American comic artist, John Romita Sr. sadly passed away at the age of 93, on Tuesday, June 13, 2023. He was reported dead by his son, John Romita Jr.
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“I say this with a heavy heart. My father 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,” John Romita Jr. wrote in a Twitter post.
Romita Sr. made his first-ever comic art while in the military.
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“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 in and struggled with my first inking. That was the first story I did on my own. I did Westerns and war stories then,” he once shared in an interview in 2002.
He began drawing horror war, and romance comics for Atlas Comics in 1951, and he also drew his first superhero work, a 1950s revival of Captain America. He started working exclusively for DC Comics from 1958 to 1965 and was the artist for many of their romance comics.
In 1965, Romita joined Marvel and started drawing Daredevil comics. When Spider-Man artist and co-creator, Steve Ditko left Marvel in 1966, Romita was chosen by Stan Lee as the new artist for The Amazing Spider-Man title.
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