Brush Strokes with Greatness: Joe Sinnott Preview

Brush Strokes

With With

Greatness

THE LIFE & ART OF

by Tim Lasiuta

Table of Contents DEDICATION In Memory of Betty Sinnott by Mark Sinnott ..................................................................6 INTRODUCTION Stan the Man & Jovial Joe by Stan Lee ........................................................................7 WORD FROM THE WATCHER In the Beginning ..................................................................................8 CHAPTER ONE Out of School and Into Print........................................................................................9 CHAPTER TWO Enter Stan Lee ..........................................................................................................21 Found Treasure The Treasure Chest Comics Years ........................................................................33 Junior Effort Working for Classics Illustrated ..............................................................................41 COLOR GALLERY ................................................................................................................................49 CHAPTER THREE The Fantastic Four and Beyond ..............................................................................57 The Lost Superman/Spider-Man Pages by Terry Austin ..........................................................76 CHAPTER FOUR With One Single Panel ............................................................................................78 Sinnott Strips ..............................................................................................................................82 CHAPTER FIVE Penciler Up! ..............................................................................................................86 CHAPTER SIX A Thing for Bing..........................................................................................................88 CHAPTER SEVEN Appreciations: Speaking of Joe… ..........................................................................92 CHAPTER EIGHT Pin-Up, Anyone? ..................................................................................................111 CHAPTER NINE While Bing Gently Sings ........................................................................................116 SINNOTT GALLERY ..........................................................................................................................121 CHECKLIST Joe Sinnott Comicography............................................................................................124 AFTERWORD Just A Guy Named Joe by Mark Evanier ....................................................................128 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................................130 SPECIAL THANKS ............................................................................................................................131 A MESSAGE FROM THE ARTIST From Joe, With Love ..................................................................132

A Word from the Watcher

In the Beginning...

“I am the Watcher, guardian of a thousand worlds and countless sentient life forms. Universes have passed away before my eyes, and galaxies born while I observe, and learn. Many are the chroniclers of my observations, and many are the visualizers. Of these, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Joe Sinnott have pleased me with their tellings of our encounters...

“Of Sinnott, I could tell you much. Born in the Catskill Mountains, Saugerties, New York, on your planet in the United States, October 16th, 1926, to Catherine and Edward Sinnott. He was, as you Earthlings say, a precocious child. Athletic, artistic, and hard working, he was destined for greatness...

“I leave you now to explore Brushstrokes With Greatness: The Life and Art of Joe Sinnott.”

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LEFT: Panel detail from Fantastic Four #113, pencils by John Buscema, inks by Joe Sinnott.

The Watcher ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Chapter One

Out of School and Into Print oe Sinnott got his early professional art education at the Cartoonists and Illustrators School in the late 1940s. But his interest in art had started years before that.

“My mom had run a boarding house in Saugerties, where many local teachers would stay. At the tender age of three, in 1929, one of the teachers gave me a box of crayons with a decorated top, and after that, I drew all the time. Whatever I could find, I’d draw on [it].

“One of our boarders, a German cook named Bill Theison, used to draw on his clothes at night. When he finished, his pants looked like an artist’s sketch pad filled with cowboys, Indians, and soldiers of various types. He inspired me to draw whatever I could, as often as I could. And, like many of the kids at the time, I loved the comic strips in the local papers. As a young man, I copied as many of them as I could.

Terry and the Pirates, Smilin’ Jack, Jungle Jim and Flash Gordon were my favorites at the time, and I learned so much from them about art, or at least I thought I did.”

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“A GREAT TIME TO BE A KID!” The late 1930s was a time of cultural explosion.

Big Little Books, with content culled directly from the comic strips, were everywhere! Comic books first appeared in 1934 and, when Action Comics #1 rocked the world in 1938, the invasion had started. Movie serials from Republic Studios brought heroes to life on the big screen. The Lone Ranger, Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, and Dick Tracy entertained children in theatres week after week. Joe Sinnott was no exception.

“Believe it or not, Superman was not my favorite character as a child. I leaned more towards Congo Bill (from Action Comics #1) because he was similar to Jungle Jim by Alex Raymond. As kids, my friends and I ate up the serials. Our dimes sure went a long way! A main feature, and a movie serial chapter… If we were lucky, a

cartoon, too. Of course, radio drama at the time was no slouch either. [It was] the Golden Age of Radio, the Golden Age of Hollywood (and movie serials), and the Golden Age of Comic Books, even though we didn’t know it. It was a great time to be a kid!”

High school was no different for Joe. “I was still drawing in high school. So much so, that I was the art director for our class yearbook.

In our school there were only two art classes, Representation and Design, so I had to learn anatomy from the comic strips.

That’s where [Flash Gordon artist] Alex Raymond and [Wash Tubbs artist] Roy Crane were so instrumental. I loved their work then, and still do.”

PLAYING BALL “I had come out of the Navy in 1946 after serving with the Fighting Seabees over on Okinawa during the war.

And when I came out, I knew I wanted to go to art school, but I was piddling around. You know, I loved playing ball. I was playing baseball and working up in a limestone quarry. The winter of ’48 was one of the worst in New York

ABOVE: Joe Sinnott, 1932.

LEFT INSET: Is it Jungle Jim or Congo Bill? Joe Sinnott drawing from 1941.

