Jrjr interview

[Guest starvenger]

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JAZZY JOHN JUNIOR - TALKING TO JOHN ROMITA JR.

A second generation Marvel artist, John Romita Jr. has done it all in his 20+ years with the company. All of Marvel’s flagship characters have had his art grace their pages, from Spider-Man to Thor, Hulk to the X-Men. Newsarama recently had a chance to chat with the prolific artist and discuss a variety of topics, from his early days to his most recent work, and how he can manage to pencil two books a month. And of course, we did have to being up the “Hunk of the Month…”

Newsarama: Before we get into it, let’s set the stage – you’ve been at Marvel for over 20 years, right?

 

John Romita Jr.: Yeah, I’ve been working at Marvel for 26 years, 25 under contract.

 

NRAMA: And in all that time, you’ve never really strayed for too long..

 

JRjr: I have a couple of times, and up until ’96, when my parents were still working for the company, I didn’t want to leave. With the exception of a few personal battles with people that never liked me anyway, I’ve always enjoyed the company. There have been various personality conflicts with people who’ve never ever liked me, and there’s nothing I can do anything about that.

 

NRAMA: What have the battles been about?

 

JRjr: The reasons probably stem from them thinking that I got my job because of my father, and you can’t argue with that. There are a lot of people who don’t like you, and then there are a lot of people who like you unconditionally. How do you argue with that? I didn’t want to BUTT heads with those people, so I stayed away from them.

 

My social life is outside of comics, with the exception of a very few friends. I just never thought about leaving, because I enjoyed the company, and there was a lot of fun to be had at the company. In ’96, when my parents left, I had a contract for a couple of years past that.

 

NRAMA: So when it came to re-upping for your latest contract, you were thinking of moving on?

 

JRjr: Yeah. I had a chance to go to DC, but DC really didn’t step up and offer anything other than they would treat me well. I didn’t get any solid offers of characters from them. I think if they had offered me Batman, I might have jumped, but they never made an offer. They hinted that maybe sometime in the future, I could get Batman, but in fairness to Mike Carlin, he told me that they couldn’t have me come over there and then kick someone off a title just because of who I am. They wanted me to bring characters and new ideas that they could work with, and then see what would happen in the future.

 

Mike was fair to his people, and I have nothing bad to say about anyone at DC, and I would love to work with them someday, but Marvel has always stepped up and closed the deal with me. I’ve been working on Spider-Man since late ’94, and I couldn’t argue with drawing a flagship character.

 

NRAMA: And now, of course, the administration has changed at Marvel – did that play a role in you staying with the company?

 

JRjr: Oh yeah. Joe Quesada was a friend of mine before he became the editor in chief, and Joe is the reason I stay on at Marvel. He’s a great guy. I would work with Joe under any circumstances. He’s a straight shooter, a company man, and he knows what’s good and what’s not, and he’s an artist first. That’s really important. I’ve had my run ins with editor in chiefs before this - the two before, Joe, I don’t know if they liked me very much, but Joe seems to like me, and to like my stuff, and that will be the lynchpin of me staying at Marvel.

 

NRAMA: When you talk about never really showing interest to going elsewhere…do you think that since there’s been a Romita at Marvel forever, do you think people may see you as…

 

JRjr: Part of the furniture?

 

NRAMA: Right. You are Marvel to a lot of people, one would expect. Seeing your stuff on the DC crossovers was interesting, but it felt different – it was Marvel doing DC.

 

JRjr: It was a ‘this does not compute’ kind of thing. If people see me as Marvel, that’s not bad. I don’t mind being the representative of Marvel. I’ve worn my association with Marvel on my sleeve and have always talked of Marvel as a company and characters in glowing terms. The company has treated me well. Their insurance has covered my family – my wife has had a bad run of luck health-wise in the past couple of years, my son and stepchildren are covered, and I have a roof over my head because of Marvel. You can’t argue with that.

 

True, I would probably have the same thing if I worked for DC, but you don’t know how that would have come to pass. So, if I’m a Marvel man, so be it. If I’m to be seen as Marvel’s representative because of my age or tenure with them, so what? Whatever comes my way is fine. I try to be like Clint Eastwood – I hang out, and try not to get too excited. I scream and yell at home, and go to the gym and beat up some heavy bags that I’ve labeled with people’s names, but when it comes to business, I try not to react too severely. My wife, I have to tie down, because she would have liked to have killed a couple of people over the years, but my father taught me that if you react to things in too strong a manner, it really doesn’t get you anywhere.

 

NRAMA: You’ve been at Marvel for so long, you’ve seen many, many administrations come and go…wasn’t it under Jim Shooter that a picture of you ran in Bullpen Bulletins labeled “Hunk of the Month?”

 

JRjr: That was such a cheap trick. It was a practical joke played on me by Shooter. Probably the best practical joke, because it’s lasted almost twenty years. Even if it didn’t started out to be a practical joke, it ended up as one. I still get bugged about it. No one ever took it seriously, and everyone knows I wouldn’t be that way, or act that way, and those that do think I act that way; I really don’t care about them.

 

NRAMA: With that in mind, that you have been a part of Marvel for so long, how does the current administration compare to the others during your tenure?

 

JRjr: I can’t say anything more about Quesada than I already have. He’s the best editor in chief that I’ve ever worked for. Hopefully, he’ll be the last one, too. I’d like to see him stick around for as long as I’m there.

 

As far as Bill Jemas goes, I haven’t worked with him personally. He’s the COO, and that’s it. We speak occasionally. He was there when I signed my most recent contract, but I can’t really pass judgment on him. I know he’s a good man, and he does his job. If he and I went out drinking a few times, I could give you a better impression – just like I can with Joe. We’ve been out on more than one occasion tossing a few back. I know Joe’s personality, his wife is a doll, and their baby is beautiful.

 

If Joe says anything bad about me behind my back, I’ve never heard it, and usually, when someone says something about you in comics, it gets back to you, but I’ve never heard of Joe saying anything about me. Quesada is a fan of mine, and I’m a fan of his, both as an artist and an editor in chief. I only got good things to say about him.

 

NRAMA: Does the difference in administration over the years trickle down to your level in that the scripts you see now are different compared to those you would get under previous editors in chief?

 

JRjr: Yeah. I think the stories now are a little wider open than they used to be. Even with the restrictions on the comic industry because books are being sold in Wal-Mart, the shackles have been taken off in that the writers are able to do what they want. When I worked with Howard Mackie, bless his soul, he was held down by chains. I have an idea of who caused it, but it was a shame. I think Howard Mackie, with as much freedom as Kevin Smith or JMS has now would show equal quality. Howard is an exceptional writer who just wasn’t given his due. I think that’s true of a lot of writers.

 

But the past administrations, I’m not going to throw dirt on any of them, but I had run ins with all of them. Although I have to add that Tom DeFalco and I never really argued, but I’m sure he had his disagreements with me, especially since he didn’t mention me in his hardcover Spider-Man book! He didn’t mention me as one of his co-workers! That big guido goombah…I’m kidding. He’s a great guy, but he could’ve mentioned me in the book. I’ve got nothing bad to say about DeFalco.

 

NRAMA: Speaking about your side of things, for a long time, you were drawing two books a month. By anyone’s definition, that’s a lot of work. Why did you adopt that schedule?

 

JRjr: I think as I got older, I got a little more responsible and further in debt. I’m married to a woman who spends a lot of money, I have a mortgage, and I have a five year old. It seems to me that’s enough incentive to work hard. I’ve got a nice house and that’s the only thing that I owe money on, and I’d like to have a lot of money when I retire, so I’m working as hard as possible now.

 

NRAMA: So, the move to do two titles a month was financially motivated?

 

JRjr: No, not at all. I can’t think of any other way of doing this, really. Although I never went after or got a second title because of my need of money, I always felt that I needed to do more than one title in that I wasn’t leaving a mark with one title like I wanted to leave. There’s always a desire to be the best artist in the business, even for one minute, and I thought maybe that I could lean towards that more if I was doing a second title, or maybe three or four. I would love to do three or four or five titles. It’s not really possible – I’m not Jack Kirby, but I just thought it would be advantageous to do more than one, so I did.

