Neal Adams, the passing of a titan 1941-2022

With William Hurt's reoccurring role as General "Thunderbolt" Ross, this is now the second time this year someone who made their mark on the comic book genre industry has passed away. In honor of Neal Adams legacy in all aspects (as an artist and advocate for artist rights) of the comic book industry I'm posting this mind blowing splash page of Armor 2 from Continuity Comics that Adams penciled. This scene definitely gives new meaning to the splash in splash page. His art work is really timeless. You could take anything he did like on Batman or in The X-Men of the late 70s and it'll hold up to anything in contemporary comic book art. Unlike Ditko, Adams would have made a great replacement for Sal Buscema on the ROM Spaceknight series. On an interesting side note I just learned that Neal Adams was Jewish although as far as I can tell Adams is the family name he was born with.

And speaking of all things ROM, here's the latest envelope fan art for my friend and artistic collaborator in Greece. Turns out aside from our mutual love of science fiction and comics we're also on the same page politically on most things so bonus points to the 4 or 5 people who will see this posting and get the significance of ROM and company attacking the military forces that this tank belongs to. 

It's been quite a while since I've had something to post outside of fan art so today is a pleasant change of pace. This is no doubt one of the most obscure ROM Easter eggs I've ever come across. This panel is from issue 11 of the mid to late 80s comic book series X-Thieves published by COMICS Interview Publications. From what I've seen of it online it's a rather quirky and all around bizarre story line that probably is best enjoyed if the reader doesn't expend too much time and energy trying to make sense of it. I don't think it's any coincidence that right next to the ROM mask is another one of a toaster oven.

 May 7th Update: It's down right creepy how the death of yet another legendary artist from the comic book industry (George Perez ofcourse) should not only happen basically a week after Neal Adams passing but also on this year's Free Comic Book Day. As an artist, pretty much all the words of praise I gave to Adams also applies to Perez. His work was timeless in it's quality and appeal. Rest In Peace George.

June 5th Update: I just got back from a weekend in Sacramento California and I saw this Thanos mural in the downtown area so I was like...."yeah I need to do one more update to this posting". It's a real pleasure to post some little known sci-fi or comic book based public art once in a while. I have no idea who did this all I can tell you is that upon a closer look I could see this was painted on two separate horizontal pieces of plywood like boards.

Some new unexpeted fan art

Off the topic of my head, aside from cleaner air and less traffic there isn't other wise any upside to this corona virus pandemic nightmare. Millions of people all over the world are either not working, working much less or now don't have much of anything to do on the weekends. So, we gotta fine something to do with all this new found spare time. Most of the art work posted was dome in collaboration with https://www.deviantart.com/nikoskap

This one with Bug was done just before all this covid 19 shit but it's pretty recent so I'm going to include it in this posting.

This Mego toy line based MICRONAUTS piece is something I did way back in the late 90s but I decided to post it online for the first time just because.

Also, I'm throwing in some fan art I did of random Marvel characters that I like (Thunderbird, She-Hulk and Blade) that I did in the late 90s....

And if you also happen to be a Star Trek fan I even have something for you to. This Deep Space 9 battle scene is a water color painting I did back in 2002.

I've been re-reading a lot of G.I.Joe back issues recently and although I certainly always liked the Joes (especially Snake-Eyes) it was always the villains that were the most entertaining and intriguing characters.

Speaking of all things G.I.Joe, I recently discovered a fantastic story line that involves Israel in issue 2 of G.I. Joe Special Missions (1986). The Joes are forced to make a deal with a nazi war criminal (doctor otto totenschadel) after a WW II German bomber loaded with a deadly nerve gas is discovered stuck in a glacier in Greenland. Unfortunately they come into conflict with a Mossda (Israel intelligence) that are hunting  totensdachadel.

We learn for the first time as far as I know that a team member of the Joes is Jewish. G.I.Jew Lance Steinberg code name Clutch.

Fortunately as it turns out The Joes manage to deal with the nerve gas with out any assistance from totensdachadel despite Cobra making a play for the nerve gas for their own insidious reasons. Meanwhile in the jungles of Brazil, The Joes and Mossad manage to work together and storm a neo-nazi compound where totensdachadel's sorry ass is using as a hide out.

In the end neither The Joes or Mossad take totensdachadel into custody but instead simply decide to divulge some rather inconvenient and self serving secrets totensdachadel had been keeping from his nazi buddies that proves to be quite fatal for him. A great story full of WW II history, politics and poetic justice.

