77-461: Starlin may refer to: Jim Starlin (born 1949), an American comic book writer and artist Starlin Castro (born 1990), a professional Major League baseball player Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Starlin . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change
154-635: A genetically engineered being created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in the 1960s and re-imagined by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane in the 1970s as a Jesus Christ-like figure on an alternate Earth. Envisioning the character as philosophical and existentially tortured, Starlin wrote and drew a complex space opera with theological and psychological themes. Warlock confronted the militaristic Universal Church of Truth , eventually revealed to be created and led by an evil evolution of his future–past self, known as Magus . Starlin ultimately incorporated Thanos into this story. Comics historian Les Daniels noted that "In
231-723: A Brooklyn junior high school . Among his instructors were Howard Simon , a book illustrator, and Ben Clements, a magazine illustrator. Romita was deeply influenced by a variety of artists and illustrators. As a young reader of comics, he admired Noel Sickles , Roy Crane , and Milton Caniff . Caniff's Terry and the Pirates in particular was an early inspiration for Romita. Later in his career, he also drew inspiration from Sy Barry , Alex Toth , and Carmine Infantino . Beyond comics, he looked up to commercial illustrators such as Jon Whitcomb , Coby Whitmore , and Al Parker . On Romita's 17th birthday, he received his first artist work from
308-708: A brief stint with Marvel, which included work on two characters [Captain Marvel and Adam Warlock] that had previously never quite made their mark, Starlin managed to build a considerable cult following." In Fall 1978, Starlin, Howard Chaykin , Walt Simonson , and Val Mayerik formed Upstart Associates , a shared studio space on West 29th Street in New York City. The membership of the studio changed over time. Death and suicide are recurring themes in Starlin's work: Personifications of Death appeared in his Captain Marvel series and in
385-399: A few notable authors from outside the comic book industry, such as Stephen King , George R. R. Martin , Harlan Ellison , and Edward Bryant . In 1986, he and Wrightson produced a second benefit comic for famine relief. Heroes Against Hunger , featuring Superman and Batman, was published by DC and like the earlier Marvel benefit project featured many top comics creators. Starlin became
462-823: A fill-in story for Ghost Rider ; Warlock commits suicide by killing his future self; and suicide is a theme in a story he plotted and drew for The Rampaging Hulk magazine. Starlin occasionally worked for Marvel's chief competitor DC Comics and drew stories for Legion of Super-Heroes and the " Batman " feature in Detective Comics in the late 1970s. Starlin co-created the supervillain Mongul with writer Len Wein in DC Comics Presents #27 (Nov. 1980). The new decade found Starlin creating an expansive story titled "the Metamorphosis Odyssey ", which introduced
539-572: A house in the Queens neighborhood of Queens Village . Some years later, the family moved to Bellerose, New York , on Long Island . Romita and his wife had two sons, Victor and John Jr. (born August 17, 1956), who followed in his footsteps to become a noted comic-book artist himself. At the time of his death, Romita had three grandchildren and one great-granddaughter. Romita died in his sleep at his home in Floral Park, New York on June 12, 2023, at
616-599: A murderous alien in the guise of a baby. That story saw print in Strange Tales #4 (December 1951), although the Grand Comics Database lists Romita's first identified published comic-book work as penciler and inker of the six-page story "The Bradshaw Boys" in Atlas' Western Outlaws #1 (February 1951)—published nearly a year earlier. This may refer to a ghosted Zakarin story. The Atlas Tales database lists both "It!" and
693-605: A page to pencil a 10-page story, possibly a crime comic about 1920s mobsters, for him as an uncredited ghost artist . Now making more money on two pages than his usual weekly salary, Romita accepted the story and continued to ghost for Zakarin on other work. The work was for Marvel's 1940s forerunner, Timely Comics , which helped give Romita an opportunity to meet editor-in-chief and art director Stan Lee . Romita ghost-penciled for Zakarin on Trojan Comics' Crime-Smashers and other titles, eventually signing some "Zakarin and Romita". The collaboration ended in early 1951, when Romita
770-457: A position at the large ad agency BBDO through his friend Al Normandia, one of the firm's art directors . "They were going to pay me $ 250 a week. I'd made just over $ 200 a week with the romance [comics] but only by killing myself" with long hours of work. Struggling to find new ideas for comics, Romita decided he would only do inking for comic work again. Marvel editor Stan Lee , however, had heard of Romita leaving DC, and asked to see him. At
