STARLOGGED - GEEK MEDIA AGAIN: ROM THE SPACE KNIGHT

Showing posts with label ROM THE SPACE KNIGHT. Show all posts

Friday, 10 July 2015

1985: ROM in MARVEL AGE MAGAZINE (Marvel Comics)

From February 1985: ROM snags the cover feature slot in MARVEL AGE MAGAZINE issue 23.

Thursday, 9 July 2015

1985: THE REAL ROM THE SPACEKNIGHT (Marvel Comics)

From February 1985: The real ROM makes a rare photographic appearance in the pages of MARVEL AGE MAGAZINE issue 23.

Friday, 3 October 2014

1980: ROM House Ad (Marvel Comics)

This is a Marvel New York House Ad, from August 1980, for the recently-launched ROM SPACEKNIGHT comic (based, of course, soon-to-be-defunct not-much-action figure.

Monday, 29 September 2014

1983: MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE Issue 99 featuring ROM THE SPACE KNIGHT

The "lost" issue of MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE: When Ben Grim met the Space Knight.

This, the penultimate issue of the run, was published in early 1983 (the May cover-date being, of course, several months ahead of the on-sale date) and is, today a mainstay of the 50p boxes. If you see a copy: grab it.

It's clearly not demanding high dealer prices (ahem), or generating lots of reader demand, but it is the only issue of T-I-O that hasn't (and won't be, for the foreseeable future, anyway) reprinted. The final ESSENTIAL TWO-IN-ONE volume simply skips the issue.

That's because Rom is trapped in a limbo that means that Marvel had long since lost the rights to the character despite firmly implanting him inside the Marvel Universe for the duration of the license (75 issues and 3 annuals). That sales-boosting integration has also been preventing anyone else from acquiring the reprint rights: they'd also have to negotiate with Marvel to use all the MCU characters that pop up throughout the run.

This was reprinted in issues 15-16 of THE THING IS BIG BEN, making it Rom's last in-continuity UK appearance. His SECRET WARS II crossover episode was omitted from the British run, possibly because Marvel had already handed back the license.

Friday, 1 November 2013

1983: ROM in THE OFFICIAL HANDBOOK OF THE MARVEL UNIVERSE (Marvel)

Proof positive that ROM was once a part of the mainstream Marvel Universe: his one-page entry from the THE OFFICIAL HANDBOOK OF THE MARVEL UNIVERSE Volume 1, Issue 9. Cover-dated September 1983.

Monday, 8 July 2013

1983: ROM IN THE OFFICIAL HANDBOOK OF THE MARVEL UNIVERSE VOLUME 1 (Marvel)

Continuing the toy tie-in theme of the previous post, here's a reminder about how fully integrated ROM was into the Marvel Universe in the early eighties: here's his full-page profile from the pages of the first edition of THE OFFICIAL HANDBOOK OF THE MARVEL UNIVERSE, published in September 1983.

Thursday, 20 June 2013

1980: ROM THE SPACEKNIGHT from THE COMIC READER (Fanzine)

Here's a great full-page ROM piece, as published on the back cover of issue 169 of the US fanzine THE COMIC READER.

The piece is credited to John Romita Jr. and Marie Severin.

Friday, 1 March 2013

1980: ACTION MAN ADVERT featuring ROM THE SPACE KNIGHT (Palitoy)

Here's an August 1980 ACTION MAN advert (reprinted from BATTLE ACTION) promoting erstwhile Space Knight ROM's inclusion in the UK equivalent of the G.I. JOE toy line.

But... good luck spotting him. The purpose of the advert was - beyond flogging the toys - to promote a drawing competition to design a suitably bizarre alien creature (note: they have to be a "space enemy", no friendly monsters here!) for the suddenly space-bound Action Man (this was post-STAR WARS... and sales of the old soldier were falling fast) to have a close encounter with. So, it makes sense that Ron Smith's extra-terrestrial beastie should be centre stage. But Rom, despite being "our only hope", is barely visible (someone - probably belatedly - obviously spotted this and added his name to his back pack).

I imagine Action Man manufacturer Palitoy did a deal with Parker Brothers to import a warehouse full of unsold Rom toys and - rather than sell them as a standalone item - bundled him into the Action Man line to hastily bolster its SF credentials.

All this was happening whilst Marvel UK was merrily reprinting the US ROM strips (in FORCES IN COMBAT, FUTURE TENSE and - latterly - STAR WARS) with a completely different continuity. Copies of the original US books were also appearing in British newsagents, as part of the monthly consignment of imported US Marvels.

Wednesday, 6 February 2013

1979: BILL MANTLO TALKS THE MICRONAUTS AND ROM (BEM ISSUE 24)

I promised someone last year that I would run this interview with Bill Mantlo, from British fanzine BEM (Issue 24, July 1979), in its entirety. And then spent several months trying to unearth the issue. Predictably, I'd buried it in an unrelated long box. But it's finally resurfaced, so here it is...

