International Printings - English

Contents:

Notes

I don't have full information on how Rom was printed in England, but here's what I do know. Rom was initially printed as part of the weekly, black and white anthology title, Forces in Combat. Some of the other characters featured were Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos (retitled "Fury of the Commandos"), Kull, Machine Man, and the Golem. Typically, each story seems to have been four to six pages. It is interesting to note that creator credits were not included with the stories.

The cover feature changed each week. The cover didn't always match the story inside, either. For example, FIC #21 contained the end of Rom #5, but the cover art was from Rom #2.

In Rom's case, the stories were sometimes edited down. For example, in two of the issues I have, twelve pages of story are edited down to nine. This was done by a combination of rearranging panels and changing some text. Still, the end result is readable.

Forces in Combat's final issue was #37. This issue reprinted Rom #11 in its entirety. Forces in Combat then combined with another anthology called Future Tense. The first issue used Future Tense's numbering (so it was #13) and combined the titles to become the cumbersome Future Tense and Forces in Combat.

At some point the name reverted back to simply Future Tense. Starting with issue #36 (August 1981), the magazine went monthly. Issue 36 featured Star Trek, Micronauts, and Tales of the Spaceknights. I do not know how many issues of Future Tense there were or how long Rom was reprinted in it.

List

Here is a far from complete listing of the English version of Rom's adventures.

U.S. comicEnglish comicPages
Rom #1Forces in Combat #2 (22 May 1980)?
Rom #?Forces in Combat #4 (5 Jun 1980)?
Rom #?Forces in Combat #7 (26 Jun 1980)?
Rom #5Forces in Combat #20 (24 Sep 1980)5
Rom #5Forces in Combat #21 (2 Oct 1980)4
Rom #6Forces in Combat #23 (16 Oct 1980)4
Rom #6Forces in Combat #25 (29 Oct 1980)5
Rom #7Forces in Combat #26 (5 Nov 1980)5
Rom #9Forces in Combat #31 (10 Dec 1980)?
Rom #10Forces in Combat #35 (7 Jan 1981)9
Rom #10Forces in Combat #36 (14 Jan 1981)?
Rom #11Forces in Combat #37 (21 Jan 1981)21
Rom #13, 2nd storyFuture Tense and Forces in Combat #13 (22 Jan 1981)?
Rom #?, 2nd storyFuture Tense #36 (Aug 1981)?