Sketchbook Commission - Tyler James

For general info about my convention sketchbook's theme, click here.


This is the first of a couple sketches I picked up at the 2010 Baltimore Comic-Con.  A friend of mine found out that Tyler James was offering a deal through his website that the first fifty people that contacted him before the convention would get a free sketch card (the size of a baseball card) of a character of their choosing.  He would also do a full character sketch on 7x10.5 inch board for $10.  Well, I thought this was a real nice deal, and poking around his site I saw that he has a nice style, so I emailed him.  For the free sketch card I requested ROM and am quite pleased with it.



I think I'm going to hang this on the front of my ROM shortbox.  It's all like "WOAH! There's Spaceknights all up in this box! Watch yourself, human!"

For the commissioned sketch I asked him to do Hawkeye because I've been wanting to get a Hawkeye sketch and this seemed like the perfect opportunity.  I explained the concept of my sketchbook and sent him the site address and left the details up to him, like I always do.  The result is so cool, unexpected, and characteristically Hawkeye that I immediately fell in love with it!


As Tyler explained to me, "It's Hawkeye jumping out of someone else's car that he just drove off a cliff."  That is definitely something Hawkeye would do!  This baby's going up on my wall.  This is EXACTLY the type of action shot I was hoping for when I came up with the idea for this sketchbook!  I love all the stuff I've gotten, but I feel like this really hits the full "action" potential of the collection.  So thanks for the awesome sketch card and commission, Tyler!

You can all see Tyler's website and check out his projects over at TylerJamesComics.com

What may be the most Awesome ROM Pin-up EVER.

I've recently become addicted to deviantART. Don't misinterpret, I have basically zero illustrating talent, I'm there purely to enjoy the awesome art that people put out. During one of my periodic searches I came across this MINDBLOWINGLY AWESOME piece of ROM art!


It was done by Andrew Griffith, aka glovestudios on deviantART. One of the great things about the deviantART community is that most people don't watermark their stuff or inhibit your ability to download their artwork (there's actually a "download" button). I'm currently using this bad boy as the wallpaper on my Droid phone, and it is beautiful.

So check out deviantART, you'll be amazed at what you can find!

ROM, Spaceknight, Awesome Read

I've mentioned before that I'm currently working my way through every Iron Man issue from the beginning. (I'm currently in 1981.) Well for the last few "years" this ad has appeared in several issues.


I decided to go dollar bin diving at my comic shop this weekend as I got word they made a ton of new acquisitions. Turns out they picked up a good chunk of the ROM series. I was intrigued. I had never actually seen this book before and they had quite a few; perfect if I wanted to start reading it. Then I opened up an issue and rediscovered that ROM was done by the writer/artist team of Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema, who did some kick ass runs of Iron Man in the 1970's. I was sold right there. I got a total of 17 issues in two good size runs. I only have a chance to go to my shop about once over 2-3 weeks, so I took the chance and picked up a good run of issues. So far I've only read one issue, but I'm hooked. This book is excellent. Now I have to get to my shop to pick up every other issue they have! The series is 75 issues + 4 annuals, and annual #1 was among my acquisitions.

To start, I read the Wikipedia page for the fair spaceknight to get the character background before diving into issue #26 (which was the earliest issue I found). There were quite a few awesome bits in that one issue alone that I'd like to share with you.


Galactus on Galador! Galador is ROM's home world, so right there you know that this issue is going to be action packed! "ROM" is a three letter word. You know what else is? "BAM". I'm just saying...

It doesn't take long for things to get AWESOME. Page three contains this very serious warning.


That's right kids, Stan "The Man" Lee HIMSELF says that this issue contains so much action that it will FUCK YOU UP! Now I was going to read this issue while eating lunch, but when I saw this I had to stop. You see, when encountering Xtreme Xcitement I follow the same rules as swimming: I don't do it within 30 minutes of eating. After I had digested for a full 40 minutes (to be safe), I continued reading. Let me tell you, it did not disappoint. Although part of it did get a little gay.


But it just gets more MOTHER FUCKING MIND BLOWING AWESOME from there! Turns out that in the last ish there appeared a twin of ROM named "Terminator." Terminator battled Galactus while ROM snuck aboard Galactus' ship to wreck up the place. Galactus gets mildly irritated by Terminator and, as the panel says, he suffers a punishment such as no other spaceknight has suffered before.


HE GOT HIS FUCKING BALLS BLOWN OFF!!! JESUS CHRIST!!!!!

Seriously, never have a I read a comic and reacted so strongly to a combat scene as I did when I saw this. I need to frame this panel or something. It is too awesome for words.

Now you know why I must own every single issue of this series. Honestly, how can you not want to read a series that has this as a cover to an annual?


His metallic package and glowing eyes herald the Awesome.