Tuesday, 2 October 2012

1984: ROM THE SPACE KNIGHT ISSUE 58

It's been said many times - although I can't think of a single example at this moment - that Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter issued an early eighties edict that anyone should be able to pick up any issue of a Marvel comic book and grasp the basics of who's who and what's what.

It makes a great deal of sense, both commercially and creatively, but it did tend to lead to some rather cumbersome dialogue as characters crudely reintroduced themselves to each other (and the readers) issue-after-issue. The above panel (from ROM 58, September 1984) caught my eye as a particularly clumsy example - and made me laugh - so I thought I'd share it here. Well done Starshine (and writer Bill Mantlo) for shoehorning that one in!

I picked up the issue, along with a number of other Rom back numbers, for 50p at the weekend. The dealer I bought it from seemed surprised anyone would ever want his Rom's, even from the bargain bins. Each to their own but with no reprints or collected editions (Rom's toy origins, and oddles of Marvel characters - like Ant Man seen here, will likely leave it languishing in licensing hell forever) these are actually a pretty good find.

Wednesday, 5 September 2012

1982: ROM SUMMER SPECIAL (Marvel UK)

It's ROM-on-ROM action in the SpaceKnight's only solo UK outing: a summer 1982 reprinting of the (appropriately) double-length US issue 25.

I've covered this before (I think) but: ROM, based on the Parker toy, made his UK debut in the pages of FORCES IN COMBAT. It was the only strip to survive the merger with FUTURE TENSE. After a brief homeless hiatus, the reprints began again (albeit backtracked to US issue 1 again) as a supporting feature in STAR WARS MONTHLY. That slot, ROM's last regular UK home, didn't last long as the strip was dropped in favour of THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF INDIANA JONES.

ROM's last UK appearance was in THE THING IS BIG BEN issues 15-16 (July 1984), reprinting his team-up with Ben Grim from MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE 99 (cover-dated May 1983).

Stateside, ROM first appeared in ROM SPACEKNIGHT issue 1 (cover-dated December 1979) and ran for a distinctly creditable 75 issues, ending in February 1986 (plus four US-format annuals between 1982 and 1985). Despite being a licensed property, ROM was fully integrated into the larger Marvel Universe (issue 72, omitted from the British reprints, was an official SECRET WARS II tie-in).

Monday, 11 June 2012

1980: FORCES IN COMBAT

FORCES IN COMBAT was Marvel UK's long-forgotten 1980-81 adventure weekly, a rare departure from the company's default superhero formula.

FiC is often grouped together with (the also long-overlooked) FURY as M-UK's other war weekly but, despite a long run of war-themed covers, the all-reprint line-up was a more diverse mix of strips, dabbling in science fiction, fantasy and horror.

FiC appeared in the "Skinn II" format: retaining the newsprint covers and interiors from Dez Skinn's January 1979 (partial) relaunch of the weeklies but abandoning his policy of reworking the original US artwork to cram in more panels per page.

The line-up of strips included FURY OF THE COMMANDOS, MASTERS OF KUNG FU, ROM THE SPACE KNIGHT, THE RAWHIDE KID, KULL, MACHINE MAN, WULF THE BRITON (a rare non-Marvel reprint, originally published in EXPRESS/ TV EXPRESS WEEKLY), WAR IS HELL (the memorable WWII horror series) and the humour strip I WAS ADOLF'S DOUBLE.

Issues 1-3 reinforced the perception of being a war weekly by giving away free stickers of tanks.

From issue 8 onwards, a conscious decision seems to have been made to make FiC appear to be a war weekly with a run of covers through to 21. The emphasis then switches to a fantasy theme (frequently featuring the Space Knight) for the rest of the run. It's probable Marvel management saw FiC's fluid formula as a way of testing the popularity of various genres, setting the way for the simultaneous launch of FUTURE TENSE (SF) and VALOUR (Fantasy).

This strategy was probably a mistake as it meant FiC was offering similar material to its newly-launched companions. For example, VALOUR had Conan whilst FiC had the very similar Kull. The market for such fantasy fare was presumably limited and Marvel did their best to split it across two weeklies. It's telling that both shuttered within a few weeks of each other in 1981.

CONAN THE BARBARIAN popped-up everywhere in the seventies and (early) eighties: in his own weekly and monthly (the latter ran concurrently with FiC), THE AVENGERS, THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL and THE MARVEL COMIC. Still to come were CONAN THE BARBARIAN POCKET BOOK and VALOUR.

MACHINE MAN would later become familiar to TRANSFORMERS fans as the original back-up strip for the 1984-launched fortnightly.

ROM THE SPACE KNIGHT continued his adventures in FUTURE TENSE (the only strip to survive the merger) and the early FiC material was rerun as a back-up strip in STAR WARS monthly.

MASTERS OF KUNG FU made its UK debut, at the height of the martial arts craze, in the pages of THE AVENGERS. In 1979, Dez Skinn craftily reworked reprints in MARVEL COMIC as The Specialists, a blatant "borrow" from LWT's THE PROFESSIONALS.

FORCES IN COMBAT merged with FUTURE TENSE... but only for one issue! Although Rom continued to appear until FT itself was canned but the FiC logo received cover billing for only one issue.