John Victor Romita (; January 24, 1930 – June 12, 2023) was an American comic book artist best known for his work on Marvel Comics' The Amazing Spider-Man and for co-creating characters including Mary Jane Watson, the Punisher, Kingpin, Wolverine, and Luke Cage. Romita was the father of John Romita Jr., also a comic book artist, and the husband of Virginia Romita, who was for many years Marvel's traffic manager.
His first comics work was in 1949 as a ghost artist for Timely Comics, the precursor to Marvel, through which Romita met editor-in-chief Stan Lee. In 1951, Romita began drawing horror, war, and romance comics for Atlas Comics (previously Timely), and also drew his first superhero work, a 1950s revival of Captain America. He worked exclusively for DC Comics from 1958 to 1965 and was the artist for many of their romance comics. During these years, Romita further developed his ability to draw beautiful women, which he later became well known for.
Romita joined Marvel in 1965, initially drawing Daredevil comics. In 1966, when Spider-Man artist and co-creator Steve Ditko left Marvel, Romita was chosen by writer Lee as the new artist for Amazing Spider-Man. Within a year of Romita becoming the Spider-Man artist, The Amazing Spider-Man rose from Marvel's second-best-selling title to the company's top-seller. Romita brought a new romance style to Spider-Man comics that soon became the new design for the character. In June 1973, Romita was promoted to Marvel's art director and heavily influenced the look of Marvel comics throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Romita was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2002.
Early life John Victor Romita was born on January 24, 1930, in Brooklyn, New York City, where he was also raised. The son of Marie and Victor Romita, a baker, he also had three sisters and a brother. Romita was of Italian descent, from Apulia and Calabria. He began drawing at 5 years old. Romita graduated from Manhattan's School of Industrial Art in 1947, having attended for three years after spending ninth grade at a Brooklyn junior high school. Among his instructors were Howard Simon, a book illustrator, and Ben Clements, a magazine illustrator. Romita was deeply influenced by a variety of artists and illustrators. As a young reader of comics, he admired Noel Sickles, Roy Crane, and Milton Caniff. Caniff's Terry and the Pirates in particular was an early inspiration for Romita. Later in his career, he also drew inspiration from Sy Barry, Alex Toth, and Carmine Infantino. Beyond comics, he looked up to commercial illustrators such as Jon Whitcomb, Coby Whitmore, and Al Parker.
On Romita's 17th birthday, he received his first artist work from the Manhattan General Hospital. An anesthesiologist paid Romita $60 a week to create a medical exhibit on pneumatology medicine, which Romita completed in six months. Romita entered the comics industry in 1949 on the series Famous Funnies. "Steven Douglas up there was a benefactor to all young artists", Romita recalled. "The first story he gave me was a love story. It was terrible. All the women looked like emaciated men and he bought it, never criticized, and told me to keep working. He paid me two hundred dollars for it and never published it—and rightfully so".
Career Romita was working at the New York City company Forbes Lithograph in 1949, earning $30 a week, when comic book inker Lester Zakarin, a friend from high school whom he ran into on a subway train, offered him either $17 or $20 a page to pencil a 10-page story, possibly a crime comic about 1920s mobsters, for him as an uncredited ghost artist. Now making more money on two pages than his usual weekly salary, Romita accepted the story and continued to ghost for Zakarin on other work. The work was for Marvel's 1940s forerunner, Timely Comics, which helped give Romita an opportunity to meet editor-in-chief and art director Stan Lee. Romita ghost-penciled for Zakarin on Trojan Comics' Crime-Smashers and other titles, eventually signing some "Zakarin and Romita".
Atlas Comics
The collaboration ended in early 1951, when Romita was drafted into the U.S. Army. Taking the initiative prior to induction, he showed art samples to the base art director on Governors Island in New York Bay, who arranged for him to be stationed there to do layouts for recruitment posters once Romita had completed basic training at Fort Dix, New Jersey. Romita was promoted to corporal after seven or eight months; now allowed to live off the post, he rented an apartment in Brooklyn.Romita interview, Alter Ego #9, p. 11; appears in print version only
When not on duty, Romita could leave the base and go into Manhattan. In mid- to late 1951, he recalled in 2002, "I went uptown one day for lunch. I stopped over at Stan Lee's [office in the Empire State Building, where Timely Comics had by now evolved into Atlas Comics], and his secretary came out ... and I said, 'Stan doesn't know my name but I've worked for him for over a year'. I was in uniform! She must've told him this GI ... wants to do some comics. She said, 'Stan said here's a four-page science fiction story'. I penciled it and struggled with my first inking. That was the first story I did on my own. I did Westerns and war stories then". The collection Marvel Visionaries: John Romita Sr. and former Marvel editor-in-chief Roy Thomas, in Alter Ego 9, each identify that four-page science fiction story as "It!", about a murderous alien in the guise of a baby. That story saw print in Strange Tales #4 (December 1951), although the Grand Comics Database lists Romita's first identified published comic-book work as penciler and inker of the six-page story "The Bradshaw Boys" in Atlas' Western Outlaws #1 (February 1951)—published nearly a year earlier. This may refer to a ghosted Zakarin story. The Atlas Tales database lists both "It!" and the six-page "Out of My Mind", in Astonishing #7 (also December 1951), as Romita's first full penciling and inking—although "It!" carries a later job number (9118) than the other tale (8964).
