I Own What Comic?

So, it may not seem like it at first, but this post is about my appreciation for Rom, Spaceknight and one thing that fascination has led to in my life.

So it was recently pointed out on Twitter by fellow Rom fan PTOR, that Rom has appeared anew in Marvel Comics. Sort of. In the wake of Stan Lee's death, Marvel has been rerunning some of his old Soapbox columns that are of more timeless topics. The one reprinted in Marvel's January 2020 comics was originally published in February 1980. (And I'm just going to insert PTOR's scan here.)

Now, look right under Stan's Soapbox. If you're a Rom fan, you'll notice part of an ad that's familiar. It's the small house ad Marvel used to promote then new Rom comic book. (Scan also stolen from PTOR.)

So, after finding out about this, another fan known as A Rom Curator, started trying to identify every comic that the reprinted Stan's Soapbox column appeared in. He sent me a list and I attempted to help him out a bit the next few times I went to my local comic shop. Some of the comics he wondered about were part of Marvel's budget reprint line, True Believers.

My copy of Daredevil #131

When I went to one shop, they only had two of these titles left. One was True Believers: Criminally Insane — Bullseye, reprinting his first appearance and origin from Daredevil #131. I didn't recognize the cover, but when I opened it to the first page and saw Daredevil was fighting the Rocketeers, the foes of Rom's ally, the Torpedo. "Wait a second", I thought. I consulted the database of my comics collection on my phone. "I own an original copy of this issue! Is it worth something?" It turns out, yes, it is. a CGC graded 9.8 copy of it sold for $2,000! Lower quality examples had sold for substantially less, but still over $100.

So eventually I pulled out my copy. It's in very good shape, but not a 9.8. I've never been a believer in slabbing comics, but now I'm wondering if it might be worth it. I could use the money and now I've got a reprint of the issue. (Yes, I bought a copy of the True Believers reprint.) But there's still something about owning the original, not a reprint. I don't remember what I paid for it back in the day, but it was probably less than $10. Possibly less than $5.

So, what I'm trying to say is this. I bought the comic in which Bullseye debuted because the Rocketeers were in it. I cared because they were related to the Torpedo, who was in Rom. And I found out the comic was Bullseye's debut and worth something because I was trying to help out another Rom fan. Thanks, Rom!

Jumpman's Grand Puzzle - Stage 1, Level 1

Friday, March 30, 2018

Stage 1, Level 1

Today was the day Ready Player One premiered in theaters. I had been catching up on Twitter at work while compiling code and saw this tweet.

So I watched the video. Holy cow! This was awesome! I could win a cabaret Pac-Man coin-op, not to mention 10 tokens a day for a year and an autographed copy of the book. (But would I really have to go in each day to get my tokens?) It's like a combination of the book's story and the Great All-Nighter from the movie Midnight Madness, one of my guilty pleasures.

I'd read Ready Player One, the novel by Ernie Cline, years ago when it first came out and liked it a lot. I was of the right age -- having spent my teenagehood in the 1980s -- to get so many of the video game, movie, and music references. I wanted to see the movie, even though I understand many things have been changed. My oldest son, Walter, had read the book recently and wanted to see it, too, but this now would take priority!

So I texted my two older boys and wife and started mulling over the first clue:

To start the quest you need to go,

Where Fortuna's favors flow,

On ivory bones and heroes spin,

To battle hard and sometimes win.

"Fortuna's favors flow on ivory bones." I look up Fortuna and find out she's the Roman god of luck. Ivory bones makes me think of dice. Lucky dice. OMG, the first clue is at Lucky Dice Cafe!!! And maybe "heroes spin" refers to Asylum Comics, a comic book store which recently moved in there. Remember the old spinner racks comic books used to be sold from? Or maybe it refers to HeroClix.

I texted this to them. My wife suggested dinner there, but it's Good Friday, so we had church at 7:00 PM. Given that the Cafe was in the opposite direction from church and south Memorial Parkway was a construction nightmare, this was unfeasible. But the place was open until 11:00 PM, so I'd have to suffer through until after church. I silently cursed whoever decided to have the movie debut on Easter weekend.

So, after chuch, my two oldest boys and I headed to Lucky Dice Cafe. I'd learned of the place's existence in just the past couple months and had yet to actually go there. We arrived and there was "Steve the Space Invader" by the door. We were indeed at the right place.

