The Official Handbook of The Marvel Universe issue 9 re-covered sketch card

Hopefully you're familiar with the 80s Official Marvel Universe Handbook series? Anyways, here's issue 9 for you to reference  . . . 
https://viewcomiconline.com/the-official-handbook-of-the-marvel-universe-issue-9/

What I did here was replace the characters on the front page cover with characters on the page page cover with the one exception being ROM whom I just repositioned on the front cover. Interestingly enough as I was working on this labor intensive sketch card I realized that Sabertooth was completely absent from the cover art for issue 9 despite having his profile in the issue. I've had this issue since the early 80s and I'm just noticing that for the first time. His profile shares the same page (15) along with Israel's Sabra. I'm thinking that might have been some sort of over site at the time. Anyways, I decided to add him to the mix. 

March 30th Update: Well I thought I was gonna have to finish up this month with out anything else to update this posting with when by chance I came across this gorgeous gouache painting of The Mad Thinker with his awesome android by Dan Orgil which also happens to contain a ROM Easter egg. A reference to ROM the events in 14 and later recapped in Captain America 311. In a description attached to this illustration Orgil goes on to say that he likes to give a little love once in a while to non A list characters. Thank you Dan we appreciate that and you taking us on a little trip down Marvel 80s memory lane. 

 

 March 22nd 2025 Update: This is the latest update from when I originally published a posting that I've ever done. For some reason this just hit me for the first time after literally all these decades! And this is coming from someone who was an art major and who's owned ROM 14 since I was a teenager. I'mreally curious to know if this was Buscema or Mantlo's idea but I suspect we'll never get the answer to that.

July 18th Update: Time to showcase some newly discovered public art! For years I've had this love hate relationship with the city of oakland, or Wokeland or Oaklandistan as I like to call it. But since the October 7th terror attack in Israel, I just simply hate this town for the antisemitic and crime ridden urban Hellscape that it is. But even so, once in a while you will actually find something cool.

 

It's 2023 but I'm still missing the 1980s

Ya know how some times you just find yourself in the mood to showcase a given collection of something that makes you happy? I think often that might happen toward the end of  a year or more at the beginning of the next one.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uR48t3di9Iw

Here's a youtube video I discovered recently that's worth having a look at. It won't have much of anything you haven't seen or heard before but it is very well produced. And it some how has managed to visually "repackage" and present the source material in way that makes the video not feel so redundant and boring like the majority of ROM related features on youtube.  

 

I haven't done any ROM related fan art yet this year nor have I come across anything that I thought any good. I the stuff I have done this year has been to some degree in response to a lot of the hate I saw online in late 2022. First up is this Contest of Champions fan art. I just don't understand all the hating on the Disney Plus She-Hulk series. I mean it wasn’t without it's problems but most of the social media bashing on it was so over the top especially when it came to all these right wing type hang ups. And ofcourse around the same time Marvel announced the upcoming debut of Sabra into the MCU which  predictably stirred up the usual trolls made up of leftist antisemites and people from certain corners of the muslim world with anger management issues. 

If you happen to be a Star Wars fan then you no doubt noticed all the hating on the first season of The book of Boba Fett. Again, it wasn't with out it's problems but over all I think it had way more pros then cons plus the season finale was awesome. So I say fuck all the haters on all that to.

 

January 28th Update: I was hoping to have some fan art to add to this posting but I seriously doubt anything new that doesn't suck will turn up any time soon so I decided to dig into my archive collection. After some minor tweaks here and there to enhance it I'm presenting it again for your viewing pleasure. This was originally done by Greek artist Kapandais Nikolaos who also happens to be a collaborative partner and friend.

ROM Annual 3

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

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.