 

NRAMA: But now you’re down to one title – albeit one titles with an increased production schedule…

 

JRjr: Right. I’m off of the Hulk now, because they want to be putting out more Amazing Spider-Man issues than one a month, so I’m moving to Spider-Man full time, but I’ve got plenty of other things to keep me busy. I’ve got a few creator-owned projects I’m looking to squeeze in as well, because if they go well, I’ll have an avenue other than comics to consider in my future, which is to me a good idea.

 

NRAMA: What can you say about these creator-owned properties?

 

JRjr: The first one - I have a story with a friend of mine named Glen Brunswick, who is a brilliant screenwriter who co-wrote the movie Frequency. He and I have gotten together on an idea I had a couple of years ago. It’s a really cool idea that if Marvel is smart they’ll accept. We’re going to pitch it to them in a very, very short time. If that’s accepted, we’re going to then pitch it to Hollywood.

 

JRjr: Likewise, a second writer friend - who used to work on Home Improvement, and I have a project in the works too. So I’ve got two great writers and two great projects. The second one isn’t as far in its formative state as the first one, but I’m hoping that ultimately they both get picked up by Hollywood and I can move to maybe doing Spider-Man a couple of days a week instead of every day.

 

NRAMA: Going back for a moment to your work schedule, what is a day like for you?

 

JRjr: I get up around 4:30 or 5:00 and either go to the gym or run. I work a couple of hours before my son gets up, and then get him ready for school and take him to the bus stop, and then I work until about 7:00 or 8:00 at night. I get in about a minimum of twelve hours worth of work a day. Like a lot of guys, I work at home, so I don’t have a commute time, my lunch is right here for me, so it’s a whole lot easier. I love it.

 

I can work longer hours if I have to – I recently did 28 hours straight so I could take Thursday and Friday off and do the convention up in Oakland. Of course, I’m going to be working 48 hours straight to raise funds for my niece with brain cancer. I’ll be sitting in Times Square and sketching and signing for 48 hours straight. I’ll charge for each, and all the money will go to my niece’s cancer fund. Anything that’s not used for her should she be in remission will go to another patient.

 

NRAMA: Your work ethic sounds like it was heavily influenced by artists of the Silver Age, rather than those of the modern age…

 

JRjr: I don’t think it’s unreasonable for a guy in this business to work long hours as long as he’s relatively healthy, so that’s why I’m pushing this 48 hour thing, to raise as much money as I can. It doesn’t seem that difficult to me when I’m on a deadline, and that’s something I learned from college and my father - deadlines are important. I try to stick to them. I’ve been late a million times, and there’s not always something you can do about it, but I’ll fight like crazy to make it by deadline.

 

So, yeah, the hours don’t bother me that much. At about 2:00 in the afternoon, and someone tells me they need something by 8:00 tomorrow morning, I’m up until 8:00 tomorrow morning. That’s the way it goes. You have no choice. You want to pay the bills, that’s what you’ve got to do. So, in that regard, it’s not difficult to do two titles. I think I would go nuts if I only did the equivalent of one. I don’t sit around and do nothing very well. I gotta work.

 

NRAMA: With all that said, the industry has loads of “hot” artists who flare up in popularity and can maybe squeeze a book out every two months. Is there any frustration or teeth grinding on your end when you see fill-ins after fill-ins or missed deadlines from these other artists?

 

JRjr: Maybe fifteen years ago I might’ve ground my teeth a little bit with the Image guys. There were guys that were making millions of dollars, and it could’ve been me. They offered me the chance to go with them, so I can’t hold it against them. I was frustrated a little not because of their fame, but because I would’ve liked to have made that money. But then, I may not have had what I had at Marvel if I had left. I laugh at that feeling too, because the administration has changed twice since then, and everyone has been invited back.

 

NRAMA: But still, and not to press looking for controversy specifically, but you’re one of the industry’s workhorses, constantly putting out work, and here are others who do less work but get more attention than you…

 

JRjr: When I was younger, and maybe a little less mature, I might have been annoyed at that. But there has always been someone who has done it better, or is a bigger fan-favorite than I am. It goes on forever. My father dealt with it really well when everybody was bugging him about Kirby and Buscema’s art compared to his. Everybody’s got opinions. I just got railed on message boards this morning. You can’t do anything about that – the vocal minority is always present, and you have to consider who’s saying it, understand it, and deal with it. I have a good amount of people that like my stuff, and that’s what matters.

 

People come and go, and the guys who have been hot have burned out as quickly as they came up. But there will always be someone better than you. The way I see it, as long as the Kuberts are in the business, I’ll never ever have a firm hold on confidence. Those guys are brilliant. Jim Lee’s doing a monthly again – who’s going to pay attention to anyone else’s art when Jim’s doing a monthly book. If McFarlane would do a monthly book again, no one would be looking at anything else. My father told me that there will always be someone who’s stronger, faster, better looking, or an better artist than you. And there will always be someone below you. Get used to it and deal with it. So I try to, and try to do the best I can.

 

I think the best thing that I ever did was close myself off somewhat to the social circles of the comic book industry and the message boards. The further I am away from comics socially, the easier it is to deal with. It’s like not reading newspapers if you’re an athlete. If you can’t deal with it, don’t read it.

 

I do take some of it to heart though – people still comment that I only got into the business and got my job because of my father. That hurts because that’s also an insult to my father. I wouldn’t have gotten the job if I wasn’t good enough, and I certainly wouldn’t have held it if I wasn’t good enough.

 

There are a lot of people who say stupid things and those people I pay no attention to. But the fans who have their own opinions that may differ from mine, guys who tell me they like my stuff, but just happen to like someone else’s more – how do you argue with that? Those are quality people who are making a value judgment in terms of their own likes and dislikes.

 

Like I said, I try to be Clint Eastwood – I sit back, relax, and try to raise my son and wife who’s put together with superglue and bubble gum after a car accident. I’ve got a million and one things that are more important than comics. So, thanks, but I don’t really give a flying fig about someone who says they don’t like me. I can’t worry about that. At the same time, I thank everyone who’s a fan of mine or the books I work on.

 

NRAMA: You mentioned that your father helped you through with a lot of these tougher aspects of working in a medium that’s has such vocal fans. How close are you with your Dad these days? Do you still talk every day?

 

JRjr: Every day. I talk to my parents every day, and my father is the greatest man I have ever known or will know. If the day comes when the two of them go, it’s going to leave a hole in my heart. They‘re great, great people. The greatest I will ever know. They’re a pleasure to be around. They are what they are, and they’re the best parents and grandparents and in-laws.

 

NRAMA: Is your Dad still teaching you?

 

JRjr: Of course – I learn everything from him. We recently sat down and he gave me a history lesson on the Middle East. We differ slightly in politics – I’m a little more to the right than he is, and we talk about sports constantly. Comics are part of it – he’s a huge fan of mine, to say the least, and it bothers him when people say stupid things about me, but he also understands where a lot of it comes from.

 

Because of him being in the industry for so long, I learned a lot of things from him. If I had his personality, I could handle it all. He’s such an easygoing, down to earth, levelheaded guy. He’s brilliant, but he gave all of his brains to my brother, and I got the artistic talent. I got my mother’s temper and disposition too.

 

NRAMA: Does he still give your work a critique now and then?

 

JRjr: Oh yeah. “Did you make that head that size on purpose, or were you thinking something else?” Oh crap…I’ll shrink the head down. He’s very diplomatic about his critiques to me. He passes the compliments on with equal vigor, and is quick to tell me when he really likes something. He’s wonderful.

 

NRAMA: Speaking of your look, since you’ve been in the same playground for 26 years now can you trace a line through your career and see how your style has evolved?

