The Four Color Media Monitor

NDTV reports one of Marvel's most famous artists has passed away at 93:

Legendary comic artist John Romita Sr, who created most iconic Marvel characters like Mary Jane Watson, The Punisher, and Wolverine, has died at 93, BBC reported. His death was announced Tuesday night on Twitter by his son, John Romita Jr, who is also a successful comic book artist.

''I say this with a heavy heart. My father passed away peacefully in his sleep. He is a legend in the art world and it would be my honor to follow in his footsteps. Please keep your thoughts and condolences here out of respect for my family. He was the greatest man I ever met,'' Romita Jr. wrote.

I think Ross Andru was the artist who co-create the Punisher, and Romita was one of the art editors at the time. But all the same, you could surely make an argument today's PC crowd has no ability to appreciate all the difficult work Romita went through to get Frank Castle developed at the time he originally debuted in Spider-Man, where Romita was famous for giving Mary Jane an actual face and image, after she'd only been featured indirectly in Steve Ditko's renditions. It's brought up again a bit further into the article:

From 1966, he worked with Marvel editor-in-chief Stan Lee on The Amazing Spider-Man, helping it to become the company's top seller. Characters like Spider-Man's love interest Mary Jane Watson and his adversary Punisher were also introduced by him.

And the sad part? No veterans, all these years, have ever made a serious effort to speak out in defense of MJ, let alone Frank. That's how disaster ultimately winds up happening.

Romita Sr. will definitely remain one of Marvel's most iconic artists and art supervisors, and a guy to really appreciate. But it's a shame much of his work since has been watered down horribly, and nobody tries to convince modern audiences why he's worth admiring.

Labels: good artists, history, marvel comics, Punisher, Spider-Man, women of marvel, X-Men