Marvel 80s Assemble

Here's my latest sketch card and as you may have guessed it's based on the events of issue 65 (1985).  But in terms of it's layout it's loosely based on based on the movie poster for Iron Man 3. No particular reason why I just always thought the movie poster was pretty cool even though the movie certainly was not the best of the three Iron Man films by a long shot. Speaking of art, the art in most of today's comics is really outstanding but I never the less feel very uninterested beyond their visual appeal. More style then substance as it were.

Continuing the theme from part of the last posting in terms of the half baked continuity of the original one and only ROM series. I'm back to talking about Avengers Academy after having ripped into Hickman's Imperial in the last posting. Avengers Academy from 2014 saw the return of Hybrid in a 3 issue story arc. Unfortunately, unlike the 1997 X-Man (Nate Grey) Hybrid return one shot story this one was not at all written well and ultimately ended up being a big disappointment. I've got several blog postings and a published letter to the editor from back then expressing my grievances. For the one or two of you over the course of the next decade who might actually be interested in seeing those they're just a key word search away but I'm not going to go into all that now I don't want this posting to be any more too long winded then it already is. But those Avengers Academy issues did have one little bright spot of genuine 80s nostalgia in the form a single panel featuring a flash back of ROM 65. It also acts like a preview of what that issue might have looked like with a different artist then Steve Ditko.

 

One of the other things I miss about the Marvel Comics of the 80s are those corner boxes on the front pages. Although like every one else at the time I liked them, while at the same time they were such a standard fixture on Marvel covers to the point where you almost stopped noticing them on a conscience level. But, like many other things in life you sometimes don't miss something or really begin to appreciate what you had until it's gone. This one here is what a version with Starshine (art by Kapandais Nikolause) might have looked like back in the day.

Fast forward to today, more specifically to the San Diego Comic Con a couple weeks ago. This is the front and back cover art variants for the Comic Con one shot Dread The Hall H which is a satirical anthology of the challenges, mishaps and the sub culture of the world of Comic Con. ROM has made some waves in the past year between the Legends figure, omnibus collection and other reprint publications. Not to mention the actual ROM cosplay that has been at the Comic Con in recent years so it's nice that they were able to get him into the mix on that cover art.

https://fanbasepress.com/press/event-coverage/item/57166-sdcc-2025-syzygys-dread-the-hall-h-takes-comic-con-by-storm-with-its-all-too-relatable-convention-horror-stories/ 

I seldom post things here that are from the horror genre but this mural I spotted a while back is never the less worth sharing. Like most of the other murals I feature on this blog this one is also in the San Francisco Bay Area although I can't recall which city exactly but I'm pretty sure it was in or around oakland. Anyways, I like this it looks like something you'd see as the cover art for some kind of horror magazine or comic.

 

September 17th Update: I just heard the sad news about Terence Stamp having passed away this weekend. Between Stamp and Gene Hackman that's two main actors from the original Superman films we've lost this year. Aside from playing General Zod, don't forget Terence Stamp also was in the movie Red Planet along with Val Kilmer who as you know we also lost this year.

I saw these at a Half Price Book store the other day. Talk about bringing back great 80s memories. Too bad they were in a locked glass case it would have been interesting to see how much the set with the Shogun Warriors was going for as well.

October 30th Update: This morning I was watching a video about the rise and fall of the New Universe project back in the mid to late 80s when this still image of Archie Goodwin appeared with him holding a copy of ROM 5. Would have been interesting to hear what he was saying at that very moment in time.

December 16th Update: We lost Gil Gerard with just about 2 weeks left in 2025. Saw the theatrical movie in theaters back in the day and I loved the TV series as re-runs for so many years. Great memories, rest in peace Buck.

The Greatest of The Spaceknights enters the war on terror

I recently decided to make some new corner boxes out already existing fan art of mine. Sabra comes from a sketch card posted here two postings ago. Added some color to a sketch card of ROM from the previous posting so that's where that one came from. And Misty Knight is from some fan art I did a few years back. 

I've actually been thinking of doing something like this for years now. I even had this idea in my head of portraying a ROM vs islamic terror scene like this using the cover art of ROM 3 as a template. Obviously recent events in The Middle East has given me the final motivation to get this done even though I ultimately decided to go with a less challenging composition then the Frank Miller cover art from ROM Spaceknight #3.

