From the point where I first met him as I started my internship at Marvel in 1989, John Romita called me “Kid”. I wasn’t alone in this—he called a bunch of different people Kid, anyone who was younger than him by a decent margin, pretty much. But this was amusing to me when I was in my twenties and a bit more incongruous by the time I was in my fifties. Never changed, though.
Fun fact about Romita: the first time he drew Spider-Man was in a Daredevil comic (Daredevil #16) — which mirrors the first time Frank Miller drew Daredevil being in a Spider-Man comic (Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #27).
I grew up on Romita's Spider-Man as the iconic, platonic ideal of the character, due in no small part to the amount of merchandise I got as a child.
To this day, one of the elements of Spider-Man I am most persnickety about is my strong preference for the Romita eye-shape. There was a lot of subtle — and not so subtle variation in the way that artists drew Spider-Man's eyes. Sometimes they could be little more than teardrops with an outline with little variation of thick and thin. But the line and proportion and shape Romita brought to the inner and outer contours of that eye shape was masterful: the outer bowl, the undulating upper line, the way that the thickness of the black area increased towards the outer point of the eyes, the subtle difference of axis between the inner white and outer black shape. In the years since, I was elated to see Alex Ross paying special attention to capturing that iconic shape, and later still I was thrilled to see Tom Holland's Spider-Mask recreate the shape in its own way — which is one of the reasons I attribute to why this on-screen costume resonated so well. (https://imgur.com/a/8Eg1yLW)
Just one little aspect of why I have such a fondness for Romita's art.
"John was always a bit chagrinned that he missed the formative years at Marvel, and so didn’t have a hand in creating any of the great characters or strips."
Wolverine. Punisher. The redesign of Black Widow. But I get what you're saying -- he didn't have runs on those characters.
Romita Sr is why I fell in love with comics. He’s always been my favorite artist. Always will be. Truly grateful for all the work he left behind, and always just as glad to hear the stories about what a decent human being he was.
Can I do my “if you like Black Mirror, you might REALLY like Inside No 9” post. Another anthology show with its roots in comedy but often going into horror or terror. It’s not a tech focussed show, but it shares DNA with Black Mirror, every episode is different but is written and stars the same two, Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton. Constantly inventive, it restricts each episode to one location which for some reason or other is always numbered ‘9’. Could be a house number, a hotel floor number, the number of a submarine, a no 9 bus, a room no 9... whatever. They are always inside it.
Fantastic tribute, I love learning about the industry’s greatest talents.
One thought I have, it was a question by Mortimer, is the social media comic book/industry coverage that terrible? I haven’t really thought about it, but it would be nice to have a forum where people can educate and even disagree with each other.
A simple 'lost project' question - I had heard rumours of a Kilraven mini by Robert Kirkman and Rob Liefeld - anything you can share with why that never happened and what is was about?
I seem to recall you mentioning an editor's reading circle a few times. I have to imagine that its not just a bunch of people patting each other on the back. I assume there is no shortage of criticism involved — constructive criticism, I presume, but maybe not sometimes. Long question short: do you have opinions on what kind of criticism you think is fair game versus what kind of criticism is over the line?
Hey Tom, after reading this, I went back to read The Twelve, and it brought up a question I have for you.
When the Twelve are captured by the Nazis in the siege of Berlin, there is a panel after they’re all unconscious where the head Nazi looks at Claire Voyant/Black Widow and the drawing shows him fondling/groping her breasts. Of course, this might well be what a bad guy would do, but I was wondering how the editing questions or discussions go (or in this case went) about whether it’s a scene that should be shown. Certainly, this is a situation, and the mind doesn’t have to stretch much to find even worse ones, that could happen anytime a hero is captured, female or male. But I suppose the editing question would be, “Does it have to be depicted in the context of telling this particular story?” Looking at that scene, I felt it did not meet that test, and instead was included for exploitive, prurient and/or power fantasy interests only. But that’s me. Were there discussions of that type when editing the book? Is that sort of discussion a common one?