We went in and there was an employee arranging a display. I told him I'd been wanting to come and the contest, indicating Steve, had given me good cause. He told us to look around and that he couldn't provide any hints. So we did. As I was looking at the racks of comics, I came to the end and saw this on the wall:

So we had Belle from Disney's Beauty and the Beast holding a record asking where she can put it. The Steve on her skirt confirmed this was the clue. My immediate thought was about where one would put a record. Vertical House Records in Lowe Mill seemed like the obvious answer. There was also Maxwell's Music, but it wasn't nearly as well known and had only recently reopened. (Another place I needed to visit.) Vertical House didn't open until noon tomorrow, so we were done for the night, we thought. We also noted the record was The Concert in Central Park by Simon and Garfunkel.

A Dire Wraith, Ikon, and another
Spaceknight walk into a bar...

I looked around some more and discovered they sell individual Heroclix figures for a quarter. I'd been meaning to pick up the ones related to Rom, Spaceknight and discovered they had three of them: the Dire Wraith, Ikon, and a generic Spaceknight. I picked up those and a fifty cent copy of Fish Police #1, just because it was fairly well regarded back in the '80s and I wasn't sure I'd ever read an issue. Just as I was checking out, my boys decided to play a game of Yu-Gi-Oh! Really? My second oldest son had gotten the cards to complete his deck, thanks to Walter, in the mail today. Okay, so I ordered three cookies, too, while I waited, one for each of us. I forgot to ask the employee how many others had come by for the clue.

After finishing my cookie, I looked around in the other room, set up with tables for gaming. There I discovered another copy of the clue on the wall. But now I noticed, "What they say will lead the way." How had I missed that before? Okay, so it sounded like the clue might be in Simon and Garfunkel's lyrics.

I sat back down with the boys and pulled up the album's track list. They finished their game and we headed out. I used my iPod to start playing an album of Simon and Garfunkel's greatest hits, because I don't have the Central Park album. Walter started reviewing the track list himself and noted we have both "Bridge Over Troubled Water" and "The 59th Street Bridge Song." Maybe the clue is at Bridge Street?

That's not far from our house and there was still some places open there, so why not? We walked Bridge Street. No Steves to be seen. We even checked Barnes & Noble since they sell records. Nope. So we called it a night.

For additional entries, see the Jumpman's Grand Puzzle label.

Hasbro applies for "Dire Wraiths" trademark

You may have seen the recent news from Bleeding Cool that Hasbro has trademarked the term "Dire Wraiths" for comic books. That's certainly an interesting turn of events and I am indeed curious if and how Marvel will respond. But they missed a big related item. Hasbro also filed an application for use of "Dire Wraiths" with action figures!

Yes, after all these years, we might finally get Dire Wraith toys for our Rom action figures to fight. But until such a thing actually comes to be, we'll just have to keep pretending our sister's Ken and Barbie dolls are shape-shifting scum.

Rom: Mighty Mugg

Gods of Galador! Today MTV News, of all places, exclusively announced that Hasbro will be selling a Mighty Muggs version of Rom. Initially available only at Comic Con International in San Diego in two-and-a-half weeks, it should be found at HasbroToyShop.com afterward. This version of Rom, with even less articulation points than the original, will sell for $22.99. Let's hope they don't grossly underestimate demand! (And I hope my wife won't kill me if I order one while I'm unemployed.) Thanks to Rich Raymer of the Rom's Spaceknights to Benefit Bill Mantlo group on Facebook for the tip!

Rom the Space Knight Transformer

It seems I neglected to post about this when it was news, so here's a quick overview. The photo at right was a prototype for a potential addition to Hasbro's Transformers Bot Shots line as shown at the 2013 Toy Fair. The prototypes were all unlabeled, so its identity was a mystery. Later, a product listing got leaked to Transformers fandom which included an item called "TRA BOT SHOTS ROM THE SPACE KNIGHT A2587." Given the prototype's colors and the fact that it didn't match any known Transformer, said fandom decided that it must have been the prototype for Rom. Now, thanks to Joseph's comment and link provided on my previous post, we now know it appears this particular Bot Shot isn't coming to toy stores after all.

For more information on this, see the Transformers Wiki entry. And thanks to them for the photo.

An overdue Rom trademark update

An e-mail prompted me to finally see what the latest is on Hasbro's attempts to once again trademark ROM. I won't summarize the history like I did in the last update, but you can go read it for yourself if you need a refresher. Or, if you want to read the whole saga, you can start at the beginning. (Really, I've been following this since November 2008?) Since it's officially (somewhat) new information since the last update, I will confirm that all eight of Hasbro's original trademark filings are dead because they were either denied or Hasbro used up all their extensions.

