Kevin's Watch

"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 have....

2, 3, 5-10, 12, 13, 16, 19, 20, 22, 24, 25, 30, 32, 33, 37, 39, 42, 45, 46, 48, 50, 55-58, 60-63, 66, 68, 69, 71, 74, A2.

I also need to buy these tie-ins...

Power Man and Iron Fist #73
Marvel Two-in-One #99
Incredible Hulk #296 & #319
New Warriors #73-75
Spaceknights #1-5



man, I love Jack of Hearts.

I collected ROM from issue 1.
It was great until it jumped the shark with Wraith War.
Then Ditko killed it with his crappy art.

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.

we will have to disagree about 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

sgt.null wrote:we will have to disagree about Ditko.

I suppose you disagree that the Giants beat the Patriots in two Superbowls, too.

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.

I have #1. It's as close to the Ditko drawn ones as I care to get. The Micronauts were a much better toy-based comic.

Very much don't like Ditko. Didn't care for ROM one way or another, but I have the PMIF crossover, of course. That was cool.

There were some excellent things in the Micronauts. I really enjoyed it. Started it well into the series, and went back and got many of the rest.

I need to get the Micronauts issues with Captain Universe.

Tom - oddly enough I need #35.

Dan - we have hashed out the Ditko thing before. I like, no one else here does. I hope to find a run of his Speedball....

Fist - they have used Bug in the Guardians of the Galaxy.

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).

Rom is being redone, see link...

forum.rebelscum.com/showthread.php?t=1125041

w00t!

I am hoping to pick it up. lots of nostalgia books currently being published.

A word on Ditko and nostalgia.

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

Tom - never liked Heck or Tuska.

the new series.



IDW is doing a crossover. Rom, MASK, GI Joe, Transformer, Action Man.



I want to pick it up when the collect it.

A nice write up about the Rom toy. Even has a sample of a the sounds it made.

http://www.toysyouhad.com/Rom.htm

Rom first was introduced as part of the Action Man line. They had lots of toys.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_Man