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| John Romita, Jr. | |
| Born: | John S. Romita, Jr. August 17th, 1956 (current age 56) New York City, New York |
| Died: | N/A |
| Cause of death: | N/A |
| Occupation(s): | Cartoonist, penciler |
| Years active: | 1977 - present |
| Spouse: | Unknown |
| Children: | Unknown |
John Romita, Jr. , also known as JRJR, is an American comic book artist best known for his work on numerous Marvel Comics titles from the 1970s to the 2010s. John is also the son of acclaimed Spider-Man artist John Romita, Sr..
Career[]
Unlike most comic book artists, John's first contribution to comic book lore came in 1969 at the young age of 13 where he came up with the concept of the Prowler and pitched the idea to Stan Lee, Jim Mooney, and John Buscema. They liked the idea so much that they decided to introduce John's character into the Spider-Man mythos in the 87th issue of Amazing Spider-Man.
John's first professional stint in the Comic Book industry doing sketches for covers of reprints at Marvel UK as a favor to his father. John's debut as a comic book writer 1977 with his six page story entitled "Chaos at the Coffee Bean!" in The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #11.
Although he had made a major contribution to comic books while still in middle school, John wouldn't get his first big break into the comic book industry until 1978 where he worked alongside David Michelinie and Bob Layton in crating a run of Iron Man comics which introduced several supporting characters that have become huge parts of the Iron Man mythos such as Justin Hammer, one of Tony Stark's industrialist rivals, and Tony's bodyguard girlfriend Bethany Cabe.
The popularity John gained from his work on Iron Man convinced Marvel to assign John to work as the head artist for the Amazing Spider-Man series in 1980. During his run on Amazing Spider-Man, John and then head writer Dennis O'Neil, introduced many new characters into the Spider-Man mythos such as Madame Web and Hydro-Man. Probably the most important character that John co-created during his run on Amazing Spider-Man was the Hobgoblinas the character went on to become one of the greatest and most dangerous enemies that Spider-Man has ever encountered.
During the 1990s, John worked on numerous Marvel series including The Punisher War Zone and Punisher and Batman: Deadly Knights intercompany crossover which featured Marvel Comic's Punisher and DC Comic's Batman. In 1999, John and writer Howard Mackie worked together on a reboot of Peter Parker: Spider-Man.
In 2001, John began working as head artist for the newly re-launched Amzing Spider-Man series alongside the series new head writer, J. Michael Straczynski. Following the September 11 attacks, John and the rest of the Amazing Spider-Man creative team produced special issue to serve as a memorial to the victims of the attacks.
In 2008, John retuned to the pages of Amazing Spider-Man to pencil the New Ways to Die story arc which ran from issues 568 - 573 and the Character Assassination story arc which ran from 584 - 588.
In 2010, John began work as head artist for the 4th volume of Avengers as part of Marvel's Heroic Age event where he worked alongside acclaimed writer Brian Michael Bendis. John and Brian's run on Avengers lasted for the first 17 issues.
Currently, John serves as the head artist for Dc Comic's Superman Vol. 3 beginning with the series 32nd issue.
Notes[]
- During the course of his career, John has illustrated both gritty street-level characters, such as Spider-Man and Daredevil, and cosmic-level characters, such Thor. According to John, he prefers to draw the latter rather then 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."
Trivia[]
- When he works on a comic, John prefers work using the "Marvel Method".
- John considers "The Man Without Fear" to be his best work, due to the strong storytelling and the quality of the story.
See Also[]
- John Romita Jr. - Marvel Wiki page
- John Romita, Jr. - Wikipedia page