John Romita Sr., 93, dies; Marvel artist drew Spider-Man, co-created Wolverine 

John Romita Sr. of Bellerose, the Spider-Man artist whose version of the Marvel Comics superhero has graced everything from stationery to stamps to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon, died early Monday at age 93.

His son, fellow star comics artist John Romita Jr., of Port Jefferson, announced the news Tuesday, calling his father “a legend in the art world and … the greatest man I ever met.”

Romita, who also served as Marvel's art director from about 1972  until retiring in 1996, designed and co-created such popular characters as Wolverine, the Punisher and the Kingpin, and at various points drew nearly all of the company's top titles, including "Fantastic Four" and "Captain America."

He was best known for "The Amazing Spider-Man," the superhero's flagship series, taking over from departing artist/co-creator Steve Ditko in 1966. With writer-editor Stan Lee, he co-plotted and drew a virtually unbroken, landmark five-year run. He returned for a second, yearlong stint in 1972, and provided most of the covers through 1977, in addition to working on such spinoffs as the first few years of the Spider-Man newspaper comic strip.

His slick, glossy style set the template for Spider-Man's look, and images of the character grace countless items of merchandise, as well as one of the U.S. Postal Service's 2007 "Marvel Super Heroes" commemorative stamps. Romita was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2002.

“He was a great artist and a great art director, but a greater human being," said "Deadpool" co-creator Fabian Nicieza. Writer Tony Isabella, who created DC Comics’ "Black Lightning," called Romita “not only one of the greatest talents in comics, he was also unfailingly kind to everyone.”

He drew “handsome heroes, beautiful women, supporting characters full of personality, rough-and-tough villains, all in great costumes, perfectly lit and expertly directed for full dramatic impact," said Jim Salicrup, a former "Spider-Man" editor who scripted the Romita-drawn children's title "Spidey Super Stories. "But despite his awesome talent, he was the humblest and nicest guy you'd ever want to meet."

“If there’s a Mount Rushmore of Marvel Comics,” said Roy Thomas, Lee’s successor as Marvel editor-in-chief, "the first three would be Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, and the fourth would be John Romita, the man who turned 'Spider-Man' into Marvel’s best-selling title."

He was born John Vincent Romita in Brooklyn on Jan. 24, 1930, though an Army snafu years later registered his middle name as Victor, that of his father, and it stuck, he once told Newsday. Graduating from the School of Industrial Design (now the High School of Art and Design) in 1947, he soon became an uncredited "ghost artist" for high school classmate Lester Zakarin on stories for companies including Marvel forerunner Timely Comics.

Drafted in 1951, Romita served on Governors Island in New York, drawing layouts for recruitment posters others would paint. After marrying Virginia Bruno in November 1952, he lived in Bensonhurst and in Queens Village before moving to Long Island in 1965.

After freelancing for Marvel's 1950s iteration, Atlas Comics, Romita in 1958 began working exclusively for DC on romance series. Lee recruited him for the burgeoning Marvel in 1965, nicknaming him "Jazzy Johnny" Romita on letters pages and elsewhere. Even after retiring, Romita continued to provide occasional artwork at least as late as 2010, with a variant cover of "The Amazing Spider-Man" #642.

In an introduction to a book of Romita's work, Lee praised his longtime collaborator as "one of the finest artists in the comic-book business … one of the greatest storytellers in the medium [and] as versatile as any artist.”

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