Legendary artist John Romita Sr., most famous for his work on ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ in the 60s and 70s, is crossing over to DC to provide an alternate cover for ‘Superman’ #34. Romita Sr. hasn’t drawn for DC in over 50 years.
He joked, “I worked there in prehistoric times for about eight years. It was between 1958 and ’65. In those eight years, I did a lot of romance comics.”
That explains his dreamy renditions of Mary-Jane Watson and Gwen Stacey once he switched over to competitor Marvel.
What’s special to note is that the interior art of this issue is by Romita Sr.’s son John Romita Jr., another artist famed for his Marvel work who just recently took on his first DC material with this series.
Romita Sr. expressed that this is “the first time I’ve done Superman on a cover. I’ve done a few sketches when we used to do crossovers, and a couple of paperback covers that had Superman on them, and I’ve done Superman on sketches for kids on conventions. DC called me and asked me if I would be interested in doing a variant cover, and I told them as long as it wasn’t a crowd scene, I’d try it.”
The crossover he referred to is the classic Spider-Man/Superman mashup tabloid-size book from the 70s, the second time Marvel and DC collaborated on a joint project. (The first almost doesn’t count, as it was an adaptation of ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’, not a mixture of the two companies’ characters.)
The regular version of the cover to ‘Superman’ #34 is drawn by Romita Jr., who has been collaborating with writer Geoff Johns and hints at the new super villain The Machinist.
Which do you prefer, Junior or Senior?
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