Shogun Warriors 13 was one of the very first comics I ever which at the time I used to have to nag my parents to buy for me. A few years ago I stumbled across a copy of issue 12 in a dollar box so I figured what the Hell let's check it out. And I was treated to yet another pleasant surprise when discovered one of the most rare ROM spaceknight house ads on the letters page. 

And look here, we also have another rare ROM house ad in the letters page of Micronuats 18.

https://bayareatelegraph.com/2023/11/16/pro

Contest of Licensed Properties unredacted and in color for the first time

If this looks familiar to you this might be why . . .

https://romspaceknightart.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-nova-vs-dire-wraiths-halloween-e.html

There's this from earlier this from the tail end of last year . . .

https://romspaceknightart.blogspot.com/2022/11/will-2023-be-happy-new-year.html

In recent weeks I've become quite certain that the original art work by Alan Davis was colored only after it was redacted. If I'm right that's a damn shame, but I recently decided that I wanted to see what it would look like in color and with out all those annoying black boxes all over Davis's kick ass art work.

 

 The question of all questions as illustrated by Kapandais Nikolaos way back in 2018. Would The Greatest of the Spaceknights be able to lift Mjollnir? I'll let the 3 or 4 people out there who will come across this posting ponder that. 

 

Over the decades we've seen the Sabra character go through several costumes and hair styles. But depending on who was drawing her it seemed like she also went through a spectrum of ethnic appearances as well. Sometimes she's been drawn to look more ashkenazi (basically more caucasian) and others have drawn her with more sephardic (Middle Eastern) features. I'm sure there's a further discussion on that subject matter to be had but for now I felt like just doing a more sephardic interpretation of Sabra.

 

And speaking of strong Israeli women (fictional or otherwise), I saw the movie GOLDA last weekend. It was epic! Golda Mier's legacy is certainly not with out it's critics both in and outside of Israel. And as far as the movie goes, like most any other historical biography I'm sure it was not with out it's inaccuracies. But despite that, it had me totally emotionally invested in it and in a state of suspense through out even though I knew how it would end and that says a lot. Best film about Israel's history I've seen since Munich. Way better then 7 Days In Entebbe I assure you of that!

 

September 22 Update: Marvel/Hasbro will be reprinting ROM's first encounter with Marvel's mutants in a one shot coming out right before Christmas this year. Ofcourse I have those ROM issues already but I'm getting a copy of this just for the cover art alone which is by Nick Bradshaw. For me it's kinda like new fan art that's actually good for a change. Get the full details here...

https://aiptcomics.com/2023/09/22/rom-and-the-x-men-marvel-tales-1/

 

In other news of all things having to do with Marvel & Hasbro joint projects for ROM I'm sure most of you by now have heard about all 3 variants of the ROM spaceknight 1 facsimile having come up a couple days ago. There's no hard data as to how well they're selling but I can tell you my LCS sold out of all their copies within the first couple of hours after opening on new comic book day although by the owner's own admission he did place a pretty small order.

https://damosteez.com/product/marvel-tales-rom-x-men-aventures-hunting-the-vile-dire-wraiths-on-earth-fan-gifts-classic-t-shirt/

New fan art, new curating and a look inside the ROM zero issue

 

Last weekend was one of those weekends where I got to chill the whole time and as a result was able to get some cool stuff done in the way of fan art and curating. Although I hate most of what marvel has come up with in recent years I always felt like the Ikon character had promise even though she was no ROM. In fact, the last time I had any hope for marvel to finally do a modicum of justice to the legacy of the greatest of the spaceknights was when we were treated to a panel in the pages of The Avengers of Ikon leading a squad of classic spaceknights to face some mysterious enemy looming over Galador. Anyways, even today I still think ROM returning and having Ikon at his side would have been pretty cool.

Left click to enlarge

Picked up this book at the library last weekend. I've seen it before but last weekend I decided to to give it a closer look to see if we might find ROM anywhere in the Marvel Comics The Untold Story. Needles to say I found the following passage rather interesting although it's hard to say how credible that claim is but I certainly hope it's true. There are two other passing references made to ROM later in the book in regards to Nova losing his powers and Secret Wars II tie-ins.

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As you can see I even did some other fan art of a satirical nature this past weekend.