847-432: A real strength that would sustain him in years to come. His women were described as "fair of face but realistic rather than stylized" and displayed distinctive personalities through body language. Comic artist Alex Ross has stated, "For me, John's Spidey is a design of such perfection and beauty so as to be simply the greatest-looking character in comics, by his hand." While working on DC's romance comics, Romita, finding
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#1732869326203924-549: A second stint, doing full pencils for issues #105–115 and #119 (February–December 1972, April 1974), and providing occasional inking and most of the cover art through issue #168 (May 1977). Romita suggested to writer Gerry Conway that supporting character Gwen Stacy should die at the hands of the Green Goblin in " The Night Gwen Stacy Died " in issue #121 (June 1973). Her demise and the Goblin's apparent death one issue later formed
1001-526: A story arc widely considered as the most defining in the history of Spider-Man. In a June 2017 interview with SyFy Wire , Romita named The Amazing Spider-Man #108 and 109 as the two stories he was proudest of, explaining that by the time he did those issues, he was no longer invoking Steve Ditko, and was asserting his own style as an artist. Romita pointed to the Milton Caniff -inspired brushwork with which he rendered those pages, and lamented no longer owning
1078-643: A three-hour meeting over lunch, Romita recalled that Lee promised to match the agency salary if Romita would come work for Marvel. Lee also assured him the freedom to choose his work location, allowing him to work either from home or the office on any given day, based on Romita's own preference. Romita had also received an offer to work in advertising, but chose Marvel instead because Lee had promised consistent assignments. Though Romita felt he no longer wanted to pencil , in favor of being solely an inker, Lee soon enticed him otherwise: I had inked an Avengers job for Stan, and I told him I just wanted to ink. I felt like I
1155-435: A tracing paper what I would do, and then he asked me to do a drawing of Daredevil the way I would do it. I did a big drawing of Daredevil ... just a big, tracing-paper drawing of Daredevil swinging. And Stan loved it. Romita began a brief stint on Daredevil beginning with issue #12 (January 1966), initially penciling over Jack Kirby's dynamic layouts as a means of learning Marvel's storytelling house style. Sales perked; while
1232-433: A two-part Daredevil story for issues #16–17 (May–June 1966) with Spider-Man guest starring, to see the character depicted by Romita. The reason for the tryout was the growing estrangement between Spider-Man co-creators Stan Lee and Steve Ditko . When Ditko abruptly left Marvel after completing The Amazing Spider-Man #38 (July 1966), Lee gave Romita the assignment. This followed Romita's eight-issue Daredevil run,
1309-482: A while. ... Then, when Don had finished the pencils, [Lee would] call me in to fix up anything ... that he didn't like. Even after it was inked, he'd have me changing what the inker had done. I told him, 'This was supposed to save me time, but it isn't!' ". Romita's initial run on the title, abetted by the three other artists, lasted through issue #95 (April 1971). Gil Kane succeeded him as Spider-Man's regular penciler through issue #105 (February 1972). Romita then began
1386-521: A year'. I was in uniform! She must've told him this GI ... wants to do some comics. She said, 'Stan said here's a four-page science fiction story'. I penciled it and struggled with my first inking. That was the first story I did on my own. I did Westerns and war stories then". The collection Marvel Visionaries: John Romita Sr. and former Marvel editor-in-chief Roy Thomas , in Alter Ego 9, each identify that four-page science fiction story as "It!", about
1463-410: A year-and-a-half (#57–75, February 1968 – August 1969). Romita then stepped back for six issues, drawing only covers while John Buscema laid out issues #76–81 (September 1969 – February 1970) for others to finish. These steps at reducing Romita's Spider-Man workload had mixed results, Romita recalled in 2001, saying, "Stan was always trying to speed me up. He had Don Heck pencil over my breakdowns for
1540-405: A younger audience and created with help from child psychologists. The series had 57 comics produced between 1974 and 1982. Romita created another program called "Romita's Raiders", which allowed young artists to gain hands-on experience and learn from the art staff at Marvel. In 1976, Romita did uncredited art corrections on the large-format, first DC/Marvel intercompany crossover , Superman vs.
