Quasar #4 with Rom spaceknight tribute & the return of Stardust

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 Well we can thank Gary Martin Jr. again for this clip art from Quasar #4 (1984). The first thing I thought of when I saw it was the Wraith finder that was first seen in Rom #28 and later in Rom #52. I'm under the distinct impression that there is some sort of tribute going on here. Am I on to something here or what?
But one thing that is quite certain is that there is a much less subtle Dire Straits tribute going here. Which is cool with me because they had some great music with songs like Money For Nothing, The Sultans of Swing and Brothers In Arms. Quasar was a good series one of the things I really enjoyed about it was Quasar's (real name Wendell Vaughn) Spiderman like quips and pop culture references in the writing.

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So a couple of days ago when I first published this posting I had a splash page from the Quasar title (issue 14 or 15) that featured a small cameo panel of Stardust from Rom annual #1. But after having done some research online it turns out he had more then just a cameo. I was thinking of doing a follow up posting but then I figured why not just update this one instead.

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This is the only clip art I was able to find so with out having the issues there's no way for me to know if they included any Rom foot notes. Maybe I'll get lucky the next time I go rummaging through some $1 bins. Stardust was created by Bill Mantlo and Pat Broderick. Like Hybrid, I'm was really glad to have discover this other villain who sprang from the Rom series branch out a bit into the rest of the Marvel Universe.

Now here's some ROM t-shirts I'd like to see

I came across some online mail order site for retro t-shirts that among other things feature a Rom t-shirt design that just consisted of a photo image of the Parker Brothers doll. It made me think what shame because there's so much other Rom imagery that would have made for a t-shirt I think many of us would prefer to have. So I just dropped some random fan art into these templates to see how they would turn out. I dunno about the rest of you all but I'd buy that for a dollar.

I got your fu@#$% splash page right here folks!

This is the first time I've ever posted something that was not at all related to this blog. Truth is I just love this splash page and I just wanted to share it. It comes from ARMOR #2 published in 1986 by Continuity Comics. Seeing something like this in a comic book back in my early teens just blew me away. Pretty amazing stuff cmon folks give the man a hand.

More of Rick Jones's Rom memorabilia

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I recently found a copy of Incredible Hulk #381 (1991) in a $1 bin. I'm sure most of you have this issue or at least know about the Rom reference in it. But just in case you happen to be one of the few people who may not have seen it yet here it is.

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Now we all love Rom appearances and cameos but Gary Martin Jr. "a Rom curator" also really loves those Rom related footnotes scattered through out the Marvel Universe. Here's one I'm betting you don't have yet. It's comes from Fantastic Four #281.

The Parker Bros. doll turned up earlier this month on Youtube. It was featured on a collectables show about retro toys. Not much here most of you don't know about already but some of you might still like it anyways.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9ymPawmMzK4#!

Marvel Universe Handbook entries

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As it turns out I still have my copies of issues #4 (1985) and #10 (1986) the deluxe editions of the Official Marvel Universe Hand Books. Issue #10 contained on the back inside cover an appendix page of other dimensions. It's cool how both Limbo and the Microverse appear almost side by side in the columned entries. Also worth mentioning these issues contained entries for Quasimodo "the living computer" and Ego "the living planet". Both entries included Rom and the Dire Wraith in their bios (about a paragraph for each bio).
Forge's first appearance in the Marvel Universe was in X-Men 186 which was part of a 4 issue X-Men story arc that very directly tied into the Rom series. As you all know around the same time Forge also was a regular ally of Rom for several issues. So needless to say Forge's history had numerous mentions of Rom and the Dire Wraiths as well as a schematic diagram of his hand held version of the neo-neutrilazer.
I'm sure there's other characters in the Marvel Universe who made appearances in Rom spaceknight which also resulted in references to Rom in Marvel Universe Hand Books issues I don't happen to have. Nova, Rick Jones and The Thinker would be a good examples and in the case of the Gremlin his entry actually uses clip art from Rom #44. If you know of any others please don't keep it to yourself. If you were about to mention The Torpedo I'm sure you don't need me to tell you that's a no brainer.

