John Workman’s The Adventures of ROMA begins serialization on CO2 Comics where it can be read for free as each new installment is posted weekly.
ROMA’s appearance on CO2 Comics is the culmination of a journey that began in 1963, according to Workman who is the consummate storyteller. One of the great joys of working with John is knowing that nearly every conversation will reveal some eloquent story of John’s seemingly endless experience of having worked in the comics industry.
Since he began his career in comics in 1967, John has worked freelance for nearly every major publisher and a few minor ones. He has performed every duty imaginable in the process of creating comics and is a production godsend which has landed him integral roles in production at DC Comics and as Art Director at Heavy Metal Magazine.
John’s stories, cultivated from having met and worked with so many people in comics, are a history lesson lesson in and of themselves and we are fortunate that he has chosen to let us feature his own bit of history on the CO2 Comics site and to have John include us as publishers his own personal history .
Back to 1963!
John prefaced the recently published CO2 Comics graphic album The Adventures of ROMA with a wonderful introduction that tells his story about how ROMA came to be. John claims to be Initially inspired by a 1963 Outer Limits episode, “The Architects of Fear.” (The same episode that obviously influenced Alan Moore as evidenced by WATCHMEN.)
Intrigued by the idea of simulating a fearsome global threat to unite the world in peace, John let the concept gestate for decades nurturing it further with inspirations gleaned from the film The 27th Day and a ravishingly beautiful, red-headed muse named Roma that worked in a bakery.
As the concept for ROMA developed it crossed the desks of a few publishers including HEAVY METAL before it was initially published in 1987 in DARK HORSE PRESENTS a title that featured another CO2 Comics contributor, Andrew C. Murphy whose works PRESSED FOR TIME and REFLECTIONS originally appeared there.
ROMA is however a woman of mystery and strange powers. She was never destined to disappear into the comics history books. It was fate that our good friend Torsten Adair would introduce John Workman to us at the second Asbury Park Comic Convention resulting in a relationship that has given us the opportunity to collect The Adventures of ROMA, nearly two decades later, in a beautiful graphic album completely designed by John.
We are proud to present this wonderful work in paperback and hardback editions and to now as a feature here on the CO2 Comics site where her adventures can be viewed from anywhere on the globe for free.
Now, thanks to the wonders of the World Wide Web and international shipping, all roads do lead to ROMA online and in print. So get ready to enjoy John Workman’s adventures of ROMA – the story of a girl who is so much more than merely super-human!
Making Comics Because We Want to,
Gerry Giovinco