BELOW: The Sinnott Family in 1931. Art & photos courtesy of the Sinnott family.

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State history. It got to be 30 below zero for weeks on end, so I finally decided it was time to pack up and go to an art school with a nice warm classroom and draw pictures. And, of course, the G.I. Bill was very, very beneficial. I couldn’t have done it, as most veterans couldn’t have, without the G.I. Bill,” Joe said.

INTO THE BIG CITY “So, in March of 1949, I went down to the Cartoonists and Illustrators School to see if I could make it. Living in upstate New York, I was around 100 miles north, [and] I traveled down with my little samples. (By ‘samples’ I mean copied strips of Flash Gordon and Terry and the Pirates.

There were other pieces, too, but those were the most commercial.) Naturally, I was a little apprehensive. I didn’t think they were good enough for them to accept me into the school. When I showed them to [CIS head] Silas

Rhodes, he said, ‘I’ve got to show these to [CIS head instructor Burne] Hogarth.’

And so he went in and I didn’t see Hogarth that day, but he came back and he said Hogarth thinks these things are terrific for a guy that supposedly never had any training. I thought they were pulling my leg. I thought they had trouble getting students and they wanted to make sure I went to the school, so they were buttering me up. Well, anyway, Hogarth thought they were great and, of course, looking back on them now, they were pretty pitiful.

But, it was enough for me to get into the school.”

LEFT INSET: Sketch of the Hollywood actor John Wayne drawn by Joe Sinnott while in high school (1942).

CARTOONISTS AND ILLUSTRATORS SCHOOL When the Cartoonists and Illustrators School was new, it catered primarily to veterans interested in pursuing cartooning and illustration. Today, the school — now

BELOW: 1944 high school yearbook art by Joe Sinnott.

Art & photos courtesy of the Sinnott family.

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Chapter Two

Enter Stan Lee he comic racks and newsstands of the early 1950s were a wonderful place to linger.

Colorful images of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Lone Ranger, The Two-Gun Kid, Kent Blake, screaming horrific covers from EC, tantalizing images of The Ghost Rider and Gene Autry, alongside romance comics, drew young eyes back and forth. Pulp novels, lurid paperback covers, Amazing and Astounding, and celebrity tell-all magazines pulled readers of all ages and demographics into a world of fantasy and make-believe.

But comic books were the king, and a young Stan Lee, working for his uncle Martin Goodman at Atlas Comics was at the top of his game. Writing piles of stories for artists like Jack Keller, John Severin, Al Williamson, and Paul Reinman, another freelancer was always welcome.

Enter Joe Sinnott. By 1950, Joe was working with Tom Gill producing filler stories for Stan and Atlas Comics. And with Red Warrior and Kent Blake under his belt, Joe was ready to join the ‘big boys’ at Atlas.

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guys are doing great work on those fillers for me.”

Joe just smiles. “I’d like to go freelance, on my own and work for Atlas/Timely, if you’ll have me. After all, I have done most of the Red Warrior book we just handed in. And Kent Blake is one of my jobs, too.”

Stan nods. “Well, in that case, I’ll give you a script…

Here, a short western called ‘The Man Who Wouldn’t Die’ [published in Apache Kid #8].

Bring it in when you’re done.”

And that was it. “I’ve known Stan for 56 years now, and still work with him on the Spider-Man Sunday strips, inking Alex Saviuk. I worked very hard to impress Stan on my first story for him.

Looking back on it now, I know I put a lot of time and

ABOVE: Splash page of first Sinnott-published Atlas work, Apache Kid #8. ©’07 Marvel Characters, Inc.

FOLLOWING BETTY’S ADVICE Imagine this scene if you will: Stan at his desk. Piles of legal pads to his left. Cup of coffee steaming at one edge near a half-eaten sandwich, telephone at the other edge. Behind him, on a table, stacks of artwork ready to be proofed and lettered. A knock comes at the door.

“Come in,” Stan says.

A tall, well-dressed artist enters. He offers his hand. “Mr. Lee, my name is Joe Sinnott. I have been working with Tom Gill as his assistant over the last few months.”

Stan looks up and smiles.

“Pleased to meet you, Joe. So, you are the guy who helps Tom! You

Professional comic book artist Joe Sinnott in his studio, circa 1950s.

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ABOVE: Atlas horror art

by Joe Sinnott. ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

effort into it, but now I think, ‘That’s a little stiff here and there. I should have done this, should have done that.’ But that’s the benefit of experience. For that time, I did my best and Stan took it and after I handed that job in, he gave the first of many more scripts,” Joe said.

Atlas/Timely comics were full of “filler” stories. The title characters had the main story, and the rest of the books were the short four-, five- or six-page tales Stan and his staff would punch out.

STAN LEE, SUPER-SCRIBE

INSET RIGHT: Ink study drawn by Joe Sinnott in the 1950s. ©2007 Joe Sinnott.

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“Stan is really an amazing writer. You should have seen him behind his desk. He’d take out yellow legal paper and he’d block it off, four or five or six panels, and he’d letter into the panels the balloon and the dialogue, and captions that he wanted. And, of course, then they typed it up into a script form. He did full scripts

for every story he wrote during the 1950s until the Comics Code Authority pushed the comic book industry into near bankruptcy and oblivion. He really is a prodigious, tireless worker,” Joe said.

