So I’ve always been of two minds of John Romita Jr. On one hand, I love his work; it can be detailed and Show great expression. On the other hand his official motto is, “What you see is what you get” so even if the art it’s not finished he would still send it through. I’m not an artist by any means but I need to know what you other comic book collectors think!
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I love John Romita Jr. In my honest opinion he’s one of the greatest artists working right now. Obviously, he has the well-documented problem of not being able to draw anyone under the age of sixteen without having them look mildly creepy, but his facial expressions are unbeatable and his storytelling is excellent.
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I don’t know any of his works off the top of my head, but that cover is not great in my opinion and I can see based on that what you’re saying
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I’ve never been a fan at all. W/ few exceptions, his work always comes across as pretty sloppy to me, and the faces just…don’t look right. I have wondered how much of that is due to the inking, since he collabed w/ Peter Steigerwald on The Dark Knight Returns: The Last Crusade, and I actually liked the artwork there
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I’m familiar with his work from New 52 Superman (or was it Action Comics?), Superman Year One, and the current run of Action Comics. His art is obviously stylized, one look at a page or panel, and you instantly recognize it’s John Romita Jr. I’ll give him consistency points for that. Usually with art that is strongly stylized, it’s a love it or hate it affair. The weird thing for me is, I’ve experienced both with his art. Thought his New 52 work was ok, but I wasn’t wowed by it. Then again, I loved his work in Superman Year One. Very detailed work and facial expressions, and the images just pop off the page. Then you get something like the current Action Comics, and things look unfinished, almost like they’re sketches. My guess is, the more time he has on his hands, the better his art is. Which is why the Black Label format works so well for him; whereas maybe the pressure of meeting a monthly deadline compromises the quality of his work a bit.
I say all that fully acknowledging that my drawing skills stop at stick figures. I appreciate all the work & talent comic book artists put into these books 
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That’s pretty much how I feel about his art. I’ve very often been blown away by it, especially the dynamic action scenes. But there are some pages that look almost like a different artist, so I’m sure it’s probably more a matter of time than anything else, like you’re saying.
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I largely enjoy JRJR’s work.
He was one of my favorite artists of the JMS run of The Amazing Spider-Man, and his DC output has been pretty good too.
His faces and proportions do look a bit off once in a while, but like @moro, my drawing abilities generally don’t go much beyond stick figures, so who’m I to complain about JRJR?
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If there is one comic artist I do not like. It’s Rob Liefeld. This image I think explains everything.
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Liefeld literally ripped off George Perez panels for his Deathstroke 0 issue…and STILL made it look bad!
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It seems JRJR’s art engenders a fair amount of vacillation. I have not been a fan of his recent offerings, but I will always admire and enjoy his two classic runs from the '80’s–Uncanny X-Men and Daredevil (with the extremely talented Ann Nocenti).
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@Batwing52, of course his story telling is great! but I cannot help but feel like sometimes his work is block-ish. I know he’s done great work in the past but he’s taken a lot of liberties with his covers. I’ve noticed that he’s not drawing any feet on any covers (not all covers) and I cant help but think that he’s taking a Rob Liefeld approach.
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@MissGsptlsnz, yeah, thats what I’m trying to gauge on here with other comic fans. He can do amazing work but this cover is not an example of it and I just have to ask myself, “why” and not in a condescending way but in away that questions his style. If he can do better and is known for his work why is he just half assing it then?
@arkhamassassin, yeah there are fans and haters and Im just kinda stuck in the middle but leaning towards “not a fan” due to his style of work. I love Green Lantern and I kinda dont want JRJR illustrating it as I know they’ll all have blocky faces and weird looks.
@moro, Of course, I know I cant draw at all! however with a lot of his work does seem unfinished and I get that sometimes people need more time and thats totally fine! But I’m finding it that he just doensn’t put in as much effort as other artist. When I saw the documentary on comics, and when he said, “What you see is what you get” then it was a real turn off for me.
@Vroom, I would say, that since I’m paying for these books, that I would want artists to take more time with their art or else I would feel ripped off. His work on “The Incredible Hulk - World War Hulk” was decent but inconsistent. Fantastic splash pages! but weird body proportions and facial structure. Again, I cant draw at all but if DC’s going to take my money for these books, I would want an artist to at least take his time and give it a bit mor effort.
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@TheSandmanofGotham, Yeah, the 90s were a great time for comics lol. RL had already left marvel and was working at Image and Marvel brought him back for “Heroes Reborn” and this is what they got.
@dkalban, yeah, JRJR definitely has his own style but it should be his own. I didn’t know he did that. Can you post a picture so we on the thread can see?
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Yeah, admittedly he’s not the best cover artist, but that’s because I feel like he excels at the technical aspects of comic book art. Like I said, great facial expressions and movements. Plus, as far as I know, he does full backgrounds, which is unfortunately a rarity these days. As for the feet thing, yeah, I kind of see what you’re saying; they’re kind of polygonal and they don’t really look like feet, but his proportions are always on point and everything else about his art is so solid that I can kind of forgive it.
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My issue with JR Jr’s faces are mainly the noses, too wedgey
I said LIEFELD ripped off Perez XD one sec
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