Fun fact about Romita: the first time he drew Spider-Man was in a Daredevil comic (Daredevil #16) — which mirrors the first time Frank Miller drew Daredevil being in a Spider-Man comic (Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #27).
I grew up on Romita's Spider-Man as the iconic, platonic ideal of the character, due in no small part to the amount of merchandise I got as a child.
To this day, one of the elements of Spider-Man I am most persnickety about is my strong preference for the Romita eye-shape. There was a lot of subtle — and not so subtle variation in the way that artists drew Spider-Man's eyes. Sometimes they could be little more than teardrops with an outline with little variation of thick and thin. But the line and proportion and shape Romita brought to the inner and outer contours of that eye shape was masterful: the outer bowl, the undulating upper line, the way that the thickness of the black area increased towards the outer point of the eyes, the subtle difference of axis between the inner white and outer black shape. In the years since, I was elated to see Alex Ross paying special attention to capturing that iconic shape, and later still I was thrilled to see Tom Holland's Spider-Mask recreate the shape in its own way — which is one of the reasons I attribute to why this on-screen costume resonated so well. (https://imgur.com/a/8Eg1yLW)
Just one little aspect of why I have such a fondness for Romita's art.
"John was always a bit chagrinned that he missed the formative years at Marvel, and so didn’t have a hand in creating any of the great characters or strips."
Wolverine. Punisher. The redesign of Black Widow. But I get what you're saying -- he didn't have runs on those characters.
Romita Sr is why I fell in love with comics. He’s always been my favorite artist. Always will be. Truly grateful for all the work he left behind, and always just as glad to hear the stories about what a decent human being he was.
I don’t know how you do it but your posts always hit the mark, brilliant as ever, thank you so much.
Can I do my “if you like Black Mirror, you might REALLY like Inside No 9” post. Another anthology show with its roots in comedy but often going into horror or terror. It’s not a tech focussed show, but it shares DNA with Black Mirror, every episode is different but is written and stars the same two, Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton. Constantly inventive, it restricts each episode to one location which for some reason or other is always numbered ‘9’. Could be a house number, a hotel floor number, the number of a submarine, a no 9 bus, a room no 9... whatever. They are always inside it.
Thanks for another great newsletter! Your tribute to John Romita, Sr. was very touching.
Fantastic tribute, I love learning about the industry’s greatest talents.
One thought I have, it was a question by Mortimer, is the social media comic book/industry coverage that terrible? I haven’t really thought about it, but it would be nice to have a forum where people can educate and even disagree with each other.
That’s awesome information about the coverage. Definitely appreciate you giving me suggestions to try out.
A simple 'lost project' question - I had heard rumours of a Kilraven mini by Robert Kirkman and Rob Liefeld - anything you can share with why that never happened and what is was about?
Aaah, Kiki's Delivery Service. What a sweet way to spend time together.
Your words about John Romita were truly wonderful, thank you for the memories you shared.
I seem to recall you mentioning an editor's reading circle a few times. I have to imagine that its not just a bunch of people patting each other on the back. I assume there is no shortage of criticism involved — constructive criticism, I presume, but maybe not sometimes. Long question short: do you have opinions on what kind of criticism you think is fair game versus what kind of criticism is over the line?
Hey Tom, after reading this, I went back to read The Twelve, and it brought up a question I have for you.
When the Twelve are captured by the Nazis in the siege of Berlin, there is a panel after they’re all unconscious where the head Nazi looks at Claire Voyant/Black Widow and the drawing shows him fondling/groping her breasts. Of course, this might well be what a bad guy would do, but I was wondering how the editing questions or discussions go (or in this case went) about whether it’s a scene that should be shown. Certainly, this is a situation, and the mind doesn’t have to stretch much to find even worse ones, that could happen anytime a hero is captured, female or male. But I suppose the editing question would be, “Does it have to be depicted in the context of telling this particular story?” Looking at that scene, I felt it did not meet that test, and instead was included for exploitive, prurient and/or power fantasy interests only. But that’s me. Were there discussions of that type when editing the book? Is that sort of discussion a common one?
Looking forward to reading your answer. Thanks!