John Romita is the artist who had the desperate task to replace Steve Ditko on The Amazing Spider-Man. Ditko withdrew from the series because in the purity of his vision he was not able to fashion the comics as he wanted to do. So Stan Lee was left to find another collaborator and found the perfect partner in John Romita. Romita's artwork could not have been more different than Ditko's, bringing a shining polish to characters who had been admittedly and intentionally drab for some years. There was and is an idealism in the work of Romita as if he's showcasing the inner beauty and making that the face of us all. That seems to be the biggest difference between Romita and Ditko, the latter finding that mankind was fraught with limits and the former that we can aspire to more. None of this is to say one is right and the other wrong, but that there are two ways to see the world. Romita made it gay and delightful and filled with broad smiles and dancing eyes. Romita became arguably he most important member of the Bullpen after Kirby, designing characters and bringing stability to an art house which bristled with constant change. Romita replaced Ditko and later he replaced Kirby when the "King" left for DC. His stay on the Fantastic Four was less lengthy but it was no less filled with the joy that any Romita page can bring. And did I mention that John Romita just might draw the most beautiful and idealistic women ever in the history of comics -- that's no small thing all you "Tigers" out there.
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John Romita would certainly be in my top 5 and at the top end of that list. I think you summed his work up perfectly in that he brought "joy" to his characters. Ditkos run on Spidey will always be special but Romitas run on the character was so lovely to look at and fun to read it's an amazing run of work.
ReplyDeleteI always think of smiling faces when I think of Romita.
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Yeah Romita would certainly be in my top 20 if not top 10. He drew Gwen and MJ so well. No one has ever drawn them better. I got to meet him in 2004 and he is a great guy. He was in a panel and talked about how when he started Spider-man he thought it would just be for an issue or two. He thought Ditko was coming back. To this day he wishes he had gotten to do more issue of Daredevil. He really liked DD and wanted to do more than the handful of issues he did.
ReplyDeleteI liked his DD too, he was an ideal artist for it -- better than Spider-Man.
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For me it was just a pity Romita didn't do more work on other characters . I loved his Captain America, FF and Daredevil and it would have been great to see his work on others like Iron man, Avengers etc. Nice info Chimerdave on Romitas interest in DD.
ReplyDeleteHis brief run on Cap was awesome, when Cap was a cop.
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