R.I.P. JOHN ROMITA SR.

 I've no special observations on the significance of Romita's contribution to mainstream American comics, and I'm sure countless fans are singing his praises on that score. I will say that DC had his talents at their disposal in the early sixties, but they neglected to keep giving him work and so steered his course toward Marvel. There he became an inestimable asset to the company in his interpretation of Spider-Man. None of the other artists then available to Marvel-- Andru (who seems to have auditioned for the post), Kane, Kirby, Colan, or any of the DC stalwarts-- could  have channeled the sexy soap opera of Spidey in the late Silver Age. 

It wasn't a smooth transition. Lee, possibly anticipating difficulties with Ditko on the Spider-title, had Romita pencil a Spider-Man guest-shot in DAREDEVIL in 1966, apparently a few months before Ditko departed Marvel entirely. But it's a pretty pedestrian outing.

But Romita grew into the job quickly. In SPIDER-MAN #40-- incidentally, the second Spider-comic I ever owned-- Romita served up great action in the then-final Spidey-Goblin climax, but the soap operatics were more intense than they'd been under Ditko.

Romita was never known for huge fight-scenes like Kirby and Kane, but he outdid himself with Spidey's new villain The Rhino.

Not to neglect the girls of gorgeosity at all...

Here's a neglected moment in history: Gwen Stacy getting fed up with Aunt May and her apron strings.

And just to indulge a private theory... Romita has stated that he designed the Kingpin on his own in 1967, with no input from Stan Lee. I don't disbelieve his assertion that Lee gave Romita no description, since Lee wasn't an artist. But I've always thought Romita might have modeled his "my-fat-is-all-muscle" sumo-gang-boss on a slightly earlier character. To be sure, I can't imagine Romita going out of his way to read KID COLT as a regular thing. But he could have just seen the issue in passing on visiting Marvel offices, with the result that one "my-fat-is-all-muscle" tub o'lard begat another. From KID COLT #117 (1964), written by Stan Lee and penciled by Jack Keller: