Hi, my name is Owen and like a lot of comic book fans out there, I'm a huge fan of
John Romita Jr.'s amazing artwork.

The son of legendary Marvel & Spider-Man artist John Romita; JR JR as he
is widely known by his fans, was born in New York City in 1956 and has
been working in comics for nearly 25 years.

A veteran of the comic book biz at the ripe old age of 43, JR has come a long way
from his first published story -- a 6 pager called "Chaos at the Coffee Bean".

As a kid, JR used to visit his dad up in the attic where his father had his studio. At that time, John Romita was working for DC comics Romance line and as everybody who has been around kids knows, romance & kids don't mix very well, so young JR was understandably not too impressed by those romance comics.

Then one day he saw the cover of Daredevil # 12 featuring Kazar looking down at DD surrounded by a bunch of bad guys on his father's drawing table. As JR later said in "Comics Feature" # 22 about that moment, "I think my eyes widened-my eyes tripled in size when I saw that Kazar/Daredevil job", he recalled, "I was fascinated by it"

After seeing that cover, JR got really interested in comics & drawing and as
he got older, he continued to draw all the time & as he said in a recent interview
"I just kept on drawing and…I got better and better."

JR was primarily a self-taught artist, but his main influences growing up were his Dad & his fathers friends & fellow comic legends; John Buscema and Jack Kirby.

His father told JR to also look at the work of the great illustrators that he admired; J.C. Leyendecker, Gibson & Norman Rockwell. JR has also mentioned that European artists such as Moebius [Giraud of "Blueberry" fame] influenced his stuff. For his formal education, JR went to Farmingdale University for 2 years, majoring in advertising illustration.

When he began working at Marvel, JR had to deal with charges of nepotism and people saying he was only there because of his father. Because of these unfounded accusations of nepotism, JR had a hard time getting art assignments for the first few years he was at Marvel. Fortunately, there were people who gave JR chances to prove himself, such as Marie Severin and Larry Lieber .

As mentioned in the beginning of this bio, JR's first published work was a 6 page story back-up story in Spiderman Annual # 11, called "Chaos at the Coffee Bean " inked by Al Milgrom. After this inauspicious debut , JR spent time working for Marvel's British Department laying out new sketches & covers for the British line, when one day he was asked by Bill Mantlo if he wanted to try his hand on Iron Man.

JR has never looked back since, and after spending over 3 years on Iron Man, JR went on to draw The Amazing Spider-Man for a long time, continuing his father's legacy on the book, and when the popular Paul Smith left the Uncanny X-Men, JR was asked to take over that title.

Back in those days, it was easy to see his father's & John Buscema's influence in his work. But slowly over time, JR's drawing style evolved away from his early influences, and during his acclaimed run on Daredevil with writer Ann Nocenti & inker Al Williamson, JR really hit his stride. Regarding his work on Daredevil, JR says, "My artwork evolved & improved by leaps & bounds …."

After his very successful stay on Daredevil, JR went on to work on many other Marvel titles, including a return trip to Iron Man, then it was off to do Punisher War Zone ,The Cable mini-series, The Punisher/Batman crossover, and he returned to both The Uncanny X-men and Spider-Man.

For the past few years, JR has been doing two monthly books, Spider-Man & Thor , where his worked on that title improved sales and also garnered him rave reviews. Alas ,to the dismay of this writer and many other fans of the Thunder God, JR recently left Thor to start working on the Hulk. Oh well, nobody draws big massive guys like JR, so his artwork on the Hulk should be fun to see.

Today, JR is more popular than ever and unlike so many other artists
currently working, his artwork easily stands out in a sea of clones of the latest trend or "hot shot" fan favorite. JR's artwork is instantly recognizable and his unique style & powerful storytelling has won him many accolades from both pros & fans alike.