If you're a comic fan, you've surely heard about the death of the obscenely talented John Romita Sr.
What can I say that already hasn't been said about John Romita Sr. on this site, no less? The man was a titan within an industry of giants and left such an indelible impact on comics that extracting his influence without toppling the entire field is impossible. You could easily fill a whole blog about Romita Sr.'s staggering run on Amazing Spider-Man, which placed him in a prestigious bracket of artists that came to define the visual language of the character. Or you could write at length about Romita's run as Marvel's art director and how his style became the industry standard for a period. However, I only want to focus on one aspect of his name: Senior.
John Romita Sr. was a father and a proud one at that. Anthony Mann once said, "I don't know of any great man who ever had a great son." And considering that Mann passed away in 1967, only one year after Romita began penciling Amazing Spider-Man with issue #39 in 1966, he could be forgiven for the inaccuracy of his quote. John Romita Jr. proudly followed in his father's footsteps and became an equally iconic comic artist.
Even though Romita Sr. was probably immensely proud of the legacy he left behind in comics, I'm sure no achievement rivaled watching his son ascend to similar heights in the family profession. In the video linked above, you can watch the father and son duo crack-wise while enjoying an artistic jam session, as Stan "the Man" Lee commentates.
