Born on January 24, 1930, during the Great Depression, John Romita was raised in Brooklyn, New York City by Sicilian-Americans Marie and Victor Romita, along with a brother and three sisters. He graduated from the Industrial Arts School in Manhattan at the age of 17, and on his birthday got his first job as an artist from a very unexpected source: an anesthesiologist at Manhattan General Hospital. Romita was paid to produce a medical exhibit based on pneumatology medicine, an outdated study of “spiritual beings” and the “air” sciences.
Romita entered the comics industry in 1949, but was drafted into the US Army in 1951. After showing samples of the art, he was asked to make conscription posters. Meanwhile, while working for Timely Comics, the forerunner of Marvel Comics, he met Stan Lee. Although Romita has mostly acted in war, horror, romance, and Western films, she got a chance to work on the short-lived “Captain America” revival in 1954. He also married Virginia Bruno in 1952 with whom he had two children, sons Victor and John Romita Jr. (1956).
Soon, Romita Sr. transferred to DC Comics, where she worked in the romance genre, hoping to one day release a superhero comic. However, when this did not work, he found a job in a luxury advertising agency. When Lee heard that Romita Sr. was leaving DC, he took her to a three-hour lunch and offered her “Daredevil.” “At the first opportunity, he showed me this ‘Daredevil’ story someone started and he didn’t like it. […He] asked me ‘What would you do with this page?’ asked. […] I did […] it’s just a large tracing paper drawing of Daredevil waving. And Stan loved it.” Alter Ego.