1617-626: Is an American comics artist and writer. Beginning his career in the early 1970s, he is best known for space opera stories, for revamping the Marvel Comics characters Captain Marvel and Adam Warlock , and for creating or co-creating the Marvel characters Thanos , Drax the Destroyer , Gamora , Nebula , and Shang-Chi , as well as writing the acclaimed miniseries The Infinity Gauntlet and its many sequels including The Infinity War and The Infinity Crusade , all detailing Thanos' pursuit of
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#17328693262031694-538: The Comics Code Authority . Starlin also drew "The Secret of Skull River", inked by frequent collaborator Al Milgrom , for Savage Tales #5 (July 1974). After working on Captain Marvel , Starlin and writer Steve Englehart co-created the character Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu , though they only worked on the early issues of the Master of Kung Fu series. Starlin then took over the title Warlock , starring
1771-692: The Infinity Gems to court Mistress Death by annihilating half of all life in the cosmos, before coming into conflict with the Avengers , X-Men , Fantastic Four , and the Elders of the Universe , joined by the Silver Surfer , Doctor Strange , Gamora, Nebula, and Drax. Later, for DC Comics , he drew many of their iconic characters, including Darkseid and other characters from Jack Kirby 's Fourth World , and wrote
1848-467: The Manhattan General Hospital . An anesthesiologist paid Romita $ 60 a week to create a medical exhibit on pneumatology medicine, which Romita completed in six months. Romita entered the comics industry in 1949 on the series Famous Funnies . "Steven Douglas up there was a benefactor to all young artists", Romita recalled. "The first story he gave me was a love story. It was terrible. All
1925-960: The "Marvel Super Heroes" set of commemorative stamps issued by the U.S. Postal Service on July 27, 2007. As of 2013, he served on the Disbursement Committee of the comic-book industry charity The Hero Initiative . Romita received an Inkpot Award in 1979, and was inducted into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 2002. Romita was inducted into the Inkwell Awards Joe Sinnott Hall of Fame in 2020. John Romita Sr. married childhood sweetheart Virginia Bruno in November 1952, who also worked on staff at Marvel as traffic manager from 1975 to 1996. They lived in Brooklyn 's Bensonhurst neighborhood until 1954, when they bought
2002-601: The Amazing Spider-Man , over the pencils of Ross Andru . Later that same year, Romita inked Jack Kirby's pencil work on Captain America's Bicentennial Battles , a one-shot story published in an oversized treasury format . Around 1980, Romita's art directing duties expanded from comic books to special projects. His duties included supervising and hiring other artists, providing corrections and cover sketches when needed, and drawing art for various merchandise. Romita inked
2079-565: The Captain America work by Lee after Mort Lawrence's art was deemed unsatisfactory. The character was billed now as "Captain America, Commie Smasher" in the wake of the Cold War and faced enemies associated with the Soviet Union . The series was a commercial failure, and was cancelled after just three issues. Romita attributed the series' failure to the changing political climate, particularly
2156-783: The Korean War. After declining comics sales in the late 1950s forced Atlas to let most of their artists go, Romita transitioned to work for DC exclusively in 1958. His first known work for the company is the tentatively identified penciling credit for the cover of romance comic Secret Hearts #58 (October 1959), and, confirmably, pencils for the seven-page story "I Know My Love", inked by Bernard Sachs in Heart Throbs #63 (January 1960). Other titles to which he contributed include Falling in Love , Girls' Love Stories , Girls' Romances , and Young Love . Romita's artwork for these stories followed
2233-533: The Romita-Esposito team continued through issue #66 (November 1968), establishing the new look of Spider-Man. The Amazing Spider-Man had been Marvel's second-best-selling title at the time Romita began drawing it. Within a year, it overtook Fantastic Four to become the company's top seller. Romita designed the look of Mary Jane Watson , a supporting character in the Spider-Man series who would later become
