For those of you who know Adam Strange also know how freaking awesome this team up could have been. Strange is to cosmic DC heroes what Batman is to street level heroes when it comes to DC although Batman has had his fair share of cosmic adventures but you get the idea. Plus, it wouldn't be the first time ROM has teamed up with a superhero by the name of Strange. Adam Strange art by Robert Atkins

If you have a copy of Rom spaceknight #1 (you rock) you should bust it out right now unless you happen to have a photographic memory. If you don't have a copy (WTF!?) then you should copy and paste this link into a new window now before you read on http://diversionsofthegroovykind.blogspot.com/2008/12/famous-first-fridays-rom-spaceknight.html
You'll notice right away that this link will take you to a posting that has all 18 pages of Rom spaceknight #1 nicely laid out for you. Thanks to myself and Gary Martin Jr. we've collected about half the pages of the Rom re-mix project so that you can now see how the original Sal Buscema art compares to the efforts made by the various artists involved in the project. Thus far the best pages in terms of technical execution (page layout, perspective, figure composition and proportions) are 4, 9 and 15.

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http://instagram.com/p/cdU4XpD89R/#
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https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=459537890810517&set=a.312293038868337.65519.306821456082162&type=1&theater
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http://jasonxeffect.deviantart.com/art/ROM-Spaceknight-389369223
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http://instagram.com/p/bkUSZMNEEQ/#
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https://twitter.com/Barretticus/status/371369324134428672/photo/1
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http://garbagepiles.tumblr.com/post/56918117239/my-page-10-from-the-awesome-rom-remix-project
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https://twitter.com/jamiegambell/status/348528365856243713/photo/1
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https://twitter.com/zeustoves/status/356155699694284800/photo/1
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http://plasticfarm.com/?p=2159
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https://twitter.com/micahmyers/status/370711245998940162/photo/1

By Chris Motito

Along with some humorous photoshop embellishments compliments of yours truly I am proud to present the latest custom figure from Chris (exhuman999). Hands down next to Firefall Terminator has always been one of the most bad ass fucken spaceknights. You all by now are well aware that a newer version of Terminator was among the spaceknights that were incinerated with Galador in Infinity#1 so along with featuring this custom the Jonathan Dickman hate fest show must go on.

ONE LAST THING. Treat this as purely hypothetical for now but the notion of a new custom ROM statue (limited edition I believe?) not unlike the M. Helder one is being floated around out there at the moment. Evidently, rather it ever happens or not is dependent on the interest expressed by fans. So the question is would you be willing to throw down some cash for a presumably bad ass custom limited edition Rom statue? If nothing else just leave a ye or nay in the comments section about that, nobody will ever know if you're down for it if you don't take a whopping whole 5 to 10 seconds to write at least that down.

I'm making this posting on the fly in order to feature some newly discovered videos. This one here probably won't tell you much of anything new but it's well produced and would make for a nice intro to the world of ROM for other people out there who don't know the series very well or at all. Also worth checking out is this Cloak & Dagger video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqS2dCaAYG4 and this short CG video of Rom's confrontation with Firefall IIhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTb4gddlEjQ

I just wanted to do a quick follow up to Lee's Seitz's posting a couple of weeks ago for a Rom reference made in Avengers Forever #1 in regards to Rick Jones's back ground. In that posting there was some question as to the legal legitimacy of the use of Rom's name in that narration box. But I still feel based on the Rom related stuff that came out just before 2000 (Nova #2 Vol. 2) and the stuff that appeared during and right after 2000 (Universe X #3 and the Spaceknights mini-series) that it was just before 2000 that Marvel lost the rights to the Rom name and likeness.