The story of comic books is really the story of cultural change. Super-heroes ruled the comic racks as long as the reading public looked beyond themselves for inspiration during the war. When the soldiers came back from service, the allure of super-heroes faded, and Western comics surged as entertainers like Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy, and The Lone Ranger pushed the industry forward. Stan Lee, sensing the shift in popular trends, joined in with Western heroes with Two-Gun Kid, Rawhide Kid and Kid Colt, then later, with romance comics and the horror genre fueled by EC and Bill Gaines.

“Stan used to knock them out unbelievably—the Westerns, war stories, science-fiction and romance, just anything you could think of, trying to hit upon a trend that would sell. And, of course, we did have trends in the early ’50s, the Korean War being one. We drew an awful lot of war stories and of course, then the horror trend came on and EC really was responsible for the success of the horror books, and so Marvel tried to emulate them.

Horror was a lot of fun, actually. It really was. I loved doing cemetery scenes at night and you could really do a lot of blacks and it was just a fun thing. But then, some of the smaller companies went a little bit too far. They got too graphic, too gruesome, and they instituted the Comics Code.

“Looking back, stories like ‘Drink Deep Vampire’, ‘The Last of Mr. Mordeaux,’ ‘Cry Werewolf,’ and

LET THE INKING COMMENCE “Stan called me up and this was, I think, ’61, and we were doing monster books in that period. Here again, we were looking for a trend, something that would sell, and Jack was great at doing the monster books. Jack always had to have an inker, and so Stan called me up. I had never inked anyone else at the time and he said, ‘Joe, I have a story that Jack penciled, but I can’t get anybody to ink it. Could you ink it for me?’ So I said, ‘Sure, Stan. Send it up.’ It was called ‘I Was Trapped By Titano, The Monster That Time Forgot’ [Tales To Astonish #10]. Later on, we did a story with a character called Pildorr. The stranger the name, the better the monster, I guess!

“Later, Stan asked me if I would ink a couple of Westerns for Jack Keller, which I did, too. We did ‘The Man From Fargo’ and ‘Beware the Gun Wizard’ in Kid Colt #90 together. He was such a terrific artist to work with. He had done Westerns for Stan from the early ’50s, too, on his flagship titles, and was so prolific.”

ENTER THE FF The introduction of the Fantastic Four in 1961 changed comic books forever. Prior to their appearance in November 1961, team books had been limited primarily to DC Comics. Challengers of the Unknown, the Justice Society of America in All-Star Comics, and Justice League of America featured teams, but not like this one. The Justice League had debuted one year earlier in November 1960, and was changing the way fans looked at comics, but they were still the same super-heroes. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created a team with a monster, invisible woman, flaming boy, and stretchy scientist, who all struggled with rejection, prejudice and personal issues.

A few months later, SpiderMan appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15, and opened the floodgate of Marvel-created heroes. Then the mighty hammer Mjolnir jolted the heavens with Thor appearing in Journey Into Mystery #83. The Marvel revolution was coming.

FANTASTIC #5 “Before Stan called me to ink Jack on Fantastic Four #5, I never knew The Fantastic Four existed. I lived up here in New York, in the Catskill Mountains, and I never went down to the city at that time. I used to go down in the Fifties, but with more assignments, my time became very valuable. Every Friday, I’d bring my five- or six-page story down, because I penciled and inked everything in those days, and Stan would give me a new

ABOVE: Fantastic Four #1 [Nov. 1961] cover recreation

by Joe Sinnott, based on art

by Jack Kirby (pencils) and Sol Brodsky (inks). ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

INSET LEFT: Cover detail of Journey Into Mystery #83 [Aug. 1962], featuring the debut of The Mighty Thor. Pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Joe Sinnott. ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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INSET RIGHT: Fantastic Four #5 [July 1962] cover (pencils by Jack Kirby, inks

by Joe Sinnott). This issue features the first teaming of Kirby and Sinnott on their most fondly-recalled collaboration, the FF. ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

BELOW: Panel detail from Fantastic Four #5. Pencils

by Jack Kirby, inks by Joe Sinnott. ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

script. I’d go home and start it on Monday and I’d finish it on Thursday and I’d bring it in Friday, and they’d repeat the cycle. So then it got to the point where I stopped going down to the city. Everything was done by mail and I didn’t know what books were coming out, even. I didn’t know who or what the characters were when Stan called me up one day and said, ‘Joe, I’ve got a book here by Jack Kirby.

I’d like you to ink it, if you could. I can’t find anybody to ink it.’ So I said, ‘Send it up.’

I didn’t even ask him what it was, so when it came in the mail, it was The Fantastic Four #5 and I was dumbfounded by the great art and the characters. The Thing, Reed Richards, Sue Storm, and Johnny were great.

“The issue [contains] Doctor Doom’s first appearance, and the Fantastic Four and Doom go back in history to become pirates. As a young Terry and the Pirates fan, Stan’s story was right up my alley. So I had a ball inking it.

I remember when I mailed it back, Stan called me. He said, ‘Joe, we liked it so much, I’m going to send you #6.’

“So he sent me #6, but I had committed myself — at that time, I had picked up another account at Treasure Chest magazine and this was a 65-page [serialized] story I was going to have to do on one of the Popes [“The Story of Pope XXIII”].

I had committed myself to it, so when I had started #6, I think I just did a panel or two. I had to send it back to Stan. I said, ‘Stan, I committed myself for this big story, and I have to do it.’ So that’s the reason I got off of The Fantastic Four right away.”

