Cosmic Marvel Dream Team

So this one here actually started off with a fairly recent Silver Surfer fan art piece by Greek artist Kapandais Nikoloas. I took into photoshop on a day where I had some spare time on my hands and played around with it and started added other characters from separate fan art pieces from his gallery. It took a little time to get them to all blend in so that the finished piece didn't have too much of a "patch work" look to it and I think I was fairly successful in that endeavor.

 

Also recently, I was reading through a bunch of back issues online of Marvel Age Magazine. I came across this letter in issue 19. I remember back in the day when I got my hands on that copy of that Marvel Universe Handbook (issue 15) and thinking the exact same thing. I dunno why I never wrote any letters to comic book publishers back in those days I really regret it now.

Sabra by Kapandais Nikoloas (2022)

 May 22th Update: I have to admit for years now every time a ROM fan would wish for a omnibus collection I used to snicker to myself because it seemed like such a pipe dream. Well, not any more so I guess the laugh is on me this time. This is definitely the coolest thing to happen for the ROM spaceknight character since that action with several points of articulation came out some 5 years ago. I don't know if this will open new doors for MARVEL and Hasbro when it comes to all things ROM but this certainly comes as welcomed news just the same. After more then 2 decades it's nice to see MARVEL finally show some degree of respect to the ROM fan base. Would be really interesting to see what went on behind the scenes between MARVEL & Hasbro to make this happen.

Well it certainly wasn't all good news today. Actor Ray Stevenson passed away at only 58! As I was going through his filmography I realized all these years I had him mistaken in the movie Book of Eli for Sex and The City actor Chris Noth. Ain't that some shit!? Not seeing much about his time on Dexter in his acting credits which is a shame because he was good in that to. Now I find out he's supposed to be this bad ass in the upcoming Ashoka series so now I'm looking even more forward to that. Rest In Peace Ray. 

May 24th Update: I don't know what the Hell is going on this week. But now we just lost the legendary Tina Turner who I think most would agree was a national treasure. Among other things, I've got so many great 80s memories from Turner especially when it came to her music videos on MTV. It's too bad she didn't do more acting work back in the day, she had great on screen presence in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. 

June 14th Update: Just heard the sad news about the passing of John Romita. I don't have much to say that hasn't already been talked about by the millions of fans out there on social media about his epic and legendary career. On an interesting side note, his son (John Romita Jr.) penciled the ROM sales pitch art as seen above and some years later penciled Uncanny X-Men issues 184,185,187 and 188 which were some of the most pivotal ROM spaceknight-wraith war tie-ins of the 80s.

It's been a while since I "book ended" one of my postings with recent photos of local public displays of solidarity with Ukraine. Here we are now well over a year into this shit. Fu#% russia, & the same goes for the regimes in iran and china to.

  

My belated SABRA MCU update spiel because even though I'm late over here I still gotta represent

There's a good chance you've seen this already but I feel like opening up this blog post with this awesome Sabra commission piece by Brazilian artist Adrianna Melo. This one is a version I colored in photoshop but you can see the original here 

https://www.deviantart.com/adrianamelo/art/Sabra-pinup-commission-213154434

  

 

And you may have seen this awesome one to, it's by Greek artist Kapandais Nikolaos. Yep, the same guy who's work I featured in the previous blog posting. The guy's got a knack for great fan art for both Sabra and ROM.

On a fun side note, here I am in The Old City of Israel's capital of Jerusalem (2017) near The Jaffa gate with my copy of Incredible Hulk 256 which was the first full appearance of Sabra.

Speaking of which, issue 256 has been much in the spotlight for many months now but fans of Sabra and supporters of Israel in general should also the final panels of Incredible HULK 255 of some interest to. Kinda funny to actually. The Hulk wants to get away from fighting and have some peace of mind so he ends up stowing away on a ship bound for The Middle East, Oy Vey.

Now I just learned about these Captain America New World Order production photos of Shira Hass as Sabra like only a week ago even though they surfaced online at the tail end of March. But I think I may know why. Unlike September of last year when the Sabra MCU debut was first announced it appears as if the voices of the leftist antisemitic cry babies on social media was pretty muted this time around. I don't know if I should or shouldn't be surprised about that. Nice to see Liv Tyler reprising her role as Betty Ross. She was really good in what was a criminally under rated HULK film. It's too bad Ed Norton didn't continue to play The Hulk he's an all around great actor and I fucken hate that leftist antisemitic piece of shit mark ruffalo. 

Not seeing Sabra in anything resembling her classic blue and white costume on the big screen certainly comes as no surprise. That aside, I do still have some reservations about the MCU's live action interpretation of the Sabra character given that the comic book version is older and much larger in stature then actress Shira Hass. But hey ya know what? The positive take away still is that the MCU is on track with getting it's first Israeli character next year. And that's despite all those antisemitic losers out there with their threats of boycotts, online propaganda and even public vandalism. If any of you are reading this I want you to know just how truly pitiful and pathetic you all are. You idiots have a big BDS fail waiting for you in 2024. 