2310-507: The Spider-Man characters in the one-shot Spidey: A Universe X Special (2001), and penciled the final four pages of the 38-page story in the milestone The Amazing Spider-Man #500 (December 2003) together with his son John Jr. penciling the other pages. Romita drew one of four covers to the April 27 – May 3, 2002, issue of TV Guide to promote the release of the 2002 Spider-Man film . In
2387-492: The age of 93. The news was broken by his son, John Jr., the following day. Romita has been credited with creating a new Spider-Man art style with romance and adventure influences that appealed to an even wider audience. He drew a more handsome Peter Parker and beautiful women, and depicted "beautiful suffering" that combined soap opera and fantasy themes. The Romita have been described as "The artist's line work became more rounded, and his depiction of women in particular became
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2464-442: The character and made it possible for [Spider-Man] to appeal to a wider audience, even if he removed the qualities that had made the strip a surreal standout. Romita was the artist for the Spider-Man newspaper comic strip from its launch on January 3, 1977 through late 1980. He continued in his role as Marvel's art director during this time, anticipating that the strip would not last. Romita had promised Lee that he would continue
2541-614: The character of Vanth Dreadstar in Epic Illustrated #3. From its beginning in Epic Illustrated , the initial story was painted in monochromatic grays, eventually added to with other tones, and finally becoming full color. The storyline was further developed in The Price and Marvel Graphic Novel #3 and eventually the long-running Dreadstar comic book, published first by Epic Comics , and then by First Comics . Starlin
2618-414: The comic strip as long as sales continued to grow. The Spider-Man comic strip reached an audience of 500 newspapers, making it one of the most popular adventure comic strips at the time. At the start of the fourth year, the strip's number had begun to stagnate and then decline. After editor-in-chief and art director Stan Lee assumed the positions of publisher and president in 1972, he promoted Romita to
2695-603: The cover of the subsequent issue #20 (September 1966), and an incidental Hulk and two Captain America stories (in Tales to Astonish #77, March 1966, and Tales of Suspense #76–77, April–May 1966, respectively). While Romita's depiction of Spider-Man would eventually become the company mascot and the definitive look to the general public, the artist had trepidations: I was hoping against it, believe it or not. People laugh when I say this, but I did not want to do Spider-Man. I wanted to stay on Daredevil. The only reason I did Spider-Man
2772-770: The debut of new Captain Marvel Monica Rambeau in The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #16 (1982) and the first appearance of the Hobgoblin in The Amazing Spider-Man #238 (March 1983). He was one of six pencilers on Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #121 (December 1986), and he penciled the nine-page story "I Remember Gwen" in The Amazing Spider-Man #365 (August 1992, the 30th-anniversary issue) and an eight-page backup story starring
2849-748: The definitive statement of his arrival by pulling Mary Jane out from behind the oversized potted plant [that blocked the readers' view of her face in issue #25] and placing her on panel in what would instantly become an iconic moment." Other characters that debuted in the Lee-Romita era include the Rhino in #41 (October 1966), the Shocker in #46 (March 1967), the Kingpin in #50 (June 1967), and George Stacy in #56 (January 1968). Romita had based George Stacy on actor Charles Bickford . Lee and Romita's stories focused as much on
2926-565: The early 2000s, Romita contributed to multi-artist jams in commemorative issues. He did a panel in Captain America vol. 3, #50 (February 2002), starring the first Marvel superhero he had drawn; a portion of Iron Man vol. 3, #40 (May 2001), although the hero was not one of the artist's signature characters; a panel for Daredevil vol. 2, #50 (October 2003); and a few pages featuring Karen Page in Daredevil vol. 2, #100 (October 2007), done in
3003-682: The end of the day and there’s this image there that wasn’t there before. That’s very satisfying and I miss that." In early 2020 it was announced that Starlin had rehabilitated his drawing hand and would be publishing a new Dreadstar graphic novel, Dreadstar Returns, backed by a successful Kickstarter campaign. The book was published in June 2021. In 2024, Starlin announced that he plans to use generative AI technology for future projects, including Dreadstar vs. Dreadstar . Hardcover Softcover John Romita Sr. John Victor Romita ( / r ə ˈ m iː t ə / ; January 24, 1930 – June 12, 2023)