So, there are currently three trademarks Hasbro has applied for. The first is for comic books and was granted in April 2013. They've already used the first of their five possible extensions to use it in commerce (i.e. publish a ROM comic book). Extensions are required every six months if Hasbro doesn't have proof of use. Five extensions give them three years to do so.

The second trademark is for "toy action figures and toy robots convertible into other visual toy forms," which leads to the already existing rumor that Hasbro is going to make Rom part of the Transformers toy line. It, too, was granted in April 2013 and has had one extension filed against it.

The final trademark is for "entertainment services, namely an on-going animated television series for children." This one was only granted in June 2013 and, because I've gotten lazy, is new to me. It would seem to contradict Hasbro making Rom part of the Transformers, unless such a TV series would be a spin-off of Transformers: Prime or something. The first extension was just granted last month.

And finally, I remind you that although Hasbro owns Rom, his look, and his three accessories, Marvel owns the other Spaceknights, Dire Wraiths, and everything else. So whatever — if anything — Hasbro ends up doing with the character is going to have to be different from what we Rom fans are used to.

Busiek on Rom Reference in Avengers Forever

Fresh from Kurt Busiek's Spring.me account:

KurtBusiek responded to joltcity 22 Aug
This is a silly question about something you wrote a long while back, but: I was re-reading AVENGERS FOREVER # 1 and noticed that Rom, Spaceknight was mentioned. Was this something that had to be cleared with Hasbro? Just curious.

No, it wasn't. I was prepared to rewrite that caption if Marvel told me I couldn't even mention Rom's name, but they didn't say anything.

Maybe I should have avoided naming him and they just missed it, maybe naming him as a side-reference like that is just fine. I don't really know. But nobody made a fuss about it.

I'm thinking this isn't the first time a creator has mentioned that they received no problems from editorial when they mentioned Rom, but the other example isn't coming to me.  Nor have I found it with a quick search.

[EDIT: I'm almost positive I asked Peter David about Rom's appearance in Hulk #418 during one of his open question and answer sessions on his site and he replied, but I can't find it now! Can anyone help?]

[EDIT:]
I asked Peter David two years ago about his use of Rom in Hulk #418 and whether anyone in Marvel said anything.  He replied:

Nope. Nobody said anything, probably because I had him in human form rather than as a robot.

(A big "thank you" to Anthony Malena of the Galador mailing list for helping locate that for me!)
[END EDIT]

In general, Marvel editorial doesn't seem to care about mentioning or sometimes even showing Rom as long as it's minor.  Things like the Spaceknights limited series are obviously another matter and a story I need to share sometime.

The Other ROM Magazines

If you're a Rom fan, you're of course familiar with the above logo from his comic book. But did you know that the Marvel comic series wasn't the only periodical by the name of Rom? In fact, it wasn't even the first!

ROM: Computer Applications for Living was the first. It was a computer magazine that began publishing in 1977, two years before the comic book! However, it only lasted for nine monthly issues, meaning it folded before Marvel began even thinking about publishing theirs. This ROM was absorbed into Creative Computing, which included this ROM logo on the cover for a short time to announce it [source].

The next ROM magazine I know of came out of Canada and was "the magazine that brings the ATARI computer to life!" It started out as a rather amateur production in 1983, but improved quickly. However, it still seems to have lasted only ten issues [source 1, source 2].

The final ROM Magazine is still being published by the Royal Ontario Museum. It began its life as Rotunda in 1968, but switched to the ROM name in 2007 with the logo above [source].

Then this one in 2009.

And most recently this one in 2013. This also happens to be the museum's logo, which celebrates its centennial this year. But our beloved Spaceknight was 200 years old when he came to earth back in 1979, so he wins.

Spaceknights Going to Infinity!

This are afoot in the Avengers by Jonathan Hickman. It was first teased in #15 when Captain Universe and Manifold travel to an unspecified destination ("somewhere in space") that has "knights" as its guardians. This is the place "where the end begins," according to Captain Universe, and we see a large spaceship approaching.

Avengers #15

In #16, we find out the place is Galador and we get a single panel of Spaceknights flying to meet the ship. (I grabbed the "Galador" caption from a previous panel and inserted it here.) Perhaps you recognize Pulsar, Ikon, Firefall, Terminator, and Starshine?