LO, THERE SHALL BE A RE-TEAMING Joe picked up where he left off in Fantastic Four #44 (November 1965), with “The Gentleman’s Name is Gorgon,” and it was the first of 48 consecutive issues inking Jack Kirby on the title. “I stayed on it right up to #92 (November 1969) and then I was really burned-out, and I called Stan. I said, ‘Stan, I’ve got to take a vacation.’ So I did, and Frank Giacoia did the next couple of issues. I came back with #95 and stayed until #102, which was Jack’s last issue for quite some time.”

The Fantastic Four run from #44 to #92 is one of the most fondly-remembered in comic book history, encompassing the introduction of some of Jack and Stan’s greatest creations. The Silver Surfer, Galactus, Gorgon, Black Bolt,

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Crystal, Karnak, Triton, and the Black Panther all arrived in a nineissue span (#44-52) and set the tone for the Lee/Kirby/Sinnott run.

MARVELING AT KIRBY

Junior Effort

“I remember getting Kirby pages in the mail during that time and marveling at them—not for too long, of course, because I did have to get to work and ink them. But, as nice as they were to look at, some pages would take more time. Jack did excellent work, all the time. Near the end of his life, when I got something of his to ink, it slipped a little, but I always managed to tweak it so no one saw the difference.

“Comic fans always remember Jack for his amazing machines, and larger-than-life panels and splash pages, and surprisingly, that made his art easier and faster to ink. As great as Galactus was, the sheer amount of detail Jack put into his armor made those stories more work, but definitely satisfying. Judging from the stories that have used Galactus since then, fans and writers must have liked what we did back then! Of course, that’s not the only highlight of that run either. The Silver Surfer went on to his own series, and the Inhumans have made their own mark on Marvel history.”

Joe Sinnott penciled and inked one story for Gilberton: Classics Illustrated Junior #554, “The Enchanted Deer” [Sept. 1958]. ©2007 the respective copyright holder.

ABOVE: Splash panel from Fantastic Four #44. Pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Joe Sinnott. ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Classics Illustrated is probably the least understood and most underestimated comic book series in the history of illustrated storytelling. The Gilberton Company produced original adaptations of classic novels and plays from 1941-62. A secondary Gilbertson line, Classics Illustrated Junior, adapted fairy tales and children’s stories.

Teachers scorned them, students loved them, but love them or not, they sold up to four million copies a month around the world!

Artists contributing to the series included Alex Blum, Jack Kirby, George Evans, L.B. Cole, Norman Nodel, Dik Browne, Rudy Palais, Pete Costanza, Kurt Schaffenberger, Sal Trapani, Joe Orlando, Graham Ingels, Al Williamson, Angelo Torres, Roy Krenkel, John Severin, Reed Crandall, Norman Saunders, Don Perlin, and Joe Sinnott.

“I only had time to do one Classics Illustrated. ‘The Enchanted Deer’ appeared in issue #554 (Sept. 1958). Based on a Brothers Grimm fairy tale, it was a delightful story similar to Hansel and Gretel.

I even did most of the fillers for that issue, too,” Joe recalled.

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ABOVE/INSET BELOW: Though they collaborated for years prior, Jack Kirby and Joe Sinnott didn’t meet in person until 1972! The photographs of the pair on this page are from 1975.

INSET RIGHT: Cover detail from Fantastic Four #50 [May 1966], with pencils by Jack Kirby and inks by Joe Sinnott. ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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“Believe it or not, even though Jack and I had worked together for quite some time (I mean, I had inked his work and mailed it back to Marvel), we had never met until 1972 at a convention in New York, and then again later in ’75. By the way, that convention re-united me with Stan, whom I hadn’t seen for almost 17 years, too! But, you know, I probably had worked with Jack for at least ten years, on and off, on different things before I met him. And I never talked to him, not once, on the phone, even though we did so many Fantastic Four issues as a team. He never called to say, ‘Joe, I’d like you to do this with this character or this panel,’ or, ‘Don’t do this,’ or, ‘I like what you’re doing.’ I never talked to him on the phone, never ever, all the time that we worked together all those years, and he never put a note on the borders for me — nothing.

I don’t think there could have been anybody that was more of a prodigious worker than Jack. I’m sure he worked seven days a week and he probably burned the midnight oil, too.”

The legacy of Jack Kirby is incredible. Not only are there 50 issues of The Jack Kirby Collector magazine, but almost every artist who touches the Fantastic Four or Captain America is influenced by his work. “Not only was he fast, but he was also versatile. He did westerns, romances, science fiction, war, newspaper comic strips, and even worked as an animator during the 1930s, too,” Joe commented.

“Even at DC Comics, he stood out as one of their most creative artists.”

THE MISSING FANTASTIC FOUR PAGES The departure of Jack Kirby from Marvel Comics in 1970 shocked comic fans. How could Jack leave Marvel? And then go over to DC Comics—the ‘enemy’? Whatever caused the rift between Stan and Jack sent waves through Marveldom.

Fantastic Four #102 marked the end of the Kirby era on the FF. Waiting in the wings were talented men like John

Color Gallery

Pin-up art penciled, inked and colored by Joe Sinnott. Gawain Š2007 King Features.

