ROM Spaceknight fan art rewind and more!

 

Pretty much put this ROM vs Hybrid scene together in the same way I did the one in the previous posting. Moving on we're going to be revisiting some really professional looking past fan art piece from years ago that for reasons I can't remember I didn't feature here at the time. So let's get to it...

And speaking of beautiful custom figures related to the ROM series, this Torpedo one has gotta be one of the very best I've ever seen and I've seen quite a few over the years.  

This one come from artist Eteuati J Lalau. I'm assuming that's Galactus's hand that ROM is either perhaps materializing from or away to where ever Star Trek transporter style.

 This one is from artist Nalldo Ribeiro. Now normally ROM wouldn't have much to worry about from a single dire wraith trying to get the drop on him but this one looks like it's jacked up on roids or something. I also like this spaceship type corridor this scene is taking place in. It tells a story that your imagination can run with.

This cool space battle scene comes from artist Brian Douglas Ahern (a.k.a Brizy) who's work is no stranger to this blog. 

This sketch card scene taking place in the skies of Israel's capital of Jerusalem was inspired by a splash page in Incredible Hulk 250 (1980) in which The Silver Surfer flies all over Earth lamenting his terrestrial imprisonment by Galactus. In the process he has these scant encounters with various international characters (like Sabra ofcourse) which acted as a prelude to their eventual Marvel Comics full appearance in upcoming issues of The Hulk...

 https://earthsmightiestblog.com/hulk-250-1980/

But, in 1996 a Fantastic Four animated series would utilize that same Silver Surfer story line which gave us an animated version of Sabra's encounter with the surfer as seen here...

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWKyH94Ie9g

 It's been awhile since I've posted any local cool comic book/sci-fi pop culture public art. Here we have a fantastic mural of Godzilla, King Kong, Voltron and Ultraman playing the NES game system on Mecha Godzilla. It can be found in San Jose's Japan Town here in The San Francisco Bay Area. 

March 15th Update: Well we're only about half way through March and already we've had a pretty long list of celebrities that have passed away this year. For me, Raquel Welch, Tom Sizemore (died too young) and Jewish Israeli actor Topol have been the ones that have saddened me the most. I go way back with Raquel Welch with films like Fantastic Voyage and Topol in Flash Gordon. Tom Sizemore came along later and although his sci-fi stuff like Red Planet wasn't bad, HEAT, Black Hawk Down and Saving Private Ryan were his best moments as an actor.  

Will 2023 be a Happy New Year?

For openers, I wanted to repost this fan art that I originally did right after I saw Captain America The Winter Soldier when it came out in theaters. Yeah, it's been almost 8 years now since that movie came out. Yeah I know, where does the time go right? But when I first posted it I only had Sabra and Captain America along with ROM. All these years I never quite felt like the scene was truly complete. So I recently added Iron Man and the Monica Rambeau Captain Marvel. There was too much unused space before so now it looks right. Perfectly balanced, as all things should be.

Now here's something new! This awesome splash page style fan art may look familiar to you. But at the same time you're sure you've never actually seen it before. I believe the art work was done by Alan Davis who's easily among the best of the best when it comes to Marvel 80s artists . . .    https://romspaceknightart.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-nova-vs-dire-wraiths-halloween-e.html

With just two months to go before new year's eve I find myself wondering what kind of year 2023 will be for a number of reasons. When it comes to Captain America: New World Order we're not gonna be able to see it next year but you can bet there's gonna be plenty of promotional marketing and leaks for fan boys to discuss and debate all year long. No doubt through out next year we'll also start to get a better idea of the MCU's interpretation of the Sabra character. I can't help but wonder if that will prompt another wave of antisemitic nut jobs on social media acting like a bunch of babies with soiled diapers. 

Then ofcourse there are the other questions about 2023. Is covid going to be even further in the rear view mirror? Will there be any progress made on any meaningful steps to mitigate climate change? And then there's the war in Ukraine brought on by putin's insane invasion. I don't even want to think about how many different ways that could get even worse but I'm still so impressed with the gains Ukraine have made and in general with their tactical ingenuity and fighting spirit. I hope putin gets testicular cancer, Lou Gehrig's disease and complications from an enlarged prostate all at the same time next year. 

 

November 15th Update: I managed to see Black Panther Wakanda forever on opening weekend and I enjoyed it for the most part. The cast really raised their game in the absence of Chadwick Boseman's presence and the writing was well done as both a sequel and in regards to paying tribute to Boseman's legacy. I'm still on the fence about the MCU's interpretation of The Sub-Mariner character and there's a few relatively minor aspects of the film that could have been handled better or but like I said overall it was pretty good.

I'm a bit late to the game on this recent bit of sad news from last week about the passing of Batman voice actor extraordinaire Kevin Conroy. In the past few days I've learned a little more about the man aside from his many years of work as a voice actor, he seemed like a really nice guy. I gotta wonder if his volunteer work at ground zero right after 911 had something to do with the damn cancer that ended his life at only 66 years old?

