 | Bill Mantlo ROM Benefit |
Comic books may be regarded generally as raw material for feature films, but they are also touch stones of a reader's childhood. One of the most beloved comics of my generation's past is Rom, Space Knight. Devised as a tie-in for a toy released by Parker Brothers in the 1970's, Rom's adventures were outlandish and bizarre, leading the gleaming silver knight against the shape-shifting Dire Wraiths.
More often than not, the creators of comic books are all but forgotten, but in this case, writer Bill Mantlo has a strong fanbase who not only remembers his contribution to childhood escapism but desire to help a creator in need.
Via http://techland.com/2010/11/29/reading-rom-backwards-jason-leivian-on-the-bill-mantlo-benefit/:
In 1992, Marvel Comics writer Bill Mantlo was severely injured in a hit-and-run accident, and he's required full-time care ever since. Three years ago, the Portland, Oregon comic book store Floating World Comics raised money to improve Mantlo's quality of life by putting together a show of mainstream and indie cartoonists's drawings of ROM, Spaceknight--the comic book, based on an unsuccessful toy, that Mantlo wrote from 1979 to 1986.
This week, they're doing it again: a second "Spacenite" event is happening this Thursday, December 2, with artwork that will be auctioned to benefit Mantlo. We spoke with Floating World's Jason Leivian about "Spacenite" and the enduring appeal of ROM.
TECHLAND: ROM has become something of a cult item, over twenty years after the series ended. What made it connect so deeply with you?
JASON LEIVIAN: ROM #60 was the first comic my Dad ever bought me, and I will always remember that. I wonder what made that particular comic jump off the racks? It has to be ROM's design. I thought he was so cool-looking--a shiny silver robot with metal muscles, and yeah, something about the geometry of his boxy head with glowing red eyes. This would've been around 1986. So most kids had seen Star Wars by that point and I think we were all into robots in the '80s because of that and Terminator, Battlestar Galactica, stuff like that.
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I read that issue so many times. It was horrific. Wraiths were drilling their tongues into people's skulls and leaving them as dried-up husks. There was a little girl in that issue and she sees her parents get killed while she's hiding from the Wraiths. Rick Jones has cancer. There's lots of crying. It's pretty intense. I also find it interesting that the first comic I ever read was drawn by Steve Ditko. I didn't really like his art as a kid. I was more into John Byrne. I couldn't believe people could draw so well.
So next time we go to the supermarket I get the next issue. Except I think I've already missed one somehow. I started reading the series right around ROM's final battle on earth. Meaning he had been fighting the Dire Wraiths on Earth since issue one. And this battle reaches its epic conclusion in issue 66 which guest- starts almost every character in the Marvel universe. I must've thought ROM was the biggest deal in Marvel.
How was the money from the previous "Spacenite" show used to improve Bill Mantlo's quality of life?
I work with Bill Mantlo's brother, Mike, who is also his caregiver. Bill is a ward of the state, living in a special care facility. The state sustains him there and gives him an annual allowance of something like $1000-$2000 a year. But Bill can't have any possessions of his own. Anything beyond that, his brother and family must provide. So the money we contribute can get him things like changes of clothes, food that isn't hospital food, things like that. I wish there was something hopeful I could say about his situation, but from my phone conversations with Mike I can tell it's a pretty heartbreaking story.
Mike did tell me that Bill is aware that we've been doing these tribute shows, and Mike said he really got a kick out of seeing the artwork. It's been fun connecting with Bill's peers like Al Milgrom, Herb Trimpe and Walt Simonson. They all had very kind messages to share with Bill.
This week's event is the "second and final" ROM tribute show--why is it the last one?
Mainly, I'm going to stop doing the shows so I can finally publish the tribute book that I've been planning for the ROM artwork. This second show was supposed to double as a book release, but I kept pushing the date back in order to give artists more time. Finally I decided, let's just do the show, that'll be the deadline, and then I'll do the book 6 months later without having to rush it all at the same time. That basically worked out. Once I finally set the date of the show in stone, the artists knew it was real deadline time and they got their art in.
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