I have never been so flattered in all my life….Thank you all very much, especially you, Mr. Reed…..I don’t know what to write or say…..That, in and of itself, is amazing!
cheers,
JRjr

Oh my God. John, thank you so much. Your blessing and support means a lot to me. Trust me-- you deserve the praise.

Heck, I bought PUNISHER VS. BATMAN, a $6 book starring two characters I caresd almost nothing about, just to see the team of Dixon/JRJR/Janson together again. And I loved it.

But am not a big fan of his 'everyone has the same sqaure nose' effect...

But he is one of the few artists who does a great version of everyone in the Marvel universe. Ron Lim came close, but couldn't handle the Hulk. New guys like Copiel and the guy who did Civil War are good, but not a patch on JRJR.

One of my fondest comics memories is of absolutely loving the hell out of Spider-Man #75, despite the fact that it was written by Howard Mackie and concluded the Clone Saga. It was my favourite comic for a really long time, purely because JRJR’s art was so powerful and dramatic.

Wow - I had the complete opposite reaction - I quit reading comics for a few years right after that one came out. I loved the art on the Spidey books during most of the clone saga (both from JRJR and Mark Bagley, who I love even though he seems to get little respect online) and I still think that The Scarlet Spider / Ben Reilly was potentially one of the coolest characters ever. But the horrible handling of the whole saga ruined that character (as well as Peter Parker and Spider-Man), and the bad writing made it hard to appreciate the great artwork.

And as I said, I never got to try out the Spidey stuff even if JRJR art looked so good that I almost cracked! But the Clone saga and the Howard Mackie stuff wasn't my cup of tea. And Straczynski wasn't either and will never be after I read somewhere that retroed an unheard fling between Gwen Stacy and Norman Osborn!?!? And they had two kids!?!?! What a friggin' stupid @%!#! idea! Gwen was never that kind of girl!!! (okay, I'll go take my pill now. thank you, move along, nothing to see...)

http://spiderfan.org/characters/digger.html

Romita owns my ass, your ass, pretty much everyone's ass. He owns a house down the shore filled with everyone's asses. He sets one on fire to light a cigar with it on special occasions.

Anyhoo, I dig JRjr's stuff. His run on Punisher War Zone was the first thing I ever remember going from shop to shop trying to track down.

I recently was reading my Fantastic Four DVD (the one reprinting 40 years of FF issues, ads and all), and particularly looking at the Bullpen Bulletin pages, which are interesting to read in order. Anyway, somewhere around 1969-1970, there's a blurb about JRJR, noting that Romita Sr's kid (who I guess would've been about 13-14 at the time) is already a talented artist following in Dad's footsteps! Kinda neat to see that show up in print so early....

But yes, other than that very very minor quibble, one of the true greats, and far and away the definitive modern Spider-Man artist.

I'm not buying any titles by JRJR right now, but his work during the 90s are some of my favourites.

The first time I really noticed JRJR was on STAR-BRAND. I feel he was starting to really develop his own style by that time, getting slowly away from a generic Marvel house style.

The I think it was really DAREDEVIL that made me a JRJR fan for life. With Ann Nocenti, they were the first to make Daredevil their own after the heavy mark Frank Miller left on the character. No small exploit! The exploration of the whole good vs evil vs shades of grey is one of the best run of Marvel history.

I think, was the Iron Man run with John Byrne. They revitalized Mandarin and Fin Fang Foom! JRJR made me buy IRON MAN for the first and only time in my life!

Since then, JRJR made me buy comics I would never had tried with any other artist on board. Punisher, Sentry, overexposed Wolverine, etc.

John Romita Jr.'s art IS the perfect Marvel style.
It's the best elements from the most important influences of the Marvel style. It started early on with a house style mid-way between of John Romita Sr. and John Buscema. Then the more dynamic and raw power of Gil Kane and Jack Kirby was perfectly blended in. Or rather emerged in a synergetic assimilation. But, contrary to many artists of his and later generation, JRJR is not a clone. His style aknowledges the best of his many influences, but is unmistakably is own. Any character he draws becomes interesting. He is one of the very few (with Simonson, Mignola, Cooke) who can draw Kirby's heroes and gods with the same majesty as the King. JRJR can make me give another chance on a character I have gave up hope for. JRJR makes reading a comic book an exciting and fun experience. Isn't it what comics were ever all about? And it's about time he made this column!