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Post by Icctrombone on Jun 15, 2023 4:52:16 GMT -5
I love Crystal before her hoe faze.
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Post by Prince Hal on Jun 15, 2023 8:17:42 GMT -5
From January 1961, when Romita was doing romance covers for DC. Here we get a glimpse of what might have been if Romita had been given some DC superhero work; it looks as if Hal Jordan and Barry Allen are fighting over Carol Ferris, all with different hair color, of course.
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Post by tarkintino on Jun 15, 2023 8:42:30 GMT -5
Missed opportunity: Marvel's short lived sci-fi/fantasy adaptation series Worlds Unknown (5/1973 - 8-1974) ended its 8-issue run with a two-part adaptation of the great 1973 Harryhausen / Schneer fantasy film, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad. The comic's art duties were handed to George Tuska with Vince Colletta inks--except for the splash page (Left) of part one (issue #7, which had no Tuska penciling at all, as seen below. The 31st page next to it (Right) was all Tuska & Colletta: The splash was handled in its entirety by Romita, and while it was not uncommon for Romita to touch up the work of endless numbers of artists, as in the case of his very prominent changes to Tuska's version of Taylor (Left) from the 1974 adaptation of Planet of the Apes-- Back to the splash: A totally new addition / artist was the sort of practice that happened for a number of reasons: the book's original artist had moved on to other assignments and was no longer free to add whatever the splash needed, or the layout was found to be unacceptable, thus another artist provided the kind of introduction believed to be necessary for storytelling and/or artistic demands, etc. Whatever the case happened to be, the splash went beyond touch ups, but to the 1974 reader opening the comic for the first time, he or she may have been thrilled at the idea of seeing Romita adapt the film, only for the art of others to take the adaptation in a very different direction from page two forward. Arguably a poor direction, if the sample is any indicator.
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Post by badwolf on Jun 15, 2023 9:56:50 GMT -5
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Post by tarkintino on Jun 15, 2023 14:20:09 GMT -5
Alex Ross tributes to Romita, staring with a quote from the book Marvelociy -The Marvel Comics Art of Alex Ross (Pantheon, 2018): Ross--whether working from an original Romita illustration, or creating his own tributes--perfectly blended with Romita's. Both never delivering anything less than one-of-a-kind heart and power to their work. Rockomic album (Bhudda Records, 1972) and Ross's tribute which had its premiere at SDCC (2017). Romita's 1972 corner logo art for Marvel Team-Up, which would appear on countless products throughout the decade. Ross had his take on that classic image for the new edition cover for Marvels (2008).
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Post by tarkintino on Jun 15, 2023 14:22:03 GMT -5
Left and middle: The Spectacular Spider-Man #1 (July, 1968) featuring Romita's cover design & illustration, but painted by Harry Rosenbaum. Right: Alex Ross paid tribute to the cover with this arguably moodier painting, originally created for Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #300, but making its debut as a single work at SDCC 2019.
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Post by tarkintino on Jun 15, 2023 14:28:28 GMT -5
Seamless team-up of Romita (pencils) and Alex Ross (paint, obviously) for the cover of Marvels #0 (1994).
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Post by jester on Jun 15, 2023 16:21:14 GMT -5
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Post by jester on Jun 15, 2023 16:43:07 GMT -5
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Post by jester on Jun 15, 2023 16:44:39 GMT -5
He also gave us the Black Widow's leather catsuit
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Post by tarkintino on Jun 15, 2023 16:56:14 GMT -5
Romita's art was rather ubiquitous as licensing art starting in the 60s and consistently lasting well into the 90s. Even today, "retro" Marvel images on clothing, posters, cups and all manner of products still bear his work. It would be difficult to find another Marvel artist who consistently had work appear on as much merchandising than Romita's. Speaking of merchandising, here's Romita's comic for Aurora's 1974 reissue of their Spider-Man model kit, rebranded as Comic Scenes:
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Post by Prince Hal on Jun 15, 2023 18:47:46 GMT -5
JR’s obit in today’s NY Times mentions that as an eight-year-old kid who lived comics and loved to draw, he bought two copies of Action 1, put one away in a bag and read and drew from the other.
No mention of how long either copy survived or of the source of the story.
I hope he cashed in big-time.
Also, JR was pencilling comics as a ghost for a friend until he spilled the beans to Stan and began to do work under his own name. No idea if either story is true or who Romita’s friend was.
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Post by majestic on Jun 15, 2023 20:50:15 GMT -5
John was my first exposure to Spider-Man. By the time I had started reading comics Ditko had just left Marvel.
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Post by chaykinstevens on Jun 16, 2023 2:16:05 GMT -5
Also, JR was pencilling comics as a ghost for a friend until he spilled the beans to Stan and began to do work under his own name. No idea if either story is true or who Romita’s friend was. Wikipedia says: Romita was working at the New York City company Forbes Lithograph in 1949, earning $30 a week, when comic book inker Lester Zakarin, a friend from high school whom he ran into on a subway train, offered him either $17 or $20 a page to pencil a 10-page story for him as an uncredited ghost artist. "I thought, this is ridiculous! In two pages I can make more money than I usually make all week! So I ghosted it and then kept on ghosting for him", Romita recalled. "I think it was a 1920s mobster crime story". The work was for Marvel's 1940s forerunner, Timely Comics, which helped give Romita an opportunity to meet editor-in-chief and art director Stan Lee. Romita ghost-penciled for Zakarin on Trojan Comics' Crime-Smashers and other titles, eventually signing some "Zakarin and Romita"
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Post by Icctrombone on Jun 16, 2023 3:19:11 GMT -5
I'm looking through some of Romita's work and found this rarity- A Romita inked Gene Colan job in Doctor Strange # 8
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