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| Is this iconic, or what? |
Redartz: Happy Monday, everyone! Recently we took a look at one of Martinex1's favorite (and many others' favorite as well) artists, Sal Buscema. Well, today we will look at one of my faves: John Romita, Sr. "Jazzy Johnny" is probably best known as the artist behind many of Spider-Man's greatest tales. He also,though, had stints on Daredevil, Fantastic Four, Captain America, and more. And he produced a veritable mountain of covers for Marvel throughout the Bronze Age, exceeded only perhaps by Gil Kane. And as Marvel's Art Director, Romita was responsible for keeping the 'house style' consistent over a long period of time. This was a task he was perfectly suited for; Romita could draw anyone in the Marvel Universe and they would look Just Right.
John Romita and Jack Kirby were the first artists I learned by name, and Romita was my favorite. Of course,as the artist on my number one book (yes, you all have heard that before, Spidey's my number one) he defined the character for me. I love Ditko, Kane, Andru, Frenz and McFarlane, but Romita's version is my Spider-man. His clean dramatic style. His iconic Peter Parker. His beautiful Gwen and Mary Jane. His flawless, abrasive Jonah Jameson. His menacing Doc Ock. His maniacally grimacing Green Goblin. He did it all so well...
First, a look at some examples of Jazzy Johnny's (non-Spidey) jewels:
Here is is on Conan, inking Kane on the left and Buscema on the right (Belit never looked better). These, flanking a classic Cap cover.
That cover painting of Son of Origins is phenomenal. Iron Man and the Surfer just shiiiine...
Now we see two versions of the same cover. Aside from the reversal of Spider-Man's position, Romita has slightly shifted the position of Mysterio's grip and highlighted the foreground more. Also, darkening the sky above the action emphasizes the 'closing in' aspect of the threat.
And now, a selection of some of my favorite Romita Spider-Man covers. Some classics, some not. That cover to issue 59, with Mary Jane- just terrific. Love how the scene is split by the stage curtain. It just displays, again, Romita's expertise with dramatic design and composition.
Issue 135, below, is perhaps my all-time favorite ASM cover. The characters, the drama, Spidey's perfect pose, the black spider motif: matchless. I have a repro of this cover hanging in my workplace...
The Spectacular Spiderman cover on the right is an example of Romita's more recent work. He still rocks the Goblin. And speaking of the Goblin, Romita's painting for the magazine issue is another classic.
Finally, a look at some pages showing Romita solo, and with others. Different styles, yet John's sharp, clear look always comes through.
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| Ron Frenz pencils, Romita inks |
An example of John's early work on Amazing, from issue 45. Still showing some touches of Steve Ditko here...
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| Romita pencils and inks |
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| Romita pencils, Jim Mooney inks |
Much as I enjoy color comics, there is an undeniable appeal to black/white art. Here we have a page from the first Spectacular Spider-Man magazine from 1968. Jim Mooney's inks are often pretty heavy, but I feel his style meshes well with Romita's...
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| Romita pencils, Jim Mooney inks |
This page shows us the work of two generations of Romita artists. John Jr. pencilling, with his dad inking.
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| John Romita Jr. pencils, JR Sr. inks |
A cool page from Spider-Man Annual 3. Good thing Romita left the top third of the panel open, any art would have been obliterated by all those dialog balloons...
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| Romita layouts, Don Heck pencils, Mike Esposito inks |
Here, Ross Andru with Romita. John adds a nice smoothness and polish to Andru's rendering.
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| Ross Andru pencils, Romita inks |
Last up, a powerful page by Gil Kane with Romita inking. This artistic combination is nothing short of spectacular (or should I say amazing). Kane's off-the-page energy and action, with Romita's finesse. Now this is Comics!
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| Gil Kane pencils, Romita inks |
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15 comments:
all i can say is, "wow!"
That is a wonderful retrospective of one of the all-time greats. Thanks for the ASM/Marvel Tales covers comparison -- I'd not seen that Marvel Tales cover with Mysterio before. Altered covers for the reprint mags have long been a fascination of mine. Generally I'd say the second effort does not improve on the initial outing, but I'd be wrong on this pair. Love the update.