ROM spaceknight 65 tribute sketch card and Sal Buscema in Comic Book Fever

After nearly a year delay the over sized hard cover COMIC BOOK FEVER from Twomorrows Publishing (Back Issue Magazine) finally came out. And thanks to Gary again who's already got his copy we now know about the ROM related stuff in it. It has me feeling kinda sentimental which in turn is bringing out my creative side after it's been on a bit reclusive in recent weeks. Aside from that doing something with ROM and Iron Man has been on the back burner for quite a while.

Left click to enlarge

Getting back to Comic Book Fever, it's compilation of the comic book industry from the mid 70s to the mid 80s and it includes a 3 page chapter devoted to ROM. One page is just a splash page with the doll with star field background but the other two pages are editorial and include some clip art from the original series. The information for the most part is redundant although it also has some new commentary from editor Joe Duffy about her experience with working on the original ROM spaceknight series.

Now ROM does turn up in other sections of the book and it was a chapter on Sal Buscema where I found the most interesting ROM related information. When it comes to the behind the scenes talk in regards to the original series the most interesting thing to me has always been what effected me the most as a fan and reader back in the day. And that is, Sal's departure from the series which gave way to a very low point in the art work on the in the series. The quote seen above seems to suggest that Bill Mantlo and Sal may have had some creative differences very early on in the series which ultimately came to a head a few years later. Just imagine if Sal had penciled ROM spaceknight 65 it would have made the wraith war conclusion so much more epic. You can preview some of what's inside of Comic Book Fever here . . .
http://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=95_94&products_id=1195

August 28 update: I noticed a copy of the 2nd issue for the IDW ROM in name only series and while I was browsing through it a certain familiar name got my attention. By April of this year my enthusiasm for this new series was buried under 50 feet of shit in a casket made out of utter dismay and disappointment. But I'm still going to post Gary's letter because it's his birthday today and he's also such an all around stand up guy. Happy Birthday Gary and welcome to the published letters club.

ROM & Wonder Man team up sketch card

So in recent weeks I've been able to make it to a couple of comic shops not too far from me that have a pretty extensive collection of back issue discount boxes. A couple issues really stood out to me let's start with Wonder Man 1 (1986). Aside from the Kerry Gammill pencils and the Bill Seinkiewicz cover art what also made this issue cool was that it showed a very every day people side to the Wonder Man (aka Simon Williams) character we can all relate to. Struggling to manage his not so successful career as an actor with being a full time Avenger he finds even a cab ride is a luxury he can hardly afford. No Uber back in the 80s, too bad.

As I was reading this issue it occurred to me that Wonder Man was one of the many Marvel superheroes who appeared in ROM 65 sporting his signature leisure suite style costume. So all that combined with a nice and relaxing weekend made me feel like doing some art work and I thought it might be nice to do a sketch card for a change.

Avengers 226 letter column

I also picked up Avengers 226. Truth be told I haven't read the issue yet but based on some browsing I've done in it already it doesn't look like it has much going for it story wise. But the issue's letter column is another matter as you can see here. And check out the name of the dude who wrote this letter!

Avengers 221  Left click to enlarge

I don't want this to vanish from the net after it sells on ebay

So as the posting title suggests I'm just throwing this custom Heroclix figurine up here because this is a really nice crafted work of art (especially when you consider how small it must be!) that should remain some where on the internet because quite frankly once it sells on ebay I don't know what will happen to the image in the long run. An articulate action figure would have been ideal to commemorate 35 years of ROM but I wish hasbro had at least done a small figurine like this just like those PVC ones you see in those plastic blister packages in stores sometimes.

I guess I might as well throw this new fan art up here too while I'm at it which I posted on deviant art a few days ago. ROM spaceknight 65, how much more awesome that epic issue would have been had it been penciled by ANY artist other then steve ditko working for Marvel at the time.

The Marvel appearance that sadly never was, Rom in the pages of Machine Man

Talk about a cool crossover that never happened. One a cyborg who was desperate to be human again and the other a machine desperate to become human some how. And as irony would have it both were far more human in terms of nobility and a respect for living things then many people out there. I thought I'd also throw in The Torpedo since Brock Jones and Machine Man's human alter ego both worked at Delmare insurance.

In light of Bruce's comment about Beta Ray Bill and Rom I'll add this Thor 354 clip art from Gary Martin Jr. I've been sitting on into the posting. I guess you can say in a sense there already has been a Rom/Bet Ray Bill crossover. Along with an appearance inside, Bill was even on the cover of Rom#65 if you remember.