Oh Brotherhood, where art thou?

Rom: Spaceknight #31-39 & Annual #1
At long last - here is the update that was supposed to come your way almost 2 weeks ago. I had a wonderful long vacation to the Bahamas over the holiday. Thank you Carnival Cruises for a fantastic trip! (no, I'm not getting paid to say that) More Rom brought to you by Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema again with the exception of the annual, which was penciled by Micronauts alum Pat Broderick. FYI: #31& 32 brings Rom into conflict with The Brotherhood Of Evil Mutants (whose membership at the time included future X-Man Rogue). Also look out for return appearances by the Torpedo and villain Hybrid. The Sub-Mariner guest-stars in #34 & 35 as our Galadorian Spaceknight goes on an undersea adventure. Shang-Chi, Master Of Kung Fu appears in the final two issues in this pack.

Download #31-34
Download #35, 36 and Annual #1
Download #37-39

Apologies.

I'm really sorry I didn't get to do an update yesterday. I was in the middle of packing for my vacation and time slipped away from me. The bad news is this will most likely be my last post until the 30th of this month (when I get back) , but I did want to let you all know in the short time I have right now on my laptop. Anyways, see you then and Happy early Thanksgiving!

Long was the fall that had no end.

"Little By Little (Remix Long Version)" - Robert Plant
Taken from Plant's third solo LP, Shaken 'n' Stirred. The album was released on May 20, 1985 and the song peaked at #36 on Billboard's Hot 100. Even though it wasn't a commercial success the album was applauded as a creative highlight of Plant's career. This was mainly due to the synth work by keyboardist Jezz Woodroffe that gave the album a New Wave kind of groove. Psst. What? Little By Little was featured on Miami Vice. Get right outta here?! Yeah it was, as a matter of fact. Glad you mentioned that. It was 2nd season episode Junk Love. This mix was done by Mark Saunders and Rob Dickins and lasts 5:10. Saunders also did remixes for Erasure, Depeche Mode, The Cure and Yazz. Back tomorrow with more Rom.

Download - Sharebee 

Download - 2shared 

Love...exciting and new.

"So In Love (Special American Dance Mix)" - Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
The first single from their album Crush in the early summer of 1985 was also the song that broke them onto the American charts. I know it certainly was the first tune I ever heard from this band. It peaked at #26.
Download - Sharebee

Download - 2shared

Rom: Spaceknight #24-30
Double update today. Galactus, Nova and the Skrulls show out in this batch. #25 is a double-sized issue, as you can see to the left, and the core creative team remains unchanged.
Download

Luke Cage, Wraith Killer.

Rom: Spaceknight #21-23 + Power Man & Iron Fist #73 

 Issue 21 starts a two-parter and features the return of Brock Jones aka The Torpedo, who finds out (minor spoiler) the Wraiths had a hand in the creation of his battlesuit.

The Heroes For Hire duo Cage and Fist also show up to help Rom in today's batch of comics too. There's cameos by a lot of other Marvel heroes as well during another two-part story that begins in Power Man & Iron Fist #73 and concludes in Rom #23. The Saga Of The Spaceknights secondary story concludes during all this too. Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema continue to do the story and art in Rom's title. The Power Man & Iron Fist book included here was written by Mary Jo Duffy and drawn by Greg LaRocque. Duffy was the former editor of the Rom comic (on the first 17 issues) and went on to also write Star Wars, Conan The Barbarian and Wolverine during her time at Marvel. LaRocque is probably most famous for his run with Mark Waid on DC Comics' Flash in the 90's.

Download - Sharebee              Download - 2shared   

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Schoolgirl fantasy.

The Police - Don't Stand So Close To Me '86 (Dance Mix)
The original version of this song was released in 1980. It broke the top 10 here in the USA and in the UK it was the best selling single of the year. It was re-recorded and changed quite a bit in 1986 for inclusion on The Police's greatest hits package titled Every Breath You Take: The Singles. Drummer Stewart Copeland had broken his collarbone and was unable to play on the song so it was decided to use a drum machine. Copeland wanted to use his own Fairlight CMI for this task, while Sting pushed for his own Synclavier synth to be used instead. Ultimately Copeland won but this little dispute was what, according to Copeland, "broke the camel's back" and lead to the group disbanding before this version was ever released. The track itself was written by Sting and tells the story of a teacher's student falling for him and his indecisive feelings about it. Sting denies the song is autobiographical despite the fact he was once a teacher. Hey, it's possible nothing like this ever happened to him. Not very likely, but possible. 5 bucks says he nailed her. C'mon.

Download - Sharebee

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Rom-alicious.