Avengers #16

Or perhaps you don't because while, with the exception of Ikon, they all invoke the memory of those first generation Spaceknights, the designs don't quite match. And Pulsar is no longer orange, but a yellow-green color. (I presume this was done so that he doesn't blend in with Firefall.)

So what's going on here? We, the readers, don't know. Nor are we supposed to, exactly. All I know is that it's been confirmed that the Spaceknights will have some part to play in Marvel's upcoming event, Infinity. And that's all the facts we have, so now begins the grousing. Marvel needs to pick a direction for the Spaceknights and stick to it!

Let's review. After many years of efforts by various creators to bring back Rom in some fashion, Chris Batista finally succeeded in doing something with the Spaceknights limited series in 2000. He had a new generation, including Rom's two sons, take up the mantles of their predecessors. (He also killed Rom, but given the legal problems surrounding him, we'll let it slide for the moment.) Unfortunately, sales of the series were abysmal so the new Spaceknights were stuck in comic book limbo until 2006, when Keith Giffen briefly used them in Annihlation, only to leave their fate up in the air. The following year, Abnett and Lanning used a previously unknown Spaceknight to kick off the events of Annihilation: Conquest, but do nothing else with them.

A few years later, in 2011, Annihilators introduced Ikon, essentially a a female version of Rom. However, where Rom was noble and kind, she is arrogant. We also check in with Brandy Clark, still the leader of Galador and still fretting over the loss of Rom back in 2000. But oddly, no mention of or appearance by her two sons (or the others from the LS). In the end, we're left with Galador in a unique position, its sun merged with the dark sun of Wraithworld, with both worlds orbiting the merged star. Certainly there's story potential there, but it hasn't been taken advantage of yet.

I admit, I wasn't thrilled at first with the new Spaceknights introduced in 2000, but I came to realize they had real potential. We had a new Javelin, son of the original. We had a new Firefall, who apparently somehow shared his existence with the original. And, of course, we had Liberator and Terminator, Rom's sons, and their mother Brandy Clark, our old friend. But since these Spaceknights weren't successful, there's no one at Marvel overseeing the concept. We're left with a bunch of writers who are fans of Rom all wanting to do their take on the Spaceknights and no editor in charge to keep their story coherent.

I really hope Hickman will be respectful of all that's come before, not just the original Rom series. The more fractured the Spaceknights' history becomes, the less likely they'll ever return to greatness. I'm hoping the Spaceknights don't just go to Infinity, but beyond! I'm hoping, but I'm definitely not counting on it.

Robb Waters Does It Again

Once again, Robb Waters has done Rom art.  This time it's a portrait of the action figure.  It's part of a series of portraits of various superheroes and science fiction characters.  And it's actually from 2011, but I'm just now discovering it.

If you missed it, here are the two previous Robb Waters works featured on the blog.

What Child Is This (Playing with a Rom Action Figure)?

The photo at right, of an elementary school-aged girl posing with a Rom action figure holding his Translator, comes from the November 21, 1979 edition of The (Owosso, Michigan) Argus-Press. It was printed with an article picking some highlights of character dolls in the history of the toy industry, starting with the teddy bear (named for President Theodore Roosevelt with his permission). Titled "Toy industry dates from 1903", the article itself makes no mention of Rom, but does mention electronic games in the final paragraph.

The article was published in several newspapers and has no byline, but in one newspaper is marked "NEA," meaning it was distributed by the Newspaper Enterprise Association, a newspaper syndicate of the day. I found five others in the Google News Archive, but only one of them also included this photo. That was the Merced (California) Sun-Star's November 22, 1979 edition, where it was published as "Children of today the same but toys are changing."

I'd love to know more about this photo and the girl featured in it. In particular because this is one of two photos featuring her and Rom! The other appeared in an article called "Choose Toys, Games that Outlast Holidays." In this photo, however, it's a blond boy who's holding Rom while he plays the Mad Magazine Game with the girl in the first photo. Unfortunately, this article not only lacks a byline, it also doesn't list a syndicate, so there's no indication at all of its origins.

I've found copies of this story in seven papers in the Google News Archive. Again, not all include this photo with the article, but most do. The most interesting thing is the range of dates this article printed. Most were published between November 21 and December 24, 1979, however The Day of New London, Connecticut published it a year later, in November 1980. That was without the photo, but the article still has the part about Rom in it. (According to my somewhat anecdotal research, the Rom action figure was marked down to half-price in 1980 from his 1979 debut.) The prize, however, goes to The Rockmart (Georgia) Journal, which published the article in December 1983, complete with references to TV shows that were canceled by then. Unfortunately, they cut off the article before it got to talking about the Rom action figure.