3080-722: The hero and supporting character the Prowler in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #13 (1993). In 1996, Romita announced his semi-retirement, but continued to work on multiple comics projects. Romita both penciled and inked the 10-page backup story "The Kiss"—a flashback in which Peter Parker (Spider-Man) and his girlfriend Gwen Stacy share their first kiss—in Webspinners: Tales of Spider-Man #1 (January 1999). He drew an alternate-universe version of
3157-473: The house style for DC comics, and the first pages of his issues were often done by another artist. The cover art for romance comics was soon done primarily by Romita. He would " swipe "—an artists' term for using existing work as models, a common practice among novices—from movie stills and from the Milton Caniff comic strip Terry and the Pirates . Bernard Sachs and Sy Barry inked some of Romita's romance work, but Romita began inking his own pencils in
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3234-455: The late 1950s or early 1960s. Romita had hoped a DC editor would eventually offer him a superhero comic, such as a Batman filler issue, but Romita remained on the romance titles. Shortly afterward, however, romance comics began declining in popularity, and by 1965, DC had ceased buying art for new romance comics. The company then only used romance comics from their large inventory of previously unpublished comics or published reprints. Romita
3311-511: The lead character's romantic interest. Romita has stated that in designing Mary Jane, he "used Ann-Margret from the movie Bye Bye Birdie as a guide, using her coloring, the shape of her face, her red hair and her form-fitting short skirts." Mary Jane Watson made her first full appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man #42 (November 1966), although she first appeared in #25 (June 1965) with her face obscured and had been mentioned since #15 (August 1964). Peter David wrote in 2010 that Romita "made
3388-446: The link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Starlin&oldid=836977614 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Jim Starlin James P. Starlin (born October 9, 1949)
3465-616: The look of Marvel comics throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Romita was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2002. John Victor Romita was born on January 24, 1930, in Brooklyn , New York City, where he was also raised. The son of Marie and Victor Romita, a baker, he also had three sisters and a brother. Romita was of Italian descent, from Sicily . He began drawing at 5 years old. Romita graduated from Manhattan 's School of Industrial Art in 1947, having attended for three years after spending ninth grade at
3542-649: The miniseries Mystery in Space vol. 2, featuring Captain Comet and Starlin's earlier creation, the Weird. In 2007–2008, he worked on the DC miniseries Death of the New Gods and Rann-Thanagar Holy War , as well as a Hawkman tie-in which altered the character's origins. He wrote the eight-issue miniseries Strange Adventures in 2009 and in 2013, became the writer of Stormwatch , one of
3619-470: The navy, Starlin sold two stories to DC Comics . After writing and drawing stories for a number of fan publications, Jim Starlin entered the comics industry in 1972, working for Roy Thomas and John Romita at Marvel Comics . Starlin was part of the generation of artists and writers who grew up as fans of Silver Age Marvel Comics. At a Steve Ditko -focused panel at the 2008 Comic-Con International , Starlin said, "Everything I learned about storytelling
3696-440: The occasional reprinted story. Even before his final original DC story was published, Romita had already returned to freelance for what had now become Marvel Comics . His first work for Marvel was inking Jack Kirby 's cover and Don Heck 's interior pencils on the superhero -team comic The Avengers #23 (December 1965). Romita directed most of his efforts, however, toward finding advertising storyboard work. He obtained
3773-450: The originals. Comics-art historian Daniel Herman assessed of Romita's Spider-Man work: Romita's transformation of the character redefined the character's look and took the strip in a different direction. It also made him a star artist in the comic book world. The trouble was, Romita took Spidey away from his roots and firmly planted him in the mainstream ... Marvel staffers would joke that Romita "took Spider-Man uptown". Romita reinvented
