Career
Romita, Jr. began his career at Marvel UK, doing sketches for covers of reprints as a favor thanks to his respected father. His American debut was with a six page story entitled "Chaos at the Coffee Bean!" in The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #11 (1977).
Romita's early popularity began with his run on Iron Man with writer David Michelinie and artist Bob Layton which began in 1978. In the early 1980s, he had his first regular run on the Amazing Spider-Man series and also was the artist for the launch of the Dazzler series. Working with writer Roger Stern on Amazing Spider-Man, he co created the character Hobgoblin. From 1983 to 1986 he had a run on the popular Uncanny X-Men with Dan Green and author Chris Claremont. He would return for a second run on Uncanny X-Men in 1993.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Romita enjoyed an extended stint on Daredevil with writer Ann Nocenti and Eisner Award-winning inker Al Williamson, noted for its creation of long-running Daredevil nemesis Typhoid Mary.
Stan Lee interviewed Romita and his father in Episode 8 of in the 1991-1992 documentary series The Comic Book Greats.
Romita later collaborated with Frank Miller on a Daredevil origin story entitled Daredevil: The Man Without Fear, a revisiting of the character's origin. He worked on a host of Marvel titles during the 1990s, including The Punisher War Zone, the Hulk, the Cable mini-series, The Mighty Thor, a return to Iron Man for the second Armor Wars written by John Byrne, and the Punisher/Batman cross-over. Klaus Janson was a frequent inker.
In the 2000s, Romita had a return to The Amazing Spider-Man with writer J. Michael Straczynski. He drew Marvel's Wolverine with author Mark Millar as part of the character's thirtieth-anniversary celebration. In 2004, Romita's creator-owned project The Gray Area was published by Image Comics. Romita's art has since appeared in Black Panther, The Sentry and Ultimate Vision, a backup story featured in the Ultimate line, written by author Mark Millar.
In 2006, Romita collaborated with writer Neil Gaiman on the reinterpretation of Jack Kirby's The Eternals in the form of a seven-issue limited series. Romita worked with Greg Pak on the five issue main comic of Marvel's 2007 crossover storyline, World War Hulk.
In 2008, Romita again returned to Amazing Spider-Man. He collaborated again with Mark Millar, for a creator-owned series, Kick-Ass, published by Marvel's Icon imprint. The filming of the movie, Kick-Ass, began in September 2008. Romita, one of the producers, made his directorial debut by directing an animated flashback sequence in the film.
On April 9, 2011 Romita Jr. was one of 62 comics creators who appeared at the IGN stage at the Kapow! convention in London to set two Guinness World Records, the Fastest Production of a Comic Book, and Most Contributors to a Comic Book. With Guinness officials on hand to monitor their progress, writer Mark Millar began work at 9am scripting a 20-page black and white Superior comic book, with Romita Jr. and the other artists appearing on stage throughout the day to work on the pencils, inks, and lettering, including Dave Gibbons, Frank Quitely, Jock, Adi Granov, Doug Braithwaite, Ian Churchill, Olivier Coipel, Duncan Fegredo, Simon Furman, David Lafuente, John McCrea, Sean Phillips and Liam Sharp, who all drew a panel each, with regular Superior artist Leinil Yu creating the book's front cover. The book was completed in 11 hours, 19 minutes, and 38 seconds, and was published through Icon on November 23, 2011, with all royalties being donated to Yorkhill Children's Foundation.
On May 4, 2012, Romita set out to break his own record for most continuous cartooning, to support the charity Candlelighters Childhood Cancer Foundation of Nevada. He attempted to continuously sketch characters and sign comics for 50 hours straight.
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