If the DC superhero comics have one of their most iconic cartoons in the one from the Batman collection in which little Bruce Wayne cries on the ground of an alley the death of his parents, while the beads of the necklace are scattered on the asphalt of the murdered mother, the superheroes of the rival firm, Marvel, enjoy another privileged moment in the Spider-Man series, in the cartoon in which the troubled teenager Peter Parker dumps his Spider-Man uniform in a trash can and wanders off, lonely, down another rain-soaked alley..
In this iconic drawing, belonging to number 50 of the character’s regular collection (July 1967), all the tragic residue that the Spider-Man character has always had is represented. It is the work of John Romita Sr., one of the best cartoonists, along with Jack Kirby, who has passed through the Casa de las Ideas. Sr. because he transferred his art to a son, John Romita Jr., who has produced, among other works, a ‘Daredevil. The Man Without Fear’ written by Frank Miller and several sagas of ‘The amazing Spider-Man’, ‘Punisher’ and ‘Wolverine’.
Being good, Romita Jr. has not come to surpass the excellence of his father, who died of natural causes last Monday. It is true that the character of ‘Spider-Man’ was a graphic creation of Steve Ditko. The character appeared for the first time in a Marvel comic from August 1962, but who gave him his definitive personality from August 1966 (number 39) was Romita Sr.
He, better than anyone, knew how to draw the airy and web-propelled wanderings of the spidery superhero while illustrating with precision -following the graphic trail, in terms of composition and use of color, of the comics of family and romantic dramas of the years. 50– those passages that concerned Peter Parker’s adolescent doubts and his relationships with Aunt May, Mary Jane or Harry Osborn. The films of the various Spider-Man sagas starring Tobey Maguire and Tom Holland owe much more to Romita than to Ditko.
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The first story illustrated by Romita is titled ‘How Green Was My Goblin!’, and on the first page the authors tell us to get ready for the most surprising set of events ever seen in any ‘Spidey’ story. The accumulation of events did not cease for years.
I say this with a heavy heart, My father passed away peacefully in his sleep. He is a legend in the art world and it would be my honor to follow in his footsteps. Please keep your thoughts and condolences here out of respect for my family.
He was the greatest man I ever met. pic.twitter.com/Pe2K3ywbWX— John Romita JR (@JrRomita) June 14, 2023
He had started at Marvel inking Kirby drawings, after a stay at DC. His ability and style made him one of the publisher’s strongmen, participating in series of other superheroes, such as Captain America and Daredevil, and becoming art director of Marvel in 1973. He retired two decades later, although in 2003 he participated in the celebration of his most esteemed character by drawing several pages of number 500 of ‘The amazing Spider-Man’. Forum published a beautiful little book in 1999, ‘The Art of John Romita’, in whose prologue Stan Lee writes: “John Romita Sr. is part of Marvel as our own logo& rdquor;.
