Jazzy John Romita Sr.

 

If you recognize a drawing of Spider-man, it's likely one of two people.  Ross Andru, whose work was often used in licensing.  Or John Romita, Sr.

Romita wasn't the first person to draw Spider-man.  Instead, he would follow Steve Ditko following his abrupt departure after issue #38 of The Amazing Spider-Man.  Romita would take over as the penciler of Amazing with #39, starting a run that would encompass over 50 covers and an unbroken run of story art for 56 issues.  A run which would cover some of the ground-breaking Spider-Man stories, like the death of Gwen Stacy.

Though Romita never felt comfortable on Spider-Man, his art would become incredibly linked with the character.  He served as the primary penciler for the newspaper strip for the first four years of its publication.  He worked on the first intercompany crossover with Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man, doing art corrections over Ross Andru's pencils.  He would provide the cover for Spider-Man's wedding issue, and several spot issues to come.

"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."

Alex Ross, painter, illustrator, Marvels, Kingdom Come

Romita's career in comics lasted from 1949 into 2010, long enough for the Sr. designation on his name to become important.  His son John Romita, Sr. would follow in his footsteps, becoming a celebrated comics artist in his own right.  And on Amazing Spider-man, even.

Romita passed away in his sleep on June 12, 2023, at the age of 93.  While his presence will be missed, his art and his heart will live on, inspiring us to be heroic, to be human.

Marvelous at 81

Marvel Comics celebrated its 81st birthday yesterday.  The day commemorates the release of Marvel Comics #1 on August 31, 1939, featuring the first Marvel characters: The Human Torch and the Sub-mariner, as well as minor characters the noir detective the Angel, the western Masked Raider, and the jungle lord Ka-Zar.  The first print of 80,000 quickly sold out, leading to a second print that sold out of 800,000 copies.

Since then, Marvel has been a hit.  And in the decades since it has become a household name.  There have been lean periods.  The post Wertham Seduction of the Innocent period pre-1961, where all comics companies were struggling to find what genre would be a hit.  The Marvel bankruptcy and speculator boom and bust of the 1990s.  But the company has come through each with innovation and storytelling.  

All comic companies are facing a particularly difficult season this year, like other entertainment businesses.  Individual comics are still primarily sold through the direct market, a collection of small business comic shops across the country.  Margins are generally razor thin, and many comic shops have been going under even prior to the whole shutdown.  

To compound things, comics are primarily distributed through one company, Diamond Comic Distributors.  The shutdown and shipping restrictions meant that for nearly two months, no new comics were being shipped to comic shops, though there were finished products that could have been available and ready to ship.  Even digital copies of these issues were withheld from the digital storefronts.  The major publishers are just now starting to find a new rhythm for shipment, though the standard Wednesday shipment of all issues has come to an end.  The era of the Wednesday warrior is over.

Marvel's recent success with film has likewise ground to a halt, as Hollywood is still unsure how to proceed.  No one is lining up to return to movie theaters, though they are reopening across the country.  Marvel's last film in its old 20th Century Fox deal, The New Mutants, released last week, earning only $7 million, the lowest of any X-men film.  Marvel Studios tentpole Black Widow film is supposed to release in November, but with how this year has gone, who knows.  Production is likewise uncertain, as only certain countries are allowing filming to resume.

In recognition of this difficult year, Marvel has recently added an icon to its covers, visually similar to the old Comics Code Authority approval seal.  It's an image created by Diamond Comics Distributors, reminding us that this too shall pass.  

Our Comeback Will Be Bigger Than Our Setback.

That these momentary and fleeting afflictions shall not be the defining characteristic of our future.  It's a reminder that echoes the optimism inherent in Marvel Comics.  Echoes of that great moment in Amazing Spider-man #33, where Spider-man has been crushed under heavy machinery following a fight with Doctor Octopus.  Trapped there, he finds the situation hopeless; he's too exhausted from the fight, the machinery is too heavy, the situation is too impossible.  And yet, through grit and determination he finds the strength needed to lift the machinery off of him.  To fight on.  He remembered what he was fighting for.

It's an incredible two page sequence, one of the most remembered from Spider-man's storied past.

