Cover homage or coincidence?

It recently occurred to me that there was a stained glass themed cover in the original ROM series as well although I have no idea if that served as any sort of inspiration for the Onyx 3 variant. Not much new going on but I do have something cool to share I've been sitting on for a while for reasons which I can't quite remember. This ones comes to us from the letters page of New Warriors 65 (thanks Gary).

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My collaborator Gary Martin Jr. wanted me to include the following information in this posting. Apparently it's possible we might see some sort of sneak peak of the new ROM series as early as later this month. But don't quote me on that because here's the following from Gary and I quote . . .
"Chris Ryall had mentioned on twitter recently that he has sent the cover art & issue info of ROM The Space Knight #0 to Diamond Distributors, who would then reveal all to the public sometime in December. Diamond's Previews catalog that came out last week says that next month's issue, Previews #328 due to be released 12/23/15, will have extensive information about all of 2016's Free Comic Book Day comics, of which ROM #0 is our most anticipated participant. Depending on whether or not Onyx #4 would have an unexpected sneak-peek or, more surprisingly, would come out ahead of Diamond's reveal...PREVIEWS #328 should be the first printed appearance of IDW's new ROM!"

December 2nd Update: Big thanks to Joseph for giving me a heads up on this from farcebook! Looks like Gary was onto something obviously but I dare say even he didn't see this coming this soon. Its' gonna take a bit of getting used to with ROM having fingers and all but so far this is looking good. For ROM fans seeing this cover is the equivalent of fans of STAR WARS seeing that scene from the trailer where Han Solo says "Chewie, we're home". Really looking forward to that to it better not suck like those shitty pre-quels!

Thanks again Joseph for bringing this to my attention. As a mutual Transformers fan you might like my latest sketch card. To see it in full . . .
http://csuhsux.deviantart.com/art/Optimus-Prime-Bluestreak-fan-art-sketch-card-575875140

Happy holidays with new sketch cards & custom figures

I found this sketch card earlier this month on ebay and thought I'd save it for the right time to post. As I said before I've never been a big Hembeck fan but I've been kinda digin these Rom sketch cards by him that have been turning up lately. Also, gotta give it up to Hembeck for Marvel Age #89 (1990) and his NOVA chronology two page spread. In the last panel there is a direct reference made to ROM #24. Ya know something is missing in a a Nova origin story if it doesn't cover the events of that issue http://marvel1980s.blogspot.com/2013/12/1990-kid-called-nova-by-fred-hembeck.html

Nova 17 volume 2 (1995)

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And moving on it's time to spread some holiday cheer with some stuff from Gary Martin Jr. that I've had for a little while. This is the first appearance of the Dire Wraith Queen Volx (Nova 17 vol. 2). Nova 17 and 18 chronicles how she managed to get to Earth as a stowaway on a Xandarian transport ship that has Richard Rider on it. After taking on the identity of one of it's pilots she is never the less discovered and the ensuing battle causes the ship to crash land on Earth and "Richy" narrowly avoids getting his brains sucked out by the timely arrival of the current Nova Prime back then. Interestingly enough that Nova series was cancelled after issue 18 as described in that editorial page. However, the cliff hanger that #18 ends on (Richy's attempted suicide) picks up in the opening pages of New Warriors 60 http://romspaceknightart.blogspot.com/2012/04/new-warriors-60-offering-moment-in-cool.html

And last up we have the latest custom figure from Chris. Now there have been customs made of Jack of Hearts but this one is truly unique because it features the costume he was sporting at the time of his epic "death" (Avengers 76 vol.3) which I actually like much more then his original. And just think, up until a few weeks ago Chris hardly knew jack about Jack http://custom777.deviantart.com/

Zombies aren't the only things that want your brains

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Well our resident Rom curator Gary Martin Jr. does it again. What you see here is the first of three pages featuring the Dire Wraiths in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Handbook A-Z update issue 1 of 5 (2010). I'm only featuring the first page for a reason which I'll get back to. As a whole the entire entry is pretty thorough in regards to the long history of the dire wraith in the Marvel Universe I have to say I was impressed. It's all stuff long running Rom fans pretty much know about but it does act as a reminder of interesting tidbits (page 2) that even they may have forgotten such as the tension between dire wraiths born on Wraith World in The Dark Nebula and those born on Earth. We also are reminded of how dire wraiths forged documents like birth certificates for their new cover identities when they first arrived on Earth which apparently started prior to but increased during World War II. Page 3 concludes with a series of head shot images of notable dire wraiths among then such as Dr. Dredd, Agent Kraller of SHIELD, Rachel Sweet of Project Safeguard, Most High One, Jacob Marks (Hybrid's father), Woodcrow Cather (Avengers #244), Kattan-Tu (Hulk #262 back story) etc.
But what I really like about the first page is that it appears to feature some new clip art quite possibly developed just for this updated Marvel Universe Hand Book entry. I'm speaking of course of the very well done dire wraith female there by Gus Vasquez which I don't at all recognize from any already existing clip art in the Marvel Universe. We also learn on the first page how a sect of dire wraiths came to find themselves as part of the Universal Inhumans.

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There also seems to be some varied interpretation as to what male dire wraiths really like but I just leave that to individual speculation. I say that because in the 2006 over sized hard bound Marvel encyclopedia the dire wraith entry clearly describes the natural state of the males and females as looking different where as on the 2010 Marvel Universe hand book page seen above you it implies males and females all look like the red skinned non-humanoid version. The 2006 encyclopedia also includes entries for The Torpedo, Turbo and makes a ROM and Dire Wraith mention in the Skrulls entry. No entries for Galadorians or spaceknights unfortunately. I wanna thank our resident custom figure guy Chris for the Marvel encyclopedia loner.

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