As for Jones his first appearance in Rom spaceknight was in issue 54 but it wouldn't be until 55 that they would team up against the Dire Wraiths in what turned out to be an ALIENS like story line. Jones was a regular character in the series until issue 72. A similar reference was also made back in Incredible Hulk #319 (1986) http://romspaceknightart.blogspot.com/2011/04/rom-spaceknight-cameo-from-hulk-319.html

This sweet Acroyer piece by Art Adams was probably the easiest coloring job I've ever done here's the original posting where I found it: http://marvel1980s.blogspot.com/2013/08/1982-acroyear-by-art-adams.html

Here's one from an artist I've featured before on this blog. I've always really liked this one too but there was just one thing that still bothered me about it. And even though I colorized it that's not what bothered me about it. It's actually the same thing that I recently had to fix on another recent piece of fan art in which just about everything else on ROM looked alright except one goddamn thing. Here's the original http://kimoyancey.blogspot.com/search?q=rom

For those of you who saw this posting earlier you know that I was still waiting for some new stuff to update today's posting. Well I'm happy to say some of it has started to show up such as this photo from Michael Mantlo's most recent visit to his brother Bill. What you see in Bill's hand there is the custom Starshine II figure which I sent to Michael a couple of weeks ago after it got passed off to me by Chris who wanted it to be given to Bill as a gift. And speaking of Chris's custom spaceknight figures we've got another one coming up I hope to have something to post here within the next 24 hours stay tuned.

And finally, here it is! Told ya it would be worth the wait. For more images of Chris's latest custom spaceknight and other custom figure projects: http://custom777.deviantart.com/gallery/

Shit, kinda as an after thought maybe I should have made this custom it's own posting. I could have titled after my favorite Talking Heads song, "Burnin Down The House".

Aw Hell yeah look what I just found! What we have here is a mixed media commission piece by Ed Hannigan. Ok so the left leg needs a bit of work and conceptually it's not especially original but I like the energy in it. It makes me wanna say ROM, FUCK YEAH! just like the Team America: World Police theme song. And speaking of all things Bill Mantlo and Ed Hannigan this ROM easter egg comes from Spectacular Spiderman #72. The clip art is courtesy of Gary Martin Jr. "A Rom curator". I've been sitting on that one for a while now just waiting for the right time to present it.

Sept. 12th update: Speaking of artists who have worked with Bill Mantlo the legendary Sal Buscema was just recently at the Baltimore Comic-Con http://thejadegiant.wordpress.com/2013/08/17/sal-buscema-rare-convention-appearance-at-the-baltimore-comic-con-next-month/

I know I'm probably gonna catch some shit for this but keeping things interesting around here every week doesn't come from me sugar coating my opinions and thoughts on things. That being said I've never been a real big fan of Fred Hembeck's work. A lot of the behind the scenes humor for Marvel's production staff that Hembeck's art often centered around didn't really resonate with me as a kid back in the early 80s. I'm not saying he sucks or anything and in all fairness I'm not all that crazy in general about caricature type renderings when it comes to my favorite comic book and sci-fi characters. There have been exceptions ofcourse such as in the case of the parodies done in MAD Magazine and similar type satire.Well, it so happens that this Hembeck sketch card that I found on ebay recently is also an exception. I actually like I don't know why but I think it has some charm to it. So what do you think, like it?
Here's a Torpedo redesign. I really like it but at the same time I can't help but want to see that new suite drawn in a less "cartoony" way it would have really kicked ass then.

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You all remember that posting of me lambasting those preliminary designs for The Micronauts cartoon that never was right? Well just by the animation style alone I knew it would have sucked and done an all around disservice to the original Bill Mantlo series. Just like a really really bad movie sequel to a great original.

And speaking of great things that Mantlo helped inspire here's a couple of Sabra sketch cards I found recently. As you can see both are quite excellent in terms of what the respective artists were going for but as usual I'm more partial to the one that is a more accurate representation (minus the cape) of Marvel's premier mutant power house of The Promise Land.

And speaking of fan made art of all sorts we've made some other new discoveries of stuff posted in recent weeks: http://www.deviantart.com/art/ROM-Spaceknight-396822744
http://www.deviantart.com/art/ROM-3997880 46
http://aaronsynn.deviantart.com/art/Salem-Uncommons-1411-394364693

Speaking of my kinda art look what just turned up from Dann Phillips again. We've seen so much new ROM fan art from this guy he must be able to do it in his sleep or something.

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Hat tip to Gary Martin Jr. for picking up all this stuff on ebay for me to present here. "Eaglemoss Publications Ltd" is a London based company that licensed characters from Marvel, DC, & other entertainment to produce all kinds of merchandise mainly for their market in the UK. Customers there could subscribe to a series of lead figurines packaged with magazines that were delivered every two weeks, and they'd get other special items like t-shirts & calendars, too. Eaglemoss also translated their magazines into many languages other than English & exported them to a number of countries. For some reason United States buyers were prohibited from subscribing directly from Eaglemoss, but Diamond Distributors made the items available for sale through comic shops in the United States.