ROM 2016

Alright so let's get to what you folks really want to talk about here today because everything on this posting was pretty much done by the end of this weekend. First off a big thanks to Lee Seitz for bringing this to my attention yesterday. If you haven't checked out the first few pages of the ROM zero issue for FCBD then do so now at the link below before you read on. I like how ROM makes planet fall at Pismo Beach California I was just there as part of a road trip with my wife on New Years weekend. So on another high note the art work looks great it's nothing at all like steve ditko thank god. Although I would have to say I found ROM's new design a bit jarring.
Now I don't say that because I think his new armor design sucks per se, but more because the cover art certainly didn't leave me with the impression ROM's new armor design would deviate that much from the original as seen in this clip art. It's kinda odd that a company would spend 10 years fighting through legal red tape to obtain the rights to a character and then make such drastic changes to their appearance. In fact, ROM some what resembles the watch wraith androids he used to fight in the original series. Just not sure it's the right look for him or maybe it's just a matter of getting used to it? I guess only time will tell. This has been a pretty labor intensive posting with all this art work, curating, writing and what not so this will most likely be my last one for quite a while. But I'm looking to hear from you people I want to know what's on your teeny tiny little minds about all this stuff I'm throwing at you in this posting . . . don't let me down . . .
http://www.previewsworld.com/catalogimages/STK_IMAGES_PDF/STK680001-700000/STK698017.pdf

left click to enlarge

And a big thanks to our first commentator today for bringing some of the Micronauts cover art from IDW to my attention. This is pretty damn nice! Assuming the cover art we see here is an accurate reflection of what these characters will look like on the inside well then I gotta be honest I'm feeling a bit more optimistic here then I am about ROM. Baron Karza looks exactly the same as he did in Marvel and they gave Acroyear an updated look that's really slick but it's still in keeping with how he also looked in Marvel and also a bit like the original Mego toy.

Art by marvel and WTF Publishing

Jan. 25 Update: Two things occurred to me over the weekend. One is, that it seems like people are really squeamish about being forth coming about our first real look at ROM 2016. The second is how IDW's ROM looks more like the horrific manga inspired "spaceknights" of the 2001 mini-series then the Mantlo/Buscema series. I've always prided this blog on posting the sort of content you won't find anywhere else so here goes. I know most of you all are thinking this but I'm gonna just say it straight up, this new look for ROM sucks. After all the hype, fan support, lifting of the red tape and anticipation this is what we end up with? Well, I guess if it could happen with George Lucas then why not with Chris Ryall and Christos Gage as well?

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.

So much cool new ROM stuff from the fans lately!

I've shared a lot of this recently discovered stuff with those of you I know from Farce book and Deviant Art but for those of you who I don't know through those social networks I'm gonna make a special posting today. First up there's this re-edited version of the ROMfall video it's got some cool extra added footage as you can see from this screen shot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbrPZPEqPuA

And speaking of Deviant Art, not just one or two, but three new pieces of fan art just turned up by a certain artist that I'm convinced at this point has an addiction to illustrating ROM related fan art. The new stuff includes other spaceknights, The Torpedo, Jack of Hearts and Nova! http://dannphillips.deviantart.com/gallery/

On a not so high note as far as new ROM fan art goes here's the latest page on the Rom #1 remix project. There's an obvious aspect about it right away that makes me feel less then thrilled about it can you guess what it is? https://twitter.com/RomSpaceknight

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Wednesday update: I'm just adding this catalog photo image here today because it's just so rad and brings back some great memories. I used to have that Micrnoauts play set and oh my God do I wish I had had that Space 1999 Eagle 1 shuttle both the play set and die cast version. I also had one of those giant Shogun Warrior dolls but not that awesome Raydeen as seen here. So much cool stuff in this catalogue except for maybe item B or D, but that's just me.

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.

Marvel Age #83 (1989) on 80s licenced properties like Rom, Micronuats & Shogun Warriors

After I got off work last night I found my self in the mood for going to a comic shop. While going through some $1 bins I came across this Marvel Age issue that was published in December of 1989. A little voice inside my head beckoned me to look through it and I came across part 3 of an ongoing article from the previous issues about Marvel Comics of the 80s decade which also included a few paragraphs about licensed properties . . .

This will probably be my last posting for the month but be back here Feb.1st because I've got some great stuff lined up for all you Rom fans and fans in general of Bill Mantlo other creations during his amazing career. In the mean time I'll leave you with this new Dire Wraith sighting. Hat tip to Ptor from the Sanctum blog for the heads up on this. A preview available here: http://pulllist.comixology.com/previews/nov120694/0/