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John Victor RomitaΒ (/rΙΛmiΛtΙ/; January 24, 1930 β June 12, 2023) was an American comic book artist best known for his work onΒ Marvel Comics'Β The Amazing Spider-ManΒ and co-creating characters includingΒ Mary Jane Watson, theΒ Punisher,Β Kingpin,Β Wolverine, andΒ Luke Cage. Romita was the father ofΒ John Romita Jr., a comic book artist, and the husband of Virginia Romita, who was Marvel's traffic manager for many years.
His first comics work was in 1949 as aΒ ghost artist forΒ Timely Comics, the precursor to Marvel, through which Romita met editor-in-chiefΒ Stan Lee. In 1951, Romita began drawing horror, war, and romance comics forΒ Atlas ComicsΒ (previously Timely) and also drew his first superhero work, a 1950s revival ofΒ Captain America. He worked exclusively forΒ DC ComicsΒ from 1958 to 1965 and was the artist for many of their romance comics. During these years, Romita further developed his ability to draw beautiful women, for which he later became well-known.
Romita joined Marvel in 1965, initially drawingΒ DaredevilΒ comics. In 1966, whenΒ Spider-Manartist and co-creatorΒ Steve DitkoΒ left Marvel, Romita was chosen by writer Lee as the new artist forΒ Amazing Spider-Man. Within a year of Romita becoming the Spider-Man artist,Β The Amazing Spider-ManΒ rose from Marvel's second-best-selling title to the company's top-seller. Romita brought a new romance style to Spider-Man comics that soon became the new design for the character. In June 1973, Romita was promoted to Marvel's art director and heavily influenced the look of Marvel comics throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Romita was inducted into theΒ Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of FameΒ in 2002.
Description above from the Wikipedia article John Romita Sr., licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.