So, back to the title question: who are these children and where did the photos comes from? Based on the fact that both articles appeared on November 21, 1979, I'm going to guess both were part of a package of articles from NEA. I asked my father, who used to be a newspaper journalist, about it. He told me that, in addition to the comics, editorial cartoons, and opinion columns they syndicated, NEA "also provided packages of feature stories, which may have contained photographs provided by companies whose products were discussed." He also added, "newspapers were not required to identify the material as coming from NEA."

Therefore, my theory is that in November 1979, NEA sent its subscribing newspapers a set of stories on toys for the upcoming Christmas shopping season. I'm betting one of the stories' "sponsors" was Parker Brothers, who also provided several photos of children playing with its products. Besides Rom and the Mad Magazine Game, other Parker Brothers products appearing in either of these stories or the photos included the All the King's Men board game, Merlin electronic game, Stop Thief electronic board game, and Wildfire pinball. (And I'm willing to bet that list of toys has evoked a nostalgic response from most of you guys over 40.)

So if you happen to have a 40-something-year-old friend who did a little modeling for Parker Brothers back in the early '80s, please have them drop me a line. Parker Brothers was headquartered in Salem, Mass., but that may or may not have been where the photos were taken. I'll take any clues I can get right now.

Thanks to my dad for the information he provided about NEA.

Rom Trademark Update

It's late and I'm tired, so I'll make this quick.  Hasbro's latest ROM trademark filings—yes, there are two—are nothing to get too excited about.

They started with eight: four each for ROM and ROM THE SPACEKNIGHT for four different categories of goods and services.  They abandoned all the latter*, but the four for just ROM were approved . . . at different times.  That gave Hasbro only six months to use each in commerce.  That means they had to actually sell, or at least advertise, something called ROM.  However, they're allowed five six-month extensions for a total of three years.  Two of them, the ones for toys and paper goods, have reached their maximum extensions and completely expire in January 2013.

So do you want to guess what the two ROM trademarks Hasbro has re-filed for are?  If you guessed toys and comic books, you nailed it.  I could be wrong, but it appears to me that Hasbro is simply starting the process over for another three years.

One interesting note, however, is that the new trademark applications are much more specific about what they're being filed for.  The first is for "comic books" (without all the other paper goods you could think of) and the second is for "toy action figures and toy robots convertible into other visual toy forms".  So apparently Rom might be made into a Transformer.  Ugh.


* The one for paper goods was abandoned because Marvel trademarked "Spaceknights" for comic books back when the 2000 limited series was published.  If I told you registered trademarks had to be renewed every ten years, you might say, "but that means Marvel's reprinting of it this year is too late!"  And you'd be right. But that's okay, Marvel's submitted a couple of "specimens" in the meantime to keep the trademark active.  Would you care to guess what?  Why, the OHOTMU entries.  One's from the "All-New OHOTMU A-Z" in 2006.  The other one is apparently from last year, but I'd have to dig to find the exact comic it came from.

[Next trademark update]

Yes, I Know

Yes, I've seen the news reporting Hasbro has applied for the Rom trademark . . . again.  I haven't had time to investigate yet to see if this really differs from the previous time or if this is merely progress, but will hopefully do so soon.

The Rights to Rom: It's Not Just Parker Brothers

Did you hear the one about the guy who had a tantalizing bit of information in front of him, but he didn't recognize it?  That was me up until last year.  All Rom fans know the comic book hero was licensed from Parker Brothers.  What most don't know — until now — is that the toy's creator, Bing McCoy, retained all the rights to secondary merchandise.

Think about that for a minute.  That means it was Bing McCoy, not Parker Brothers, who was making money off Marvel's Rom comic book.  That means Parker Brothers, now owned by Hasbro, doesn't have a whole lot of incentive to let Marvel use Rom any more, although it's unclear just how much say they have in the matter.

About six months after publishing my interview with McCoy, in early February 2006, I received another e-mail from  him.  It read in part:

 I am completing negotiations with Hasbro and Marvel over some minor details relating to the copyrights and then I will begin work on developing an animated series based on ROM.

Marvel also planning to include ROM in a new anthology of Marvel superheros - just a couple of pages.

