Джон Ромита: Художник Marvel и создатель культовых персонажей

American comic book artist (1930–2023)

John Victor Romita (/r//ə/'/m//iː//t//ə/; January 24, 1930 – June 12, 2023) was an American comic book artist best known for his work on Marvel Comics' The Amazing Spider Man and for co creating characters including Mary Jane Watson, the Punisher, Kingpin, Wolverine, and Luke Cage. Romita was the father of John Romita Jr., also a comic book artist, and the husband of Virginia Romita, who was for many years Marvel's traffic manager. His first comics work was in 1949 as a ghost artist for Timely Comics, the precursor to Marvel, through which Romita met editor in chief Stan Lee. In 1951, Romita began drawing horror, war, and romance comics for Atlas Comics (previously Timely), and also drew his first superhero work, a 1950s revival of Captain America. He worked exclusively for DC Comics from 1958 to 1965 and was the artist for many of their romance comics. During these years, Romita further developed his ability to draw beautiful women, which he later became well known for. Romita joined Marvel in 1965, initially drawing Daredevil comics. In 1966, when Spider Man artist and co creator Steve Ditko left Marvel, Romita was chosen by writer Lee as the new artist for Amazing Spider Man. Within a year of Romita becoming the Spider Man artist, The Amazing Spider Man rose from Marvel's second best selling title to the company's top seller. Romita brought a new romance style to Spider Man comics that soon became the new design for the character. In June 1973, Romita was promoted to Marvel's art director and heavily influenced the look of Marvel comics throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Romita was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2002.

After editor in chief and art director Stan Lee assumed the positions of publisher and president in 1972, he promoted Romita to the position of art director in July 1973 Wolverine, Bullseye, Tigra, and Brother Voodoo. Romita's catlike design for Wolverine was based on an encyclopedia description he found on wolverines, as vicious short animals with claws. For the Punisher, a rough sketch was provided by writer Gerry Conway, with a skull and crossbones on the chest. Feeling this was too simple, Romita made the skull larger to encompass the Punisher's torso, with his belt buckle resembling teeth. Romita also designed Natasha Romanova's Black Widow outfit, inspired by Miss Fury. Romita collaborated with The Electric Company and to produce Spidey Super Stories comics, which were aimed at a younger audience and created with help from child psychologists. The series had 57 comics produced between 1974 and 1982. Romita created another program called "Romita's Raiders", which allowed young artists to gain hands on experience and learn from the art staff at Marvel. In 1976, Romita did uncredited art corrections on the large format, first DC/Marvel intercompany crossover, Superman vs. the Amazing Spider Man, over the pencils of Ross Andru. Later that same year, Romita inked Jack Kirby's pencil work on Captain America's Bicentennial Battles, a one shot story published in an oversized treasury format. Around 1980, Romita's art directing duties expanded from comic books to special projects. His duties included supervising and hiring other artists, providing corrections and cover sketches when needed, and drawing art for various merchandise.

Romita inked the debut of new Captain Marvel Monica Rambeau in The Amazing Spider Man Annual #16 (1982) and the first appearance of the Hobgoblin in The Amazing Spider Man #238 (March 1983). He was one of six pencilers on Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider Man #121 (December 1986), and he penciled the nine page story "I Remember Gwen" in The Amazing Spider Man #365 (August 1992, the 30th anniversary issue) and an eight page backup story starring the hero and supporting character the Prowler in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider Man Annual #13 (1993). Romita both penciled and inked the 10 page backup story "The Kiss"—a flashback in which Peter Parker (Spider Man) and his girlfriend Gwen Stacy share their first kiss—in Webspinners: Tales of Spider Man #1 (January 1999). He drew an alternate universe version of the Spider Man characters in the one shot Spidey: A Universe X Special (2001), and penciled the final four pages of the 38 page story in the milestone The Amazing Spider Man #500 (December 2003) together with his son John Jr. penciling the other pages. Romita drew one of four covers to the April 27 – May 3, 2002, issue of TV Guide to promote the release of the 2002 Spider Man film. In the early 2000s, Romita contributed to multi artist jams in commemorative issues. He did a panel in Captain America vol. 3, #50 (February 2002), starring the first Marvel superhero he had drawn; a portion of Iron Man vol. 3, #40 (May 2001), although the hero was not one of the artist's signature characters; a panel for Daredevil vol. 2, #50 (October 2003); and a few pages featuring Karen Page in Daredevil vol. 2, #100 (October 2007), done in the style of the romance comics he had drawn decades earlier. Romita both penciled and inked the cover of Daredevil vol. 2, #94 (February 2007) in that same romance comics style. The following year he drew a variant cover of his signature series, for The Amazing Spider Man #568 (October 2008), doing so again with #642 (November 2010). As of 2013, he served on the Disbursement Committee of the comic book industry charity The Hero Initiative.

Romita received an Inkpot Award in 1979, and was inducted into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 2002. Romita was inducted into the Inkwell Awards Joe Sinnott Hall of Fame in 2020.

John Romita Sr. married childhood sweetheart Virginia Bruno in November 1952, who also worked on staff at Marvel as traffic manager from 1975 to 1996. They lived in Brooklyn's Bensonhurst neighborhood until 1954, when they bought a house in the Queens neighborhood of Queens Village. Some years later, the family moved to Bellerose, New York, on Long Island. Romita and his wife had two sons, Victor and John Jr. (born August 17, 1956),

Romita died in his sleep at his home in Floral Park, New York on June 12, 2023, at the age of 93. The news was broken by his son, John Jr., the following day.

Romita has been credited with creating a new Spider Man art style with romance and adventure influences that appealed to an even wider audience. He drew a more handsome Peter Parker and beautiful women, and depicted "beautiful suffering" that combined soap opera and fantasy themes. The Romita have been described as "The artist's line work became more rounded, and his depiction of women in particular became a real strength that would sustain him in years to come. His women were described as "fair of face but realistic rather than stylized" and displayed distinctive personalities through body language. Comic artist Alex Ross has stated, "For me, John's Spidey is a design of such perfection and beauty so as to be simply the greatest looking character in comics, by his hand." While working on DC's romance comics, Romita, finding the stories dull and repetitive, began looking for ways to add more personality into the artwork. For example, Romita would add flowing hair on women or objects moving in the wind for panels that had little happening and depicting characters from unique angles. After moving to Marvel, Romita was known for drawing stylistic deep shadows and defined bone structure.

Superman vs. the Amazing Spider Man #1 (1976)