Rom: Spaceknight #13-20

"Battlin'" Bill Mantlo and "Snazzy" Sal Buscema bring the spectacular Spaceknight to you again! Pretty good Stan Lee huh? No? Those of you who are alert (and by that I mean not stoned) will recognize Marvel's merry mutants (Must...stop...Stan-Leeing) with Rom on the cover to #17. Yep, the X-Men turn up for a couple issues in this next batch of Romics. There's also Fantastic Four baddie The Mad Thinker, the Space Phantom and the debut of recurring villain Hybrid. But wait there's more: the backup story "Saga Of The Spaceknights" revealing some of Rom's life before he came to Earth begins here. A couple of his fellow 'knights show up on Earth in #20, but are they friend or foe True Believers?!? Okay. I'm done. Enjoy.

Download Comical (You'll need it to open the .cbr files)

Download Rom #13-20 (2shared)

Turn on the light and see the floor show.

 

"Roaches" - Bobby Jimmy & The Critters                                            

Russ Parr (aka Bobby Jimmy) and his Critters released 3 albums in the 80's on Rapsur Records. He owned and operated the label himself. It's good to be the boss, eh? This song is from their second LP, Roaches: The Beginning. A parody of the hit song Rumors by the Timex Social Club, this one is probably their most famous and got quite a bit of airplay especially on the Dr. Demento Show. It was released in 1986 and this is the 12" version which I believe is the same as the LP version and runs about a minute or so longer than the radio cut. I thought and still think it's pretty damn funny.

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Random Ol' Memory?

Rom: Spaceknight #6 - 12                            Here's the next batch of issues from Marvel's Rom series. Bill Mantlo wrote the entire series and the artist on these six issues is Sal Buscema. Buscema first began working in comics in 1968 as inker to his older brother John's pencils on The Avengers and Silver Surfer. Before long Sal was doing his own pencil and ink work on Captain America, The Incredible Hulk and the Defenders. Bill Mantlo started out as a colorist at Marvel Comics before he became their go to guy for "fill-in" issues. A "fill-in" was a story that was published in the event that a series' regularly planned issue was interrupted by a missed deadline. By the time the 70's were over Mantlo had written stories for nearly every Marvel series. Not long after Rom ended he stopped writing comics full-time. He enrolled in law school  and became a Legal Aid Society public defender in New York City by the late 80's. Sadly, in 1992 while rollerblading, he was the victim of an automobile hit-and-run. The driver has never been identified. He will probably never recover and has been institutionalized ever since.

Issue #12 features Jack Of Hearts, a really interesting Marvel character that started out as a villain but under Iron Man Tony Stark's tutelage became one of the good guys. Check out that awesome cover to #8 by Michael Golden above.                                               

Download (2shared.com -Sharebee down at this writing)

Don't you look seedy.

"Let's Work (Dance Mix)" - Mick Jagger                  1987 brought the second solo album from the Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger titled Primitive Cool. The controversy surrounding the LP was anything but cool.  Jagger and Stones' lead guitarist/songwriter Keith Richards were in the middle of a very public verbal war. It all started after Jagger refused to tour behind the Rolling Stones' 1986 LP, Dirty Work, in favor of  working on this solo record. Richards was evidently pissed to the highest level of pisstivity and told anyone and everyone who would listen in the media. In response Mick wrote 2 songs on Cool dedicated to Richards: Kow Tow (with lyrics like I don't want you, I don't need you, I won't bow down, I won't kow tow), and Shoot Off Your Mouth (But now I'm back in town and feeling mighty fit,  I'm sick and tired of eating all your chicken shit). Neither song painting Richards in a good light obviously. Dave Stewart produced and Jeff Beck played lead guitar on the LP but it still was universally considered a flop. So much so that Jagger didn't even bother to tour in the USA or the UK for it, opting instead for Japan and Australia only. We all know how the whole Richards and Jagger love/hate thing goes.

This remix was done by Steve Thompson and Michael Barbiero, who have done many, many such mixes for the likes of Tears For Fears, Madonna and Pat Benatar. Running time of 7:20. Back in the next few days with more Rom comics. No sittin' down on ya butt!

"Let's Work (Dance Mix)" Download - Sharebee

"Let's Work (Dance Mix)" Download - Rapidshare Direct Link 

"Kow Tow" Download 

"Shoot Off Your Mouth" Download                                     

Rom has come....evil is on the run!

Rom:Spaceknight #1-5                                 
 Today marks the day that The Eighties Refugee Camp expands to include more than just club remixes. "Oh, no!", you say. Wait, wait. They'll still be here too I promise. I just feel like there's a whole lot of other things that I could share here. Things from my 80's childhood like good ol' Rom here. I got my Rom toy the Christmas of 1979. Friggin' loved it. The red eyes, the accessories that glowed menacingly, the noises it made. Rom kicked many, many asses in battles with my other toys. Parker Brothers had only been known at the time for it's popular board games like Risk, Clue and Monopoly. Time Magazine featured Rom as part of it's cover the week of December 10, 1979. The interior article called the toy a flop for it's lack of articulation  Heh. They never saw the way Rom's Neutralizer would make G.I. Joe scream like that chick from Paranormal Activity.

