Why is John Romita Jr Considered A Good Artist?

I never understood how this man keeps getting work, his style is just awkward and he can't seem to draw male bodies worth a crap. Seriously every male looks like a goddamn Frankenstein monster.

Is nepotism still a thing in the comic industry?

he has connections and he always turns work in on time

But is he X-TREEEEEEEEEEEM enough to ink while driving? I think not!

It's nepotism and dick sucking
You just wanted to make a QUALITY thread didn't you?

Romita Jr sucks but Andy Kubert is ok, although sometimes it looks like he's tracing his dad's work. Although to be honest if Joe Kubert was my dad I would do that too.

these dont look SO bad, they are not great (or even good) but they are not THAT shit

problems with pic 1
knees
outfit
superman looks like putin with hair to me
its otherwise fine.

pic 2
darkseid is fat and his outfit is shitty
is the red guy melding into his horse?
the guy to the right of darkseid is drawn and designed so much better then anything else on the page he seems to stand out.

pic 3
batmans cowl looks kinda weird
thats it

That's Apocalypse asshole.

I thought it was Darkseid to…

It's okay, Shia Lebouf. You're not alone.

Is he considered a good artist?

I've always considered him a shitty artist that's just inexplicably popular. His dad was a good artist, though.

Drawning is hard

To be fair, he's done better work decades ago. His current style is most likely the result of adapting to tight deadlines (the bane of any artist) and debatable choices in inkers and colorists. Particular the latter, because his style does not mesh well with dull realistic Photoshop coloring.

Wait those where his work? Damn I didn't know how good he used to be.

He's said many times that, early in his career, he found it difficult to get work precisely because of his dad. It was a combination of accusations of nepotism coupled with unfavourable comparisons.

His 'style' hasn't changed much. His stuff became a bit more Kirby-esque at some point during the late 80s/early 90s but other than that his style has mostly stayed the same. He just has a tendency to cut corners, which I attribute to both age (No shit he was better at 30 than he is at 60) and deadline pressure.

He's also not a 'DC' artist. Some people are 'Marvel' artists. Some people are 'DC' artists and some people can flip easily between the two. JRJR's a 'Marvel' artist. He made his bones on characters like Spider-Man and Daredevil, just like his dad did, and he's best suited to drawing heroes who are like that. His style doesn't really work for the big, majestic, almost God-like characters that are the Justice League. I understand why he wanted to go over to DC, for a change, but his stuff isn't particularly suited to them.

His '90s Spider-Man stuff is pretty good too. I really like his Lost Years work. The problem is that over the last 10 years or so his work has become a parody of itself. He's also 60 years old and not every creative type can be like, say, Joe Kubert who was still putting out stellar work right up until the day he died.

Kubert, by the way, is who I'd 100% consider the best artist to have ever held a regular gig at either of the Big Two. Romita Sr. would be #2.

JR Jr was the only hotshot artist who didn't leave Marvel for Image, and as such got a lot of work in the ensuing power vacuum.

I liked his work on Iron Man, Daredevil, Punisher, even the Spider-Man stuff he did.

But he really can't write. His big Punisher/Wolverine/Ghost Rider book was fucking insipid. NOTHING HAPPENED. I always kind of expect an artist-as-writer to have picked up a little of their writers' styles, like Alan Davis, or even Mark Farmer. But John Romita Jr. and Todd MacFarlane seem to have been thinking about something else the whole time JR Jr was working with Ann Nocenti and John Byrne, or Todd was working with Peter David and David Michelinman.

I think JR Jr.'s best skill was always drawing normal people doing normal things. He was one of the few guys who could draw a normal guy with a normal body wearing a flannelette shirt and loose jeans and a hat with earflaps, standing at a bar. Look at the scene from Youngblood #1 for comparison, when Shaft is shopping- everybody's clothes are painted on, and they're walking like they're constipated, and Liefeld doesn't seem to be able to draw anything that isn't jeans and t-shirt.

JR. Jr could also bring a kind of believability to the big robots and energy discharges, and if his fights didn't have much understanding of stance or style, he knew how to draw weight and impact.

But now, yeah, he's starting to look like Frank Miller, he's screwing up basic proportions, lines, compositions, taking Liefeld shortcuts to avoid drawing backgrounds, I get the feeling he just doesn't care anymore. It's been that long since he got to work on anything of any quality or signifigance, I think he's just taking the money now. And he's seen Rob Liefeld and Greg Lands get all the money and all the work, why should he bust his hump?

But srsly, his work has degenerated as badly as Wally Wood or Frank Miller, it might be age or it might be not giving a fuck or it might be a lack of the fundamentals that were so evident in his dad's work.

He's never written. Howard Mackie wrote the book you're thinking of

Michelinie's Spider-Man was shit so it's not surprising that this is what Todd picked up from him

You're right… Then again, I was trying to remember back to 1991, so YMMV.

I imagine Apocalypse and the Four Horsemen and their horses all getting stuck together in a doorway like Laurel and Hardy.

It's not hard to get mixed up when the characters are so off-model.

But it's true, Greg Land style inking and colouring don't flatter JR Jr's style. He's always followed Frank Miller's cue in scratchy, impressionistic work, it's just a pity he's also followed him into senility and incompetence.

I'd rather remember him like this.

I wouldn't go that far. He's nowhere near as bad as Frank

There were a lot of hotshot artists who didn't leave Marvel for Image. Image was seven guys, most of whom worked on the X-Men books. In fact of the Image founders, only Todd McFarlane and Erik Larsen never worked on X-Men

Erik Larsen's art has kind of gone the same way.
Ever since he did that 24-hour comic, he realised he can just phone it in and the kids will still buy it because they can't tell the difference between shit and shinola.
It's really only the bitter old fatbeards like me who can tell the difference.

JRJR did a 24 hour comic too. Perhaps there's a connection. Perhaps 24 hour comics are what's killing the medium

Correction, Jim Valentino also never worked on X-Men

Honestly it was weird to see him work for DC since I've normally seen him work for Marvel.

And Kieth Giffen. Everybody forgets Trencher.

They also forget Tribes, but then I remembered Larry Stroman did X-Factor.

Wait up, Dale Keown. Dale Keown never did an X-book.

I have a soft spot for his work. Back when I was a kid, I'd read Spider-Man and his art always stood out to me. Helps the actual writing was pretty good too.

He's catching up.

I initially didn't like his scratchy work but it took me a while to get used to it. Not a bad artist but his style is something to get used to. Though I loved when he worked with JMS on Spiderman.

I can't even tell what the thing on the right is supposed to be. John Jr's art will never be that bad. Unless he has a massive stroke and it fucks up his drawing hand.