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.
Mr Romita was born in 1930, in Brooklyn New York, and graduated from Manhattan's School of Industrial Art in 1947. Following his stint in the army, he made his foray into the comic book world, as a ghost artist at Timely Comics, the precursor to Marvel Comics.
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.
In the early 1970s, he became Marvel's art director, a role he served for over two decades, and contributed to the design of characters including Wolverine.
He also introduced Spider-Man characters like the villainous Vulture, mobster Hammerhead, sonic-powered Shocker, Hobgoblin, journalist Robbie Robertson, and George Stacy, Gwen Stacy's father. He also helped create Luke Cage, the Daredevil villain Bullseye, and Wilson Fisk, a.k.a. the evil mastermind Kingpin.
Many took to social media to pay tribute to him and thank him for all his wonderful creations.
Here are some tweets:
Romita Sr. was inducted into the Eisner Awards Hall of Fame in 2002 and the Inkwell Awards Hall of Fame in 2020, as per Variety.
He is survived by his wife, Virginia, and two sons Romita Jr and Victor.
