Artist Essay Series, JOHN ROMITA, JR.

I didn't always love comic books. I grew up with a knowledge of them by way of (mostly) television series, like BTAS, The Adventures of Batman and Superman, and Spider-Man. It wasn't until Marvel started producing it big movies, and, in this case, Spider-Man, that I found my love for them - and then, only through carefully combing through DVD special features.

It was one of these special features on the aforementioned film's DVD that introduced me to a huge number of creatures - Romita, Byrne, Loeb, Sale, Quesada, etc. but the one whose art stood out to me most was John Romita, Jr's, and, in particular, his run on THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN with Straczynski. 

There was such an energy and a vibrance, and I kinda just had to pick up that book. So I eventually managed to pull enough money together to snag it up. Over time, I would procure all seven volumes of that run, following the pretty crazy narrative of otherworldly beasts who almost seemed destined to destroy our hero. I don't really know what I would make of it now, with regard to the writing (I remember loving it), but the art was ALWAYS huge.

Like, here's the first appearance of Ezekiel, who just kinda shows up out of nowhere. I remember when they showed this on the DVD, gliding along over it, allowing you to get closer to the linework than you can here. I just thought...whoa. It was kind of a simplicity of formthat attracted me - it was obviously well-developed, but it looked like the easiest thing in the world for him to put down on paper. Nothing LOOKS alike a challenge - the lines just...move! 

Or look at this page! Right in the middle of it, you get what looks like an almost cartoony Alex Ross composition - but handled with just as much grace and intelligence, with regard to light sources and movement. 

Man, that was a thing for me. It looked like something I could actually draw. Like, if I would look at Todd McFarlane's stuff, well there was no way I could draw those webs, even. But this, it gave me hope!

So what does Romita, Jr. do that's so special? Well, it's kinda hard to describe. Sometimes it almost feels maybe inappropriate, like in DAREDEVIL: THE MAN WITHOUT FEAR. Here was a book that was supposed to rival the works Miller had done for Marvel and DC with Sienkewicz and Mazzuchelli (respectively), but, due to Romita's style, it feels...strange. Like, the pure intensity of Sienkiewicz's total graphic art approach isn't there, and neither is Mazzuchelli's simple-looking, yet uber dramatic noir-ish stuff (tbh, Romita, Jr.'s style might even be more "dramatic" than Mazzuchelli's, but Batman Year One looks way more unlike any other book I have ever seen than like anything Romita, Jr. draws).

But so if not bringing to the table what those two brought, what does he bring? Well, a very well-defined approach to narrative story-telling, and always a ton of punch in his action. Like, if you are not using Romita, Jr. for anything more than dialogue scenes (which, mind you, he is great at), then like what are you doing? And I don't mean action in the sense of actual fighting necessarily, but just bodies doing things. Like here:

Here, not only are the bodies moving well, but the paneling is clear and takes you on a nice ride with the characters. I think I pull a lot from pages like the former one, where you get some big, full-body shit while the narrative pushes forward.

The thing is, tho, that if you DID hire him to only do dialogue scenes, he'd rock those, too. He's always been great at capturing expressions, and if you need some drama to be brought forth in the simple passing of words between two people, he's your dude.

What I might say is that JRJR's use of faces, and, in particular, espressions, is kinda interesting, in that he seems to have built himself a certain number of unique expressions to give people, and then he slaps them on everyone's face. I don't mean that necessarily as a criticism (as we all only respond so many ways), and, tbh, he probably utilizes more of those than most other artists, but you can easily see the same makings of faces here and there that crop up in his work over time. But whatevs. The dude knows what he's doing.

For me, JRJR meant so much. He got me into comics, and paved the way for me to have a strong study of faces. I remember seeing Peter  Parker's face, and how he would create shape, and then putting that into my early drawings. 

It was what, I think, pushed me from like uber-cartoony stuff to actually crafting character that felt more like living, breathing beings. Of course, as an eleven year old, I still had a ways to go. But seeing an artist put so much into motion, and the creation of dramatic tension in something as simple as a dude applying for a job, gave me such a thrill as I hadn't really experienced before. 

I have been reading JRJR's stuff for a long time now, and I wonder the kind of impact it still has on me. It might be that he's working for DC, and to me, that just doesn't feel like a good fit for the vibrance he brings to his images - an unusual lightness of air that feels much more at home in the seemingly less dark Marvel universe. It's still impressive cartooning, but when he's working with like, I dunno, Azzarello, I feel like even his best can't save the shoddy craftsmanship of those scripts. And also, I dunno why, but his lines keep getting WAY over-rendered by both the inkers and the colorists, particularly in big portions of his ALL STAR BATMAN run, and his one-shot that takes place before THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS (which is, like, not very good - don't have these books on hand or I would show some images). Basically, it just seems like DC doesn't know how to use him properly.

Even with all these troubles, tho, it still remains that he knows how to tell a fucking story, and with a lot of UMPH. There's always drama and tension, always something cool to see on every page! It makes sense that he's his father's son, and that he grew up with that slightly more old-school mentality of making sure there is SOMETHING worth looking at on every page - because he really ends up rocking it.