That's where Marvel and we are right now.  The situation looks dire, the weight seems too much.  But there is always hope.

Happy Birthday Marvel!  Keep reminding us to look up!

Apolitical

“We can’t get too deep into the politics. And the characters can take sides, choose sides, turn evil, turn back to good, but they still have to entertain. That’s first and foremost, no matter what real-world events we are going to reflect, they are going to be fictionalized and they’re going to have the classic spin that Stan always brought to them. They will be serious, but they may make you smile.”

C.B. Cebulski, Editor in Chief, Marvel Comics, 8/30/18

"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.  If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality."

Desmond Tutu

There's a growing push, a rallying cry for entertainment to be apolitical*.  To be neutral.  To avoid the controversial or anything that might divide an audience and to just be entertainment.

In other words, to be toothless.

There are definitely times when stories, when entertainment can tell universally applicable stories that carry no overt or implied political meanings.  But to demand that every story be so is to misunderstand the purpose of entertainment in the first place.

Entertainment is meant to entertain yes, but it is also meant to move us.  It is meant to challenge us and our beliefs.  It is meant to spur us on to further action.  It is meant to inspire us.

Marvel Comics decided last year to do a bit of course correcting and move to an apolitical stance.  The quote from Editor in Chief Cebulski followed a particular notorious storyline in which Captain America was revealed to have been manipulated into being a Fascist dictator.  It involved mind control and full timey-wimey shenanigans.  It's comics.

The storyline definitely got a reaction and divided the comics community.  To be fair, many of the people objecting to the storyline were objecting without knowing the full story - they were objecting and protesting following a first act turn that was supposed to shock and unsettle.

The announcement also came in light of the Comicsgate movement; a campaign against perceived "forced diversity" and progressivism in comics hiring and content, with Marvel at the center of the crosshairs.  At the time, many of Marvel's legacy heroes (read white, male characters created in the 1940s and 1960s), had been replaced by heroes of more diverse backgrounds.  It's a common storyline in comics, where the hero is replaced by a substitute, only to come back later.  It just happened to be happening in several books at once.

In order to take the heat off, Marvel made an aggressive course correction, even going so far as to say "what we've heard is that people didn't want more diversity."  Books shifted back to the legacy heroes.  Storylines for the most part stopped being overtly political, with notable exceptions (you don't hire Ta-Nahesi Coates without expecting him to be political).

"All art is propaganda."

W.E.B. Dubois

This apolitical stance has brought Marvel into the recent news.  Two high-profile creators have reported that Marvel asked them to revise their text pieces for books related to Marvel's 80th anniversary celebration.

First, Pulitzer Prize winning Art Spiegelman reported that Marvel asked him to revise his introduction for the Folio Society collection of Golden Age Marvel Comics to remove a pointed but passing reference to President Trump.  Spiegelman declined and pulled the introduction.

Now it is alleged that Marvel requested veteran creator and award winning Mark Waid to revise a text piece designed to accompany Captain America art in their Marvel Comics #1000 celebration issue.  A text piece which discussed the dichotomy of the flaws and virtues of America.

This at a time when it is more important to be political than ever.

At a time when toddlers are still going unrepresented in courts of law and are left to fend for themselves.

At a time when the administration is moving for the indefinite detention of migrant families, seeking to dismantle the Flores Agreement.

At a time when United States Customs and Immigration Services confirms that children born to United States service members outside of the United States will no longer automatically be considered United States citizens.

At a time when our President is confirming his plans to end birthright citizenship for children of non-citizen parents.

At a time when our President ponders nuking a hurricane.

At a time when we may finally see the deep connections our President and his family have to Russian oligarchs through co-signed loans, as a result of his tax returns finally being revealed.

It's past time we were all political.

If you cannot find something in that list above that doesn't make your blood boil, I would suggest checking for a pulse.

It's time for all of us to be involved and it's time for our art to push us onward.  It's time for our art to motivate us to do better.  To make good.

And for comics, it's time for our heroes to inspire us.  To show us the better way, the brighter future.  For them to show us truth, justice, and the American way.  An American way that applies to us all equally.

For the sake of art inspiring us, I'm including Waid's unaltered text piece below.

"I’m asked how it’s possible to love a country that’s deeply flawed.  

It’s hard sometimes.  The system isn’t just.  We’ve treated some of our own abominably.  

Worse, we’ve perpetuated the myth that any American can become anything, can achieve anything, through sheer force of will.  And that’s not always true.  This isn’t the land of opportunity for everyone.  The American ideals aren’t always shared fairly.  

Yet without them, we have nothing.  

With nothing, cynicism becomes reality.  With nothing, for the privileged and the disenfranchised both, our way of life ceases to exist.  We must always remember that America, as imperfect as it is, has something.  It has ideals that give it structure.  

When the structure works, we get schools.  We get roads and hospitals.  We get a social safety net.  More importantly, when we have structure, we have a foundation upon which to rebuild the American Dream — that equal opportunity can be available to absolutely everyone.  

America’s systems are flawed, but they’re our only mechanism with which to remedy inequality on a meaningful scale.  Yes, it’s hard and bloody work.  But history has shown us that we can, bit by bit, right that system when enough of us get angry.  When enough of us take to the streets and force those in power to listen.  When enough of us call for revolution and say, “Injustice will not stand.”  

That’s what you can love about America."

------------------------

* - I have to point out I think it's a bit disingenuous when people say they want entertainment to be apolitical.  What they are usually saying is that they do not want entertainment that they disagree with politically.  Just as with celebrity opinions, they are fine with those that agree with them, but want those opposed to be silenced.

If I Were Disney CEO Part 42 - Publishing: Marvel Comics

“This transaction combines Marvel’s strong global brand and world-renowned library of characters including Iron Man, Spider-Man, X-men, Captain America, Fantastic Four and Thor with Disney’s creative skills, unparalleled global portfolio of entertainment properties, and a business structure that maximizes the value of creative properties across multiple platforms and territories.  Ike Perlmutter and his team have done an impressive job of nurturing these properties and have created significant value.  We are pleased to bring this talent and these great assets to Disney.

We believe that adding Marvel to Disney’s unique portfolio of brands provides significant opportunities for long-term growth and value creation.”

Bob Iger, Disney CEO, August 31, 2009

Disney Publishing Worldwide represents the publishing arm of The Walt Disney Company.  Incorporated in 1992 as the Disney Publishing Group, it contained the already created Disney Press, Hyperion Books, and Hyperion Books for Children.  It has covered the Disney Magazine and Disney book apps.  It also includes imprints for ESPN and Marvel, and can be expanded to include Lucasfilm and Fox.

Under this division, I would like to focus on Marvel Comics.

Marvel Comics started in 1939 as Timely Comics publishing characters such as Captain America and the Human Torch, as well as funny animal comics.  By the 1950s, the company had become known as Atlas Comics and had primarily become known for romance, western, humor, war, and adventure comics.  By 1961, Marvel Comics became the name imprint, introducing a wave of superhero throughout the 1960s that have become the popular movie heroes of today.  

Over the decades since, Marvel has experimented in various ways, with all forms of content and format.  It has gone from extreme highs to near bankruptcy.  On August 31, 2009, the Walt Disney Company announced a deal to acquire Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion.  

Though Marvel characters are at the forefront of modern pop culture, comics continue to be a dwindling medium.  Therefore, the recommendations below will be focused on regrowing the comics audience.

Primary Goals for the Division:

• Expand out of the Direct Market - In the early years of comic books, comics were available in newsstands and drugstores.  They were a mass market publication, returnable like magazines.  This is why they sold millions in the golden age - comics were available at 10 cents on every street corner.  Since the 1980s, comics have moved almost exclusively to the direct market.  Comic book shops and the like.  Stores that sell only comics to comics fans.  This saved comics then, but it is time to move beyond the direct market to save them again. Digital is helping, particularly with tablets at the appropriate size for the comic form.  But comics need to move back to where the customers are.  Walmarts, Targets, grocery stores, convenience stores.  The Distinguished Competition has expanded into Wal-mart with exclusive reprint collections with new material from top creators.  Marvel needs a similar program to capitalize on the popularity of their characters now.
• Continue to Explore the Boundaries of Digital - Digital above provides a great access to a large customer base, with no limitation on stock and lower production costs.  The exploration of digital only or digital premier series should be continued, though at a lower initial cost.  
• Find ways to bring the price of an individual comic down - We’re approaching $5 for a single issue of a comic.  That’s not for a whole story, that’s for, often, one piece of a six part story.  The cost of comics has risen astronomically, from it’s 10 cent days.  And $5 is  getting extreme, when there are other companies and series that can keep the cost at $3 an issue.  The value ratio has to get back to a better level, whether through the lower cost at $3 or through more content in the single issue.  Maybe it's also time to explore new paper stock.
• Bring all Disney imprints under Marvel Comics - Currently, the kid friendly comics containing Disney characters and even Marvel heroes are being licensed to and published by other comic companies.  There is no reason this should continue.  Any comic produced of a Disney property should run through Marvel Comics.  Disney characters like Scrooge McDuck, Mickey Mouse, and Goofy have had great success worldwide as comic books.  It just should be under the Marvel or Disney banner, not Joe Comics or IDW.  If it is production related cost issues, that should be addressed and fixed.
• Limit the number of titles published a month - There is no need to overwhelm the racks with 52 titles like a month Distinguish Competitor did.  Forty titles still comes out to 10 a week.  It would be better to have a more focused line of titles that could be picked up in larger numbers by readers than a bunch of collectors that pick up only one a month.
• Rethink the numbering schedule - It may be time to adapt a more "season based" schedule, starting over with a number one for each year, each storyline, etc.  Legacy numbering could be kept just for indicia and for legacy, but it does not convey any information to the reader.  Numbering based on a storyline would clearly indicate to readers how to follow the title, plus allowing for a greater number of jumping on points (given the already increasing number of new issue number ones).
• Bring back the anthologies - It's time for continuing titles like Marvel Comics Presents, Journey Into Mystery, Tales of Suspense, and Tales to Astonish.   Opportunities to try out new talent.  New stories.  Lesser known characters.  Perhaps digital only, or digital first.  A place for mini-series, or short stories.  A place to experiment.  I see this as the equivalent of the shorts program.  Every division needs an experiment division.

Imprints I would keep alive through Marvel Comics:

• Marvel - for the well known superheroes, Lucasfilm properties
• Disney - for Mickey and Friends, Pixar, Disney Animated, and Disney Kingdoms stories
• Epic - for creator owned, experimental, and non-franchise related
• Max - For the harder-edged, adult comics - crime, horror, and the like

Hopefully, with these adjustments, comics could begin to thrive again.  'Nuff said!

Next in the series - the penultimate entry, regarding other proposed acquisitions.

Top 10 Favorite Marvel Single Issues

As Marvel Week come to an oversized close, I wanted to go out with a bang.  And I couldn't think of a better way to end it than to share my favorite single issues of Marvel comics.  Some of these are done in one stories, some of these are pieces of a larger story, but they all contain something special that keeps me coming back to them time and time again.

And while some of them may make people's lists of the best comics ever, most are just personal favorites.  Comics with a moment or an illustration that really spoke to me.  Most are from my prime era of reading comics, though they run the gamut and are pieces of my favorite runs of all time.

So, without further ado, in order of release, my 10 favorite Marvel single issues of all time.

• Daredevil (1964) #233 - Armageddon - The end of Frank Miller and David Mazzucchulli's masterpiece Born Again.  This is the end of Miller's run and he goes out swinging.  It's Daredevil versus Nuke, a twisted super-soldier, with Hell's Kitchen in flames.  What makes this issue is Miller's use of the Avengers.  Miller's narration to describe the Avengers and their individual roles is perhaps the greatest ever put to paper.  He treats them like the pantheon they represent and it shows.
  
  
  
• Thor (1966) #502 - Putting on the Bear Shirt - Bill Messner Loebs and Mike Deodato Jr. closing out one run of Thor. This comic explores the question regarding what you would do if you knew the world was ending tomorrow.  Thor spends most of the issue trying to evoke a Viking berserker rage, or "putting on the bear shirt."  Instead, he finds his memories from his time exiled as Donald Blake are much more necessary.  A touching issue and a good finale for this run.  Just ignore the awful 90s costume.
  
  
  
• Thunderbolts (1997) #1 - Justice, Like Lightning - Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley introduce us to a new group of heroes striving to fill in the gap for the missing Avengers and Fantastic Four.  The team had been seen in a couple of cameo appearances but this was their first comic offering.  And it remains one of the best first issues ever put to print.  Busiek's knowledge of the Marvel Universe is put to full use and the twist at the end floors even the most jaded comic readers.
  
  
  
• Black Panther (1998) #2 - Invasion - Christopher Priest and Mark Texeria's run on Black Panther is phenomenal and while I love the first issue, the second issue ratchets everything up several more notches.  The intrigue, the non-linear storytelling, and most importantly the humor.  The scenes with Everett K. Ross, king of the whiteboys, and Mephisto, Marvel's devil in charge, leading to the Devil's Pants bits are hysterical.  Again, if you like Black Panther the movie, everything that made that film sing starts with Priest's Black Panther run.
  
  
  
• Daredevil (1998) #9 - Parts of a Hole Part One, Murdock's Law - David Mack and Joe Quesada's followup to the acclaimed Kevin Smith Guardian Devil run.  With Mack's influence, Quesada's art got even more abstract and I love it.  In particular, there is a page of Murdock at the piano, with the music telling the pieces of his background that is simply stunning.  A visual treat.
  
  
  
• She-Hulk (2004) #4 - Web of Lies - Dan Slott and Juan Bobillo present She-Hulk at a law firm specializing in Superhuman Law.  With this issue, Spider-man sues J. Jonah Jameson for libel and She-Hulk is there as his attorney.  Hijinks ensue with a couple of very well timed jokes.  This series as a whole was just a lot of fun and this issue in particular shines.
  
  
  
• Spectacular Spider-man (2003) #27 - The Final Curtain - A quite issue for Paul Jenkins and Mark Buckingham to close out their time on Spidey.  Their run is a masterclass in character development and emotion and it was really tough to decide between this issue and the Uncle Ben/Mets baseball issue.  This issue is Peter talking to his Uncle Ben at Uncle Ben's grave.  It's funny, it's touching, and it includes a wonderful tribute to Bill Watterson via Killer Snowmen that Uncle Ben and Peter would create.  Simply a fantastic conversation and issue that goes to the core of Spider-man.
  
  
  
• The Thing (2005) #8 - Last Hand - Dan Slott and Kieron Dwyer close out this short run on the Thing with another great character issue.  Alternating between the annual floating poker game and the Thing's Bar Mitzvah, with a little handwaving to explain why he could have one at his advanced age, the story is a perfect Marvel Universe story and an excellent exploration of Ben Grimm.  With the focus on Grimm's Judaism for the first time, Slott ties him ever more directly to his creator, Jack Kirby.
  
  
  
• FF (2010) #23 - Run - Jonathan Hickman's last issue of his magnificent Fantastic Four run.  This issue in the partner book closed out his epic entry.  Deftly penciled by Nick Dragotta, the issue turns the focus back inward, back to the themes of family.  Of childhood and the endless imagination.  And of parenthood and the deepest fear of that process - will they turn out ok? did we do a good job?  Thanks to the endless possibilities of comics, these questions get answered for the FF and start them out on new adventures.  A perfect finale.
  
  
  
• Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-man (2017) #310 - Finale - Chip Zdarsky wraps his run on Spider-man, providing the writing and the art for this issue.  Through the lens of a documentary filmmaker and his interviews, Zdarsky gives us insight into how Spider-man is viewed and why he does what he does.  There is one heartbreaking interview that boils down the essence of the character, reminding us at his core, Spider-man does what he does simply because he wants to help.  A perfect summation of "with great power, there must also come great responsibility" without ever uttering the words.
  
  
  

That's my list.  These are the ones that keep me reading.

As always, Excelsior!

* - all cover images (c) Marvel Comics.