Marvel Artist And Wolverine Co-Creator John Romita Sr., Dead at 93

Marvel and DC comic artist John Romita Sr. has died at the age of 93.

His son, John Romita Jr., confirmed his death in a tweet shared Tuesday (June 13) evening.

“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,” he tweeted. “Please keep your thoughts and condolences here out of respect for my family. He was the greatest man I ever met.”

Romita Sr. is best known for working on The Amazing Spider-Man alongside Stan Lee in 1966 after artist Steve Ditko stepped down, during which he introduced the character of Mary Jane Watson and played a key role in bringing the masked hero to the forefront of the company.

The artist was born in 1930 in Brooklyn, New York. He began drawing at the young age of five years old and continued drawing comics in his free time until he began ghost-drawing comics for Marvel at age 19.

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. pic.twitter.com/Pe2K3ywbWX

— John Romita JR (@JrRomita) June 14, 2023

He was later promoted to art director at Marvel in 1973 after Lee became president and publisher of the company. He played a key part in designing Wolverine, Luke Cage, the Punisher and more.

Romita teamed up with his son Romita Jr., who leads his own successful career in comics, to release an issue of Superman in 2014. It was his first time working with DC in over 50 years. The artist worked there from 1958-1965, during which he said he mainly worked on romance comics.

“I’ve been coming out of retirement for sixteen years! They don’t leave me alone,” he joked at the time.

James Gunn, who directed the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy and is currently co-CEO of DC Studios, tweeted his own condolences for the legendary artist.

“My brother & I wrote Mr. Romita when we were young kids & sent him drawings of superheroes we were working on. He wrote us back, telling us what he liked about the drawings! A truly memorable experience in my life, making me feel like the magic of comic books, which seemed so otherworldly, wasn’t actually that far away,” he wrote.

Romita was inducted into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 2002 and later the Inkwell Awards Joe Sinnott Hall of Fame in 2020.

Romita is survived by his wife, Virginia, and his sons, Victor and John Romita Jr.