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So first off you see here some snippets of clip art from the Rogue one-shot magazine. As you can see they reprinted the cover art for Rom #31 and also mention him by name. Many of you will recognize the scene from Rom #32 that the clip refers to in which Rogue attempts to absorb Rom's powers.

Rom spaceknight #32

And I guess you can say in this panel here are her after thoughts on what ended up being a vulcan mind meld as opposed to the usual power and memory siphoning that results when Rogue kisses her adversaries. I guess you can say Rom's plandanium armor is a chick magnet of sorts clearly Rogue is taken with Rom as far as what kind of person he is on the "inside".

Obviously this clip art goes to the magazine that comes with the NOVA figurine. Keep in mind that this magazine series from Eagle Moss was published within the last few years. As for any licensing issues to the Rom name and likeness you're guess is as good as mine why it wasn't an issue. It should also be noted that other issues such as for Galactus, Forge and The Skrulls make text mentions of Rom and The Dire Wraiths. But regardless of the how or the why I give Eagle Moss Publications some major props for including Rom and The Dire Wraith's role in the histories of these character and alien species profiles.

And by the way it looks like another page (#12) from that ROM #1 remix project has turned up. I don't mean to be a dick here and wish I could sound more optimistic but the more I see of this project the less enthusiastic I get about it http://www.deviantart.com/art/ROM-Spaceknight-Jam-Page-Inks-400065563

This is an update to this posting with something that turned up on deviant art just a day ago: http://www.deviantart.com/#/art/ROM-Spaceknight-400875215?hf=1

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This wonderful labor of love is by artist Dana Black. Black was quoted as saying on farce book "this was a 3 piece commission, each piece 11x17 and I loved doing every inch of this damn thing!!". It took her all of 8 months to do for the client who requested that ROM be included.

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Here's a concept I've had for a little while now of doing something that featured Optimus Prime, Rom and Acroyer together in relative scale to each other. I kinda like it but at the same time it didn't quite turn out as I visualized it in my head, that happens sometimes. So after playing around with it for a while I decided to add a tag line to it and make it into an 80s tribute piece. I'm feeling even more nostalgic about the past given all the shit lately in both Marvel and DC. Between the cancellation of the Young Justice cartoon, the DC reboot and what that asshole jonothan hickman did to Galador and it's space knights recently I'm more indifferent then ever from any new stuff from DC and Marvel.

Marvel Age Magazine #17

These three guys have so much in common and most of us love em all largely thanks to Bill Mantlo who wrote The Micronauts first series, the entire Rom series and the first two issues of The Transformers mini-series which launched an endless stream of Transfomers comic book titles for years to come. Speaking of which how many of you out there are old enough to remember this commercial? It's what prompted me to pick up the first issue of Transformers when I saw it at a 7 Eleven nearby the apartment complex I lived in at the time. The 80s, what a great decade!

September 25 update: And since we're on the topic of Bill Mantlo inspired coolness of the 80s I wanna give a shout out to The King of Thessaly for bringing this insanely hot Cloak & Dagger illustration by Mark Beachum to my attention.

Rom spaceknight #54

I just got done watching the premier of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D yesterday. I gotta say I deliberately avoided all the hype around it in fear it might end up being like some "CW ish" kinda sitcom which I'm completely burnt out on especially with what a bore Arrow turned out to be. But after having seen it it's anything but! It was funny with out being campy, the action was good as were the characters (for the most part) and story line. There was no shortage of references made to both the recent Marvel films in the last few years as well as to the actual Marvel comic book narratives related to S.H.I.E.L.D. And they even brought back agent Colson with a fairly plausible explanation. Maybe Marvel should just co-produce movies and TV shows it seems to be the only thing they're good at these days. All of which got me thinking of how well S.H.I.E.L.D was interwoven into the ROM series which is something I blogged about a while back:
http://romspaceknightart.blogspot.com/2012/05/sheild-infiltrated.html

The King of Thessely gave me a heads up about a Fred Hembeck Torpedo sketch card for sale on ebay. As you all know I'm not a huge Hembeck fan but I thought both sketch cards together in one scene look kinda cool none the less. And in general I thought it was cool that Hembeck even did a sketch card of this somewhat forgotten hero of the 80s.

