One of the preeminent artists from the so-called “Silver Age of Comics” passed away this week. John Romita Sr. was 93 years old and he was a New Yorker, born and raised – just like Spider-Man, the Punisher, and so many of the other characters he created and worked on over his decades at Marvel Comics and other publishers.

His son, John Romita Jr., is also a major comics artist. He joined All Things Considered host Sean Carlson to remember his father and his many contributions to the art form and American pop culture. This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.

Sean Carlson: Hey, John, thanks so much for being here. And from everybody at WNYC, our condolences to you and your family.

John Romita Jr.: Thank you for saying that. It's my pleasure to be here to talk about him. He was a great man, the greatest man I've met.

To many of our listeners, your dad was an artist who created and designed characters at both Marvel and DC. He's best known for drawing Spider-Man in the '60s and '70s. He had a hand in creating Wolverine, the Punisher and Luke Cage, among others. But who was he to you?

He’s the guy who taught me how to hit a curve ball, and that was almost as [important] to me as learning how to draw Spider-Man’s eyes properly. It was so much more than just the art. I was talking to my brother about the fact that when it rained on the weekends in the summertime, we would watch old movies together and he would tell us what was about to happen. And the scenes in "On the Waterfront" have stuck with me forever since. That's the part I remember, is how much time he spent with us.

And then he taught us so many things. It was more than just the art mentor to me – and yet he never forced anything on me, as far as art went. He told me, “I'm not gonna tell you what to do. You come to me and ask me a question. If you do something wrong, I'll proactively act that way.” So the man just did everything right with my brother and me. It was fantastic.

Like I said, as much as he helped with my art-world life, he was that way with all aspects of our lives. He was a brilliant man.

Like so many of the early comic-book greats, your dad was a New York City kid. What did he tell you about growing up and how it led him to the industry?

He just made it sound as if this was our world. When New York City became part of the Marvel Universe, so to speak, and a character, he said, “These newspaper articles will show you the buildings.” And he said, “The best camera in the world are your two eyes. Pay attention. Look how to draw that building. Look how to draw this building. That's where Peter Parker grew up.” That kinda thing.

He was always getting into my head that this imagery that we lived in was what was important to show and convey as realism, as opposed to the fantasy of Gotham and Superman's world. So that was part of the education of what I got from him. And it helped, because New York City became a character.

It was brilliant. I loved every second of it, and I could feel like I was involved. And later on, when Stan Lee would tell me, “The balance between fantasy and reality is what makes Spider-Man so great,” it made perfect sense to me.

I think of some of your dad's most iconic images and, like you said, New York City is front and center. It's a character. You've got Spider-Man swinging through Midtown skyscrapers, a quiet Mary Jane moment in Forest Hills, Queens, or Kingpin, the villain brawling in Hell's Kitchen. How did being a New Yorker influence his art?

I don't know if it was a personality thing or not, but I think because the city around him and us is so ever-present, where he's brought up – it was the brick buildings and the people with their elbows on their windowsills, looking out at the street, watching stickball games in the street – that is something that can be infused in the art, because it's gritty. It became a part of the characters, and the characters became a part of the city. And I think without him saying it, I learned from that – Daredevil in Hell's Kitchen, Spider-Man in Queens. That's the kind of thing that made you feel like you were in the real world, even though it was fantasy.

I feel like this is akin to asking somebody who their favorite child is, but did he ever tell you who were his favorite characters to draw, and what he was proudest of over the course of his career in comics?

I'd say Spider-Man, overall. That character became part of the family, because of working with Stan on it and that run that he had: we would go up to Connecticut to visit the grandparents, and on the way he would ask us, “How do I get out of this situation? Spider-Man's caught here. What do you think?” I dunno if he was being a wise ass or if he was seriously asking for assistance.

But what it was, was an education, especially for me. I learned that you can tell the story, and he loved the storytelling aspect of it.

So I've got to say Spider-Man, because it became part of the family. I swear, he's a sibling.

In addition to inspiring millions of people with his art, he inspired you to become part of the next generation of artists. Can you tell us more about how he influenced your career and the current generation of comic-book artists?

The part about having a father as brilliant an artist as I had, he said, “There's always somebody bigger, better, stronger and smarter and a better artist than you. Deal with it. Because if you don't, you're never gonna get better.” If you accept the fact that there are better people than you, you'll try to get better. If you think you're great, you're never gonna get any better.

It gave me a goal post to reach for. What it made me wanna do is, do it as well as he did, even if I didn't get there yet.

The other artists in the field, you'd have to ask them. But as far as I'm concerned, he brought the beauty of real life to superheroes, drew beautiful figures in fantasy situations, and I think that's what affected a lot of the artists in the business.