Kick-Ass Artist John Romita Jr. Leaves Marvel Comics for DC

[Fanghawk]

Kick-Ass Artist John Romita Jr. Leaves Marvel Comics for DC

After working almost exclusively for Marvel Comics since the 1970s, John Romita Jr. is leaving to do Superman art for DC Comics.

John Romita Jr.'s name is well known in the world of comic books. Following in his father's footsteps as a comic book artist, Romita quickly became a rising star at Marvel, where he worked almost exclusively from the the 1970s onward. Outside of the occasional creator-owned work like Kick-Ass Romita has been one of Marvel's constants, which makes it all the more surprising that he's switching camps to DC. What exactly would prompt Romita <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/escape-to-the-movies/5674-Avengers>when Marvel is doing so well? In part, it's the chance to work with writer Geoff Johns on Superman, one hero he couldn't work on from the House of Ideas.

"In all honesty, it was a little bit of happenstance," Romita explained. "My contract at Marvel was nearing its end. By hook or by crook, I had been working on creator-owned for quite awhile with Mark Millar on Kick-Ass, and I developed a whole bunch of creator-owned properties myself. So before I actually decided to do this, I had been thinking about going freelance to work on my own creator-owned properties ... As I was ruminating about this, somebody suggested that I have a meeting with [DC Comics publisher Dan Dido]. That's honestly what happened."

Apparently the meeting went very well, leading to Romita taking over Superman art duties alongside writer Geoff Johns. "I had been talking it over with my wife Kathy. My wife had wanted me to try Superman for a long time -- Superman or Batman," Romita continued. I never really paid attention to it, only because I had been under contract. So it was a confluence of events: a really good breakfast with Dan, some accepted ideas, and it built on itself. Plus, I'm still going to have a chance to work on my creator-owned properties at some point during this and after this. So it serves all my purposes."

The upcoming plot of Johns and Romita's Superman book hasn't been disclosed, although some initial sketches have been revealed. Outside of a theme of "The Man of Tomorrow", even Romita isn't sure what direction the series will take. "I didn't have an idea of what I'm going to do now that I have decided, because until I read Geoff's synopsis a couple hours ago, I hadn't considered anything other than a couple of pinup shots," Romita admitted. "To me, it's a little bit more of the Man of the Unknown, because there are some things about Superman that are unknown officially, now, that we will discover. So that part I'm really excited about."

Regardless of how the title turns out, putting a veteran artist like Romita on Superman is an exciting prospect. Having provided artwork for everything from gritty crime stories like Daredevil to large-scale battles in World War Hulk, Romita could produce a very interesting take on the Man of Steel. And that's just Superman; with DC's massive stable of superheroes, there's any number of characters this artist could turn to next.

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Source: <a href=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEkba8B5gwA>DC All Access, <a href=http://ca.ign.com/articles/2014/02/04/marvel-artist-john-romita-jr-goes-to-dc-to-draw-superman>IGN

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[Baresark]

I really love Romita Jr's work. His style is really really unique and few artists can add dynamicism to an action scene like he can. This may be enough for me to pick up the new Superman books. I can safely say that I have never been disappointed by any of his work on every title he has had art duties on. His run on Thor a few years back was incredible.

 

[Fappy]

Good riddance. I understand having consistent artists is a good thing in this industry, but Romita Jr.'s art has just been consistently bad for the last few years now. Don't know what happened, really. I liked his stuff better back in his Amazing Spider-Man days, but then he started doing art for the Avengers...

His Iron Man is simply atrocious. Worse than most fanart I have seen.

 

[Gutsripper]

I agree with Fappy, good riddance.
Just too bad for DC now.
When he was doing Amazing Spider-man is was fairly good, and Kick-Ass was also decent, but anything else was pretty bad. I pretty much hated the work he did on Avengers and World War Hulk.
I always get the idea Romita jr. has no clue how to do foreshortening, just like that sketch for his flying Superman, it just looks off.

 

[Mr_Terrific]

Well ok. At least DC didn't screw over anyone this week, so any not terrible news is good news.

Also, this team up of Johns and Romita Jr is pointless as they probably will fail to match Snyder/Lee on Superman Unchained...

 

[Vivi22]

Good riddance. I understand having consistent artists is a good thing in this industry, but Romita Jr.'s art has just been consistently bad for the last few years now. Don't know what happened, really. I liked his stuff better back in his Amazing Spider-Man days, but then he started doing art for the Avengers...

His Iron Man is simply atrocious. Worse than most fanart I have seen.

I've never liked his style that much to be honest. The man can frame and lay out a scene better than a lot of artists, but his style is just so ugly. I'm normally into artists that are doing something unique in comics, but I could just never get into his stuff.

 

[Something Amyss]

Marvel gets Paul Dini as a writer, DC gets Romita as an artist. Advantage Marvel.

 

[Remus]

Boxman will now be drawing boxes for DC.

Other than Spidey, his work was atrocious.

This, so much this. Most artists start their character art with circles, ovals, curvature to match the curvature of naturally-occurring human form. Romita uses nothing but squares! I can't stand his art and I'm glad he's gone. Greg Land may base his art on supermodels and porn stars, which is why every woman has an O face, but I'll take that any day to Romita's boxmen.

 

[Fappy]

Marvel gets Paul Dini as a writer, DC gets Romita as an artist. Advantage Marvel.

Now can they both get new editors? Like, replace all of them? Please?

I thought Marvel would improve when Quesada got promoted and the new guy stepped in to the EiC position. I was dead, fucking wrong. The sad part is that the main reason why they've gotten so bad is actually incredible. The movies are great, but they have been having an adverse effect on the comics for a long time now. It's sad, really.

I've given up on both Marvel and DC, honestly. I've been picking up random stuff from Dark Horse and IDW here and there, but nothing really has me hooked at the moment.

Also, Marvel is going to rape Star Wars EU (not that it isn't bad already, lol).

EDIT: I want to elaborate on what I mean by "Marvel sucks right now". Basically, my problems are problems that existed before the movies got big, but began getting even worse after Marvel Studios' success. The two biggies being:

1. FUCKING YEARLY CROSS-OVER EVENTS
2. Inconsistent characterization and disjointed/butchered character arcs/subplots.

I swear Dr. Strange is a completely different character every time a new writer uses him. It also doesn't help that anything that happens to him is immediately forgotten about the next time he appears in something.

 

[Something Amyss]

Now can they both get new editors? Like, replace all of them? Please?

Oh Fappy, you had me at hello.

Also, Marvel is going to rape Star Wars EU (not that it isn't bad already, lol).

I've learned to manage my expectations with Star Wars.

Also, I still blame Joe Quesada. For everything. Even problems with DC comics.

I don't follow either that much these days. I wish I did, but I have too many hobbies and too little money/time. So yeah, like you, it's not particularly a MARVEL SUCKS NOW attitude. Though it does have problems, I know that.

 

[Mr. Q]

I haven't been keeping up with John Romita Jr. as of late but its hard for me to care about him when all he's done recently is Kick Ass. I really wish he'd reconsidered going somewhere other than DC Comics, especially with their current track record of pissing off/on creators with their draconian editorial staff. I wanna wish him the best of luck but I'm also making bets on when will be jump ship after DC pushes his buttons one too many times.

 

[Baron_BJ]

Marvel gets Paul Dini as a writer, DC gets Romita as an artist. Advantage Marvel.

Now can they both get new editors? Like, replace all of them? Please?

I thought Marvel would improve when Quesada got promoted and the new guy stepped in to the EiC position. I was dead, fucking wrong. The sad part is that the main reason why they've gotten so bad is actually incredible. The movies are great, but they have been having an adverse effect on the comics for a long time now. It's sad, really.

I've given up on both Marvel and DC, honestly. I've been picking up random stuff from Dark Horse and IDW here and there, but nothing really has me hooked at the moment.

Also, Marvel is going to rape Star Wars EU (not that it isn't bad already, lol).

EDIT: I want to elaborate on what I mean by "Marvel sucks right now". Basically, my problems are problems that existed before the movies got big, but began getting even worse after Marvel Studios' success. The two biggies being:

1. FUCKING YEARLY CROSS-OVER EVENTS
2. Inconsistent characterization and disjointed/butchered character arcs/subplots.

I swear Dr. Strange is a completely different character every time a new writer uses him. It also doesn't help that anything that happens to him is immediately forgotten about the next time he appears in something.

Marvel does not do yearly cross-over events. Stop with the lies!
...They just finished Infinity, which was their third cross-over event in a 12-month period. Wait, that's even worse isn't it?

Marvel's relaunches seem to be taking the place of their events anyway, each one taking place with less time between them than the one before, "ALL-NEW Marvel NOW!" relaunching 70% of their titles after approximately a single year of the "Marvel NOW!" relaunch. Fantastic.

Overall I suppose that this is good news, Geoff Johns as writer is an immense improvement from Lobdell, although one must grant the fact that not having a Superman book at all is better than having a Lobdell Superman book, so there's not exactly a high bar to clear.

Also, with regards to Boxy McBoxington of Boxton, Boxland I'll just have to hold out hope that he'll actually put in some effort this time, his Amazing Spider-Man work was fairly good (Everything was still very "Box-y", but it seemed like through sheer effort he was able to make it look decent), but none of his recent work has had anywhere near that much effort put into it (just comparing books side-by-side will show you that, his recent Captain America work, oh my GAWD). I actually wonder whether or not his success with ASM had anything to do with him "getting" the character in a sense, a lot of artists seem to forget that in the comics Peter/Spider-Man is a short man who's physique isn't that of Charles atlas, but more akin to a long-distance runners, he's lean and spindly (That is almost certainly not the word I really want, but fuck it) and as such with him not being able to work with characters who have the aforementioned "Atlas" physique he was forced to alter his style to better fit things, if this is the case then we're sort of screwed since Superman does possess the Atlas physique.

The examples that have been put out there for his Superman work just confuses me though, he's got no/bizarre foreshortening on his flying Superman, what the fuck is up with Supe's face and hair in the coloured picture and I at least hope that his Superman has the Atlas physique when compared to his cast and contemporaries, because he doesn't look like that yet, especially not compared to McBoxington's other work, but then again I'm asking for this to NOT be like his other work, so that may be a good thing.