MODERN MASTERS VOLUME EIGHTEEN: JJOHNOHN RROMOMITAITA JR JR.. ByBy GeorgeGeorge KhouryKhoury andand EricEric Nolen-WeathingtonNolen-Weathington Modern Masters Volume Eighteen: JOHN ROMITA, JR. Table of Contents Introduction by Mark Millar . 5 Part One: Growing up the Marvel Way . 6 Part Two: Opportunity Knocks! . 11 Part Three: Amazing Adventures . 21 Part Four: Finding His Stride—Full Pencils at Last . 28 Part Five: Artist Without Fear. 46 Part Six: Storytelling and the Creative Process . 78 Art Gallery . 87 Growing up Part 1: the Marvel Way MODERN MASTERS: When you were growing up, on me, and I would take a swing. But I didn’t get bloodied who was the boss in your family, your mom or your dad? and cut up and beat, I was just pushed around, beat up, sat on, smacked around. I would fight back, and my JOHN ROMITA, JR.: It was a great combination of brother would fight back and save me all the time. But my both, because my father worked at home. parents handled it very well. We were in a rough section MM: Okay. Your mom was kind of stern, right? Or were of Queens, and then we moved when I was about eight, your parents into the good cop/bad cop kind of parenting? and everything worked out great. There was nothing real- ly super-spectacular in any direction, good or bad, when I JOHN: It was never that way. They were perfect parents. was growing up. A prototypical New York neighborhood. They yelled when they were supposed to, they MM: So it’s not a place disciplined when they you miss a lot? You don’t were supposed to, they have a lot of nostalgia for were nice when they were it? supposed to be. They did JOHN: I have nostalgia it just right. There was no for the ages of my late shucking and jiving, no teens until I was about good cop/bad cop. When 30, because I had such a they got mad, it was very, great growing-up period, very normal, and very that my parents prepared well done. me so well for adult- MM: I was an intern for hood. From the time that Ralph [Macchio], and the I got a job—at 15, or 14, only time I ever saw him whatever I was when I stand up and be attentive got my first job, and art and really serious was became a major part of when your mom used to my life—that part of my come in to the office. life was so wonderful. [laughter] She’d come in Things went well, I had a with the publishing lot of fun, good friends, schedule on her bulletin. great family, and I look upon it fondly. Before JOHN: Yeah, well, she that, when I was a kid, commanded respect. That’s my parents didn’t have the kind of woman she is. much money, but they treated us like gold. We MM: How would you did not want for much. describe your upbringing in Queens? Was it nice or was it tough? Did you ever MM: Were you and your brother competitive growing have to deal with bullies when you were growing up? up? JOHN: Oh, God, yes. I got beat up on a regular basis. JOHN: I was with him, but he never was with me, because he was always smarter, better looking, stronger. MM: Why? So I was competitive, and that’s good. It translates well to now, because I always have competition as an artist, JOHN: Because I didn’t know how to shut my mouth and the people that are better artists than me don’t when they said obnoxious things, and they were picking 6 know that I’m always in competition with them, but I never run out of inspiration. MM: Do you see yourself being very dif- ferent from Victor, personality-wise? JOHN: I see enough of my father and my mother in both of us to see the similarities, and that’s where it ends. He’s cool, calm, and collected, and I’m an angst-ridden, paranoid banana sometimes. I worry about everything, and he doesn’t. MM: Those are some of your dad’s traits, aren’t they? He worries about everything. JOHN: Well, he may worry, but he does- n’t show it. MM: He does show it sometimes, because he’ll always tell people, “I’m never good enough.” He’s always the first one to say that his drawings aren’t good enough. JOHN: But he’s not as much of a worrier as I am. I don’t know where that came from, I don’t know which part of the fami- ly it came from, but I am an innate worrier. And I sweat everything. [laughs] MM: Growing up, did you and your brother always hear your parents talk about how tight money was? JOHN: No. No, they were really good about that, and they didn’t let us know. They were very close to the vest about that kind of thing. We knew that my father was an artist. When he got fired from DC and didn’t have work and was JOHN: That’s right. I slept well sometimes delivering newspapers before Stan [Lee] knowing he was up there to protect me called him, we didn’t hear about that until from all the monsters that were coming long after things had gotten better. out from underneath my bed. MM: You could tell he was working a lot, MM: At the same time, were you con- Previous Page: while you were growing up? 1960s cerned, “Wow, my dad’s working his tail photo of (left to right) JOHN: Oh, yeah. off”? John Jr.; mother, Virginia; and brother, Victor. MM: He would work in the room above JOHN: Well, that wasn’t a concern on my Above: John’s pencils you guys, right? The attic was above your part. That was wonder and awe, and now, and his father’s inks from bedroom? interestingly enough, it translates directly Amazing Spider-Man #400. to me and my son, because my son always Spider-Man ™ and ©2008 JOHN: Right above our bedroom, that’s worries about me working unbelievable Marvel Characters, Inc. correct. hours. MM: So you could see the light on and MM: Would he have his radio on or would know that he was up there? he just draw and keep very quiet? 7 JOHN: I think he had music on some- Yankees-first fan because I grew up before times. He had talk radio on, and he would the Mets came around. But I root for the listen to a guy through the night. But Mets more than the Yankees because the music, I don’t know when he would put Mets need to be rooted for more than the music or talk radio on; I don’t know if Yankees. [laughter] there was any rhyme or reason, but, yes, he would keep the radio on all night long MM: When did you start having an incli- to keep him company. nation towards art? When do you remem- ber starting to draw, and starting to doodle? Below: A panel from MM: Would you have conversations, early page 2 of the father and on, with your dad, about movies and comics? JOHN: I was doodling from the time I was son collaboration for eight or nine or ten, and then, when gram- Amazing Spider-Man #400. Next Page: Daredevil JOHN: He always spoke to us about movies mar school allowed us to expand our incli- and stories. He wanted us to see certain nations... I think it all came to a head mid- played two crucial roles in John’s career. 1) Seeing his movies, or he would watch movies on televi- way through high school when I realized dad’s cover for Daredevil sion, and we would watch certain TV that in a year or two I was going to have #12 as a child sparked shows. But TV wasn’t as important, unless it to pick a major in college, and the only the initial desire in him to was a movie; TV wasn’t important to us thing I was above average at was art. So it become an artist. 2) It because there wasn’t that much of it. We was a slow process. I think as I got more was during his 34-issue would be out playing sports. We learned to adulation, so to speak, from people, or run on Daredevil (from be good athletes from my father. My broth- compliments from my father, and then I’d which this panel comes) er and I were raised on sandlot sports, and go to the office and get a compliment that he really began devel- we got to be damn good at all the sports occasionally, it just perpetuated itself. And oping his style and already because of it. And our father taught us how somewhere around my sophomore year of strong storytelling ability. to play all the sports. It was great. high school, when I realized that soon I The inks here are by the would have to pick a major, it all kind of legendary Al Williamson. MM: Your dad is a big baseball fan, right? came together. Daredevil, Spider-Man ™ and ©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc. JOHN: Oh, yeah, huge. MM: So your dad, he always encouraged MM: Did some of that rub off on you guys? your art? He never told you, “Look what I’m going through”? JOHN: Absolutely.