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I think this would be a good time to showcase some Marvel Universe Handbook related fan art. Straight from The Microverse this re-paneling of Captain Universe is by John Douglas. The original was done by Steve Dikto who's work on Rom I hated which I've stated repeatedly like a broken record for years now. But in this case I have to admit it's actually not bad. However, Douglas manages to improve on the original while at the same time rendering Captain Universe in a "Diktoish" style. Captain Universe first appeared in Micronauts #8 and was created by Bill Mantlo and one of my all time favorite artists Michael Golden.

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Now these are not some comics I found in any discount bins recently. I've read these already and I want to recommend them to you all as some of Bill Mantlo's finest work. Incredible Hulk 286 is actually based on an the original Outer Limits episode "Soldier" which is about a soldier from an apocalyptic future that ends up in the present through a scientific quirk in space and time. Marvel Premiere 28 features 4 of some of Marvel's favorite scientific and super natural freaks who end up being more of a threat to each other then by some mutual enemy. Plus, the issue is great alone just for the panel where Ghost Rider gets pissed and calls Morbius a "half baked Dracula".

Spectacular Spiderman 72 with Rom doll guest appearance

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I want to thank Gary Martin Jr. for supplying me with clip art from Peter Parker Spectacular Spiderman 72. What's going on here is that there's a toy shop that's being robbed by some over grown Dr. Octopus wannabe named Olie Osnick. I totally dig how you can see some G.I.Joe packages as well as the Rom doll. This Spiderman issue was written by Bill Mantlo so that pretty much explains the Rom doll but who knows about the G.I.Joe stuff. Plus there's other panels that included other sci-fi/comic genres such as one where a tie-fighter can be clearly scene. I'm sure this was a pretty fun issue to work on since any number of the production staff probably had a chance to work in a reference of their favorite toy line. The Spiderman photo you see there was just some random cool thing I found recently. Notice anything about it?

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More Rom likeness appearances were seen at Rick Jone's apartment in the form of a bust sculpture. The clip art presented here courtesy of Gary Martin Jr. again comes from Captain Marvel #1 Volume 3 (2000). Issues 4 and 6 offer views of the statue as well but their not as good as the views seen in the first issue.
Also, it should be noted that Incredible Hulk #467 features a full page of an older Rick Jones in his home in which in the back ground on a shelf a portion of Rom's "helmet" can be seen. It's one of those things where it's kinda cool that's it's there but it's a pretty obscure Rom likeness cameo compared to the other stuff out there that I've featured on this blog.

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Just this past weekend I made some more great discount back issue finds from Bill Mantlo's past career with Marvel. In San Francisco I found issues 1-3 of Sword of the Swashbucklers in oh so rare 3 for $1 boxes. Check out this portion of some fan mail in the letter column of issue 3. Now this dude was one hard core Bill Mantlo back when that name hardly meant anything to me.
And for just a bit over a buck each I also found The Human Fly 8 and 9 guest starring El Tigre Blanco! White Tiger just sounds so cool in Espanol doesn't it? The first Puerto Rican super hero (but born in NYC) White Tiger was created by Bill Mantlo and George Perez.

My posting of random cool Rom related stuff

If you do an image search on Google using the key words "Rom spaceknight romney" you'll see that some Rom related fan art and political humor for the 2012 U.S. presidential race has surfaced in recent weeks. Most of it has mostly to do with some fun word play and other such bipartisan kinda humor. I'm not looking to start a political debate here with this it's all about Rom.

 I found this cool photo image of the Helder Rom statue with issue number one in the background on some sort of chat site that apparently had a bunch of French speaking Rom fans. I also like how this photo it gives you a better and more detailed look at the base the statue is mounted on.

This photo image also happened to be on that French speaking chat site. Seeing all this almost makes me want to learn how to speak French . . .almost.

Captain America #114  (1986)

 And as a follow up to the Easter eggs found in Captain America 311 I want to thank Rom curator Gary Martin Jr. for giving me a heads up on this other Easter egg panel from issue 314.

 How cool is this? Now that's what I call some serious homage to the greatest of the spaceknights! But this isn't the first Rom tattoo that we know of no sir! Check this out: http://lkseitz.blogspot.com/2010/09/rom-tattoo.html

Next you'll all get to find out what sort of extraordinary lengths I went to in order to show you all a ROM cameo in Spiderman I know you've never seen or probably even heard of.