One last thing here I wanted to include in this posting. You remember the Eagle Moss Publications origins one shot magazines that go with those Marvel superhero lead figurines I posted about last week right? Well the issue for the Jack of Hearts figurine has an actual two page spread about Bill Mantlo's career and even covers that dreadful day of the accident. The whole thing is way too much copy for a blog posting but it's stuff Bill Mantlo fans mostly know already. However as you see here I added the last segment of it here which I enjoyed the most.

I did this last year for the Repaneled blog while it was still being updated. For some reason today I wanted to mess around with it a bit. I made some minor tweaks here and there but mostly I made some changes to the back ground color which I was never quite satisfied with when I first drew this. I also added the image of Kate and a tree which I didn't have the first time around. This scene is from Incredible Hulk #296 (Buscema/Mantlo). At the top of the right hand column you can find a link to the original.

Moving on to another issue of The Incredible HULK that Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema worked on. I've blogged a little bit before about issue 286 back in September last year and how it was loosely based on an old Out Limits episode written by Harlan Ellison called "Soldier". But what I didn't know at the time was that this issue turned into something of a controversy. Please read this short article it shouldn't take you longer then 2 or 3 minutes to get through http://www.sequentialellison.com/bibliography/?p=49

The Outer Limits episode can be found on Youtube easily enough just as a full synopsis on issue #286 can be found on the Marvel wikia site. According to jim shooter the fall out from this issue was the result of an act of plagiarism on the part of Mantlo. But I've read the issue and seen the episode and for me the issue always came off as more of a tribute to Ellison's work as opposed to a blatant rip off. But I'm more inclined to believe that given the tenuous work relationship Mantlo had with shooter along with shooter's over all reputation for being something of an asshole. Why Ellison was not given a foot note in this issue or other wise contacted before it was written I can't say for sure. But still I like how Mantlo took the very basic aspect of this Outer Limits episode and weaved into the fabric of the Marvel universe which included Marvel characters like Kang that had nothing to do with the episode. In a perfect world we would get to hear Mantlo's side of the story but of course that's not possible. Opinions anybody?

I don't care if you don't like rap or hip hop. If you don't find yourself moving to this awesome Marvel Comics rap song then you might be dead with out knowing it yet. The whole thing is great from start to finish but the line " . . . readership is ready for Rom to return . . " at exactly 1:30 totally rocks! I dunno who these guys are that made this video but clearly this is just more proof of an enduring fan base for the greatest of the spaceknights https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egQ3k3Kltns

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I know most of you have seen this already but it ties into a little research I've been doing lately in regards to Brock Jone's participation in the Marvel Universe outside of his appearances as The Torpedo. I found out it pretty much revolves around Delmar Insurance which is where former pro football star Brock worked prior to his move to Clairton with his family to take a job as the local high school's football coach as seen in Rom #21. But as most of you know Machine Man's alter ego as Aaron Stack also worked at Delmar Insurance which is what prompted me to add The Torpedo into this fictitious cover which I did as an after thought.
First off I found this appearance of Brock Jones in Marvel Team Up Annual #3 (1980) featuring Machine Man, The Hulk, Luke Cage and Iron Fist and Delmar insurance.

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Also, while doing some research on Machine Man back issues I discovered that Brock was mentioned at least a couple of times in the series and may have had a cameo once. I also learned that Brock had a sister who worked at Delmar which I think I kinda knew about already in the back of my mind. Turns out she was a pretty regular character in that series and had a serious thing for Aaron. Imagine what a surprise that would have been when the lights go out. You know how Machine Man always had these special attachments added to him right? So I'm sure "Aaron Stack" would have come up with just the right attachment for that occasion too. Aaron Stack, that's a good porn actor name but then again so is Brock Jones.

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Brock Jones as himself and as the Torpedo first appeared in the Rom series in issue #21 in which we find out he didn't move to Clairton just to take a new job but also to keep his family safe from The Rocketeers he battled in his Marvel Premiere issues. Unfortunately we also learn in Rom #21 that the Dire Wraiths had infiltrated Delmar and learned of Brock's change of address leading to an action packed issue #22 in which Rom and the Torpedo battled a squadron of these now Wraith Rocketeers.

