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!

MARVEL, the good ol days and the latest bullshit

So I'm going to open up this posting with something from the past when Marvel was actually cool. I want everybody to give it up for The King of Thessaly (K.o.T) for sending me this clip art from New Warriors Annual #1 (1991). Can't believe I didn't know about this already! As you can see this Rom cameo flash back is making a reference to Rom #24, however the editorial seems to be a bit off there were no spaceknights in that issue it was only Rom himself fighting along with the Champions of Xandar against a Skrull invasion.  Hey K.o.T, was this issue one of your flea market or dirt mall questing finds?

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Moving right along, let's talk about the present, which is a not so good time for Rom fans when it comes to Marvel. I told you all a while back when Infinity #1 came out that jonathan hickman would do this. This panel which came from the recent Avengers Infinity #21 (thanks for the heads up Gary Martin Jr.) is some of the table scraps that I told you all hickman would throw to Rom fans to try and keep us on the hook.
This doesn't even make any sense. The character intro at the beginning of the issue shows a head shot of Starshine as the armor was in it's original incarnation (more or less) that we saw in Infinity#1. So why are we seeing the Starshine 2 armor (but with a pony tail) here? I don't have to tell long time Rom readers why that doesn't make any sense. And as you can see Ikon is there too which also makes no sense since they were both on Galador when it was destroyed. Is hickman gonna come up with some "creative writing" or is this just some inconsistency they didn't think anybody would catch? Whatever, hickman you're still a douche so you don't get my money on this one either.

LAST CALL! Look, speaking of douche bags don't be one and let Bill Mantlo's birthday come and go this year with out showing this great man a sense of gratitude in a way that's the next best thing to telling him in person. Even if you live on the East Coast if you can get off your ass and get a card into the mail addressed to me in the next 2 - 3 days that should still leave enough time for it to arrive before I send the whole thing to his brother.

Alright so let's end this posting on a fun note as with the latest video from The King as he shows us his extensive action figure collection along with some other things like published clip art from Marvel and DC that was so disturbing it'll have you saying to yourself "What the Hell were they thinking!?"

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Ok so one last thing here. I wrote this posting after midnight when I finally got home from work and this morning I end up finding this innovative fan art. This obviously doesn't fit a narrative of the Rom universe as we know it but then again it isn't supposed to since it's a homage piece to those old mystery and sci-fi novels of the 30s which were largely regarded by the "literary community" as pulp. But then again those are the same sorts who say that about comics and let's not even get into all the art snobs out there who think comic book art is beneath their notice. Remember I was an art major in college (multi-media) so I was around a lot of those assholes for years. Rather you like the concept or not you gotta hand it to the artist (Rob Reis) for having some serious illustration skills.

Infinity #1, Bill Mantlo, Rom & Me, New fan art, Nuff said . . .

 Well folks as you can see here Infinity #1 does have your spaceknights and Galador. Seven pages worth to be specific although rather you are happy or not with what happens in those seven pages is another matter. But since I know almost all of you will not have had a chance to pick this up until later today or this weekend I'll refrain from posting any more clip art or talking any more about what happens especially since I probably won't get a chance to give this double sized issue a thorough read until tomorrow or Friday. At that point I may post again with my thoughts on it and so on but we'll see.

 Here's something new I recently found from Dann Phillips. I like the unique nature of the scene my first thought that it's some kind of space vessel that's been talking over by Dire Wraiths that maybe was able to send a distress signal before the Wraiths got to em. Or maybe it's a Wraith warship that ROM is boarding right after he got done giving it a beating in battle. Dire Wraiths can with stand the vacuum of space as far as I know but hey, I'm just nit picking now.
Also, here's some other stuff worth looking at. It's a homage to X-Factor #1 that features a number of characters from several publishers including two from Marvel with one happening to be one silver spaceknight: http://dashmartin.deviantart.com/art/Multiverse-II-161977028
GLORIOLE! http://nikoskap.deviantart.com/art/Gloriole-392214802

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Moving right along I wanted to leave a message for Ceoria from the ROM and Me web site. So by now many of us know about your bad experience from before. But if the title of this blog is any indication that sort of bullshit won't happen here. This blog site was created to be a community of Rom fans as well as others who like comics and sci-fi to share news, art and ideas. So if you're out there I'm extending an invitation to join us here it's all good, the past is the past.

 Here's a nice photo of Bill Mantlo from last weekend with his sister in law in which she was able to get him outside of his hospital room which sadly doesn't happen very often.

Classic spaceknight fandom & thank The Enigma Force this never was!

