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30 MARVELOUS YEARS, PT. 1

In the first installment of an ongoing chat with comics legend John Romita Jr., the Marvel artist discusses staring down nepotism and breaking into comics

By Brian Warmoth

Posted December 8, 2006 8:40 AM

EDITOR’S NOTE: For the next five weeks, WizardUniverse.com will be flashing back with John Romita Jr. through his three decades at Marvel Comics. To salute Romita’s service, Marvel is releasing the John Romita Jr. 30th Anniversary Special at the end of the month, featuring a new story by writer Neil Gaiman and a cover by John Romita Sr. Wizard sat down for an extended chat with the younger Romita in order to learn how difficult it was for J.R. Jr. to make his own name in the shadow of another legend, who had faith in him and what stumbling blocks he has hurdled to carve out three decades of classic stories and artwork at Marvel. In doing so, we learned why the publisher’s original “Hunk of the Month” has waited out the storms of editorial transition amid his career’s highest points to make his Marvel for 30 years. Be sure to check back next week for another installment of our look at the long career of John Romita Jr. -RM

Always a fast talker with a fast hand at penciling and one of comics’ most charming smiles, John Romita Jr. blushes with sarcastic embarrassment when reminded that his big break into comic artwork, a six-page story from Amazing Spider-Man Annual #4 titled “Chaos at the Coffee Bean,” will be reprinted in the Anniversary Special.

“Oh, God help us all!” he says. Romita is speaking over the phone from a headset in his New York City studio, hard at work.

“Chaos at the Coffee Bean” is not a particularly bad story. But Romita is the first to point out the leaps and bounds he covered before nabbing his second gig doing artwork on Iron Man.

Romita arrived at Marvel while Archie Goodwin was still sitting as editor-in-chief. “I was 20,” Romita recalls. “I was 19 when I started doing sketches, but I was 20, still going to college and being a pest, when they gave me that job as the production assistant.” Romita credits Goodwin for the first opportunities that were set before him.

“It was because I had been working around the office for quite a while doing pinups, and I was a production assistant, doing pinups and repairs and being a great man Friday,” Romita jokes, reminiscing about his early experiences with the late creator and editor. “I guess I endeared myself to Archie. We played softball. We got drunk a couple of times.”

The production assistant opening at Marvel interrupted Romita’s college education, which he began at Long Island’s Farmingdale State University. “I did not finish college,” the artist laments. “I think my professors are still wondering where the f— I am.”

His brief tenure at the school proved to be good enough in the long run, as he moved on to his new office job sans a degree. “According to my fellow graduation buddies that are now teaching at that college, it’s a four-year college,” he says of the program he was formerly enrolled in. “All they did was take that two-year curriculum and stretch it into four.” This bolsters Romita’s claim that he got a great deal out of the time he did spend studying.

“I’m very proud that I got a great advertising and illustration education in two years,” he laughs.

The shot at Spider-Man was offered to Romita completely by surprise. “The conversation was pretty much, There’s a six-page space in this annual. Would you like to try it?'” Romita states. “There was no devious or even clever way of discussing it beforehand.”

It was at this point that the son of one of Spider-Man’s most iconic artists realized how difficult the road ahead would be, lined with both supporters and doubters. Romita’s name and father seeded voices from both sides. And Romita was prepared.

“I am very sure that giving me the chance had something to do with my father, but it was against my father’s wishes,” he recalls. “My father did not want me to have that huge word nepotism’ hanging over my head, and it ended up happening anyway.

“As far as my father was concerned, he wanted no part of it, and he said, Listen, you’re going to fall or succeed on your own. I don’t think it’s a good idea. I’m afraid you’re going to get treated like dogs—.’ And he ultimately was correct,” Romita confirms.

Goodwin was among those in the office who believed in the new Romita’s potential. “The people involved, Archie and Scott Edelman and Marie Severin and several other people, were as nice as could possibly be,” the artist says. “But the people below them were rotten. And their names aren’t important anymore. I’ve outlasted all of those f—ers.”

Romita compares his initial trepidations to those of Alan Shepard in the film “The Right Stuff,” about the astronaut’s first journey into space. “Alan Shepard says, Oh Lord, please don’t let me f— up.’ That’s what was going through my head,” Romita confesses. As for the advice from this father, Romita gritted his teeth and stayed the course. “I was ignoring him and praying that I wouldn’t f— up,” he states.

Romita’s priorities were simple with that first six-pager. “All I could think of was, I’ve got to make this make sense. I’ve got to make it look this way so that it looks like he’s standing on top of this old Mustang. But if he stands on top of the Mustang, there’s got to be a ledge for his feet to be on,'” Romita explains.

“I remembered the Mustang had a door that protruded from the car, because I remember climbing on my friend’s Mustang,” he says. “It had to make sense logistically.” Romita credits those instincts for getting him to the next level.

“I was a terrible artist, but at least I had a storytelling sense from the get-go,” he says. “Some guys are brilliant illustrators from the beginning and they struggle with storytelling, and I was the reverse.”

But those quick six pages were only the starting block. The next horizon came with a visit to his office from writer Scott Edelman.

“I’ll never forget this,” Romita remembers, noting the profound impact of Edelman’s invitation. “He stuck his head in with that big, curly head of hair and unsolicited he said, Listen, I don’t believe in nepotism, but I don’t believe in anti-nepotism. Would you like to work on Iron Man?'”