sabra together. I think Contest of Champions and Incredible Hulk 279 were the only times where these two characters appeared together in the same comic book story lines.

Now if there's any writer in Marvel that can get the hopes up of ROM fans only to shoot that hope down in flames it's the asshole known as Jonathan Hickman and this is exactly the kinda shit I talked about last month (*see previous posting). This panel featuring Ikon looking like a has been spaceknight suffering from depression in an alien dive bar is from Imperial issue 1 which is a new cosmic series. Now in Hickman's mind he might have actually believed he's paying tribute to the ROM legacy with sorry ass shit like but in reality he's doing it a disservice. It's shit like this along with IDW's ill conceived reboot is what made ROM fans give up on any sort of hopes for a return of The Greatest of The Spaceknights in contemporary story lines and instead pivot thier hopes toward stuff like Omnibus reprints and an articulate action figure which they finally got as of this year. One last thing, I'd like to give a not so honorary mention to writers Abnett & Lanning who gave us The Annihilators which was yet another big let down for the fans base.

THE COMING OF ROM: A Knight's Tale by Jim Shooter June 2011 http://jimshooter.com/2011/06/coming-of-rom-knights-tale.html/

This year has seen the loss of some major talents who have contributed to all things ROM over the years in one way or another. Jim Shooter passed away at pretty much the exact half way point of 2025. A controversial figure in some ways, he never the less was a big part of what made the Marvel 80s so epic with the Secret Wars series being just one of the many examples. On one hand, Shooter helped get greenlit Bill Mantlo's idea for the Micronauts and reached out to MEGO so ofcourse that was awesome. And ofocurse he was instrumental to getting the ROM series launched. But at the same time we know they also had a tenuous working relationship as well and unfortunately we'll never get Mantlo's side of the story about all that for obvious reasons.

 

Earlier this year we also last Peter David  and Butch Guice. Guice, who was an overall phenomenal artist (as seen in the pages of the before mentioned Micronuats) also did the cover art for at least three ROM issues (55,58 and 70) that I know of. Peter David never worked on the original series but he certainly made sure to help keep the legacy of ROM going in a big way with the Rick Jones wedding issue of The Incredible HULK. David also included  some clever ROM and Dire Wraith references in other HULK issues as well as in Captain Marvel in the 90s.

Rest in peace Kenneth Colley, you served the empire with honor & distinction

 

Revisiting some great fan art

Ron Joseph

 

Rich Wentworth

 Andrew Cosson

Jeff Slemmons

Digital artist unknown

Nothing new really in terms of fan art or anything else ROM related that's interesting in recent weeks so I decided to post some good fan art that's been around for a while on other social media sites. Their is however one piece out there that's turned up in recent weeks that's at least worth having a look at. It's not on the same level as the stuff I'm featuring in this posting but like I said it's at least worth having a look at Rom Serpentyne by c-lee-b on DeviantArt

April 12th Update: Looks like I may have spoken a bit too soon about nothing new that was ROM related worth looking at. Here's a treat for anyone looking at this posting who may be watching the Disney Plus Moon Knight series or otherwise a Moon Knight fan. Also, here's a really cool animated Moon Knight Gif by the same artist . . https://www.deviantart.com/nikoskap/art/Moon-Knight-849786336
 

April 17th Update: And we even have something new for Micronauts fans out there. This is the latest from Chris Batista. A great concept and an all around solid piece of art and nostalgia. 

 

Welcome to Galador

  Some dire wraith infestation perhaps. But no Covid-19 pandemic or IDW at least. Long live the 80s!

"ROM original" accept no substitute

 I posted this from Comic Scene Magazine issue 2 (1982) back in September of 2013. But in honor of Joe Sinnott who recently past away I think it would be fitting to post again.

 July 4th Update:  I recently discovered a number of cool San Francisco murals of Marvel superheroes so I decided to post my favorite ones. They were mostly located in the North Beach district but a couple were also downtown.

