It was announced a few months ago that Marvel would be reprinting their old ROM material. We've already gotten the Facsimile version of ROM #1, and the first Omnibus is right around the corner. At the time, the trades reported that Marvel would only be reprinting old ROM material, with permission from IDW, which would continue the strange licensing agreements Marvel has had with them for many years.

I just found out Marvel will now be doing ROM variant covers of Marvel comics when the Omnibus is released. Since they are publishing all new ROM material and making money off it, does that mean Marvel now has 100% of the rights to the character? That would definitely be exciting for me as a life long ROM fan. I picked up all the IDW issues when they came out, but didn't read a single one. It just didn't interest me if the character didn't have the backstory Marvel laid out previously (plus, the character design was tweaked a bit to not really look like Marvel's ROM).

CCL taught me that other than issue #1 and maybe one other, ROM is a low value book not worthy of the price of the Omnibus price when you can get the originals for less than that. I still have a set and enjoyed them when they were coming out originally and again when I put my current set together.

The IDW series never really sold here or got much interest outside of one subscriber and the issues I read didn't really feel as enjoyable as the old stuff. I've still got the entire run and the FCBD issue in stock right now. Apparently even giving away FCBD issues wasn't enough to get people to take a set out the door as they came in.

If Marvels going to do a bunch of variant covers, which is something they do every month anyway for one stupid reason or another, just ignore them unless you see one you have to have. Over the last 6 months I've scaled back variant cover purchases to just those titles I know I have people that want every cover option for. I can't see ROM being HOT enough of a topic to trigger a bunch of collectors chasing sets. DC's slashed the returnability on theirs as well so most DC's I just order A covers for now unless requested. There are a couple individual artists that have a good long term track record I'll buy extras to stock but theme of the month usually ends up as a dud and not selling until all the A covers have sold out.

The only DC book on the strip cover return list for November I can see is the Batman Day Bundles finally showing up as long as we turn in 25 issue bundles, I assume strip covered.

I believe that Hasbro still owns the rights to ROM as a whole but they are allowing Marvel to reprint the old comics. Not sure how they are allowed to do the new covers. Maybe they are homage covers?

https://www.cbr.com/hasbro-rom-returns-marvel-omnibus/

ROM has always been a good seller for me, both here and at shows. Issue #31 can fetch upwards of $30, which I've done here on CCL.

Also, despite mentioning I'm a life-long ROM fan, thanks for the counsel to just "ignore" the variant covers, because they are "stupid." Do you give all your customers this advice when they are excited about something they like?

I guess I misspoke. I know Marvel doesn't own the character outright. Rather, I was speaking about the comic license.

I saw that article a few months ago. Still doesn't explain if Marvel will be doing all new material. Based on the variant covers, they are doing new material. UNLESS it's a weird deal where they repurpose old art for the covers, like they did with that Venom #1 Todd McFarlane cover many years back, which was just reused art from one of his first appearances.

You've probably seen this already but here it is anyway!

https://www.thegeektwins.com/2022/01/who-owns-live-action-movie-and-tv.html

I like this part:
"Guardians of the Galaxy movie director James Gunn thought the spaceknights could be in the MCU. “ROM, the story, is owned by Marvel Comics,” Gunn explained to Screen Rant in 2017. “So the Dire Wraiths, you know, all that story is owned by Marvel Comics. The character and the toys are owned by Paramount, so you can’t have both. "

I did not remember this either:

Yeah, I knew about Gunn always wanting to use ROM. Not only him, but Brian Bendis talked a few times back in the late aughts that his dream project would be a ROM reboot. This was back when Bendis was Marvel's Golden Boy, so you'd think they'd take the hint and get the rights so they could start printing money.

Here's a cool promo video made for the toy back in the day: https://youtu.be/Lf5tbogiKUc?si=cBsdwil8NsJvNMSR

You can see Parker Brothers had the idea in name only for the Dire Wraiths. Marvel created their look, which I think is how Marvel got away with using the characters after the ROM license expired, even while IDW created their own, different looking versions later on.

Fun Fact #1! John Romita, Jr. did the art chores for the ROM corner box.

Fun Fact #2! Dire Wraith action figures were planned for the Silver Surfer Toy Biz line, but were scrapped.

Fun Fact #3! ROM was the first Marvel property to appear on the cover of Time Magazine (it's true!).

That appears to be pretty much what I just said if you'd take time to comprehend what you're reading.


I've sold most issues of Rom on CCL for a buck and under. Even with a couple higher dollar one's mixed in it's still not worth the cost of an omnibus and even #1 already has a cheap facsimile out so even that one can be had cheap now.




Once again, if you read your own words it appears your excitement" is about


Not one mention of you being excited about variant covers and you went further to say you were NOT excited about the IDW stuff.

I don't see anything here saying these variant covers are anything relating to the original Marvel years or that you expected them to be.

As you should be well aware, you can expect all the variant covers to most likely end up in the dollar bins and here at CCL which simply means as stated the first time,

so, yes, I would tell my customers not to piss money away on something they didn't feel they had to have when it's almost certain if they want it at all, it can be had later at dump it prices. Buy the book for what's inside. If there's a particular cover you like, get that one which I mentioned in the first post. But don't piss away money on stuff you don't really love just to feed Marvel.

ROM #31 on mcs right now in VF++ for $10

I'm seeing mostly complete sets in the $150 range right now which is up quite a bit from a few years ago. It might actually be a good time to unload them individually instead of as a complete set. Sell while the price is up some, buy back down the road when the current high bubble bursts.



Looks like Marvel is trying to break the run into 3 Omnibus for about $375 combined.

I'd have to break the whole run up to sell individually to come close to that price and then I'd still prefer the originals if it was anywhere close.

