Legacies

So from time to time I like to post public art I discover that's related to the comic book/sci-fi/fantasy genre that I discover by chance. Well here's the latest on, which I found in San Francisco recently. As you can see it's clearly derived from TRON Legacy. A really beautiful mural especially on the details on her face it's just too bad it wasn't done on a smoother surface instead of a corrugated roll up door.

And I just wanted to also remind you that the TRON Legacy trailer 2 included a brief shot of ROM spaceknight 26 along with some other cool 80s Easter eggs.

Speaking of all things TRON and 80s this seems like a good time to share photo of me from back in the day playing with my Castle Greyskull playset in my TRON pajamas. What a decade!

In this latest sketch card fan art, an unknown spaceknight takes center stage in repelling a dire wraith invasion war fleet. 

You know a Mantlo and Buscema fan was just in Greece and Israel when you see pics like these

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This is not Sparta, this is Athens. Sporting my ROM t-shirt in Greece may not be quite as epic as King Leonidas and his 300 Spartans holding off thousands of invading persian scum at the Hot Gates of Thermoplyae or even the naval campaign the Athenian general Themistocles carried out against the persians in that war effort but I still think it's still kinda cool.

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And this is Israel's eternal and undivided capital Jerusalem. And that is a copy of Incredible Hulk 256 which is the first appearance of Marvel's premier Israeli superhero Sabra. Written by Bill Mantlo and penciled by Sal Buscema in 1980 which was a better time in history for comic books as IDW's Micronauts #1 and ROM "the" spaceknight 0 issue have proven to us once again. Here's a little something else from later that day in Jerusalem  . . . .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ww-PSW4afKw

A real life Sabra

Also wanted to give a big thanks to deviant artist nikoskap for doing this awesome Sabra fan art during my time in Greece. Niko lives on the island of Crete which I unfortunately didn't get a chance to visit but at least we were able to communicate electronically while in the same time zone for a change which was nice. Thanks for this great surprise which I'm honored to post here and for standing with the people of Israel. Sabra is a fictional character ofcourse but in the real world there are many brave women in Israel putting their lives on the line for The Holy Land and it's people. Military service in Israel is compulsory, 3 years for men and 2 years for women. Left click the image to magnify.

On a side note here I wanted to say something about podcasts these days. Is it just me or do they ALL suck? Some of the plane service had Wi-Fi and at one point I tried to listen to some podcasts having to do with the sort of thing we comic book sci-fi nerds are into and everyone I tired to listen to was boring as Hell. In fact it's been years since I last heard one that was any good at all. At one point I tried to give a listen to some having to do with The Suicide Squad and then one having to do with Free Comic Book Day and it was all about as much interesting as watching your computer buffering a video stream.

Bill Mantlo, Sal Buscema and Belinda Glass

I was recently reading a copy of Incredible Hulk#256 (written by Bill Mantlo & penciled by Sal Buscema) for the first time in years and noticed something for the first time in a special dialogue box on page 1. Understandably I'm curious who this Belinda Glass is because this is the first time I'm seeing this name associated with Sabra both in published media as well as among all the Sabra fandom out there. After a little research it turns out she was a singer and the late Mark Gruenwald's first wife. I always liked this Hulk issue and appreciated the writing for putting the Israel/Arab conflict into a more objective context as opposed to the more biased interpretation that has been all to common for years now.

The Marvel Team Up that sadly never was

More recently we've seen her in the X-Men sporting a more conventional military uniform look. Sabra's first appearance was actually in Incredible Hulk #250 (1980) which means most likely the character was conceived around the same time or not too long after ROM spaceknight first hit news stands back in the day. But unlike Rom Sabra was not hampered by any sort of copy right issues an thus has been a regular fixture in the Marvel Universe for over 3 decades now. In that time we've seen her in various different costumes (each one cooler then the last) and going from the "Jew fro" to more of a Pat Benatar kinda hair style.

Belinda Glass

Well as many of you know she's a character that along with Rom I really enjoy and have blogged about more then once on not just this blog but my Suicide Squad blog as well. So Belinda where who ever you are I just wanted to say thanks and make sure that at least a few more people out there know who gave Bill and Sal the inspiration for Marvel's first Jewish super hero. I can't help but wonder if Glass was herself Jewish or just happened to be someone who was very knowledgeable about Israeli culture. Information for Glass on the internet is scant at best but I'm still looking into it so hopefully I may have an update for this posting in the near future.

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Sabra is tough and sharp on the outside but sweet on the inside just like her name sake. Here she is letting my friend take a picture of me next her during my visit to The Western Wall (called The Kotel in Hebrew) at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.