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If you don't have Rom spaceknight #21 and #22 go here: http://www.supermegamonkey.net/chronocomic/entries/rom_21-22.shtml

So I finally got my copy of Marvel Team Up Annual #3 which I bought on ebay from a seller who really took their sweet time getting it into the mail. As such you may have noticed I just updated the clip art in the previous posting (The Delmar Connection) Brock Jone's meeting with Power Man & Iron Fist check it out. And you may have also noticed that over the weekend the addition of some clip art from Machine Man #19 of a cameo appearance by Brock Jones compliments of Gary Martin Jr. "a Rom curator".
Poor Brock, longing for the good ol days of his football career stardom having to do the 9 to 5 routine in a business suite behind a desk at Delmar never really settled well for him. The random happenstance of having the Torpedo armor handed off to him like a baton from one runner to another gave him an opportunity he couldn't resist despite the danger to himself and even his family. Unfortunately on the heels of him finally being ready to hang up the super hero gig and go back to being a full time husband and father he had a first time encounter with the sorceress female Dire Wraiths and we all know how that story ended.

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And speaking of all things ebay I guess this is a good a time as any to share these two large scale sketch cards that I saw on ebay some time ago. I seem to remember the full body one going for about $70 and the other for $40. Pretty reasonable prices for some well done original art. Just for the record I didn't buy em I'm just featuring a jpeg file I made out of the ebay ads of them here for this posting.

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There's been something of a Rom related fan art drought in the last couple weeks where as before I used to find new stuff literally every week even if often it wasn't all that great. This one I just did actually started off as a Hulk sketch in which I was experimenting with figure composition and perspective. Eventually I decided to add Sabra and then Rom to it so I guess basically it became a Bill Mantlo & Sal Buscema tribute piece.

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So you're probably doing a double take at this seeing as I just posting it a couple of days ago. Well yes and no. In the previous version I had posted a scan that didn't have a back ground for or the Hulk's body (except his pants) colored yet so those items I did in photoshop for time's sake. But yesterday I finally got around to finishing the whole thing by hand and it came out so very differently then before.
Do you want to know how I did this particular illustration from start to finish? Well of course you do so I'll tell you but unfortunately I can't do it with a beat like that cool Marvel rap video from last week so you'll just have to read on.

1) First, put a hole in the box and then you put your . . whoops wrong explaination :) Pretty much like any other illustration this started as a pencil sketch.
2) Once I got it to more or less look the way I wanted it to I went a head and inked it. And if you're saying to your self about now "what do you mean you inked it?" then you've seen Chasing Amy one too many times (not really that movie rocks!).
3) All the color areas on ROM and Sabra were done with fine point coloring pens. So was the Hulk's pants.
4) Next came the Hulk's skin which I did using a combination of pastels (coloring chalk), coloring pens and coloring pencils.
5) And the last step was putting in the background which was just pieces of clothe with pastel powder on them smeared across the paper.

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Oh and by the way I also recently got around to experimenting with some color on this one. Right now the color work consists of coloring markers and a copy of the original that I scanned in and added some minor photoshop embellishments.

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Well even today Rom just seems to turn up in the damndest of places rather it be a rap song on Youtube or in geek magazine. A big thanks to Rick "smash" Hansen for the heads up on this which I just had to update this posting with for obvious reasons. The first half of the ROM entry is basically just a run down of the toy and comic book history nothing you all don't know already. Interesting that despite being well aware of the character rights legal issue Geek magazine never the less published the cover of ROM #1 which as far as I know they shouldn't have been able to do legally speaking. I guess like IDW Publishing earlier this year with that Rom vs Mars Attacks splash page they just didn't give a shit. It seems every other publisher out there has a bigger set of stones than Marvel which won't even give us a cameo of Rom even now that he's human.

Here's another great cosmic team up that would have been right up there with The Silver Surfer and Rom . . .well almost as great. The artist who I lifted this awesome Captain Marvel rendering from doesn't appear to be responding to comments left under their work so I didn't even bother to ask about using it. So the best thing I can do is to make sure this artist gets due credit is to leave a link to their deviant art page. I guarantee you'll be blown away with the work you see there especially when it comes to the Marvel Cosmic, Transformers and Masters of the Universe illustrations: http://espeng.deviantart.com/gallery/

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Here's another sort of team up I would have liked to have seen back in the day when Marvel didn't suck like it does now.

