John Romita Sr, the artist who gave birth to Spider-Man, has died at 93

John Romita senior belongs to the line of legendary designers in the Marvel universe. He died Monday at the age of 93, announced his son, John Romita junior. “He is a legend in the art world and it would be an honor for me to follow in his footsteps,” announced his son, himself a talented comic book artist.

Born in 1930 in Brooklyn, John Romita turned to comics after graduating from Manhattan's School of Industrial Art at age 17. From 1953, he became a collaborator of Atlas Comics, the ancestor of Marvel. Both an illustrator and a screenwriter, he distinguished himself in many genres, from horror to romance, including westerns. A few years later, he joined DC Comics, historical competitor of Marvel, where he specialized in sentimental intrigues. Tired of the romantic, he took the turn of superhero stories, reintroducing the house of Marvel and illustrating episodes of the Avengers and Daredevil.

It is with Spider-Man that he deploys the full extent of his talent, when, in 1966, he succeeds Steve Ditko, co-creator of the spidery superhero with Stan Lee, on the series The Amazing Spider-Man . Its simple and effective line established the graphic codes as we still know them today. He created and immortalized the characters of Mary Jane Watson, the unconditional lover of Peter Parker, the super-villains the Kingpin, the Shocker or the Rhino, pillars of the criminal gallery of the Marvel house. Under his pencil, the series became the publisher's flagship title.

Appointed artistic director in 1973, he largely contributed, among other things, to the graphic design of the Punisher and the famous mutant Wolverine. He held this position for more than two decades while illustrating for a number of titles, including the cover of The Amazing Spider-Man Annual No. 21, in 1987, where Peter Parker and Mary Jane are united by the marriage ties. The designer left Marvel in 1996, while continuing to produce several works, particularly around Spider-Man.

In interviews, John Romita regularly expressed his regret for not being born earlier to be able to be part of the first generation of writers and comic book artists, recalls the specialized site The Hollywood Reporter. "No matter how successful I've been, I've always seen myself as someone who can improve on someone else's concepts," he said in particular in 2002. Twenty years later, inducted into the Temple of Will Eisner fame, his name appears alongside the greatest superhero creators, so admired by the designer. In the prestigious farandole he joined are the names of Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, Bob Kane, Jerry Siegel, Joe Simon...