The toy failed. Parker Brothers gave up on the whole action figure thing, but the comic book based on this big-no-moving-robot toy lived on for 7 years. Not too shabby, eh? I now bow to the man Bill Mantlo. Mantlo had also brought the Micronauts to life in their own Marvel series and he gave Rom more life than a D.O.A. toy like this deserved. He turned Rom into an epic story about alienation and the value of one's humanity. Rom was from the planet Galador and had been transformed into a cyborg along with many others to defend his homeworld from the evil and terrifying Dire Wraiths. They were promised their human bodies would be kept safe and returned to them when the Wraiths were vanquished. Since he was the first to volunteer for this program Rom was given the Neutralizer, which would banish the Wraiths to Limbo forever (where they kept the Joes and my sister's ocassional Barbie or two company). The Wraiths were evil, evil bastards who could kill and then assume the form of anyone they killed. Rom and his fellow Spaceknights chased the Wraiths back to their homeworld. A battle ensued, the Wraiths lost and in a desperate panic fled their world to hide amongst the other worlds of the galaxy. Rom follows them to Earth. This is where Rom #1 begins. In it's early days, the book seemed to keep to it's own little corner in the Marvel U. As the series progressed, it became a much bigger part as the Wraiths reign of terror slowly grew to a boiling point. Rick Jones, a character from The Incredible Hulk, became Rom's sidekick. I remember a crossover or two with the likes of The Uncanny X-Men and Power Man and Iron Fist.
I don't want to give away too many spoilers so just download and enjoy this classic comic. You'll need the Comical reader below if you don't already have it to read the books. Install Comical on your PC. Then extract the comic pack .rar, also below, and open the individual books with the Comical program and you're golden.
Comical download (Sharebee)
Comical Homepage (if you'd like to learn more about it)

Rom:Spaceknight #1-5 Download  

Rom #1-5 direct Rapidshare link

To pee with.

"Spies Like Us (Party Mix)" - Paul McCartney                                                                                        In late 1985 the movie Spies Like Us, starring Chevy Chase and Dan Ackroyd, was expected to be a huge hit. I mean how could it go wrong with those two guys in it, right? It grossed a paltry 22 million but lives on in 80's nostalgia. "What's a dickfer?".  The title song by Paul McCartney reached #7 and was also the last top ten hit for the former Beatle here in the USA. It's video was directed by the same guy who helmed the movie, John Landis (he of An American Werewolf In London, the Michael Jackson's Thriller video, Animal House, and Trading Places fame). This mix runs 7:07 and features dialog from the flick.

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How sweet and fitting it is

"In Dulce Decorum (Extended Mix)" - The Damned  
  
A poem written by Wilfred Owen in 1917 about World War 1 filled with gruesome imagery and condemnation of war, Dulce et Decorum Est, was the inspiration for this 1987 song. The final lines in Owen's poem were taken from another poem, Odes by Roman poet Horace, and included these words - Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori. Translated: How sweet and fitting it is to die for one's country.

I Damn Thee (insert obscure movie quote from The Jerk for stupid pun here) : The Damned were formed in 1976. In 1984 they performed on a little British show called The Young Ones (yay!). This song is from their '87 album Anything and was used in the Miami Vice (yippie!) third season episode, Walk Alone as well as featured on the Miami Vice II Soundtrack in it's shorter remixed and instrumental form. I never understood why it was played on the show with the vocals but not on the soundtrack. At any rate, this mix clocks in at 5:59.

Rapidshare direct link 

Sharebee      

Shine the light on me.

 

"Sweet Freedom (Freedom Mix - Extended Club Version)" - Michael McDonald

Taken from the 1986 flick Running Scared starring Gregory Hines and Billy Crystal and Jimmy Smits (who got hacked up on Showtime's Dexter last year). McDonald was famously associated with the likes of Steely Dan and The Doobie Brothers before striking out on his own in 1982 (Remember I Keep Forgettin'? Ha! You see what I did there?) Michael has since smoked reunited with the Doobies many times and also as recently as 2006 with Steely Dan. This mix runs 10:05.

Remember (aka Download)

You never know when it's gonna strike.

"Jeopardy (Dance Mix)" - Greg Kihn Band

The number 2 Billboard Hot 100 hit from early 1983 by the Greg Kihn Band in it's extended form is today's subject. It's from the band's 5th LP, Kihnspiracy. The video for this song's single version had the makings of a C-grade horror flick. Zombies (always a plus in my book), big tentacled monsters and burning skeletons. This mix runs 6:46 and you can watch that video down below.






Download mix here