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Kent Blake of the Secret Service is remembered — and penciled, inked and colored — by Joe Sinnott in this 2004 pin-up. Kent Blake ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc. Art ©2007 Joe Sinnott.

Over an extended period, Joe Sinnott produced imaginative covers for crossword puzzle magazines. ©2007 the respective copyright holder.

Pin-up art penciled, inked and colored by Joe Sinnott. ©2007 Joe Sinnott.

Pin-up art penciled, inked and colored by Joe Sinnott.

All characters Š2007 Marvel Characters, Inc. Art Š2007 Joe Sinnott.

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Chapter Three

TheFantastic Four and Beyond ith the departure of Jack Kirby from Marvel Comics, The Fantastic Four fell into good hands.

“I continued to ink The Fantastic Four until the early #300s on a more casual basis. Having worked on it so long, I think I added a sense of continuity to the title that helped make it a fan favorite. Big John Buscema penciled The Fantastic Four for around 30 issues, and he was an amazing draftsmen to work with. He could draw anything. I had inked him on The Silver Surfer and The Mighty Thor before this, so I appreciated his talents already. His greatest comic book achievement was Conan, of course, with Roy Thomas for more than 20 years.

“Then along came Richard Buckler Sr. for a couple dozen issues. Rich’s art always reminded of a cross between Kirby and Buscema, and it worked very well with my inking once I got used to his pages. George Pérez, Keith Pollard, John Byrne, and Ron Frenz also worked on the title, too, over the next few years, each adding their own unique touch.”

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BYRNE LONG NECKS “I remember when I first started working with John Byrne. He was very young at the time and he was still living in Canada and he did a Fantastic Four. They asked if I would ink a Fantastic Four that he did so when I got it — and, of course, John and I have become very good friends since then. John drew very long necks and I didn’t know whether to lower the heads or to erase the body. So, I had to erase the heads and lower them. I called up John and I said, ‘John, I’d like to offer just a little opinion. You’re making your necks too long…’ You see, John didn’t know he was making his necks long, and you could hear a pin drop. Then I told him, ‘You’re parting Johnny’s hair on the wrong side of his head.’ I tell you, you could hear a pin drop again. So it’s strange.

“When you work on The Fantastic Four for all those issues that I did, you draw Johnny’s hair parted on the left; then all of a sudden, when you get where it’s parted on the right, it throws you all off. I mean it’s amazing. But

John was one of the cleanest pencilers that I ever worked with. His pencils were immaculate.”

PÉREZ, MAN OF DETAIL

ABOVE: John Byrne (pencils)/Joe Sinnott (inks) Fantastic Four #209 [Aug. 1979]. ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

“George Pérez and I worked on a few issues of the Fantastic Four and other titles over the years. Even as a young artist, he was a great storyteller and his pencils showed just how much work he put into them. His panels were always so busy with detail, cross-hatching, checker-

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MAKING HIS MARK AT MARVEL

ABOVE: George Pérez pencils and Joe Sinnott inks this 1978 SpiderWoman pin-up. ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

INSET RIGHT: John Carter, Warrior of Mars, is depicted in this FOOM pin-up by penciler George Pérez and inker Joe Sinnott.

Characters ©2007 ERB, Inc.

INSET FAR RIGHT: Incredible Hulk #284 [June 1983] cover art penciled by Al Milgrom and inked by Joe Sinnott. ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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boards, or something that made them a little more difficult to work on. I remember one time there was a sequence in the park: Sue was talking to Alicia or somebody, and he had a downshot on the scene, and you see all these pigeons, which they’re feeding.

The next panel, instead of having maybe a three-quarter shot of them, from the waist-up, which is regular storytelling practice, he had a whole other downshot, one that’s almost, but not quite, the same identical shot. I could have taken a stamp pad and made a copy of it; he’d drawn both in the same fine detail!”

By the early 1970s, Joe Sinnott’s mark was all over Marvel Comics. Other than his inking on The Fantastic Four, his touch could be found on almost every title. “I’d start working on The Defenders, get into a groove on the work, then be asked to ink someone else,” Joe remembered. Other professionals and fans noted that the “Marvel look” was due in large part to Joe’s inking and the remarkable consistency he provided, no matter who or how good the penciler was. “I always had a tough time saying no to Stan when it came to assignments.”

As Ron Frenz and Tom Defalco put it, “Back in ‘the day,’ you weren’t a Marvel guy until you were lucky to ‘pitch one’ to Mr. Joe Sinnott!” It must have been true because Marvel readers were treated to Sinnott finishes on some of the most successful Marvel series until his “retirement” in 1992.

A partial listing of titles Joe either did covers or interior art for reads like the Marvel Comics Hall of Fame, and the corresponding list of artists whose pencils he inked reads like a Who’s Who in the comic book world.

In no particular order, Joe embellished Nova, Ms. Marvel, Marvel Two-InOne, The Avengers, Black Panther, Captain America, Daredevil, Conan, The Dazzler, Defenders, Devil Dinosaur, Ghost Rider, Incredible Hulk, The Invaders, Iron Fist, Iron Man, Marvel Treasury Edition, Rom, Amazing Spider-Man, Sub-Mariner, The Thing, Thor, West Coast Avengers, and even The XMen! And you can’t forget the reprints of his earlier inks either! He ‘put to bed’ the roughs of Jack Kirby, Jim Steranko, Neal Adams, John Romita, John Buscema, Gil Kane, Al Milgrom, Ron Frenz, Ron Wilson, Rick Hoberg, Rich Howell, Jim

ARTISTS ASSEMBLE! Sinnott inked Barry Windsor-Smith in the classic Avengers #100 that featured anyone who ever was a member of the super-hero team. “As a young artist, Barry had a great reputation for doing stylistic work. He had been working on Conan and had begun to establish himself. Today, his dual career as a fine artist and comic book professional is a testament to his artistic growth. As much as it was a great opportunity for me, it was for him, too.

