NYCC 2010 Keystone Guests of Honor!

Ladies and gentlemen, fanboys and fangirls, the NYCC staff are all now at Bowlmor Lanes in NYC celebrating there being *just* 365 days until the next NYCC. We've got friends, fans, exhibitors, partners, and creators with us here and Bowlmor, and we just made our very first guest announcement for NYCC 2010!

I'm proud to reveal NYCC 2010's Keystone Guests of Honor are John Romita, Sr. and John Romita, Jr. The Romitas are nothing short of comic book royalty, and it's their pencil and ink that have defined the Spider-Man we know and love today. Further, both born right here in NYC and spending their careers in this great city, they're iconic and they're local -- they're hometown heroes that NYCC is honored to shine a spotlight on.

We're very looking forward to NYCC 2010, and we're humbled to be able to announce the Romitas will be joining us so far in advance.

And, now, for the kids who don't know all that much about John Romita, Sr. and Jr., I present a little bit of reading...

John Romita, Sr. - Keystone Guest of Honor and Living Legend
John Romita, Sr. was born in Brooklyn in 1930 and is a graduate of Manhattan's School of Industrial Art. Romita began his career in comics as an uncredited ghost artist in 1949 for Timely Comics -- the predecessor of Marvel. After time in the Army, where he drafted Recruitment Posters, Romita would return to Timely Comics -- now Atlas -- where Stan Lee provided him his first full story to pencil and ink. Romita would draw for a variety of pulpy comics at Atlas as well as the 1950's revival of Captain America and Waku: Prince of the Bantu, one of the first black leading characters. By 1958, Romita would leave Atlas for DC and became their leading romance comics cover artist. As the romance genre dried up, Romita looked into advertising work until Stan Lee brought him back to Timely Comics -- now Marvel. Romita was would pencil over Jack Kirby layouts for Daredevil until Stan gave Romita Amazing Spider-Man in 1966. In his first run on Amazing Spider-Man, Romita contributed an unbroken string of over 50 covers and an almost unbroken run of story layouts or full pencil art for 46 regular issue stories as well as a multiple Amazing Spider-Man Annuals and the first two issues of the oversized Spectacular Spider-Man. Romita's depiction on the character would become the definitive look for Spider-Man and the iconic image we know today. Eventually promoted to Art Director by Stan Lee, Romita then played a major role in designing characters including the Punisher and Wolverine. While Romita has since retired from day-to-day comics work, Romita continues to pencil and ink special and collaborative projects. He is the father of artist John Romita, Jr. and husband of Virginia Romita, former Marvel traffic manager.

John Romita, Jr. - Keystone Guest of Honor
Born in 1956 in New York City, John Romita, Jr. is the son of comic book legend John Romita, Sr. Romita's early popularity began with his run on Iron Man with writer David Michelinie and artist Bob Layton in 1978, and, in the early 1980s, he had his first regular run on Amazing Spider-Man. Working with writer Roger Stern during this run, he co-created the Hobgoblin. Then, from 1983 to 1986, Romita worked on Uncanny X-Men with Dan Green and Chris Claremont, and he would return for a second run on Uncanny X-Men in 1993. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Romita worked on Daredevil with writer Ann Nocenti and inker Al Williamson. Romita later collaborated with Frank Miller on Daredevil: The Man Without Fear, revisiting the character's origin. During the 1990s, Romita also worked on Punisher War Zone, Hulk, Cable, The Mighty Thor, the second Iron Man Armor Wars, and the Punisher/Batman cross-over. In the 2000s, Romita returned to Amazing Spider-Man with writer J. Michael Straczynski and drew Wolverine with author Mark Millar as part of the character's 30th anniversary. In 2006, Romita collaborated with writer Neil Gaiman on a reinterpretation of Jack Kirby's The Eternals and then worked with Greg Pak on Marvel's 2007 crossover event, World War Hulk. In 2008, Romita again returned to Amazing Spider-Man, and he is now collaborating with Mark Millar for Kick-Ass, published by Marvel's Icon imprint. The Kick-Ass motion picture premieres April 16, 2010.