November 29th Update: Just did this latest sketch card over the Thanksgiving Day holiday weekend. It's been a while since I've done any fan art with The Torpedo.

 December 6th Update: 

Truth be told, I'm not really a big fan of Kirstie Alley as a person. But in light of her sudden passing from cancer (which a happened to fall on my birthday of all days) I still feel obliged to give her a shout out for some of her past work as an actress I've enjoyed. That work being her appearances in films like Runaway, Village of The Damned and ofcourse as Lt. Savvik from Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan.

Lafayette California Stands with Ukraine

Nichelle Nichols passes away at 89 but leaves a legacy for the ages

I had just completed putting this posting together prior to the sad news about Nichelle Nichols having passed away so for this posting I'm going to lead with her. I've been a Star Trek fan for pretty much all my life although my interest in Star Trek came on a bit more gradually and a bit later in my adolescence then in the case of Star Wars. I know that given the age of the original cast members that this sort of news shouldn't come as a huge surprise but it still feels like a punch bellow the waist.

Did you know that after season 1 of the original series that Nichols considered leaving the show despite Gene Roddenberry begging her to stay? Apparently it was Martin Luther King who ultimately convinced her to stay on the show. It can't be understated enough how much of a pioneer Nichelle Nichols has been in the history of America's civil rights movement with everything from the first interacial kiss on TV to her efforts for creating more diversity at NASA. She was 89, so when you think of all she achieved both professionally and personally you have to take into account what was going on in America in her life time as a black woman. A beautiful human being both inside and out, Nichelle Nichols leaves an amazing legacy for not just Star Trek fans but also for great achievements off screen to. 

 

 

 

Well the last posting featured fan made cover variant so why not one more to open up this posting to? This was originally a black n' white sketch card https://www.deviantart.com/nikoskap/art/Micronauts-sketch-card-922465755

But I felt it had potential to be something more so I colored it and added the other necessary embellishments to give it that Marvel 80s touch.

 

Here's my latest envelope fan art. This one has an 80s properties or what might be today a "Hasbroverse" kinda theme to it. I think the "Hasbroverse" concept works better as envelope fan art then it does as an actual story line we all remember what a train wreck that was with IDW.

No photoshop nonesense going on here. The Godzilla prop on top of that high rise and the full size Gundamn robot are both quite real. A friend of mine is on an extended stay in Japan right now and he's been sending me some fantastic photos in recent weeks. Some have to do with all things in Japan that are related to the comic book/sci-fi/fantasy genre. Of those, I wanted to share these two in particular because this stuff is awesome and you'll only find in Japan. Those must have been a Hell of a sight to see in person.

 

 Just on a whim today I decided to revisit a fan art piece that I did 11 years ago although it doesn't feel like it was that long ago. I was always happy with how Ikon came out from a figure composition stand point but I kinda lost my focus with the other elements in the sketch piece and as a result it never did look quite right to me plus it also felt like it was missing something to. you can see the original here romspaceknightart.blogspot.com

IKON was Marvel's attempt to fill the Greatest of The Spaceknights void. And at times there was some promising moments as we saw IKON team up with cosmic powerhouses like Beta Ray Bill, Gladiator, Quasar, Silver Surfer and Ronin. We even at one point got to see her lead a task force of classic spaceknights giving us a bit of the old Mantlo magic from the original series. But that was very short lived and Marvel true to form fucked it all up with her apparent untimely demise along with Galador. We would see a couple brief unexplained appearances not long after that and then that was it. Haven't seen her since 2014 so fuck you very much Marvel Comics. And don't think I forgot about you also IDW with your shitty ROM and Micronauts reboot fails you fucken suck also.

 

 

WELL SAID!

The Nova vs the Dire Wraiths Halloween e-comic special is here! Also, Marvel published what?

Did you know that I just realized that Marvel Two-In-One 99 was written by Bill Mantlo? Given how the issue kicks off with this fantastic splash page I thought I'd open up this posting with this 80s nostalgia given that Halloween is tomorrow.

But onto with what this posting is really about I wanted to make sure anybody who stumbles across this blog knows about the Halloween e-comic special on deviant art that is now up. The guys who put this thing together really went balls on this project to bring something really cool to ROM and Nova fans out there so go check it out and let them know what you thought of it . . .
http://novaprime.deviantart.com/gallery/51674944/HALLOWEEN

Ok actually I've got one more thing to post that came later today courtesy of Gary Martin Jr. who found this on twitter. Apparently it's a page from the Marvel 75 Years Celebration one shot. I actually thought this was pretty cool even though it touches a nerve. I just don't get it. Clearly Marvel knows about the ROM fan base out there and they currently have merchandising deals with Hasbro who they obviously know own the rights to ROM. So why can't these two companies just work something out!!!? Other licensed properties present on this page include The Micronauts, Godzilla, Shogun Warriors and huh . . . NFL Pro.