Commission art by Steven Butler

  
July 24th Update:  Finally, something has come along worth posting here from an artist other then myself and my friend Nikoskap. This is absolutely every thing I like to see when it comes to fan art (commission or other wise). It's creative, professional in quality and takes me back to the 80s in the way good nostalgia fan art should do. Hats off to artist Steven Butler and his master piece. You've done the ROM Spaceknight legacy justice.

by Jeff Slemons

 And look at this ROM 27 homage piece by artist Jeff Slemmons. Two awesome pieces of ROM fan art in one week, this is truly unprecedented. The Gods of Galador be praised!

Happy 2020: A year in review of 2019 fan art

https://www.deviantart.com/nikoskap

For all you Micronauts fans who have a soft spot for BUG we've got something else cool for you to check out right here . . .

https://www.deviantart.com/nikoskap/art/Bug-Galactic-Warrior-825215921

So, at the cost of sounding immodest I'd say the bulk of the good fan art that turned up in 2019 probably came from myself and my Greek friend. His solo work as well as our collaborative efforts have been featured quite heavily in the hand full of postings I've done this past year. Unfortunately, most of what I've seen other wise has been a mixed bag of disappointment ranging from . . .

 ...stuff that was just plain weird, obscure and borderline incomprehensible. Then you had pieces that were so amateurish from an illustration skill stand point to others that were utterly lacking in creativity or otherwise imagination. But there was...

 ...also some other work in which the artists did combine genuine illustration skills with some sense of creativity (the number of those pieces was a short list to be sure) to the point where their art work was more or less in the spirit of the Marvel series and evoked some sense of nostalgia. I would like to think that 2020 will have in store more of the kinda of fan art that reminds me of the good ol days as opposed to the dull and uninspiring crap I usually find but I doubt it.

February 23rd Update: Any fans out there of The Mandalorian? Great show, and the only good thing out there when it comes to live action Star Wars along with Rogue 1 in the past 19 years. I recently did some fan art on a greeting card for a buddy of mine.

Last year I did something similar for Okoye and Misty Knight who are some of my favorite ladies of color from Marvel Comics...

Need your classic ROM fix? Here you go . . .

Fan art by Dann Phillips left click to enlarge

So as you can see there's a lot going on here aside from ROM being one of the onlookers to this epic DC/Marvel cross over battle between these two major bad guys. Ironically another cosmic marvel fan art piece turned up deviant art only a couple days before Dann's that included ROM, Galactus, Silver Surfer and Thanos but that artist never replied to me me unlike Dann so fuck em they only get a link as opposed to having their stuff actually featured here in this posting. There's just something to be said for social media etiquette it's just a thing with me  . . .
http://emmanuelmerlotti.deviantart.com/art/Rom-Spaceknight-by-Emmanuel-Merlotti-619409778

On the other hand this guy did get back to me from deviant art. So guess what? He gets to have his nice work in progress sculpture featured in this posting. More views from different angles can be seen here http://silent-cell.deviantart.com/

If you're thinking about buying all the IDW cover variants buyer beware. Pay attention to the most recent comments in the previous posting Gary has left IDW's shameless greed seem to know no limits.


July 6th update: Painted version of statue just posted
http://silent-cell.deviantart.com/art/Rom7-619763240

ROM spaceknight 27 tribute fan art

Left click to enlarge

I just got this fan art by Brian Douglas Ahern from Gary this morning. I'm sure he'll be leaving a comment any time now with all the details as to how he acquired it because there's some history with this art work. I actually discovered it back in March of 2013 when I saw it in an online photo up on the wall at the old Floating World Comics shop in Portland. Although never featured in any of the forums for the Bill Mantlo benefit auction it was apparently part it but don't quote me on that. The only version of it I had was this grainy blown up thumbnail I posted March 2013 . . .
http://romspaceknightart.blogspot.com/2013/03/bill-mantlo-stacking-deck.html