My thoughts at the time were along the lines of, "wow, it's kind of weird that he's so interested in reviving something he sold to Parker Brothers."  McCoy didn't tell me he'd kept the rights and it didn't occur to me to ask him!  As it turned out, the second bit about a "new anthology" was really just the reprintings of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe in the Essential format.  If you ever wondered why Marvel included Rom in those, but didn't include Marvel Two-in-One #99 and Power Man and Iron Fist #73 — both featuring Rom — in the Essential collections, that's why.  Apparently only OHOTMU was covered by whatever negotiations took place.

Time went on.  McCoy was busy with other projects, but every few months he'd either e-mail me an update or I'd ask him for one.  McCoy was trying to buy back all the rights to Rom.  In the end, McCoy said in September 2008 that Hasbro backed out at the last minute.  This might have something to do with them no longer holding the trademark to Rom, but that's only conjecture on my part.  When I told McCoy about that, he told me he intended to sue.  That was in 2009.  He reiterated it in 2011, but I'd received some sad news in the meantime.

In late 2010, I was contacted by McCoy's younger brother.  He'd happened to Google McCoy's name and come across a post from way back when I was still trying to confirm McCoy's identity.  We continued corresponding and in early 2011 McCoy's brother dropped two bombshells on me.

First, he told me about McCoy retaining the secondary merchandise rights.  Suddenly, everything made much more sense.  And it just happened to be confirmed later by former Marvel Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter when he recounted Rom's comic book genesis.  But no one seemed to notice!

Second, he revealed that McCoy "suffers from a rare degenerative disease that is destroying his brain and gradually robbing him of his ability to function on his own."  McCoy is now living in a medical facility.  His younger brother and his brother's wife are his legal guardians.  McCoy still get out some, as I was told he enjoyed going to see Wreck-It Ralph recently.

I told McCoy's brother about the push to reprint the Rom series to benefit Bill Mantlo and explained Mantlo's condition.  Although the causes are completely different, it's scary how much McCoy's and Mantlo's conditions now resemble each other.  McCoy's brother was sympathetic and said, pending review by a lawyer as McCoy does have an adult son to consider, he was authorized to sign on McCoy's behalf and didn't believe McCoy would want to stand in the way of such an effort.  Let's hope this is the breakthrough needed to get Rom reprinted.  But let us not forget Bing McCoy.

Rom #25 Cover Re-imagined by Al Milgrom

Max Thorne, who sent me the Rom shelf art a couple posts ago, also provided the scan for this week's entry, which he commissioned from none other than Al Milgrom.  Milgrom was the penciller and/or inker of many Rom covers between #1 and #50.  One of those was Rom #25, featuring Rom vs. Terminator, who'd been converted into a Rom doppelganger.

Copyright 1981 Marvel Comics

I'll go ahead and let Max explain why and how he commissioned the piece below.

My dream was to get a recreation of Rom #25 with Rom and Terminator on it.  [Issue] 25 was a fantastic issue, one of the first that I bought (costing a then huge NZ$1.03), and I still have that one today.  As Al Milgrom was the original illustrator I approached his agent to carry out the commission.  After some less than gratifying correspondence with the agent, the artwork finally came through, with the ROM lettering thrown in.  (Apparently lettering is an extra that the artists are very reluctant to do, and I can understand this having tried to do some myself.)

It just so happens that Rom #25 was also the first new issue I bought off the newsstand.  One day I'm going to commission Fred Hembeck to do a cover re-creation of it, but with a mouth added to each Rom so you can tell which one's the good guy.  Will he choose the same Rom as Milgrom?  Who knows!

Dire Wraiths in Your Bedroom!

Here's one I'd almost forgotten about.  I was in a local Big Lots, IIRC, back in January 2002, when I spotted a mattress.  The fabric on it had a space theme, much like I've seen on children's mattresses since Star Wars came out back when I was just a kid.  This one, however, didn't exclusively have knock-offs of Star Wars ships on it.  It featured a variety, including this one:

Look familiar?  It should.  It's pretty obviously based on a Dire Wraith warship:

Whoever created this apparently drew from multiple sources.  In addition to the Drakillar, there's also the Death Star and the Beauty, the heroes' ship from the early issues of Jim Starlin's Dreadstar.  Here's a slightly zoomed out view.  I'm sorry I didn't get a view of the entire pattern.

I'd guess they didn't know they'd actually be giving kids who were fans of an '80s, toy-based comic book nightmares because the bad guys had infiltrated their bed!  (But okay, that's gotta be a teeny, tiny minority by 2002.)