 

 

Where as the online antisemitism was fairly toned down with the most recent Captain America movie update I'm disappointed to see this "Not my Captain America" sort of sentiment still being pretty pervasive on social media. And this goes especially for those who are still saying that after having seen the Falcon & Winter Soldier Disney plus mini-series. That series did such a great job of analyzing what does Captain America represent as both a symbol and aspirational idea. And ofcourse, how that relates to racial matters both past and present. So I'm gonna call it out for what it is if even now you still just can't handle the idea of Sam Wilson as Captain America. In most cases when it comes to Americans, the hang up has it's roots in racism (subtle as it may be) rather you can admit it to yourself or not. Yes. many of you will scoff at this statement. But it absolutely does in every bit the same way that pathological Israel bashing has it's roots in antisemitism. 

I love Marvel Comics of the 1980s, but by today's standards they were a bit socially problematic here and there. It's time for Sam Wilson to ascend to something far beyond what amounts to a supporting side kick type character he's certainly earned it by now. This is an excellent analysis video of the sociopolitical aspects of The Falcon Winter Soldier mini-series it's worth fifteen minutes of your life. Check it out . . . 

May 9th update: In more news of pop culture hate mongering, what the Hell is going on with all this online hate these days? Star Wars fans having a difference of opinion about various aspects of the franchise is nothing new. Those differences and the resulting debates have been literally going on for decades. But in recent years it seemed like we could all pretty much unite under the common understanding that The Mandalorian was fucken awesome. Well apparently as of the conclusion of season 3 that's no longer the case. I cannot believe all the idiotic belly aching on social media I've been seeing since the season finale. An epic finale at that. I mean seriously, how was season 3 so different from 1 or 2 in terms of quality!? What a sad state of galactic affairs. 

 

May 15th update: Since the theme of this posting seems to be all about unhappy people (cry babies actually) with the decision makers of their favorite pop culture media entertainment I figured I might as well include this to. This fan letter came from Marvel Age Magazine 34 (1986). But in this case, the anger is entirely justified.

 

What the Hellhounds!?

The source material for this piece which I put together in Adobe photoshop comes from two other artists. The Torpedo was a line art character study from Eric Jansen. All I had to do to that one was basically add some color to it. ROM is a cropped version of an original piece from Greek artist Kapandais Nikolaos. All I did to that one is add some grey tones to make him contrast from the background a bit more.  

Here's a brand new awesome fan art piece of ROM blitzing a pack of Black Nebula Hellhounds by Kapandais Nikolaos. And this time this one is all him. By the time they realize just what the Hell hit them they'll be on a one way trip to Limbo.

https://www.deviantart.com/nikoskap/art/Rom-Spaceknight-955323949

A couple months ago I was hesitant to post these pages that were part of a SABRA story pitch to Marvel Comics from writer Matt Yocum and artist Jake Bilbao because I felt they were a little too "real world" in terms of subject matter. I've recently had a change of heart. Mostly because I really just want to share this stuff with as many people as possible out there. It's really great material when it comes to the question of what could have been.

  

Almost certainly by late 2023 we will start to see official movie trailers turn up for Captain America New World Order. But before those trailers we will almost certainly by privy to production and "first look" type still images from the film. Some of those no doubt will include Shira Hass as Sabra. I can't help but wonder if all the leftist antisemites as well as the ones within the muslim world will freak out out again and act like a bunch of cry babies with dirty diapers as they did back in September when the Sabra character appearance in the MCU was first announced? The Sabra character was created by Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema with creative input from Belinda Glass. Thank you all!

April 8th Update: For any Star Wars fans out there I've got something to share that I just started last night and completed this morning. The show down from the season one finale of Disney Plus's Kenobi was one of the best light saber duels ever in Star Wars. The exchange that Kenobi and Vader had at it's conclusion was also some great writing that was the icing on the cake. That was definitely my kinda Star Wars.

April 10th Update: We'll, just when I thought I'd seen it all when it comes to comic book/sci-fi related public art in The San Francisco Bay Area. What we have here is an amazing Miles Morales Spider-Man mural. I've been past this block in Oakland more then once in recent months so I know this mural is pretty new. It's located on 29th Avenue right before the highway 880 south bound onramp. Check it out if you're in the area.

 

ROM Spaceknight fan art rewind and more!

 

Pretty much put this ROM vs Hybrid scene together in the same way I did the one in the previous posting. Moving on we're going to be revisiting some really professional looking past fan art piece from years ago that for reasons I can't remember I didn't feature here at the time. So let's get to it...

And speaking of beautiful custom figures related to the ROM series, this Torpedo one has gotta be one of the very best I've ever seen and I've seen quite a few over the years.  

This one come from artist Eteuati J Lalau. I'm assuming that's Galactus's hand that ROM is either perhaps materializing from or away to where ever Star Trek transporter style.