Having recognized this as being one of the better art pieces from that auction I contacted the owner of Floating World Comics to see about getting a copy but it seemed my request fell on deaf ears. Remember my posting just over a month ago from my last Portland trip? Why couldn't they have made a nice large format reprint of this art from the benefit auction instead of the garbage they had available!? If I had seen this as a nice 11 X 17 print on some good paper stock for only $5 I would have been like score!
It sure feels good to be getting back to postings with some old school ROM stuff again. However I anticipate this being my last one for the month although I may have an update coming later today or tomorrow. Next posting should be right after I come back from my trip to Greece and Israel which should be June 4th or 5th. I sure picked a swell time to do some international flying between that terrorist shit in Belgium recently and this current mystery of the downed EgyptAir 804 flight.

May 22nd Update:
Yesterday I swung by my LCS and had a look at Micronauts #2. From a story stand point it looked like a marginal improvement from the first issue. But I'll say this about it the art work is way better then what we saw in the ROM zero issue. You can preview the first six pages here and see what I mean . . .
http://www.comicbookresources.com/comic-previews/micronauts-2-idw-2016

Wrapping up 2014 with some old school coolness and my latest fan art

Left click to enlarge

Marvel Update was a quarterly news letter brochure that Marvel Comics Group distributed only to their in-house departments, shareholders and business partners back in the 70's through the 90's. All those early ROM costume promo appearances we've seen floating around on the internet for several years now like this one
http://romspaceknightart.blogspot.com/2012/11/new-rom-1980s-cosplay-photo-found-plus.html  were originally published in that quarterly in regards to the launching of the ROM spaceknight comic book series. So in a sense, Marvel Update actually had the first appearance of ROM. Ever the collector and curator of all things ROM related the following clips seen above come from a winter and fall edition of Marvel Update which Gary Martin Jr. recently acquired.

Ya know I really miss the good ol days of illustrations done on envelope like we used to see in Wizard magazine (just like you said K.o.T). I think of it as something of a lost art form.

Left click to enlarge

Dec. 18 update: I neglected to remember that Hanukkah started at sundown yesterday. So in order to atone for my absent mindedness I decided to whip up this sketch art of Sabra taking a break from putting down jihadi terrorists and super powered menaces so she can light the menorah. More possible updates for this blog posting to come before the end of the year.


And here's that first update. This fantastic Dec. 17 ROMcentric podcast throws around those common questions about what the fuck is going on when it comes to hasbro and marvel in regards to ROM as a licensed property http://relativelygeekypodcast.blogspot.com/2014/12/qbp-040-rom-1.html

Thank you all for your support, here's some new fan art and an eye test

Left click to enlarge

Here's something new from Dann Phillips who's been on something of a roll with Rom fan art as of late. If there's one thing I would change with this one is for Rom to be banishing jonathan hickman to Limbo instead of that wraith. I also just wanted to say thank you to every body who has been contributing to this blog in the past couple of months as far as all the internet traffic and commentary for the postings lately.
Rom fans have had their highs and lows over the years and in many ways hickman delivered the worst of the lows recently but it's been really cool to hear from so many people about it. As such there's been an unprecedented amount of exchange of information, ideas and opinions here lately it's absolutely everything I had hoped it would be when I started this blog.

Art by Scott Reed

Ok here's you eye test. And by "eye test" this little exercise has more to do with your ability to scrutinize detail then it does to determine if you have 20/20 vision. Now if this commission piece looks familiar to you it's because it's been around for a while now but what you're looking at right here has been altered a bit. Over all I like the original but it always had this one thing about it that drove me nuts so I finally decided to "fix" it. See if you can spot what's different from the originalhttp://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=729976&GSub=81477

One last thing, I just found page#1 for that Rom spaceknight first issue reproduction project for Bill Mantlo:

http://instagram.com/p/cdU4XpD89R/#

So that makes a total of 4 pages that I've found from this project I'll keep posting them as I find them.

It should be noted that this isn't the first time the first page of issue #1 was reproduced this version was done early last year:  http://johndouglasart.blogspot.com/2012/03/rom-spaceknight-1-page-recreation.html