"Rom The Space Knight" was a toy co-created by Bing McCoy, Scott Dankman, and Richard Levy (US Patent #4,267,551). It was sold to Parker Brothers, and was the inspiration for the comic book series. The toy was originally called COBOL (after the programming language,) which was later changed to "Rom" (after ROM, read-only memory) by Parker Brothers executives.
the comic book outlasted the toy which it was created to support. The series lasted for 75 issues over a seven year period, with Rom's regular encounters with mainstream heroes and villains establishing him as part of Marvel continuity.
I started collecting these when they came out. never had the toy. Have found them in dollar bins a lot.
Bill Mantlo wrote both Rom and the Micronauts - yet I don't think they ever crossed over. and as far as I know, Marvel can no longer use Rom by that name - but everything introduced in the books belongs to them.
and unfortunately Mantlo was the victim of a hit and run and remains in a home being cared for.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Mantlo
I collected Rom from #1 as well, and like HLT I grew tired of the bad writing and bad art after a while. This title wasn't the first to be killed by Ditko.
I remember reading an X-Men comic with Wraiths in it... in the end, they scared them away with the illusion of Rom and some female-Rom being in the same room... and then reality was torn apart and I went back to reading the Incredible Hulk
'Tis dream to think that Reason can
Govern the reasoning creature, man.
- Herman Melville
I am Lazarus, come from the dead,
Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all!
"All creation is a huge, ornate, imaginary, and unintended fiction; if it could be deciphered it would yield a single shocking word."
-John Crowley
I have Rom issue 35. I'm not proud of it though. I read a few issues and couldn't get past the subpar art. The character just wasn't all that interesting to begin with.
"If you can't tell the difference, what difference does it make?"
I loved what I had of Rom the Spaceknight. In fact, I have the issue you show in the initial post. I thought it was a very compelling story, but I didn't buy that much (since I never bought many comics ever).
Life is a waste of time
Time is a waste of life
So get wasted all of the time
And you'll have the time of your life
Back when I was a kid I didn't know one artists reputation from another. When I first saw each artist I had a pretty natural and honest reaction. I thought Ditko, Sal Buscema, Herb Trimpe, Don Heck and yes Jack Kirby were crap. I liked John Romita, Gil Kane, George Perez, John Byrne and Gene Colan.
However as I get older I find I appreciate all of the artists I immediately disliked in the past, mainly because I find the books they were featured in nostalgic. Nowadays its actually a thrill to open an early Fantastic Four or Amazing Spider-man and see Ditko or Buscema. (The only exception I can think of is Don Heck. Dude sucked so bad it defies nostalgia.) IMHO
"If you can't tell the difference, what difference does it make?"
... there's news today from Deadline Hollywood that Zak Penn has been hired to write the ROM: SPACEKNIGHT film for Paramount Pictures and Allspark, Hasbro's film division. Penn is hot off the critical success of the out-this-week READY PLAYER ONE, and has had a hand in many of the most successful Marvel Comics adaptations, including X-MEN 2 and THE AVENGERS (as well as some disappointments, like X-MEN: THE LAST STAND and ELEKTRA).
Have found them in dollar bins a lot. 
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