 

JRjr: Sure. To me, as you grow older and get more experience, you have to improve. If you don’t improve, then you’re doomed to regress. I can see that I’ve improved in that I can do different things. My storytelling ahs improved with age and with experience, but my style was never a conscious attempt at a style. I call it deadline style. If it came out on time, so be it.

 

NRAMA: Were there any specific events that affected your approach or style?

 

JRjr: My style may have been altered by a change of events when I got on Daredevil, which was my ultimate turning point. I was ready to get out of the industry before then. I got on Daredevil, and was given free reign by [editor] Ralph Macchio. He gave me permission to do full pencils and tell the story as I saw fit. Before that, I was always under Chris Claremont or Jim Shooter’s guidelines. From that point on, I was really able to stretch my wings.

 

NRAMA: Along with your dad, who do you follow now in the industry?

 

JRjr: I look at the Kubert boys all the time. I look at their work and see how they tell stories. I don’t compare my work to them to see who’s better, but I do compare to see story-wise how they do it. I compare myself to them in design as well, but they come from brilliant design work – their father is a brilliant designer, and they’re the same ilk.

 

I always look at Jim Lee’s stuff, but my most favorite artist in all of comics is probably Mike Mignola, with the Kubert boys a close second.

 

NRAMA: Going back to your work on Amazing Spider-Man, something that must have been extremely frustrating has been the book’s schedule. How do you deal with it on your end?

 

JRjr: Eh. I wait for the script, but I also had the Hulk to work on. There’s always some work to be thrown my way. There was a good reason for it – Straczynski was very busy, and you can’t argue with that. If he had been sitting on his ass, eating bon-bons, then you can complain. He had legitimate work to do, and I would’ve done just what he did. You got to do what’s more important to you.

 

Now he’s signed on and has the comic work under control. I just got my third script in a row this morning two weeks form the one before. I’ve done two issues in the last four weeks, and I’m going to try to finish this book inside of two weeks as well. So that’s three issues in a row that will be done early, and we’ll get back on, and then ahead of schedule. Of course, when they go to the eighteen issues a year, it will be a little bit tougher to maintain, but not impossible.

 

NRAMA: But given that you’re coming off doing 24 issues a year between two series, it won’t be too tough?

 

JRjr: Well, I’m not sure how I’m going to work that out. If I see a script coming in every two weeks, rapid fire, all the time, then I’m going to have to spend a couple of hours each week working on something else, like my creator-owned projects. But at some point, there will be a gap of a week or two, and I’ll be able to do something else. I’ll just do the Spider-Man stuff, and fit in whatever else, wherever I can.

 

NRAMA: And then you’re moving with Straczynski to the new tile?

 

JRjr: That’s what I’ve been told.

 

NRAMA: Any word form him on how it’s going to be different form Amazing?

 

JRjr: I’ve never met him to speak to him about it. The scripts show up, and I draw it. I speak to Axel [Alonso], who’s a great editor. I’ve got no idea when this title will start, so in the meantime, I’m on Amazing until further notice. I don’t know what direction he’s going in, and if he wants to ask me for ideas, I’ve got a ton, but for right now I’m working on Dr. Strange in an issue of Amazing, and I love Dr. Strange, so I’m happy.

 

NRAMA: Wrapping things up, and looking at the long-range picture, they day you leave Marvel will be because you’re retiring, right?

 

JRjr: Yeah – what the hell - why quit my day job? Hollywood’s not going to come calling anytime soon, unless they pick up one of my projects, and even that won’t give me any security. Pornos haven’t come calling either…

 

NRAMA: But you were the Hunk of the Month…

 

JRjr: That’s true, and it would make a great title for a movie, but in the meantime, I’ll keep my day job and pay my bills, and be happy with that. If anything else comes along, I’ll play with it, but as long as they’ll have me, I’ll stay with Marvel. My contract expires two years form this past January, and if they don’t want me, they’ll tell me. There are other options, and I’m not afraid of looking into them, but it would be a shame to break a long string of work for one company. If it’s all the same to them, I’d like to stay on and finish up my career as a monthly penciler for them, just like my Dad did.