The book included so many different characters.”

Other artists graced by the Sinnott brush on The Avengers included Rich Buckler Sr., Don Heck, John Buscema, Allen Milgrom (19 issues), and Bob Hall. Joe worked with Al Milgrom for a memorable 23-issue run on The West Coast Avengers, as well.

“Al was a pleasant artist to work with. His pencils were very straightforward and easy to follow. As much as I enjoyed doing The Avengers, I enjoyed the West Coast Avengers even more. The covers he and I drew for the title were lots of fun for us, and many other comics featured our work.

“As soon as Jim Steranko joined Marvel, I started getting his jobs to ink.

His style was so unique and his early grasp of storytelling so exciting, it was both a joy and job to ink his pencils. But, wow, I remember working on Nick Fury and Captain America with Jim.” [Strange Tales #166-168, Nick Fury #1, Captain America #110, 111] THE GOOD CAPTAIN Captain America was Joe Simon and Jack Kirby’s greatest creation. When Captain America burst onto the comic book scene in 1941, superheroes were everywhere.

Superman, Batman, The Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Captain Midnight, The Human Torch, and even Captain Marvel leapt off newsstands in glorious color.

“As a young boy at the age of 12 or 13, I remember reading Captain America and the whole concept of him. His costume was so… colorful and it represented just who he was.

During his early adventures, he fought the Nazis wherever they were, and later on, the Communists during the short-lived revival in the ’50s. Today, he is still very

ABOVE: Joe Sinnott inks Barry Windsor-Smith’s pencils on this page from The Avengers #100 [June 1972]. ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

INSET LEFT: Captain America and The Falcon pin-up by Joe Sinnott.

Characters ©2007 Marvel Entertainment, Inc. Art ©2007 Joe Sinnott.

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INSET RIGHT: Joe Sinnott pin-up of the god of thunder.

Thor ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc. Art ©2007 Joe Sinnott.

BELOW: Joe Sinnott channels his old collaborator in this Jack Kirby-inspired pin-up of the Mighty Thor. Thor ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc. Art ©2007 Joe Sinnott.

Neal Adams. We did Thor #180-181 together. “When Gods Go Mad” and “One God Must Fall” were incredible penciling jobs. He used imaginative layouts, compelling splash pages, and his technical grasp even then was amazing.

Neal certainly was one of the stars of his generation, and right from his first work at Marvel [The X-Men #56] and his later work on Batman, you knew you were in for something special. Those two issues were no exception.”

THOR THE MIGHTY “Speaking of Thor, my connection with him goes way back to his introduction in Journey Into Mystery #83. Stan and Jack had come up with another character, which really wasn’t that uncommon for them. They would invent all types of heroes and try to ride the wave of the newest trend.

That first story, ‘The Stone Men From Saturn,’ was one of Larry Lieber’s early stories,” Joe said.

“Stan and I worked together on so many books in the late ’50s and early ’60s.

Even though he was the editor of Marvel at the time, he would give me a rough plot to work with and I would go home and produce a full script,” Larry Lieber recounted. “Journey Into Mystery #83 was like that. Stan created this character, and this time he called him Thor, and it was my job to complete the story. My main input on Thor was naming the alter ego, Dr. Donald Blake. Stan always liked my names for the man behind the costume, and I liked doing them. As for Thor, Joe’s inks were so elegant on the book that it helped Jack’s cartoony style. And of course, Thor is still with us today.”

‘BIG’ CHARACTER BOOKS “As an artist, I really liked working on the ‘big’ character books, Captain America, The Hulk, Thor, The Fantastic Four, Silver Surfer, and titles like that. As a character, I liked The Thing. He was the most unique character that Stan and Jack ever created. I mean, think about it: An astronaut, bombarded by comics rays, who turns into a monster! In a way, The Thing represents the worst of mankind, with the best intentions. He had so many human frailties, he could be funny, but more often he was angry and frustrated at the world. Even when he was ‘cured’ and just plain Ben Grimm, he chose to be the Thing once more when someone needed him. Once a hero, always a hero. Not only was he fun to draw, but you could do so much with him—just take a look at how many pin-ups of him I’ve done. He’s been Santa Claus, the Cisco Thing (with Jack), a fisherman, a gangster, and so many other characters.”

The Thing, in addition to his central role in the Fantastic Four, graduated to his own comic book in the

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reminded me of some of the great cartoonists I admired throughout my career. Together, we did some great covers, and some of the interior work wasn’t too shabby, either.”

“THE CISCO THING” “After Jack left Marvel, every now and then I would get a call asking me to ink some of his commission art for him. One time, he called me up and asked me to ink a Fighting American piece for him. So I did it. Then he asked me how much I wanted for doing it… I said ‘nothing’, just do a drawing of the Thing for my son Mark. So he did... and the Thing became the Cisco Thing! I inked it up and colored it, and it is one of Mark’s favorites!”