Comprehension. I guess we both can accuse each other of lacking in that department, so it's a stalemate right there.

Of course it's cheaper to buy the individual issues rather than the Omnibus, but a ROM superfan isn't concerned with that. I already have a few complete runs, plus a baker's dozen of #1 and 31. That's not the point. I'll get the Omnibus because it's one of my favorite runs of all time, and it'll look dope on my bookshelf. Heck, I might get two of each if they have variant covers. It's the same reason I'll be getting the ROM Month variant covers. Not to "feed Marvel", but because they are producing something I like.

I still find it odd for a shop owner to encourage customers to not buy books new, and to wait until a few months or year later when the shop has to sell them below cost.

You shouldn't feed the trolls, bro. It just encourages them.

I tried to search for ROM here, but with this new update, it was too much of a PITA, so I went to a competing site, where I was able to quickly and easily search for the title. #31 is the second Rogue, right? What about 17 and 18? They sell well at all?

If I recall correctly, there are a couple Miller covers in there, too, right? Heck, they might BE 17 and 18.

Try searching "Rom 1979". That will isolate the title nicely. In related search news, try finding "Ion" (the Green Lantern tie-in) in the database. Scrolling for days, waiting for the titles to populate. Yikes. No good.

Yes, #31 is second appearance of Rogue. Takes place immediately after Avengers Annual #10. Issues #17 and 18 sell ok (more so #17).

Frank Miller did the covers to #17 & 18. He also did #1 and 3, off the top of my head.

Also still can't find Sleepwalker in the search.

When I type in Sleepwalker into the search, now I get this alert:

"Info! Conversion from type 'DBNull' to type 'String' is not valid."

Don't remember seeing that before. Maybe useful info for Joe?

Nothing at all unusual in encouraging people not to waste money. I'd much rather people spend on 10 different comics that may interest them as opposed to feeling the need to chase 3 or 4 covers of the same internal content on 3 or 4 titles. Much better chance of finding a title they'll enjoy long term and a wider purchase spectrum means more chances for one of the titles to take off and become worth something if it has a surprise something included or gets optioned/ alternative media development.

Marvel and DC in particular have a glut of variants and some of the worst don't even identify what's inside the book looking at the front cover forcing you to take a book out the bag and board to know what you're buying, potentially misleading you if you don't into thinking you're getting something else or forcing us to display them turned backwards in the bags and boards to be identified correctly. One of the worst ever was that Teen Titans Go cover on a Suicide Squad comic. Children wanted the book because of the cover but couldn't have it do to the mature content while adults passed on buying it because it looked too kiddie for them. The whole Mickey thing in progress right now where you can't tell what book it is because neither the title or any of the heroes in the book appear on the cover is another one. We're actively boycotting the Marvel Foil variants because although every other publisher appears to be able to produce them, put a cover price on the books and offer stores normal discount levels, Marvel can't seem to figure this out like we're expected to give them away at no profit, get criticized for marking them higher than what's printed on them or customers being unhappy that we can't let them have normal subscription/preorder discounts since that's less than we paid for them.

What I would like to see start to happen is like this weeks Vault comic where #1 is given to stores for free to give away and they charge for what would have been the variants and ratios. Charging for the ratio's with no order requirements would help cut down on some of the over purchasing of standard covers and such.

For the ROM variants, if they do it as theme of the month, that'll usually be something like 20+ different covers, many of them with bad art work where they put Rom in the back ground scene with some hero he's never interacted with like they just did with those Predator ones. Noone ordered any of them here and the few that came in just sit on the shelf as others pick around them. I'm not interested in seeing ROM on the covers unless he was going to be inside as part of the story. If it's just homage cover reprints, then that once again becomes misleading to consumers that may not be able to identify what they're looking at since the covers wouldn't match the content. If Marvel wants to do something, put out an actual ROM comic series with new material. That I would welcome.


That's different information than what you provided in the first post. I completely understand that but the gist was you didn't like the IDW stuff enough to even read it and there is no evidence yet that the Marvel covers will provide anything thats new or ties in to the original series. Rich people with tons of disposable income collect and horde stuff all the time. I go the other way. I only keep what I love and then, only in the form that's the cheapest to own. Sometimes that's the omnibus or the masterwork, sometimes that's the original. The savings I use to try wider ranges of stuff I couldn't if I tied up money duplicating stuff I already have available to read. I also don't like the risk. I had a customer I sold a lot of stuff to about 8 years ago and even had him coming to CCL to look for more from you and others that had his house burn down. Everything was lost including a lot of toys, figures and older comics that were already scarce. I encourage people if you have multiples to get them back out into the market. It lowers the risk for you in case of tragedy and helps to keep prices down for others that may appreciate the series if copies are available for them to read in a price range they can afford.

Another thing I like doing now if I have to have non ratio variants and don't want to wait a few months for cheap ones to show up at CCL or other venues dollar bins, is to order about 3 days after FOC. Anywhere from that point to the day the shipments arrive at the stores and you're pulling from the over print which increases the chances of it becoming more in demand as opposed to ordering up front which just increases total production watering everyone's copies down thru increased availability. It's a little riskier for smaller publishers but Marvel and DC almost always have overproduction and a few days after FOC is still usually ahead of any leaks or spoilers that would generate a run on the leftovers by numerous stores all at once.

For the Romnibus's, PRH usually has a few sales every year so far that you may be able to pick them up then for even less, plus they ship FREE to the store. They're having a smaller sale right now on DC Black labels.

ROM and the X-Men Marvel Tales is on Final order Cutoff this week so if you check with your new comic source, you have a chance to get 4 more ROM issues in inexpensive reprint mode.

For those individuals who collect everything ROM that appears to even be a new cover. For the gotta have it all folks there's even a 50 ratio virgin you can chase after.