Romita went on to draw a wide variety of horror comics, war comics, romance comics and other genres for Atlas. His most prominent work for the company was the short-lived 1950s revival of Timely's hit character Captain America, in Young Men #24–28 (December 1953 – July 1954) and Captain America #76–78 (May–September 1954). and Romita had been offered the Captain America work by Lee after Mort Lawrence's art was deemed unsatisfactory. The character was billed now as "Captain America, Commie Smasher" in the wake of the Cold War and faced enemies associated with the Soviet Union. The series was a commercial failure, and was cancelled after just three issues. Romita attributed the series' failure to the changing political climate, particularly the public opposition to the Korean War; the character subsequently fell out of active publication for nearly a decade.
Additionally, Romita would render one of his first original characters, M-11 the Human Robot, in a five-page standalone science-fiction story in Menace #11 (May 1954). While not envisioned as an ongoing character, M-11 was resurrected decades later as a member of the super-hero team Agents of Atlas. Romita was the primary artist for one of the first series with a black star, "Waku, Prince of the Bantu"—created by writer Don Rico and artist Ogden Whitney in the omnibus title Jungle Tales #1 (September 1954). The ongoing short feature starred an African chieftain in Africa, with no regularly featured Caucasian characters. Romita succeeded Whitney with issue #2 (November 1954).
DC Comics romance-comics artist In the mid-1950s, while continuing to freelance for Atlas, Romita did uncredited work for DC Comics. Romita had been recommended to DC's editors by his artist friend Carmine Infantino while serving in the Korean War. After declining comics sales in the late 1950s forced Atlas to let most of their artists go, Romita transitioned to work for DC exclusively in 1958. His first known work for the company is the tentatively identified penciling credit for the cover of romance comic Secret Hearts #58 (October 1959), and, confirmably, pencils for the seven-page story "I Know My Love", inked by Bernard Sachs in Heart Throbs #63 (January 1960). Other titles to which he contributed include Falling in Love, Girls' Love Stories, Girls' Romances, and Young Love.
Romita's artwork for these stories followed the house style for DC comics, and the first pages of his issues were often done by another artist. The cover art for romance comics was soon done primarily by Romita. He would "swipe"—an artists' term for using existing work as models, a common practice among novices—from movie stills and from the Milton Caniff comic strip Terry and the Pirates. Bernard Sachs and Sy Barry inked some of Romita's romance work, but Romita began inking his own pencils in the late 1950s or early 1960s. Romita had hoped a DC editor would eventually offer him a superhero comic, such as a Batman filler issue, but Romita remained on the romance titles.
Shortly afterward, however, romance comics began declining in popularity, and by 1965, DC had ceased buying art for new romance comics. The company then only used romance comics from their large inventory of previously unpublished comics or published reprints. Romita was not offered work by the other genre departments, although admitted he did not try to present himself to them either. Romita's last known DC story work was the six-page "My Heart Tricked Me", inked by Sachs, in Girls' Romances #121 (December 1966), though his spot illustrations, some or all of it reprints of earlier work, continued to appear on one-page "beauty tip" and other filler pages, as well as on letters pages, through early 1970, as did the occasional reprinted story.
Joining Marvel Comics Even before his final original DC story was published, Romita had already returned to freelance for what had now become Marvel Comics. His first work for Marvel was inking Jack Kirby's cover and Don Heck's interior pencils on the superhero-team comic The Avengers #23 (December 1965).
Romita directed most of his efforts, however, toward finding advertising storyboard work. He obtained a position at the large ad agency BBDO through his friend Al Normandia, one of the firm's art directors. "They were going to pay me $250 a week. I'd made just over $200 a week with the romance [comics] but only by killing myself" with long hours of work. Struggling to find new ideas for comics, Romita decided he would only do inking for comic work again.
Marvel editor Stan Lee, however, had heard of Romita leaving DC, and asked to see him. At a three-hour meeting over lunch, Romita recalled that Lee promised to match the agency salary if Romita would come work for Marvel. Lee also assured him the freedom to choose his work location, allowing him to work either from home or the office on any given day, based on Romita's own preference. Romita had also received an offer to work in advertising, but chose Marvel instead because Lee had promised consistent assignments. Though Romita felt he no longer wanted to pencil, in favor of being solely an inker, Lee soon enticed him otherwise: