The Punisher by John Romita

Daily Bugle - Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Entry by John Romita Sr

1979 - Anatomy of a Cover - Amazing Spider-Man #195

by Keith Pollard and John Romita Sr

Spider-Man by John Romita Jr and Sr

1984 - Uncanny X-Men #177

By Chris Claremont, John Romita Jr. and John Romita Sr.

1992 - Original Cover Art for Spider-Man Wedding trade paperback

http://comics.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=806&lotNo=6983#29102910715

1985 - Marvel's 25th Anniversary by John Romita Sr. and Joe Rubinstein

1984 - John Romita's Sahara

John Romita's take on Brooke Shields in the 1984 movie Sahara.

Green Goblin and his trophy wall by the Romitas

By John Romita Sr. and John Romita Jr.

1982 - The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #16

Amazing Spider-Man Annual #16
1982
“Who’s That Lady?”
Writer: Roger Stern
Penciler: John Romita Jr.
Inking: John Romita Sr.

This annual turned out to be more of a team-up story with co-star Captain Marvel stealing most of the spotlight. Captain Marvel’s 17-page origin was a textbook example of how to concisely craft and introduce a new superhero. Stern leveraged her point-of-view as a rookie superhero with access to almost unlimited powers, but was still trying to understand and control them.

In an interview for Back Issue magazine #54, Roger Stern admited: “With Captain Marvel, I did my best to create a character in the Lee/Kirby/Ditko tradition, a down-to-Earth person who suddenly acquired extraordinary power. And I wanted her to be a straightforward, likable superhero.”


The story is segwayed by the origin telling, but Stern gets the main storyline going again and has Captain Marvel stumble and blusters her way into the Avengers headquarters. This encounter of course sets up her relationship with the Avengers. Stern had the idea of her becoming an Avenger in mind from this beginning and this annual was the first step on that road.

The annual’s art is another amazing son-father team-up by the Romitas. Their work is classic Spidey with a modern flare owing to Romita Jr.’s influence. Captain Marvel had one of the more interesting costume origins as she finds her way inside of a Mardi Gras costume warehouse! She next appeared in Mighty Avengers #227.

Best quote: [from Iron Man sitting on Monitor Duty] “That’s the F.F.’s priority signal. I wonder what they want? It better not be Galactus again! I warned them that –”

1983 - The Amazing Spider-Man #238

 Amazing Spider-Man #238 
"Shadow of evils past!"
March 1983
Writer: Roger Stern
Artists: John Romita Jr./John Romita Sr.

In retrospect, Amazing Spider-Man #238 was the most important issue of Spider-Man of the 1980s. At the time though, no one was expecting the birth of a new supervillain who would plague Spider-Man for years to come.

This issue featured the first appearance and origin of the Hobgoblin and set into motion a storyline that would keep readers guessing his real identity for years. That’s right, the real identity of this new antagonist was kept a secret, much like the early appearances of the Green Goblin. Using the familiar but new approach, writer Roger Stern had this new antagonist find a Green Goblin’s weapon cache (you might recall that back in the 1980s, Norman Osborn was still dead) and use these weapons to pick up where the Goblin had left off.

Amazing Spider-Man #238 was a great jumping on point for new readers. Roger Stern, approaching the peak of his run on the title, wove a wonderful story that brought out Peter Parker’s character with a clear and distinct voice. Stern always made great use of Peter’s supporting cast, making them seem far more real and playing stronger roles than the usual cardboard cutouts.

And in the art department, this issue featured the legendary art team-up of John Romita Jr. and John Romita Sr.. Their style is so clean, dynamic, and classic. The Stern and Romita run of the 1980s will always stand as my favorite take on Spider-Man.

Not bad for $0.75 Canadian. Can’t believe that was almost 30 years ago! This issue can be picked up these days for just over $100.

1986 - Anatomy of a Cover - Classic X-Men #1

Updated with more sequential images from Ferran Delgado's blog posting.

A little bit of love for Art Adams and his cover to Classic X-Men #1...

Preliminary cover design

Another preliminary, this time drawn by John Romita Sr.

Recoloured version

1984 – The A-Team

Writer(s): Jim Salicrup/Marie Severin/Alan Kupperberg

Artist(s): Marie Severin/Chic Stone//Jim Mooney/Joe Giella/Alan Kupperberg/Brian Moore

"In 1972 a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn’t commit! These men promptly escape from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles Underground! Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as Soldiers of Fortune! If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if can you find them, maybe you can hire –The A-Team."

The first issue of this miniseries was surprisingly solid with some wonderful art by veteran silveragers Marie Severin and Chic Stone. This issue is the best of the lot as it not only has the typical A-Team plot, it actually demonstrates some quality character moments for B.A. Baracus.

Each issue of this miniseries is a standalone story and the quality varies. Fortunately, there’s a consistency in the art (thanks to the overall direction by John Romita) and the story does hit on all the 1980s marks.

I couldn’t find anything about why Marvel Comics didn’t follow up this series with an ongoing series. Knowing the success of the TV series, I’m surprised that Marvel Comics didn’t capitalize on that. If you enjoyed the classic TV show, then you should definitely track down these issues. I pity the fool who doesn’t get his grubby paws on these issues!

1984 - Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars

While I've covered the actual miniseries in another post, I thought I'd share some new images I found.

This first image was a promo drawing done by the legendary John Romita Sr. Absolutely love this picture. Looks like the black space would have been where the logo or advertising blurb would go.

This image is the unused cover to Secret Wars #6 by Mike Zeck in favor of the Bob Layton drawn one. The one thing of note on the Zeck cover is the appearance of Kang who was "killed" by Ultron by this point in the miniseries.

Similarly, this image is the unused cover to Secret Wars #7 by Mike Zeck in favor of the Bob Layton drawn one. The one glaring difference is the appearance of Spider-Woman on the Layton cover.

This image looks to be a water-coloured drawing by Zeck and could have been part of an ad or something as there's some space left blank on the right side of the image.

One more ....