Just a heads up folks, Bill Mantlo's birthday is November 9th. I'll be sending his brother Michael copies of some of the latest fan art that I've drawn. If you have anything for Bill rather it be some fan art of your own, a b-day card or even a donation (you'll make the check out to Michael) I'll be happy to include it with my package for the mail.

Speaking of B-days I'd like to extend a happy birthday weekend to one of my most regular commentators Joseph who turned___ yesterday.

After having read some of your comments earlier today and then taking a second look with fresh eyes I finally realized this is a fake. Sorry folks looks like we got bamboozled that is not an actual copy of Rom spaceknight #8 that Rahm Emanuel is holding. How could this have happened!? To me, the photoshop ninja.

So I'm going to open up this posting with something from the past when Marvel was actually cool. I want everybody to give it up for The King of Thessaly (K.o.T) for sending me this clip art from New Warriors Annual #1 (1991). Can't believe I didn't know about this already! As you can see this Rom cameo flash back is making a reference to Rom #24, however the editorial seems to be a bit off there were no spaceknights in that issue it was only Rom himself fighting along with the Champions of Xandar against a Skrull invasion. Hey K.o.T, was this issue one of your flea market or dirt mall questing finds?

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Moving right along, let's talk about the present, which is a not so good time for Rom fans when it comes to Marvel. I told you all a while back when Infinity #1 came out that jonathan hickman would do this. This panel which came from the recent Avengers Infinity #21 (thanks for the heads up Gary Martin Jr.) is some of the table scraps that I told you all hickman would throw to Rom fans to try and keep us on the hook.
This doesn't even make any sense. The character intro at the beginning of the issue shows a head shot of Starshine as the armor was in it's original incarnation (more or less) that we saw in Infinity#1. So why are we seeing the Starshine 2 armor (but with a pony tail) here? I don't have to tell long time Rom readers why that doesn't make any sense. And as you can see Ikon is there too which also makes no sense since they were both on Galador when it was destroyed. Is hickman gonna come up with some "creative writing" or is this just some inconsistency they didn't think anybody would catch? Whatever, hickman you're still a douche so you don't get my money on this one either.

LAST CALL! Look, speaking of douche bags don't be one and let Bill Mantlo's birthday come and go this year with out showing this great man a sense of gratitude in a way that's the next best thing to telling him in person. Even if you live on the East Coast if you can get off your ass and get a card into the mail addressed to me in the next 2 - 3 days that should still leave enough time for it to arrive before I send the whole thing to his brother.

Alright so let's end this posting on a fun note as with the latest video from The King as he shows us his extensive action figure collection along with some other things like published clip art from Marvel and DC that was so disturbing it'll have you saying to yourself "What the Hell were they thinking!?"

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Ok so one last thing here. I wrote this posting after midnight when I finally got home from work and this morning I end up finding this innovative fan art. This obviously doesn't fit a narrative of the Rom universe as we know it but then again it isn't supposed to since it's a homage piece to those old mystery and sci-fi novels of the 30s which were largely regarded by the "literary community" as pulp. But then again those are the same sorts who say that about comics and let's not even get into all the art snobs out there who think comic book art is beneath their notice. Remember I was an art major in college (multi-media) so I was around a lot of those assholes for years. Rather you like the concept or not you gotta hand it to the artist (Rob Reis) for having some serious illustration skills.

I remember a couple of years ago I had this friend and fellow comic book nerd from my high school days asked what could I possibly have to blog about every week given that the series ended back in 85? The fool :) I explained it as best as I could at the time to him. But you guys who come here get to find out right away about most of the coolest shit out there rather it be Rom turning up in an article for a recent publication (Geek mag.), some undiscovered clip art from back in the day (New Warriors Annual #1), a cool Marvel rap video paying tribute to fans calling for the return of Rom or the latest art work that kicks ass. A big thanks to all of you who have contributed to these postings lately you guys have provided some awesome blogging material.
Speaking of which, here's my latest coloring job of a commission piece that was done by Ian Akin from the dynamic inking duo Akin & Garvey. There's only one thing that always bothered me about this other wise kick ass work of art. The right leg is too short, it never looked quite right to me so I made a cropped version which I colored. You can see the original here http://www.akinandgarvey.com/commissions/index.htm#
just look for the thumb nail button on the left.