I also really enjoyed the views of Romita under and over various other pencilers and inkers. Jim Mooney is always an interesting case for me. Unmistakable as both a penciler and an inker, particularly on eyes. Great stuff.
Doug
If anyone's worthy of 'total gushment'...., it's Johnny Romita, Sr. Seriously.
(And that's quite a collection of covers and panel's today.... Wow.)
As everyone'll bring up their fav work by him, let me start with what I didn't like in as much.. I felt his Captain America interiors were good, but once Sal arrived on the title, I felt I didn't like Romita as much anymore. Sal had such a power to him, but quite ironically, the opposite is true for Spidey..
Early on, I liked Sal's initial Spidey work on MTU, but didn't feel that Sal's clean style benefited Spiderman later on, as much as Romita. Like Sal on Cap, Romita Sr. had such a great distinctive warmth with ASM that I never felt ANY artist could touch, period. To me, Romita's THE signature Spiderman artist without any question.
Those covers are simply gorgeous. Whenever I see that red Spidey Treasury Edition, my noggin immediately zooms back to that day in 1974, the excitement of seeing such beauty at my local dimestore, practically running miles and miles back home just to beg my Mom for a dollar and a quarter to run back and buy it.
Thank you, John Romita Sr..
Awesome stuff! I've always loved the artists that incorporate a of mix realism and a classic clean cartoon style, and JR Sr. is one of the all-time masters of that technique. Other great artists who incorporate a similar style are John Byrne, Alex Toth, George Perez, and Bruce Timm (just to name a few off the top of my head).
I grew up on a healthy dose of John Romita, and he is pretty much the quintessential "Marvel" artist in my mind. (Even over Jack Kirby).
Also, that ASM #135 is one (if not my favorite) cover of all time. When I was in 6th grade I had a binder with a bunch of Marvel coves and panel art all over it, and ASM #135 was one of the covers. I used to stare at it all the time, and really helped me stay awake during math class. Thanks John Romita. LOL
Romita had great covers all over the Marvel Universe, as you showed. Standouts include Giant-Size Avengers #1, the entire Origins of Marvel Comics series (love Bring on the Bad Guys!), and Captain America #171, smack in the thick of "Secret Empire".
His corrections also show up everywhere, including in this panel from Sub-Mariner #67. I remarked in the accompanying post that I'm convinced that the large Subby panel is by Romita and not by the book's penciler Don Heck. Thoughts?
Doug
Making a guess at it, I'd say the face is definitely Romita. I think the body's predominantly Heck, though his right hand may have been touched up by Romita.
As for favourite Romita covers, there's so many that it's impossible to list them. I have always had a soft spot for the cover he did to "Creatures on the Loose" #34, where Man-Wolf is falling from a train that's gone plunging off a sky-high bridge.
Beautiful though his covers and pages are, his role as Art Director for the entire line through the 70s and 80s was just as important. During the editorial turmoil of the mid 70s in particular, he must have offered creative stability and a direct link to Stan's earlier Bullpen.
But his covers and pages are undeniably beautiful.
Yeah, I always liked Jazzy Johnny's work. His Spidey was great, but I really loved the way he did the supporting characters; his Gwen looked a lot better than Ditko's, and his MJ ... whoa!
And as Colin Bray said, Johnny's stint as Art Director in the 70s left a lasting legacy; he did a lot of covers and general designing of characters. I think he was the one who came up with Punisher's skull emblem, wasn't he?
Great examples of Romita's work. It is hard to separate him from the iconic visions of Spider-Man. But I think his work on the classic Spider-Man villains was even better. His Mysterio, Doc Oc, Green Goblin and all the rest were so perfect. He had such nice clean lines and such perfect poses. People have commented on his Mary Jane and Gwen, but I also really like his Peter Parker. It was a nice evolution to a more mature Parker from the Ditko version.
I have to say though that I like Romita a little better when he is teamed with somebody. I actually find his work with Mooney to be a lot of fun - but that may just be my bias from when I was first introduced to his work.
