Topps DigiCon 2022 continued today with legendary Marvel Comics artist John Romita Jr., who discussed some of his inspirations and his favorite projects.
John Romita Jr., who is currently working on the new “The Amazing Spider-Man” run which debuted earlier this week, sat down with the Topps DigiCon team today to talk about some of his iconic work. Although, he refused to allow the hosts to refer to him as a legend of the industry, showcasing his trademark humility.
Romita Jr. was asked about some of the people who influenced him and his work early on in his comics career.
“Naturally my father, more than just the artistic part of it, but there’s the Jack Kirbys, the John Buscemas, the Steve Ditkos,” Romita said. “There’s two ways of looking at it. One is: everything I do, is looked at because of these brilliant people before me. I can’t do anything better than that. Everything is derivative of what they’ve done. There’s so many great artist previous to me and it keeps your fight on the ground but it also inspires you to get better. So there’s two sides of that coin.”
The artist was also asked about some of his work that he would consider to be a breakthrough in his career.
“I had been doing breakdowns and working with some great people to a certain point where I was getting frustrated and I was ready to leave and go into advertising since that was my degree and an editor said to me ‘hey listen, there’s an opening on Daredevil,’” Romita said. “That was the turning point to me because at that point I was frustrated with the industry.”
Romita got a bit emotional after he was asked about the project of which he is most proud, as he gave an answer the rest of the panel didn’t seem to expect.
“The book I’m most proud of is the 9/11 issue of Spider-Man,” Romita said. “That is the one that I can’t open without choking up.”
Romita went on to share a story regarding that particular comic.
“Right after the book was released, I think it was two months after the attack, we were in Las Vegas to sign them. And at that store, were some of the firefighters. And this is going to choke me up, but some of the firefighters that drove through the night in there truck, they finished their time and drove through the night,” Romita said. “These are superheroes, these guys.”
After sharing another story about meeting his wife at San Diego Comic-Con and discussing his excitement regarding the imminent return of the event, Romita got into how his art and story-telling style is also influenced by movies.
“When my brother and I were growing up, there was not internet of course, and rainy weekends we would be watching movies with Mom and Pop,” Romita said, crediting his father once again. “Those movies were storytelling movies and he would explain the scenes to me before they were coming. And he’d say ‘watch this’ and, no special effects, there were no computer generated images, but those films relied on great stories and also great acting and great directing. And he explained directing to me and that’s what storytelling, when I got into the comics business, they suddenly coalesced because I realized you had to be deliberate, you had to explain a panel-to-panel story.”
Romita Jr., again remaining humble, refused to take credit for creating great characters, saying he didn’t create a Galactus of a Kingpin. He did however laugh at the one for which he is most often given credit.
“The one that I chuckle about is Hobgoblin because all I did was completely rip off the Green Goblin and they gave me credit for it,” Romita laughed. “And I said ‘What are you crazy? I just stole everything from the Green Goblin!’”
Finally, Romita touched on his new “Amazing Spider-Man” series.
“It’s like working with a brother again. I love the character,” he said. “But it’s not so much because it’s a great comic book character, it feels like it’s part of my family.
You can check out “The Amazing Spider-Man #1” with art from John Romita Jr. now.