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Tomorrow, I’ll be sharing an intimate, at times quite stirring conversation I had with Jonn Romita Jr. about his relationship with his legendary father John Romita. The senior Romita left us on June 12th of this year, which you likely know if you’re a comic book fan. I bring this up because my friend — John Jr. — referred to his father as his favorite artist during our chat. That was all the inspiration I needed for this week’s question:
Who is your favorite comic book artist and why?
I struggle here, as you might. There are so many artists, including both Johns referenced here, who have made huge impacts on my imagination and creative development. Amongst them, Frank Miller, Jim Steranko, Barry Windsor Smith, Darwyn Cooke, Alex Ross, Dave Gibbons, Steve Ditko, Dave McKean, and Neal Adams. (Yes, I’m aware this is a very masculine list, but 90% of my comic book reading was done before women were really let into the business). But at the end of the day, there can be only one, I suppose. And that one is Jack Kirby, whose illustrations made the infinite seem possible on a single comic book page.
I think our favourite artists are probably defined by our childhoods in some way or another. For me, that means John Romita Sr. I just read your conversation with his son, which I found very moving. The senior Romita's art is how I see most Marvel characters in my mind...though Jack Kirby is a very close second.
I think what you wrote here is indeed how I feel about Romita Sr., too. He *is* Marvel Comics, in my mind, simply because he was really the only Marvel artist I read in my early childhood. By the time I was a teenager, I began to dig deeper into the Marvel catalogue, especially when hardcover collections of old titles began to come out in the late-eighties. That's when I really discovered Kirby.
I think our favourite artists are probably defined by our childhoods in some way or another. For me, that means John Romita Sr. I just read your conversation with his son, which I found very moving. The senior Romita's art is how I see most Marvel characters in my mind...though Jack Kirby is a very close second.
I think what you wrote here is indeed how I feel about Romita Sr., too. He *is* Marvel Comics, in my mind, simply because he was really the only Marvel artist I read in my early childhood. By the time I was a teenager, I began to dig deeper into the Marvel catalogue, especially when hardcover collections of old titles began to come out in the late-eighties. That's when I really discovered Kirby.