John Romita . . . And All That Jazz
                                             (2007 - TwoMorrows Publishing)  

     [-BELOW THE LINE-]   (by Roy Thomas & Jim Amash)   Fascinating reading, but good art display . . . not so much.  A book of 192 pages, but only 19 of them give an art piece a large display.  There are another 29 pages that are primarily art, with multiple images.  For all the rest of the pages, the wealth of observation & reminiscence to be shared by this comic master is king.  That, along with a number of rough sketches and sequential-art pages that are on display.  A lot of the visual material is actually related to other artists, which I'd say is a direct expression of the point the book makes so well about the fluidity & diversity of the relationships between penciller and inker.  In fact, of the 19 pages of substantial size display I cited above, two of those are of John Romita Jr. and one is Gil Kane.  As a neophyte literary critic, I'd say that the narrative seems to become tiresome when the interview devolves into just a large checklist of comic-industry personalities whose names are 'thrown' at Romita to see what he has to say about them.  I admit these lead to any number of interesting conversations about those people, but there must be some better way to have more gracefully navigated through them.

other TwoMorrows releases

  Modern Masters Vol. 11 - Charles Vess

  Dan Spiegle - A Life In Comic Art

  Brush Strokes With Greatness - The Life & Art Of Joe Sinnott

  Comic Book Artist # 22  [BELOW THE LINE]

SEND US A COMMENT (goes via e-mail - all info kept anonymous, but comment itself may be shared . . .)