We've got a lot to get through here so let's go. This is Unam "The unseen" from Galador's spaceknight Squadron. I decided to leave the shadow in the final panel given that Unam's invisibility comes as a result of his armor projecting a holographic mapping image of his surroundings. Which means that his "invisibility" is the result of a sophisticated form of camouflage not unlike The Predator. Being truly invisible would make you transparent in which light would pass through you which would result in no shadow being cast: http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/4016200.html

I just found this Firefall CG video clip on Youtube. Ok it's not top of the line stuff but it's still fun to watch and something different as far as Rom related fanfare https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnYyk1zmJrg

Here's something interesting. This isn't just some nice fan art this is actually a panel from a re-creation of a page from ROM #1 illustrated by artist Claire Connelly. It's part of a Sal Buscema & Bill Mantlo homage project to reprint the first issue in which each page is done by an individual artist.
You can see the rest of Claire's page at this link http://thinkillustration.tumblr.com/ (scroll about half way down)   Here's another page I found done by a different artist:  http://plasticfarm.com/?p=2159 

Now I realize I may ruffle some feathers with this last part of my posting but I gotta speak my mind on this. I am so glad this cartoon never came to be! I can already tell based on the animation style that this would have been exactly what I don't want to see a sophisticated 80s comic book series get turned into. That being a rather silly looking cartoon loosely based on a comic book title and written for a mostly pre-teen audience.
Be sure to magnify the art. What's up with the conjoined twins Bug variant? If he has a head on both ends how the fuck is he supposed to take a dump? Why the ridiculously small legs on Acroyer and was it necessary to make Boitron look like Frankenstein's monster? And any toy line based on this series would have been just as dreadful. It would have been nothing like the Mego line from back in the day, but instead figurines with bizarre proportions and utterly inarticulate. Some people may have seen this as being some sort of homage to Bill's legacy but I see it more as a pathetic knock off on the amazing world that Bill Mantlo gave us with The Micronauts. This would be cartoon series is right where it belongs, on the proverbial drawing board.

1979 was a good year for sci-fi toys and Marvel

I just kinda reworked some images in a panel for the first issue of that dreadful 2001 Spaceknights mini-series. So now I've got something good out of something bad. It makes me down right sentimental Marvel has made such a mess even of the Rom related stuff that they own.

This excerpt came out of this over sized anthology book called Marvel five fabulous decades of the world’s greatest comics. I knew about when Rom and The Micronauts debuted but I never thought about when Shogun Warriors did. Shogun Warriors #16 was one of the first comics ever had along with several of the toy figures at the dawn of the 80s. A few years later (mid 80s) I picked up about a dozen more issues from the 3 for $1 rack at my then favorite comic shop (Comics and Comics) in Berkeley CA. on Telegraph avenue.

This is too cool, the Hulk #256 (Sabra!) I recently blogged about here which I picked up in a regular back issue bin about a month ago had something interesting stamped on the back. Comics and Comics used to stamp it's name and address on the back of all it's 3 for $1 comics. So getting back to the titles of licensed toy properties here's a good question, were there any toy based Marvel titles prior to 1979? I can't think of one but if any of you do please share.

Firefall's rebooted spaceknight armor plus artist John Romita

By chance I came across some CGI art work named "The Last Spaceknight". You can see it here
http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/index.php?topic=7282.60
I have no idea if it was intended to be a rebooted version of ROM or maybe that anime character Tekaman who also goes under the title of spaceknight. Regardless I thought with a little bit of fine tuning in photoshop whoever this is supposed to be would make a great rebooted Firefall. If you're a bit fuzzy on Firefall read on . . .

Karas was one of the Galadorian volunteers that became the First Generation of spaceknights to battle thedire wraith . He was one of Rom's best friends and once saved his life from drowning (as told in a flash back in Rom #4). He was given the Firefall armor to wield. When the invading Wraith warfleet approached Galador, Karas broke ranks and assaulted them by himself. He would soon after find himself facing one of the feared  Deathwing. In a desperate battle Karas was able to defeat the Deathwing but was so exhausted that he had neither will nor strength to resist when a Wraith Destroyer found him and captured him. The Dire Wraiths tried to take apart the armor and tortured Karas for nearly two centuries. When Karas realized that they were on the verge of breaching his armor, Karas used the Living Fire to rob them the satisfaction and phase his human Id to Limbo while his physical form was destroyed (as told in flash back in Rom #19).
Eventually the Dire Wraiths sent the armor to Earth where they duped petty criminal Archie Stryker into grafting into it and turned him on Rom (Rom #3 & 4). Stryker was ultimately defeated by Rom after which he learned the truth about the Dire Wraith threat on Earth and gave his life to help Rom defeat the immediate wraith threat they were both facing (Rom #5 & 11). Some time later Rom faced the Firefall armor a final time after it had been "animated" by dire wraith sorcery. With the help of Ben Grimm, Rom defeated the Firefall armor and the Dire Wraith witches that controlled it (see Marvel Two in One #99).

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How ironic, just after writing this posting I came across this vintage Marvel Comics photo of John Romita. As it happens on the wall there is the uncolored cover art for Rom#3 which also happens to be the first appearance of the Firefall armor.