The Incredible Hulk is a story of perseverance. “Stan and Jack were on a roll at this point. They had Thor, the Fantastic Four, and by this time, Spider-Man had been in development for some time. Actually, Jack had come up with a treatment for Spidey that Stan didn’t like and rejected. Of course, the comic industry changed when Amazing Fantasy #15 hit newsstands with

ABOVE: Fantastic Four #79 [Oct. 1968] cover art by Jack Kirby (pencils) and Joe Sinnott (inks). ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

ABOVE: Fantastic Four #88 [July 1969] panel detail sporting Jack Kirby pencils and Joe Sinnott inks. ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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summer of 1983. John Byrne contributed scripting while Joe inked Ron Wilson’s pencils.

Over the next 27 issues, Joe would either ink the story and/or cover of 17 books. “Ron’s pencils were very easy to work with. His simple style was very deceptive, and

Steve Ditko interpreting him just a little different.”

The Incredible Hulk appeared in May of 1962 and lasted only six issues, despite even the best efforts of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. The comic world wasn’t ready for The Hulk yet, but he remained popular in his own back-up stories in Tales To Astonish, and later his own series, which still runs today. “I remember when the Hulk first came out,” Joe said. “Stan and Jack had another hit, eventually. I worked on The Incredible Hulk during Sal Buscema’s penciling tenure (almost 20 issues), and one thing I remember about his work is that his pencils were very even and easy to ink. They were elegant in a very straightforward way. Together, we worked on The Fantastic Four, a couple of Ms. Marvels, the Spider-Man comic strip, and Rom for 13 issues. That was probably our best collaboration together. Sal is a great artist and he was a pleasure to work with.”

Team books like The Avengers and Fantastic Four were a natural for Joe. When Don Perlin gave up penciling Captain America to John Byrne, Marvel offered him The Defenders… and Joe Sinnott.

“Of all the team books I did, The Defenders was probably my least favorite,” Joe said, “and it was probably due to some of the characters, not the art. Don Perlin is a real professional and his penciling shows that.”

THE MARK OF KANE Over two decades, Joe worked with many of the Golden and Silver Age comic book legends.

“Gil Kane and I did Tales of Suspense (Captain America), Ghost Rider, The Invaders and Marvel Two-In-One. His art was easy to work with, but I never cared for his distinctive style. We did do some great Marvel TwoIn-Ones (Man-Thing, Sub-Mariner, Captain America, Ghost Rider, Thor, Golem, Son of Satan), and I really liked the cover to Ghost Rider #1. That one really stands out for me, but there were many others.

“Another old-timer I worked with was Jim Mooney.

We worked on Ms. Marvel together for a few issues. She

was a good character and his art was simple and straight to the point. He reminded me of Sal Buscema, and they were both good draftsmen. He and I both worked at Marvel at the same time during the ’70s but unlike me, who stayed at Marvel, he worked at DC for a long time on Supergirl and The Legion of Super Heroes.”

FRIEND FRENZ “Two of my favorite people to work with are Ron Frenz and Terry Austin. Ron and I worked on The Fantastic Four and Thor during my last years at Marvel.

ABOVE: Gil Kane penciled, and Joe Sinnott inked, this page from Marvel Two-In-One #2 [Mar. 1974]. ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

INSET LEFT: Cover detail with pencils

by Sal Buscema and inks by (you guessed it!) Joe Sinnott.

Tomb of Darkness #16 [Sept. 1975]. ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Sinnott Spotlight by Terry Austin

The Lost SupermanSpiderManPages kay, we all know that my friend, “Gentleman” Joe Sinnott, is a penciler without peer, an inker of legend, and one of the nicest guys currently residing in the Milky Way Galaxy, but did you know that good ol’ Joe is also a magician? No foolin’! I didn’t either, until a recent lunch we shared, when Joe made an unpublished page from one of the greatest comic book sagas ever produced appear before my very eyes!

The story begins a full 30 years before that noontime repast (no wonder I was so hungry!) when, for three years,

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BELOW : Splash page from Marvel Treasury Edition #28 [July 1981] featuring John Buscema pencils and inks by Joe Sinnott (as well as a zillion others; take a look at the credits!). SpiderMan ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc. Superman ©2007 DC Comics.

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I served as assistant and background inker for another terrific inker and all-around nice guy, Dick Giordano.

During that period, as part of my duties, I was pleased and extremely proud to ink the backgrounds on the historic first-time-ever crossover project between DC and Marvel Comics, rightly billed as “The Battle of the Century,” Superman Vs. The Amazing Spider-Man. Produced by DC Comics, the story was skillfully written

by Gerry Conway and excitingly penciled by Ross Andru, and was one of the most talked about comic books of 1976, being well received by fans and pros alike.

Flash forward five years to 1981, when it was decided that the time had come for Marvel Comics to have their turn at producing the second Superman and Spider-Man epic. Marvel head honcho Jim Shooter selected their premier penciler and inker for the task of bringing his script to life: John Buscema and Joe Sinnott. A collective cheer was heard throughout the land, and the work was begun in earnest.