If you're noticing any difference in this posting today from the day before when I published it that's because Rom curator Gary Martin Jr. informed me of an over site. In other words I fucked up, indeed there was a not one but two cameo flash back panels in the Nova back story of What If #36 volume1 (1982). Oh and it gets better I actually used to have this issue but don't ask me how the fuck I managed to fucken forget about these fucken panels.

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And of course as I mentioned before the Dire Wraiths would show up as part of some parallel universe story line years later in What If #39 volume 2.

And as i mentioned in the beginning of this posting how cool Rom related things are turning up on a weekly basis here's the latest. So I'm going to make yet another edit today with Chris's latest custom spaceknight figure, Javelin.

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Well it's just a few more days till Halloween and when I think of some of the scariest moments in the Rom spaceknight series this gate fold from issue 49 comes to mind. Shortly after the introduction of the female dire wraith witches to the series we see them waste little time in plotting their revenge on Rom and Starhine as they descend upon the unsuspecting town of Clairton in what would be a massacre giving the readers some of the most shocking moments ever in the pages of Rom.

Looks like this guy is ready for Halloween all he needs now are some dire wraith cosplayers. Rick Hansen sent me this Rom cosplay photo through face book. Unfortunately no details about who, what or where came with it. So if any of you know something about this speak up, don't leave the rest of us in Limbo. All that aside I just love seeing new Rom fandom turn up week after week in one form or another.

And speaking of the Massacre of Clairton lets have a moment of silence for one of the fallen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . However although fallen but thus far not forgotten we have this custom Torpedo figurine I found on ebay out of Italy of all places. But apparently there is a limited run of these given that two have sold at this time. The thighs are a bit on the bulky side but it other wise looks pretty good.
By the way wouldn't that be cool if somebody came up with some Torpedo cosplay? I can't imagine that being a costume too terribly difficult to fabricate. Hell, even a sexy dame doing some Turbo cosplay would be pretty great too. Some Sabra cosplay would be great to see as well.

Last up, here's something I found from 2012 MTV Geek

10 Comics We Want From Marvel NOW!

http://geek-news.mtv.com/2012/07/04/10-comics-we-want-from-marvel-now/

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So before I dropped all this stuff in the mail for Michael Mantlo I decided to take a snap shot of it all for you good people. So I'm sure you recognize my latest fan art which I made some high quality laser prints of. I wanna thank Randomnerd for sending me her copy of geek magazine from last month which allowed me to make that very readable quality xerox copy. My buddy Randy whipped up some fan art of the U-Foes which first appeared in Incredible Hulk 254 ( Bill & Sal ). We should be seeing a color version in the near future. And from one of my regular commentator's (Joseph) we have something from his ten year old son who loves both the Hulk and Rom and also has half the Rom series but swears who will have them all some day.

There was a little bit of trash talk about the Power Pack series in the comments section of the last posting. But in all fairness I did have at least one issue back in the day. Ironically it wouldn't be for about 27 years later that I would learn the very same issue I had contained a Rom foot note. I can thank Gary Martin Jr. "a Rom curator" for that and in the next posting we can all thank Gary for some of the other Rom related foot notes I'll be posting.

And we're back with some more Dr. Doom even though unlike What If #39 (Vol. 2) this clip art is totally unrelated to Rom or to Bill Mantlo's birthday but I love it so much I'm adding it to this posting anyways. This is such classic Dr. Doom the dialogue and so in keeping with what makes the character so awesome. For the low down on where this clip art is from http://majorspoilers.com/2011/07/10/retro-review-marvel-graphic-novel-27-emperor-doom-1987/
Ok so look, since Dr. Doom mentioned the Sub-Mariner (or Namor if you prefer) I'll stop my childish posturing and throw in this other foot note into the posting I just got from Gary recently that comes from Incredible Hulk 277.

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More classic 80s and 90s foot notes next week!

