1st Marvels: John Romita, Jr. INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #115 Mantlo’s run becomes history, and Layton/ Michelinie/ Romita makes history Paired with the inker who would notably join him on Uncanny X-Men- Marvel’s best direct market seller- the son of Silver Age Spider-Man artist John Romita followed his namesake over a decade after that future Art Director came to Marvel. I virtually forgot John Romita, Jr. got his first assignment drawing a back-up for Amazing Spider-Man Annual #11 in 1977. His full-book premiere comes in Invincible Iron Man #115, a 1978 issue which, with a few fill-ins, marks his regular tenure there. When new writer and new inker David Michelinie and Bob Layton begin directing Iron Man, next issue, a definitive Bronze Age team comes together, making a modern look and feel for the mechanized marvel that influenced Jon Favreau and his own team on the box-office smash Iron Man movies. But everyone’s got to start somewhere, and it so happens JR, Jr., as he’s often n...

Bill Mantlo's prolific Marvel Comics Group comic book work holds many personal kid memories for me. ROM #24 is one of the first two comic books I ever bought with my own money It’s a nice way to tie up the Nova series, though I’m glad Erik Larsen and subsequent creators like Abnett/ Lanning continued his story. (Wolfman left for DC just before ROM #24 was created so it was a way of tying up the character’s legacy for the time being.) Now when I came on to assist Joe Phillips for a brief while, one of our first conversations was how interesting it was to bring Rich Ryder back to Earth sans powers. That one idea sparks a corner of my own creative universe: it’s like Howard the Duck’s “What to do the Night After You Save the Universe?” story, that kind of quiet interface that makes the comic book world merge so readily with our own, especially when we are the young “secret identity” ! (You're welcome to check out my 'Sunstrike' posts in Be Chill, Cease ill, our siste...

“Am I mad to think that I may communicate with a living planet? That I may reason with a world enraged?” (Right there’s a clause that could be a nice Stan Lee-approved title, though “This World Alive!” chosen by Mantlo suits Rom, Spaceknight #69 (Aug 85). From the cybernetic memory banks of Rom, spaceknight: The battles of other worlds, their mysteries, have haunted my way. I, the poet, have born the scars of conflict stretched over two hundred years; even the banishment once and for all of Wraithkind has yielded no surcease since departing Earth. Now have I begun searching for the signals of my own kind, the blossom of Galador’s youth wrapped like myself in unfeeling spaceknight armor. Indeed, the two lifeforms I sense faintly here are my first hope of finding fellow Galadorians since Starshine fell to Wraith treachery upon my first return to Earth. That return filled me with great woe, for though I would again see the woman I had come to love, I now had the knowledge that ...

While I wait for ROM #4 to come through the mail, let me note that Nov. 9th is Wraith Birthday! When the Wraiths came to Earth and began their undercover disguises, a large number of them, at least, created birth certificates. At some point---I believe it's #9, on loan at present---a reporter uncovers this common date among every one apparently "slain" by Rom (who's banishing them, natch). In fact, it's Nov. 9, 1951 if I recall correctly---and why wouldn't that also be the birthday for writer Bill Mantlo? So---Happy Birthday, Bill Mantlo!!

Rom, Spaceknight #3 Writer Bill Mantlo Artist Sal Buscema Editor Jo Duffy E-i-C Shooter At first flip, this issue has all the 70s problems with flashbacks in place of developments, stretching the gruel thin, plotwise, to set up Rom’s confrontation with Stryker/ Firefall, whose training and indoctrination gets as much space as the hero. On the plus side, no early Rom cover gets further from the toy or better illustrates the Rom/ Wraith struggle than this Frank Miller/ Terry Austin piece! It’s very similar to modern middle chapters; the one complete story is the transformation of Stryer to Firefall. The emphasis on developing the villain also helps spotlight the Wraiths in a capacity other than simply talking amongst themselves and catching the Limbo train. The recaps and simplistic evil of the villains, along with the toy origins of Rom, must’ve worked together to give the impression of “kid’s book” mentioned in later letter columns regarding these early chapters. On the ...

http://i51.tinypic.com/2gv3qfc.jpg Bill Mantlo C/O The Mantlo Family 1995 Miller Place Merrick, NY 11566 Listen, if you have a soft spot for ROM---whatever your Mantlo connection--- I hear he appreciates fan mail to this day. Everyone seems familiar with his car accident in '92, but as far as I know, letters are still welcome, okay? We'll see if Jo Duffy replies with a story of how ROM went from 50's style alien invader story complete with "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" enemies to the song it became...which was not bad for a former state-of-the-art toy that managed to move between 200,000 and 300,000 units before cancellation. So why am I thinking of "I Will Fly No More" off Toy Story, huh? Her editorial interest is thanked personally by Bill in a later issue; I'll finish commenting on #1, with less expectation of cracking many of his thoughts via his electronically preserved memories. Publius Enigma keeps finding memories of the memory ensconced ...