Shifting gears, I'm worried about maintaining this schedule from here on.  I'd managed to build up a queue of scheduled posts at first.  Unfortunately, life got busy again and the queue is now almost drained.  This post was written Sunday night so the blog wouldn't be missing a post come Monday morning after being weekly for so long.  The post I'd planned for today wasn't getting written in the time that was left.  It seems I've almost exhausted all the quick and easy topics and what's left are those that take more time to research,  write, and/or scan. There will be a post in a week, because it's already done.  After that, however, don't panic if it takes more than a week between posts.  We'll see what happens.

Fastner and Larson Rom Illustration

The above illustration is by Steve Fastner and Rich Larson, perhaps better known simply as Fastner and Larson.  A gent known as Gordon appears to be the first one to let me know about this back in 2005.  Someone finally sent a scan of it in 2006.  And I've just sat on it since.  Sorry!  I've been told this art was included in one of the pair's books, but I don't know which one.  If you do, please leave a comment or drop me a a line.

It also turns out that in the years since I was first told about it, Fastner and Larson have uploaded it to their own site.  I must warn you that much of the art on their site is not safe for work (NSFW), as it features scantily clad and less ladies.  But you can buy a $10 print (plus $5 shipping) or the $400 original Rom  illustration -- an 8½ x 11" work in marker and airbrush -- there.  Most intriguing, however, is that the site says this Rom illustration is "the study for a larger private commission."  I wonder what that looks like?

Parker Brothers' Rom Paperwork

If you're a Rom, Spaceknight fan, you've no doubt seen this piece of art before, but probably not in its complete, original form.  For example, a cropped version currently Rom's avatar over on Twitter.  So what is it, you ask?  It's shelf art!  Parker Brothers sent them stores for their Rom displays.  As it says, the yellow "T" was T-tacked, taped, or otherwise attached to the shelf and perhaps folded so that the "ROM is here!" sign was prominently displayed below and/or above the boxed action figures.

I have no idea who the artist for the shelf art is; likely a staff artist at Parker Brothers.  However, it was obviously redrawn for the small house ads that Marvel ran as they were launching the Rom comic book.  Honestly, I don't know who is behind the house ad art, either, but likely suspects are John Romita, Jr. (who drew the presentation page for Marvel's proposal to Parker Brothers) and Sal Buscema (I don't have to tell you who he is, do I?).  Or possibly it's the other way around, as Rom's head in both is how he appeared in the comics, which is slightly different from the action figure's.

The shelf display above and 180-day limited warranty below were sent to me by Max Thorne.  Both pieces of paperwork came from unopened boxes of action figures.  The wording of the warranty is identical to what appears on the last page of the action figure's instructions, just formatted to a wider width.

And for reference, here's how Rom was shipped to toy stores back in the day when it was new:  six action figures to a shipping box.  Sadly, I've lost the information on where I obtained this photo.  Possibly it came from eBay.

Action Man Stickers, Part II

This is an update to the previous blog post on the Action Man stickers featuring Rom.  The day that post went live, I got a hit on my new ebay search for the stickers, but I was too busy to check my e-mail until the next day. The photos the seller had provided much of info I was looking for. Figures, doesn't it?

Thanks to UK ebay seller bowleycat for granting me permission to use his photos!  You can find his auction for the very Action Man sticker album seen below on ebay UK.

The Action Man Sticker Collection was published in 1983 by Figurine Panini under license from CPG Product Corp. (essentially Palitoy).  They were distributed by Minicards Ltd.  The album weighs in at 32 pages and contains six different stories of 5-6 pages each and each with spaces for 40 stickers.  (That's 240 stickers total, for the math challenged.)  The story featuring from is titled "Threat From Space" and runs six pages (pp. 6-11).  The stickers for the story are #41–80, but Rom appears no earlier than #50.

I'm not certain, but it appears the stickers were sold in packs much like collectible cards in the U.S. (e.g. baseball cards).  I do not yet know how many stickers came in a pack.  The backs of the stickers all have the same text, except for the number in the top right corner to let collectors know where to put it in their albums, although some are oriented horizontally and some vertically.  I believe the album came with one pack of stickers.

Inside the back cover is a cool offer from Minicards Ltd.  Once collectors were down to only needing a few stickers to complete their collection (up to 25), they could order the individual stickers they needed.  There were ordering instructions for the U.K., Ireland, Canada, Australia, and South Africa.  Yes, Canada!  That means there might be stashes of these stickers already in North America (for us Rom aficionados in the U.S.A.), but I don't guarantee it.  I'd appreciate any information from Canadians on that.

