Career
Romita Jr.'s first contribution to Marvel Comics was at the age of 13 with the creation of the original Prowler, a sketch of which Romita had produced. Editor Stan Lee liked the name but not the costume; Romita combined the name with a design that he had previously intended for a character called the Stalker that was intended for the never-published The Spectacular Spider-Man #3.[5] Inspired by Romita's drawing, Lee, John Buscema and Jim Mooney created the Hobie Brown version of the character that would debut in The Amazing Spider-Man #78 (Nov. 1969).[6]
Romita Jr. began his career at Marvel UK, doing sketches for covers of reprints. His American debut was a pin-up in Kid Colt, Outlaw #218 (June 1977) and two months later with a six-page story entitled "Chaos at the Coffee Bean!" in The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #11 (1977).[1][7]
Romita's early popularity began with his run on Iron Man with writer David Michelinie and artist Bob Layton which began in 1978. The creative team introduced several supporting characters, including Tony Stark's bodyguard girlfriend Bethany Cabe[8] and rival industrialist Justin Hammer.[9] In the early 1980s, he had his first regular run on the series The Amazing Spider-Man and also was the artist for the launch of the Dazzler series. He and writer Dennis O'Neil introduced Madame Web in The Amazing Spider-Man #210 (Nov. 1980)[10] and Hydro-Man in issue #212 (Jan. 1981).[11] In 1982, Romita Jr. drew Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions
After he ended his first run on The Uncanny X-Men, Romita was assigned to Star Brand, one of the titles on Marvel's New Universe imprint, which featured a character the Romita was told would be Marvel's version of Superman. The title did not do well in sales, and Romita could not return to the X-Men. This experience, and personality conflicts that he had with those in editorial left Romita so disillusioned that he considered quitting the industry entirely. However, editor Ralph Macchio approached him one day as Romita was leaving the Marvel offices and asked him to consider working on Daredevil. Romita had never considered working on that character, despite the fact that his father had done so, but Macchio said he would be paired with writer Ann Nocenti, and that he would not only be allowed to do full pencils for the first time[16] (having previously been restricted to doing only breakdowns[17]), but would also collaborate on plots, and be allowed to choose his own inker. A skeptical Romita jokingly said he wanted Al Williamson, and was surprised when Williamson’s assignment to the book was confirmed a day later.[16]
Stan Lee interviewed Romita and his father in Episode 8 of the 1991–1992 documentary series The Comic Book Greats.
He worked on a host of Marvel titles during the 1990s, including a return to Iron Man for the second "Armor Wars" story arc, written by John Byrne; The Punisher War Zone;[19] the Cable miniseries;[20] and the Punisher/Batman crossover. Klaus Janson was a frequent inker.[7]
Romita contacted Frank Miller and told him that he wanted to collaborate on a graphic novel, suggesting they work on Wolverine. Miller dismissed this, saying that too many other creators were producing books featuring that character, and instead sent Romita a rejected 64-page film treatment for what was essentially a "Daredevil Year One"-type story. After Romita completed adapting the story into comics form, Miller told him that he had written an addendum to be set in between Pages 17 and 18, which ended up adding 84 more pages to the book, changing its format. The result was the 144-page, 5-issue miniseries Daredevil: The Man Without Fear,[16][17] which was published in 1993,[21] The book was a retelling of the character's origin, which reunited Romita with Williamson on inks.[17] In multiple interviews, Romita said that in terms of storytelling, he thought that Man Without Fear was the best work he had ever done,[16][17]
In July 1998 Dan Jurgens and Romita Jr. relaunched the Thor series.[23]
A January 1999 reboot of Peter Parker: Spider-Man was handled by Howard Mackie and Romita Jr.[24]
In 2001, Romita returned to Spider-Man for a collaboration with writer J. Michael Straczynski beginning with The Amazing Spider-Man vol. 2 #30 (June 2001).[25] The creative team produced a story for issue #36 (Dec. 2001) that served as memorial to the victims of the September 11 attacks.[26] He drew Marvel's Wolverine with author Mark Millar. In 2004, Romita's creator-owned project The Gray Area was published by Image Comics. He subsequently worked on the Marvel series Black Panther, The Sentry and "Ultimate Vision", a backup feature in the Ultimate Marvel line, written by Mark Millar.[7]
In 2006, Romita collaborated with writer Neil Gaiman on a seven-issue miniseries reinterpretation of Jack Kirby's characters the Eternals.[27][28] Romita worked with Greg Pak on the five-issue central miniseries of Marvel's 2007 crossover storyline, "World War Hulk".[29][30]
In 2008, Romita again returned to The Amazing Spider-Man.[31] He also collaborated once more with Millar, for a creator-owned series, Kick-Ass, published by Marvel's Icon imprint. This was later adapted into the 2010 film Kick-Ass. Romita, one of the producers, directed an animated flashback sequence in the film.[32]
Also in 2010 he relaunched the Avengers title with writer Brian Michael Bendis as part of Marvel's Heroic Age initiative.[33]
On April 9, 2011, Romita was one of 62 comics creators who appeared at the IGN stage at the Kapow! convention in London to set two Guinness World Records, the "Fastest Production of a Comic Book" and "Most Contributors to a Comic Book". With Guinness officials on hand to monitor their progress, writer Millar began work at 9 a.m. scripting a 20-page black-and-white comic book of his character Superior, with Romita and the other artists appearing on stage throughout the day to work on the pencils, inks, and lettering, each drawing a panel.[34][35] The book was completed in 11 hours, 19 minutes, and 38 seconds, and was published through Icon on November 23, 2011, with all royalties being donated to Yorkhill Children's Foundation.[34]
On May 4, 2012, Romita set out to break his own record for continuous cartooning, to support the charity Candlelighters Childhood Cancer Foundation of Nevada. He attempted to continuously sketch characters and sign comics for 50 hours straight.[36]
In 2014, Romita Jr. became the penciller of the DC Comics flagship title Superman, starting with issue #32, in collaboration with writer Geoff Johns.[37][38] Romita Jr.'s Superman pencils have been inked by Klaus Janson.[39] In 2016, Romita Jr. and writer Scott Snyder collaborated on the All-Star Batman series as part of the DC Rebirth relaunch.[40][41] Romita Jr. and writer Dan Abnett created The Silencer series as part of DC's "Dark Metal" line.[42]
Romita drew Kelly Sue DeConnick's story "Fore" for Detective Comics #1027 (November 2020).[45]
In 2022 he once again returned to the Amazing Spider-Man title, this time with writer Zeb Wells.[46]
Influences and techniques
Romita's art influences include his father,[47] as well as comics artists Jack Kirby[47][22] and John Buscema,[47] the Wyeth family of painters,[47] and illustrator Charles Dana Gibson.[47]
Having illustrated both gritty street-level stories of characters such as Spider-Man and Daredevil and cosmic stories such as those starring Thor, Romita says he prefers the former, because "that is where I grew up. I use the same approach to each of the different story types – the story tells me what to do."
