I'm a huge Romita Jr fan so I bought it when it came out.
It's a good book, but I have to say at $50 I was quite a bit letdown. It's basically a 'career overview' in chronological order divided in chapters for each Marvel series he's worked on. Seeing as I own almost everything JRJr has ever done, there is not much at all here that I haven't seen before. There is a fairly equal mix of covers and interior art. With 30 years in comics that is a LOT to pick from, and I personally would have made some very different choices in places.
The best part was the "Black and White Art Gallery" section (which is unfortunately only a measly 26 pages) showing various penciled and/or inked pages, covers and sketches. Love that stuff but there's not nearly enough of it.
Two other Romita Jr books you might want to check out are:
-The Romita Legacy (written by Tom Spurgeon, published by Dynamic Forces, 208 pages hardcover, $29.99US)
It showcases both John Romita Sr and Jr' s careers in comics, featuring great informative lenghty interviews with both men, and has plenty of cool art from a lot of everything they've worked on, which is especially interesting in the case of John Sr, since he's had many years as an illustrator both in and out of comics before getting famous doing superheroes.
-Modern Masters Volume 18: John Romita Jr (by George Khoury and Eric Nolen-Washington, from TwoMorrows Publishing, 125 pages softcover, $14.95US)
This one is basically one long interview about John Jr's career, talking about just about everything he's done, with tons of awesome black and white art, ranging from sketches, pencils, inked pages, pinups and whatnot. The last page is a Batman & Hellboy penciled pinup!! (I don't care how, I want this comic to happen SO BAD!!!) I have no hesitation saying that it's my favorite one of the three books!
I'm a huge Romita Jr fan so I bought it when it came out.
It's a good book, but I have to say at $50 I was quite a bit letdown. It's basically a 'career overview' in chronological order divided in chapters for each Marvel series he's worked on. Seeing as I own almost everything JRJr has ever done, there is not much at all here that I haven't seen before. There is a fairly equal mix of covers and interior art. With 30 years in comics that is a LOT to pick from, and I personally would have made some very different choices in places.
The best part was the "Black and White Art Gallery" section (which is unfortunately only a measly 26 pages) showing various penciled and/or inked pages, covers and sketches. Love that stuff but there's not nearly enough of it.
Two other Romita Jr books you might want to check out are:
-The Romita Legacy (written by Tom Spurgeon, published by Dynamic Forces, 208 pages hardcover, $29.99US)
It showcases both John Romita Sr and Jr' s careers in comics, featuring great informative lenghty interviews with both men, and has plenty of cool art from a lot of everything they've worked on, which is especially interesting in the case of John Sr, since he's had many years as an illustrator both in and out of comics before getting famous doing superheroes.
-Modern Masters Volume 18: John Romita Jr (by George Khoury and Eric Nolen-Washington, from TwoMorrows Publishing, 125 pages softcover, $14.95US)
This one is basically one long interview about John Jr's career, talking about just about everything he's done, with tons of awesome black and white art, ranging from sketches, pencils, inked pages, pinups and whatnot. The last page is a Batman & Hellboy penciled pinup!! (I don't care how, I want this comic to happen SO BAD!!!) I have no hesitation saying that it's my favorite one of the three books!
I hope this helps you out!