Wednesday, May 30, 2012

The First, Best And Only Spaceknight For Me


















For a comic book based on a toy Marvel Comics got a surprisingly amount of mileage out of this concept.To build interest in the toy, Parker Brothers licensed the character to Marvel Comics which created a comic book featuring Rom.

The comic expanded on the simple premise that Rom was a cyborg and gave him an origin, personality, set of supporting characters, villains, and one other vital ingredient -interaction with the rest of the Marvel Universe.Rom was a member of a group of humanoids who gave up their humanity and bodies to be reborn as space robots with the power they needed to rid both their solar system and others from the vicious DIRE WRAITHS; a shaped shifting alien species.

He was armed with two devices - An ANALYZER to identify the hidden wraiths and a NEUTRALIZER to banish them all to LIMBO. He also had a convenient UNIVERSAL TRANSLATOR. This simple concept allowed Rom to move around the planet and interact with all the characters in the Marvel universe. This all led up to his eventual reuniting with the other space knights and his quest to regain his long lost and lamented humanity.

I actually have a letter published in an issue of ROM that was read by a Vietnam vet who was spending his last months in a V.A. Hospital in Michigan. We wrote to each other (in the days before the Internet) and talked comic books and life and after he died I received his last letter in a package that contained the first 35 issues of ROM. I had mentioned in my letter to the comic that I was searching for back issues of ROM and I guess he chose me to give that part of his collection to. The hospital told me that he had a storage locker full of comic long boxes and much of his collection went to hospitals and orphanages overseas.



8 comments:

Nick Ward said...

So do you own a ROM action figure then?

Nick Ward said...

Because if not check this out...

ttp://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Rom-Space-Knight-spaceknight-100-Complete-RARE-/170847838108?pt=US_Action_Figures&hash=item27c7531f9c#ht_916wt_1202

Cal's Canadian Cave of Coolness said...

Rom is on my bucket list. He means so much to me as a person.

Super-Duper ToyBox said...

GREAT story! I love that ROM toy too... so, so cool!

Hobgoblin238 said...

What I do not get is the license holder of ROM is holding out for alot of money to use him...Ummm the character has NOT be used since 1986 for crying out loud. No one is going to pay for that. He should ask for very little money and sell it to Marvel.

M. D. Jackson said...

It's the vents. Chicks dig the vents.

Sam G said...

Loved ROM. I have the first issue...or at least I used to. Great story Cal.

Mike D. said...

Rom... one of my all time faves. Just one more thing we have in common my Canadian brother!!!!