3850-552: The position of art director in July 1973 after Romita had been in that position unofficially but on staff since 1972. In that capacity through at least the late 1980s, Romita played a major role in defining the look of Marvel Comics and in designing new characters. Among the characters he designed or helped design are the Punisher , Wolverine , Luke Cage , Bullseye , Tigra , and Brother Voodoo . Romita's catlike design for Wolverine
3927-541: The post, he rented an apartment in Brooklyn. When not on duty, Romita could leave the base and go into Manhattan. In mid- to late 1951, he recalled in 2002, "I went uptown one day for lunch. I stopped over at Stan Lee's [office in the Empire State Building , where Timely Comics had by now evolved into Atlas Comics ], and his secretary came out ... and I said, 'Stan doesn't know my name but I've worked for him for over
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#17328693262034004-594: The public opposition to the Korean War ; the character subsequently fell out of active publication for nearly a decade. Additionally, Romita would render one of his first original characters, M-11 the Human Robot, in a five-page standalone science-fiction story in Menace #11 (May 1954). While not envisioned as an ongoing character, M-11 was resurrected decades later as a member of the super-hero team Agents of Atlas . Romita
4081-502: The second of Batman's Robin sidekicks, was killed by the Joker . The controversial storyline was suggested by editor Denny O'Neil and lined up with Starlin's well-known desire to remove the Robin character from Batman's storyline. The death was decided by fans, as DC Comics set up a hotline for readers to vote on as to whether or not Jason Todd should survive a potentially fatal situation. Starlin
4158-678: The seminal storyline A Death in the Family which featured the death of Jason Todd , the second Robin , during his run on Batman . For Epic Illustrated , he created his own character, Dreadstar . Jim Starlin was born on October 9, 1949, in Detroit , Michigan . He had a Catholic upbringing. In the 1960s, Starlin served as an aviation photographer in the US Navy in Vietnam . During his off duty time, he drew and submitted various comics. After leaving
4235-405: The series of The New 52 line, beginning with issue #19. In 2016, Starlin's drawing hand was injured in an accident, which limited him to writing stories without the opportunity to illustrate them. "It takes me two minutes to write the sentence and will take the artist a day and a half to draw the scene. But there is a certain satisfaction to the drawing part … you get up from the drawing board at
4312-660: The six-page "Out of My Mind", in Astonishing #7 (also December 1951), as Romita's first full penciling and inking—although "It!" carries a later job number (9118) than the other tale (8964). Romita went on to draw a wide variety of horror comics , war comics, romance comics and other genres for Atlas. His most prominent work for the company was the short-lived 1950s revival of Timely's hit character Captain America , in Young Men #24–28 (December 1953 – July 1954) and Captain America #76–78 (May–September 1954). Romita had been offered
4389-587: The social and college lives of the characters as they did on Spider-Man's adventures. The stories became more topical, addressing issues such as the Vietnam War , political elections, and student activism . Romita, increasingly called upon to do art corrections and touch-ups, and to interface with artists for ever-busy editor Lee, became Marvel's de facto art director. Cutting back on his Spider-Man workload, Romita began doing only layouts, with finished pencils by Don Heck or Jim Mooney for nearly every issue for
4466-451: The style of the romance comics he had drawn decades earlier. Romita both penciled and inked the cover of Daredevil vol. 2, #94 (February 2007) in that same romance comics style. The following year he drew a variant cover of his signature series, for The Amazing Spider-Man #568 (October 2008), doing so again with #642 (November 2010). A Romita image of Spider-Man and a Hulk image penciled by Rich Buckler and inked by Romita were among
4543-418: The title had a smaller print run than Marvel flagships The Amazing Spider-Man and Fantastic Four , it briefly had the company's highest percentage of sales compared to print-run. It also proved to be a stepping-stone for Romita's signature, years-long penciling run on The Amazing Spider-Man . During this time, a DC editor offered Romita to work on their Metamorpho character, but he declined. Lee wrote