I suppose I should summarize the story, as the photos aren't high enough resolution to always be easily read.  An alien ship approaches Earth, not responding to hails.  Space Ranger Captain Jack Hardy leads a team of pilots in their solar hurricane interceptors to check it out.  The strange ship suddenly fires on them, destroying two interceptors.  Suddenly, Rom appears in a saucer ship and destroys the enemy.  He then takes the surviving Space Rangers back to their base orbiting the moon and introduces himself as Rom, an android from the planet Zar.  The enemy ship was from the planet Margax.  To help save Earth from the coming invasion, Rom, Hardy, and two more Space Rangers attack Margax.

Their surprise assault is not successful and Hardy's ship is destroyed, although he ejects and joins Rom in his saucer.  Ultimately, they use the saucer to crash into Margax Central Control, ejecting shortly before impact.  Rom and Hardy then steal a ship, bombing the city for good measure, and return to Earth.  They shake hands and "from that moment, Space-Knight and Captain are inseparable."

As you can see, bowleycat also does not have a complete collection of stickers, so I can't yet tell you exactly which ones feature Rom.  I'm surprised that, with all the apparent Action Man fans on the Internet, no one has completed an album and posted photos online.  Perhaps I've not been searching the right Action Man or photo sites.  If anyone finds them, please let me know and I'll feature them here.

While you're checking out the stickers that are there, make sure you get a good look at #74 (the first one on the last page).  Note Rom is firing a weapon, but it's not his Neutralizer.  In fact, it's not any of the accessories the figures shipped with.  I wonder if it's one of Action Man's guns?  And I wonder if the Rom action figure could even hold any of the Action Man weapons since he wasn't designed with that in mind?  I tend to doubt it.

As a final note, do not confuse these stickers with the Action Man stickers Panini printed in 1996.  Those feature a bright orange Action Man logo.  And again, if you read this before May 14, 2012, you might still be able to bid on the album shown above.

Action Man Stickers Featuring Rom

Thanks to Marvel's many international publishing contracts, Rom's comic adventures appeared in numerous countries.  However, I'm only aware of one country where Parker Brothers let another company sell the Rom action figure:  the United Kingdom.  In the U.K, Palitoy licensed Rom as part of their Action Man line. Specifically as part of the new Space Ranger subset of toys c. 1980.

Interestingly, Action Man was actually a G. I. Joe license from Hasbro.  (This was well before Hasbro bought Parker Brothers.)  Frankly, the history of Action Man beyond that is outside the scope of this post, so if you want to know more, consult Wikipedia or Action Man HQ.

Most of the above I'd known for a while when I received an e-mail from a guy known as the Gonz over in England.  He revealed to me that there was an Action Man sticker album released in the 1980s.  And who should make an appearance in it but Rom!  In the six-page Space Ranger adventure contained in the album, Rom is an android from the planet Zar, which has been conquered by another planet called Margax.  Rom, still called a Space Knight, seeks to avenge his people and teams up with the Space Rangers to fight the aliens from Margax.

Unfortunately, as you can see, Gonz was missing most of the stickers that went with this adventure.  Below is a closeup of the only one he had featuring Rom.  Note Rom arrived in a spaceship and his rocket pack is missing, at least on this sticker.

The last I heard from Gonz, he had found a seller on eBay that was selling packs of the stickers.  He was going to attempt to complete his set and send me scans.  Unfortunately, that was the last I ever heard from him.  But that's somewhat my fault for not following up with him over the years.  I did attempt to contact him before making this post, but received no reply.

This, honestly, is the big thing that I've been meaning to share with my fellow Rom fans for years.  The one that's prompted me to finally clean out my queue of Rom items.  At first, I sat on it just because I was hoping I'd hear from him soon with more scans of his newly purchased stickers.  But days turned into weeks turned into months and I let it go.  (Have I mentioned I'm a master procrastinator?)  So my apologies to the Rom community for not sharing this a long time ago.

In all the time Rom, Spaceknight Revisited has existed, Gonz's two e-mails are the only time I've heard of these.  And I don't even know what the cover looks like, how long the book is (only that this adventure is six pages), or what sort of packs the stickers came in.  My attempts to Google it have found a couple possibilities, but nothing definitive.  If anyone out there has more information, please let me know!

UPDATE:  I found an ebay auction that provided much of the information I wanted.  That's the next blog entry.