I don't want to be a downer because Romita is an all-time hall-of-fame great, but I thought his Captain America was just "okay." And I really did not like his Steve Rogers. Steve always seemed kind of "blah" with a flat look and too-wide shoulders. I much preferred Romita on Spider-Man and even the FF.
Two more observations on Romita's Art Director role.
First, The Marvel Method gave so much responsibility to artists that his influence can only have permeated every aspect of every book published.
And second, since (I believe) Stan was both Editor-in-Chief AND de facto Art Director until 1972, Romita carried the flame for Stan's storytelling vision when he picked up the Art Director reins.
If we didn't see as many Romita interiors as we would have liked he was still busy laying the foundations behind the scenes.
Thanks for the comments, all!
Doug and Marti- yes, Mooney's inks over JR are pretty satisfying. It would be interesting to see how many issues of Spidey that Mooney inked. Must have been a lot, he did some later over JR Jr, also over Al Milgrom on Spectacular. And lots of issues over Romita.
david_b- That Treasury Edition was a prize. I too recall the specific day I acquired it. Wish I still had it...
William- Those folders and notebooks were a great way to carry the hobby to school each day. Seeing Spider-Man and the FF helped make Algebra tolerable...
Mike Wilson- yes, actually Romita designed the Punisher in entirety, if I recall correctly. That cover to issue 129 is another beaut.
Marti- great comment on the Romita villains. Ditko designed the rogue's gallery and made them memorable. Romita made them a villainous Hall of Fame. The Green Goblin is a perfect example. Ditko's version looked almost cute or humorous at times. More recent versions look too slick, or just over-the-top crazy. Romita's Goblin was perfect: that mask was the ultimate blend of crazy madness and creepy coolness.
Firstly: I've been quite a bit, QUITE A BIT, of reading without contributing. I want to say it's mostly because of scanning scanning scanning but even that's taken a hit lately. Getting down to brass tacks, it's time management. I need to do better, I should do better. Maybe I should write that down. 47% of people do better at achieving goals when they write things down...
B) I will say this about that. JR Sr did a lot to shape what I think comics should look like. Especially his covers. Even in titles I followed, he made me buy the book...
(It's been such a long time
I think I should be goin', yeah
And time doesn't wait for me, it keeps on rollin'
Sail on, on a distant highway
I've got to keep on chasin' a dream
I've gotta be on my way
Wish there was something I could say
Well I'm takin' my time, I'm just movin' on
You'll forget about me after I've been gone
And I take what I find, I don't want no more
It's just outside of your front door
It's been such a long time. It's been such a long time
Well I get so lonely when I am without you
But in my mind, deep in my mind
I can't forget about you
Good times, and faces that remind me
I'm tryin' to forget your name and leave it all behind me
You're comin' back to find me
Well I'm takin' my time, I'm just movin' on
You'll forget about me after I've been gone
And I take what I find, I don't want no more
It's just outside of your front door
It's been such a long time. It's been such a long time
Yeah. It's been such a long time, I think I should be goin', yeah
And time doesn't wait for me, it keeps on rollin'
There's a long road, I've gotta stay in time with
I've got to keep on chasin' that dream, though I may never find it
I'm always just behind it
Well I'm takin' my time, I'm just movin' along
Takin' my time, just movin' along
Takin' my time, takin' my time...)
PS: I would post the robot update but it looks like I ran out of
Prowl- thanks for dropping in! I think many of us understand the challenges of time management...
Hey hey hey now we're talkin'!
Yes, like Redartz Jazzy John is one of my very favourite artists, not only on Spidey but of all time. Of course, his work on Spidey is the stuff of legend; anyone coming after Spidey's co-creator Steve Ditko (yes, I acknowledge him as such) would have been overshadowed, but Romita Sr elevated Spidey to even higher heights. Nobody drew a better Mary Jane than Jazzy John either!
Oh by the way, I want to be buried with a poster of that iconic cover to Spidey Marvel Treasury Edition #1 draped over my coffin!
- Mike 'Romita Sr forever' from Trinidad & Tobago.
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