4620-425: The villainous Thanos which spread across a number of Marvel titles. Starlin left Captain Marvel one issue after concluding his Thanos saga. Concurrently in the mid-1970s, Starlin contributed a cache of stories to the independently published science-fiction anthology Star Reach . Here he developed his ideas of God, death, and infinity, free of the restrictions of mainstream comics publishers' self-censorship arm,
4697-414: The women looked like emaciated men and he bought it, never criticized, and told me to keep working. He paid me two hundred dollars for it and never published it—and rightfully so". Romita was working at the New York City company Forbes Lithograph in 1949, earning $ 30 a week, when comic book inker Lester Zakarin, a friend from high school whom he ran into on a subway train, offered him either $ 17 or $ 20
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#17328693262034774-498: The writer of Batman , and one of his first storylines for the title was "Ten Nights of The Beast" in issues #417–420 (March – June 1988) which introduced the KGBeast . Starlin then wrote the four-issue miniseries Batman: The Cult (Aug.–Nov. 1988) drawn by Wrightson, and the storyline " Batman: A Death in the Family " in Batman #426–429 (Dec. 1988 – Jan. 1989), in which Jason Todd ,
4851-478: Was Mike Esposito , who initially used the pseudonym "Mickey Demeo" to conceal from his regular employer, rival DC Comics , that he was moonlighting at Marvel. After three issues, Romita inked himself for issues #43–48 (November 1966 – May 1967), before Esposito returned—uncredited for issue #49 (June 1967), then as Mickey Demeo until finally taking credit under his own name with issue #56 (January 1968). Except for one issue (#65) inked by his successor, Jim Mooney ,
4928-458: Was drafted into the U.S. Army . Taking the initiative prior to induction, he showed art samples to the base art director on Governors Island in New York Bay , who arranged for him to be stationed there to do layouts for recruitment posters once Romita had completed basic training at Fort Dix , New Jersey . Romita was promoted to corporal after seven or eight months; now allowed to live off
5005-461: Was [due to] him or Kirby. [Ditko] did the best layouts." Starlin's first job for Marvel was as a finisher on pages of The Amazing Spider-Man . He then drew three issues of Iron Man which introduced the characters Thanos and Drax the Destroyer . He was then given the chance to draw an issue (#25) of the "cosmic" title Captain Marvel . Starlin took over as plotter the following issue, and began developing an elaborate story arc centered on
5082-401: Was an American comic book artist best known for his work on Marvel Comics ' The Amazing Spider-Man and for co-creating characters including Mary Jane Watson , the Punisher , Kingpin , Wolverine , and Luke Cage . Romita was the father of John Romita Jr. , also a comic book artist, and the husband of Virginia Romita, who was for many years Marvel's traffic manager. His first comics work
5159-605: Was based on an encyclopedia description he found on wolverines, as vicious short animals with claws. For the Punisher, a rough sketch was provided by writer Gerry Conway , with a skull and crossbones on the chest. Feeling this was too simple, Romita made the skull larger to encompass the Punisher's torso, with his belt buckle resembling teeth. Romita also designed Natasha Romanova 's Black Widow outfit, inspired by Miss Fury . Romita collaborated with The Electric Company and to produce Spidey Super Stories comics, which were aimed at
5236-501: Was because Stan asked me and I felt that I should help out, like a good soldier. I never really felt comfortable on Spider-Man for years. ... I felt obliged to [mimic] Ditko because ... I was convinced, in my own mind, that he was going to come back in two or three issues. ... I couldn't believe that a guy would walk away from a successful book that was the second-highest seller at Marvel. ... After six months, when I realized it wasn't temporary, I finally stopped trying to [mimic] Ditko. ... I
5313-470: Was burned out as a penciler after eight years of romance work. I didn't want to pencil any more; in fact, I couldn't work at home any more—I couldn't discipline myself to do it. He said, "Okay," but the first chance he had he shows me this Daredevil story somebody had started and he didn't like it, and he wanted somebody else to do it. [He] showed me Dick Ayers ' splash page for a Daredevil [and] asked me, 'What would you do with this page?' I showed him on
