John Romita Sr. is an American comic book artist known for his work on Marvel Comics The Amazing Spider-Man and also for co-creating characters such as Mary Jane Watson and Wolverine. Romita Sr. died on June 12, 2023, at the age of 93 of natural causes in his sleep. His son, John Romita Jr. who is also a graphic novelist confirmed this in a Twitter post on the night the artist died.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, John Romita Sr. was inducted into the Eisner Awards Hall of Fame in 2002 and the Inkwell Awards Hall of Fame in 2020. Left to mourn him are his wife, Virginia Bruno, and his two sons: Romita Jr. and Victor.
Who Is John Romita Sr?
John Romita Sr. was born on January 24, 1930, in Brooklyn to Marie and Victor Romita. Originally of Italian descent, Romita Sr. grew up with four siblings, three sisters, and a brother.
In an interview, Romita Sr. revealed he started drawing at the age of five, and by the time he was ten, he became a street performer drawing on streets.
He attended Brooklyn junior high school and later graduated from Manhattan’s School of Industrial Art in 1947.
Romita Sr. went on to work with several illustrators before he received his first work from Manhattan General Hospital. From there he ventured into the comics industry working on the series Famous Funnies.
He worked at the New York City company Forbes Lithograph in 1949 before an encounter with a high school friend led him to work as an uncredited ghost artist for Timely Comics, which is now known as Marvel.
His collaboration with the company ended in early 1951 when he was drafted into the US Army. After a brief stint in the army, John Romita Sr. returned to splitting his time between Marvel comics and DC.
In 1966, he started drawing for Marvel’s The Amazing Spider-Man but before that, he did his first inking for Marvel on the superhero-team comic, The Avengers.
Following a proper job offer by Stan Lee, who was Marvel’s editor-in-chief and art director at that time, Romita Sr. went on to play a major role in redefining Marvel Comics and designing new characters as well. Some of the characters he designed are The Punisher, Wolverine, Luke Cage, Tigra, and Brother Voodoo.
In recognition of his great work, he received an Inkpot Award in 1979. In 2002, he was inducted into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame, and in 2020, he was inducted into the Inkwell Awards Jos Sinnott Hall of Fame as well.
He served on the Disbursement Committee of the comic-book industry charity The Hero Initiative in 2013.
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What Caused John Romita Sr.’s Death?
I say this with a heavy heart, My father passed away peacefully in his sleep. He is a legend in the art world and it would be my honor to follow in his footsteps. Please keep your thoughts and condolences here out of respect for my family.
He was the greatest man I ever met. pic.twitter.com/Pe2K3ywbWX— John Romita JR (@JrRomita) June 14, 2023
On June 12, 2023, John Romita Sr. died in his sleep. His death was confirmed on Twitter by his son John Romita Jr.
Romita Sr. is survived by his wife, Virginia Bruno, a former staff of Marvel, and their two sons, Victor and John Jr.(68 ). The latter followed in his father’s footsteps and is now a renowned comic book artist as well. John Jr. is not the comic book artist to follow in his father’s footsteps, a notable one is Rolly Crump and his son, Chris Crump.