Actually the posting title probably should have been Stardust in the solar wind. There actually is something as solarwind astronomically speaking Google it. But I'm hoping someone out there picks up on what I'm referencing with my posting title as it is. So moving right along, what we have here is the latest custom figure by Chris which I'm sure most of you have seen already but here it is just in case for you followers who aren't on farce book or deviant art. We first saw Stardust in Rom annual 1 but he again made a brief appearance in the Quasar series.

Although he wasn't able to get it to me in time to include in the Bill Mantlo fan art birthday package I sent off last week you'll be happy to know we made sure this fan art by Zhaanman never the less will be getting to Bill in time. And moving on here we have some more foot notes from Gary Martin Jr. Ya know it seems like there's two different types of foot notes and here are some examples of what I'm talking about.

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Doesn't it seem sometimes that foot notes are more about promoting other titles then having to do with a truly relevant tie in? Take this clip art from Captain America #305. We saw Cap. in both Rom #65 and 66 and even though it was mentioned in 65 that heroes from every corner of the globe had come to fight in the final battle of the Wraith War Captain Britain never makes an actual appearance.

On the flip side here's a foot note from THOR 354 with Beta Ray Bill who did appear a couple of times in Rom #65 as well as on the cover http://romspaceknightart.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-marvel-appearance-that-sadly-never.html

That one makes a lot more sense to me, so does this one from The New Defenders.


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Oh boy Gary Martin Jr. "a Rom curator" just saw my posting and called me out on my latest misinformation fuck up. Indeed Captain Brittan did appear in Rom #65 and on the very same page as did the Defenders no less. But there he was sporting his red costume as we knew him in the 80s. More foot notes on the way.

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Alright it's time for some more of the Rom foot notes from the collection that Gary Martin Jr. sent me some time ago. Here we have one from Incredible Hulk 305 with Dr. Strange and as you can see I also included some corresponding clip art which ironically happens to have a foot note of it's own. For a synopsis of Incredible Hulk 305 http://slaymonstrobot.blogspot.com/2010/03/marvel-1985-week-incredible-hulk-305.html

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The above clip art comes from Dr. Strange #75 (vol. 2) which is retelling part of the story line from Fantastic Four #277. For those of you who don't have that issue all the panels on the top half of the page told the story of the confrontation between Ben and Johnny who had started dating Alica Masters already. Although unknown to either of those two dudes back then she was actually a skrull : ) So anyways, the conclusion of the Wraith War spills into that troubled love triangle as most of you know.
Mean while the bottom panels of the issue tell the story of a battle with that bastard Mephisto against Reed, Sue, Franklin and Dr. Strange. As you can see Mephisto was somehow drawing power from the Wraiths but as the war turned against them so did his power start to wane. I'm sure you didn't miss the little Rom #65 foot note there.

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And last up we have a flash back cameo and foot note from Dr. Strange Annual #2 (Vol. 2) in which Dr. Strange again faces and old enemy known as The Dweller in Shadows. When Rom fought him he blew him away with his neutralizer but it wasn't really that clear if he was sent to Limbo or some other crappy dimensional Hell hole. Rom gave The Dweller one of those go back to where ever you came from kinda pronouncements but I'm not sure if that was meant to be taken literally. The other panel comes from Dr. Strange Sorcerer Supreme #2 (Vol. 3) and I'm not sure about the context of the clip art but I believe that's supposed to be a Dire Wraith but don't quote me on that.

A Rom DC Comics cross over I'd like to see

More Rom #1 remix pages & the Terminator spaceknight custom figure!

Some new Youtube videos of ROM & Bill

Bill Mantlo enjoying his new gift from a fan

New ROM commission Fuck Yeah!

How I see art and characterization

Eagle Moss Publications not afarid to print ROM

Sometimes big things have small beginnings

Rom spaceknight, agent of S.H.I.E.L.D

Bill Mantlo vs jim shooter

The Delmar connection

The ebay connection and some new fan art!

How To Draw The Shlomo Way

Captain Marvel guest appearence, nuff said!

MARVEL, the good ol days and the latest bullshit

What's up with What If?

Halloween is almost here and something dire this way comes

10 Comics We Want From Marvel NOW!

A package full of fan art for Bill Mantlo's birthday

Dust in the wind

The Doctor is in, time for some Strange foot notes