![]() I’ve had relatives here after Thanksgiving, and then I’m getting relatives here early for Christmas. I should’ve gotten it done quicker, but between Thanksgiving and Christmas confusion, I thought I was going to have two weeks or a week to get things done, and it ended up a couple of days between one thing was finished and the next thing started. That’s why I didn’t get the cover done in time for solicitation. ![]() TOM SPURGEON: How often do you get to the drawing table these days? He was affable and forthcoming, and in his voice and good humor he cast his own artistic journey and the industry’s past in an attractive but sensible light similar to the effect his most fondly remembered comics had on generations of young people, my own included. ![]() Our interview was conducted during the early part of the Christmas holidays, and he was occasionally reminded of the status of soon-to-arrive houseguests by longtime wife Virginia. is genuine and palpable, even over the telephone. ![]() The father’s pride when speaking of John Jr. His son and namesake has been a successful artist for two decades now, including popular runs on the Spider-Man character, making the Romitas one of the first families of mainstream comic books. Romita has given back to the industry that employed him in any number of ways, including the fruits of a second generation. Romita worked closely with some of the best artists in the industry’s history, such as Gil Kane, and more than most men of his considerable talent understood what made various artists work on the page. Even as the formal penciling jobs dwindled, Romita remained Marvel’s most important designer, extremely facile with covers and costumes. After his heyday as a penciler for the Marvel line, which also included lovely turns on Daredevil and Captain America, Romita became art director at the company, expanding on an informal role he had played in the office. He worked for DC when it was a leader in the field and for Marvel when it overtook DC. His first job in comics was as a ghost artist in one of the industry’s flush periods, but he soon made a name for himself as a dependable worker who could pick up on various popular styles - the chance to add to the basic visual vocabulary and style palette of comics lost by virtue of his relative late arrival in the field, a missed opportunity Romita speaks of with eloquent regret. Like many comic-book cartoonists, Romita trained in various New York-area schools and worked as an illustrator in the Armed Services. Romita was born in 1930, and in many ways, his career is emblematic of the second wave of American comic-book creators. Romita’s work at its best was fashionable, sharp and fundamentally sound, playing no small role in vaulting the character and the company to the top of the industry. ![]() No matter which version of Spider-Man readers worldwide prefer in terms of story, it is John Romita’s basic visual interpretation that lingers on in memory: Peter Parker on the motorcycle, clad in a black turtleneck, physically traumatized by a series of sharply and logically dressed villains, finding a moment’s peace with elbows crooked to receive the hands of all-time Good Girls Mary Jane Watson and Gwen Stacy. Rarely has an artist working in the American comic-book mainstream made as strong a graphic impression on a character not originally his own. Romita gave the adventures of Marvel’s flagship character a look that mixed the heightened everyday appeal of romance comics with Marvel’s across-the-line take on Jack Kirby’s dynamism. The Brooklyn native was brought on as a replacement for the character’s co-creator, artist Steve Ditko, at a crucial time in Marvel’s emergence as a publishing line and pop-culture phenomenon. John Romita is best known for his 1960s run on The Amazing Spider-Man, and rightfully so. John Romita with his son at a fundraiser for a seriously ill relative. This interview was originally published in The Comics Journal #252 (May 2003). From the TCJ Archives An Interview with John Romita by Tom Spurgeon ![]()
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