5390-414: Was chosen by writer Lee as the new artist for Amazing Spider-Man . Within a year of Romita becoming the Spider-Man artist, The Amazing Spider-Man rose from Marvel's second-best-selling title to the company's top-seller. Romita brought a new romance style to Spider-Man comics that soon became the new design for the character. In June 1973, Romita was promoted to Marvel's art director and heavily influenced
5467-615: Was doing these nine-panel pages and the thin line, and I was doing Peter Parker without any bone structure—just like Ditko was doing, I thought. Lee later commented that this transition in Romita's style actually worked out for the benefit of the series, as it gradually weaned readers off the Ditko look while ultimately allowing Romita to work in the style he most excelled at. Romita took over The Amazing Spider-Man with issue #39 (August 1966). His first inker on what would become Marvel's flagship series
5544-874: Was fired off the Batman title soon afterward. Other projects for DC included writing The Weird drawn by Wrightson and Cosmic Odyssey drawn by Mike Mignola . Starlin wrote and drew Gilgamesh II in 1989 before returning to Marvel. Back at Marvel, Starlin began scripting a revival of the Silver Surfer series and introduced his creation Thanos into the story, which led to the The Infinity Gauntlet miniseries and its crossover storyline. Here, Starlin brought back Adam Warlock , whom he had killed years earlier in his concluding Warlock story in The Avengers Annual #7 and Marvel Two-in-One Annual #2 in 1977. The Infinity Gauntlet proved successful and
5621-663: Was followed by the sequel miniseries The Infinity War and Infinity Crusade . In 1998, he created Hardcore Station in 1998 for DC Comics. In 2003, Starlin wrote and drew the Marvel Comics miniseries Marvel: The End . The series starred Thanos and a multitude of Marvel characters, and subsequently, Starlin was assigned an eponymous Thanos series. Starlin then worked for independent companies, creating Cosmic Guard (later renamed Kid Cosmos ) published by Devil's Due and then Dynamite Entertainment in 2006. Starlin returned to DC and, with artist Shane Davis , wrote
5698-442: Was given the opportunity to produce a one-shot story in which to kill off a main character. The Death of Captain Marvel became the first graphic novel published by Marvel itself. Starlin and Bernie Wrightson produced Heroes for Hope , a 1985 one-shot designed to raise money for African famine relief and recovery. Published in the form of a " comic jam ," the book featured an all-star lineup of comics creators as well as
5775-692: Was in 1949 as a ghost artist for Timely Comics , the precursor to Marvel, through which Romita met editor-in-chief Stan Lee . In 1951, Romita began drawing horror, war, and romance comics for Atlas Comics (previously Timely), and also drew his first superhero work, a 1950s revival of Captain America . He worked exclusively for DC Comics from 1958 to 1965 and was the artist for many of their romance comics. During these years, Romita further developed his ability to draw beautiful women, which he later became well-known for. Romita joined Marvel in 1965, initially drawing Daredevil comics. In 1966, when Spider-Man artist and co-creator Steve Ditko left Marvel, Romita
5852-501: Was not offered work by the other genre departments, although admitted he did not try to present himself to them either. Romita's last known DC story work was the six-page "My Heart Tricked Me", inked by Sachs, in Girls' Romances #121 (December 1966), though his spot illustrations, some or all of it reprints of earlier work, continued to appear on one-page "beauty tip" and other filler pages, as well as on letters pages, through early 1970, as did
5929-695: Was the primary artist for one of the first series with a black star, "Waku, Prince of the Bantu"—created by writer Don Rico and artist Ogden Whitney in the omnibus title Jungle Tales #1 (September 1954). The ongoing short feature starred an African chieftain in Africa, with no regularly featured Caucasian characters. Romita succeeded Whitney with issue #2 (November 1954). In the mid-1950s, while continuing to freelance for Atlas , Romita did uncredited work for DC Comics . Romita had been recommended to DC's editors by his artist friend Carmine Infantino while serving in
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