 This one is from artist Nalldo Ribeiro. Now normally ROM wouldn't have much to worry about from a single dire wraith trying to get the drop on him but this one looks like it's jacked up on roids or something. I also like this spaceship type corridor this scene is taking place in. It tells a story that your imagination can run with.

This cool space battle scene comes from artist Brian Douglas Ahern (a.k.a Brizy) who's work is no stranger to this blog. 

This sketch card scene taking place in the skies of Israel's capital of Jerusalem was inspired by a splash page in Incredible Hulk 250 (1980) in which The Silver Surfer flies all over Earth lamenting his terrestrial imprisonment by Galactus. In the process he has these scant encounters with various international characters (like Sabra ofcourse) which acted as a prelude to their eventual Marvel Comics full appearance in upcoming issues of The Hulk...

 https://earthsmightiestblog.com/hulk-250-1980/

But, in 1996 a Fantastic Four animated series would utilize that same Silver Surfer story line which gave us an animated version of Sabra's encounter with the surfer as seen here...

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWKyH94Ie9g

 It's been awhile since I've posted any local cool comic book/sci-fi pop culture public art. Here we have a fantastic mural of Godzilla, King Kong, Voltron and Ultraman playing the NES game system on Mecha Godzilla. It can be found in San Jose's Japan Town here in The San Francisco Bay Area. 

March 15th Update: Well we're only about half way through March and already we've had a pretty long list of celebrities that have passed away this year. For me, Raquel Welch, Tom Sizemore (died too young) and Jewish Israeli actor Topol have been the ones that have saddened me the most. I go way back with Raquel Welch with films like Fantastic Voyage and Topol in Flash Gordon. Tom Sizemore came along later and although his sci-fi stuff like Red Planet wasn't bad, HEAT, Black Hawk Down and Saving Private Ryan were his best moments as an actor.  

I have something better then flowers for Valentine's Day this year

Although this piece has been around for well over 2 years, for reasons unknown this is still largely undiscovered by ROM fans. I'm a bit more partial to ROM fan art that's a bit more creative theme wise, but still I gotta say I've got nothing but love for this one. Not because Valentine's Day is just around corner, but because the figure composition in this piece is so perfect along with how ROM's armor looks with this artist's (Idan Knafo) particular style. And the colors, the colors are almost down right mesmerizing. This is where I found it . . .

https://twitter.com/artofidan/status/1330456189294043136 

This is actually something I threw together in photoshop several years ago with some borrowed 3D renderings  I found online but for some reason I never posted it. But back then this piece only consisted of Brandy Clark and Hybrid. Thanks to photos that have turned up on social media in the past year or so of Alberto Diaz's insanely awesome custom electronic ROM doll I now can include him in the scene. 

For those of you who have never read ROM Annual 3 or maybe it's been a while I included this clip art in order to give the art work some context. That last panel still grosses me out to this day

I just by chance discovered this cool Sabra art work which belonged to a podcast episode from early December last year. The episode covered part of the Operation Zero Tolerance story arc in which Sabra was temporarily teamed up with some members of  The X-Men (Ice-Man and Marrow) as well as with Dr. Cecilia Reyes. Hopefully most of you noticed the Giant Sized X-Men Annual 1 cover art homage in David Wynne's art piece here.

February 14th Update: A poll closed this afternoon on the BacktotheBronzeAge twitter page. They periodically have these polls and sometimes ROM shows up in one of the categories. If memory serves me right, more often then not his category gets the most votes just like it did today. ROM had an early lead but toward the end The Micronauts started to close the gap but couldn't quite catch up by the time the poll closed.

Sabra vs Captain America and new ROM in The Microverse fan art

The sketch card you see below was originally done by artist Erik Roman. I liked it, but at the same time I felt it was missing something and that it had the potential to be turned into a great ROM and Micronauts cross over fan art piece.

A number of photoshop tools and some borrowed elements from some Micronauts fan art of mine (see link) from many years back was all it took to give this sketch card a digital upgrade . . .

 https://www.deviantart.com/csuhsux/art/Micronauts-MEGO-toy-line-based-comic-strip-concept-865196068

 

 These are a couple of a few unpublished pages having to do with stories about Israel's premiere super hero Sabra on the farcebook page of writer Matt Yocum that was posted back in 2013. It turns out they were pages that Yocum pitched to Marvel in order to give more exposer to artist Jake Bilbao in the hopes they would hire him for a Wolverine story Yocum wrote. However, despite the quality of Billbao's work Marvel instead hired Yocum to write a Sabra story. Matt Yocum is a United States Air Force veteran with a history of deep ties to Israel both in a personal and in a professional capacity. The Sabra story that Yocum wrote was a fantastic 8 page Astonishing Tales (digital only unfortunately) feature which was beautifully illustrated by Brazilian artist Adriana Melo.

https://cmro.travis-starnes.com/detail.php?idvalue=27154

 

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