John Romita Sr. was born in Brooklyn, New York. Among his influences were Milton Caniff, Roy Crane, and Alex Toth. He graduated from the School of Industrial Art in Manhattan in 1947. His first professional work as an artist was from Manhattan General Hospital when he was 17. He was paid by an anaesthesiologist to create an exhibit on pneumatology.
His first work in comic books came in 1949 on the comic book Famous Funnies, although the story he worked upon was never published. That same year he went to work for the company Forbes Lithograph. His first work for what would become Marvel Comics was in 1949, when he worked on a 10 page story as a ghost artist. He also worked as a ghost penciller for inker Lester Zakarin on Trojan Comics' Crime-Smashers and other titles.
In 1951 John Romita Sr. was drafted into the United States Army. In the Army he did layouts for recruitment posters and spent his entire time in the military stationed stateside. It was while he was still in the Army that he began doing work for what would become Marvel on a regular basis. In the Fifties he provided artwork for a wide variety of titles at Marvel, including Westerns, war comics, sci-fi comics, and romances. He also did work on the short-lived 1954 revival of Captain American. John Romita's first credited work as penciller and inker of the story "The Bradshaw Boys" in Western Outlaws no. 1 (February 1951).
In the Fifties, while John Romita Sr. was still working freelance for what would become Marvel, he also did uncredited work for National Periodical Publications (now known as DC Comics). By 1958 he worked for National Periodical Publications exclusively. His work at DC was on such romance titles as Falling in Love, Girl's Romances, Heart Throbs, and others.
It was in 1965 that John Romita Sr. began freelancing for Marvel Comics again, serving as inker on The Avengers no. 23 (December 1965). At the same time he was working in advertising at BBDO. He left BBDO when Stan Lee offered to match his advertising salary and allow him to work either at the office or at home. Mr. Romita chose Marvel, and he worked on Daredevil for a brief time, beginning with Daredevil no. 12 (January 1966). It was with Amazing Spider-Man no. 39 (August 1966) that he took over the title as artist. John Romita Sr. would ultimately work on Amazing Spider-Man until no. 95 (April 1971), returning to the title with no. 105 (February 1972) and working through no. 115 (December 1972). He would ink most of the cover art through no. 168 (May 1977). In the Seventies he also provided art for such Marvel titles s Captain America, Fantastic Four, Doctor Strange, Marvel Tales, My Love, and others. He worked on The Amazing Spider-Man newspaper comic strip from 1977 to 1980.
It was in July 1973 that John Romita Sr. was promoted to art director at Marvel Comics. As art director he would help design such characters as The Punisher, Wolverine, Luke Cage, and others. John Romita Sr. also worked on the crossover between DC Comics and Marvel Comics, Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man, inking the pencils of Ross Andru. He continued as art director at Marvel Comics into the Eighties.
From the Eighties into the Naughts John Romita Sr. would provide art for The Amazing Spider-Man Annual no. 16 (1982), The Amazing Spider-Man no. 238 (March 1983), Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man no. 121 (December 1986), The Amazing Spider-Man no. 365 (August 1992), Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man Annual no. 13 (1993), Tales of Spider-Man no. 1 (January 1999), Webspinners: Tales of Spider-Man no. 1 (January 1999), Spidey: A Universe X Special (2001), The Amazing Spider-Man #500 (December 2003), Captain America vol. 3, no. 50 (February 2002), Iron Man vol. 3, no.40 (May 2001), Daredevil vol. 2, #50 (October 2003), Daredevil vol. 2, no. 94 (February 2007), and The Amazing Spider-Man no. 642 (November 2010).
The very first issue of The Amazing Spider-Man I remember reading featured the art of John Romita Sr., and he has remained my favourite Spider-Man artist ever since. His work was obviously influenced by the war and romance genres, both of which he had worked in extensively. His art was realistic, with more attention paid to anatomy and emotion than earlier comic book artists. At the same time there was an elegance to his art. He established the most iconic look of Spider-Man, and it was after Mr. Romita took over as the artist on The Amazing Spider-Man that the title overtook Fantastic Four as Marvel's best selling title. Few artists ever had the impact that John Romita Sr. did, and few ever will.
It may not have been my very first John Romita, Sr. issue of Spider-Man, but when I was a kid I used to have the issue where we first saw Mary Jane's face in the issue's final panel where she said those famous words, " Face it Tiger, you just hit the jackpot!"
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