One day in Marvel’s bullpen area, Jim approached me with an idea. Knowing that I had inked the backgrounds on the first Superman/Spider-Man book (even though my name didn’t appear in the credits, it was the most widely known “secret” in the industry at the time), Jim decided that he would outdo DC and have the backgrounds on Marvel’s production inked by a whole squad of “superstar inkers” (his words, not mine). I had been an inker in my own right for a few years by this time and Jim felt that if I acquiesced, he would then be able to talk other well-respected inkers into signing on. Little did he suspect that most of us would have done so, and even gone without pay if necessary, for the opportunity to work with one of our idols, Joltin’ Joe Sinnott!

Now, flash forward to 2006, to that miraculous day that I met up with Joe, his wife Betty and son Mark, for one of our periodic lunches. I had decided to take advantage of the situation to ask Joe to autograph the small stack of original comic art pages that I own from jobs that he had inked, including our one “collaboration” referenced

Chapter Four

With One Single Panel... he comic pages of the major newspapers were packed with fantasy during the 1930s and ’40s. Flash Gordon, The Phantom, Prince Valiant, Buck Rogers, Tarzan, Mandrake the Magician, and other adventure strips inspired youths all over the nation. Outstanding draftsmen like Raymond, Hogarth, Flanders, McManus, Caniff, Crane, Andriola, Gould, Foster, and Sickles served up creative masterpieces daily to hungry comic strip fans.

Joe Sinnott was no different than any of a hundred comic book professionals. “I used to copy, when I was a kid, Flash Gordon and Terry and the Pirates, but I think I was more influenced by Milton Caniff, Terry and the Pirates, than I was by Raymond, although I loved Raymond’s Flash Gordon and Jungle Jim, of course,” Joe said.

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“DOLPH FINLAY” THIS SPREAD: Joe Sinnott produced a sample Terry and the Pirates strip, as well as these character studies, in the late 1950s.

Terry and the Pirates ©2007 Tribune Syndicate.

Art ©2007 Joe Sinnott.

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“I had been a successful comic book artist for over a decade already. And given my early inspiration from the newspaper strips, I wanted to try my hand at a daily strip.

That chance didn’t come until the late ’50s. After Marvel Comics went belly-up [in 1957], a lot of the guys who lived in New York scrambled over to DC and the other

companies to get work. Living in Saugerties, I couldn’t do it so readily, but before I could, I got a call from one of the editors at Watson Guptill (who published an art magazine). He told me, ‘My son has written a strip called Dolph Finlay and we have both admired your style. We want you to draw it for us.’ So I said, ‘Okay.’ He said he had contacts in the industry and could help with King Features. The script came up and it was about a Navy frogman (now he’d be a Navy Seal) and it was pretty good. I inked and penciled it in the evenings (as I had just picked up some work with Charlton and Treasure Chest) and they showed it to King. It seems all the syndicates were looking for funny stuff and that continuity strips were on the way out.

“What was amazing about it was that, even though we got good reaction, they still said no! One year later, Lloyd Bridges came out with Sea Hunt, which was a great success. Editors may be smart, but they don’t always make great decisions!”

THE GHOST WHO WALKS “Another character I loved as a kid was The Phantom. I marveled at the artistry of Wilson McCoy and when he passed away in 1961 from jungle fever, I wanted

When the jungle vapors cleared, Sy Barry was given the job instead of Joe Sinnott, after one strip by Carmine Infantino, and he worked on the Phantom until his retirement in the early ’80s.

JOHNNY HAWK, ALL AMERICAN

to do The Phantom. I had already practiced my craft at Atlas, Marvel, Treasure Chest, and Dell, and felt confident enough to do a good job. So, I worked up a sample and sent it in.”

In the early 1960s, Joe Sinnott was working full-time for Dell, Treasure Chest and Marvel Comics. “My editor at Treasure Chest, Bob Wischmeyher, called me up one day and told me he had an idea for a strip called Johnny Hawk, All American. He wanted to collaborate with me. It was about a college athlete trying to make the team. I knew how hard it was to sell a strip, so I worked on it at night after supper. Looking back, I thought I did some of my best work ever on it. It would have been popular in 1939, but in 1962 with college age youths

BELOW: Sample Phantom strip by Joe Sinnott.

The Phantom ©2007 King Features. Art ©2007 Joe Sinnott.

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Sinnott Strips

THIS SPREAD AND NEXT: Various newspaper strip samples

by Joe Sinnott. All are Š2007 the respective copyright holders.

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Chapter Five

Penciler Up! love doing comic book art,” Joe said. “But another thing that’s dear to my heart is sports. As a youngster, I played football for the Eagles Club, and baseball around Saugerties in the ’30s-’40s. I haven’t played football for a while now, but my friends know how to get my attention: Just mention the San Francisco Giants.”

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ABOVE: Sports nostalgia cartoon by Joe Sinnott. ©2007 Joe Sinnott.

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As a young man, football was his sport of choice. The Saugerties area was not a pigskin hotbed, so as a result, the Eagles would play anyone who wanted a game. Being the mid-’30s, and the tail end of the Depression, funding for community teams was tough to find, even for uniforms, but the Eagles were a determined team.

“We really wanted to stand out, so we needed a uni-

form. And the only way we could get them was to sell Christmas cards. There was a company who gave prizes for selling a certain volume of cards, and it turns out the prize uniforms had a gold eagle on them! So, over the year we sold and sold until we all had uniforms. We weren’t the best around, but we looked the best!”

When not playing baseball, Joe and his brothers could be found on the baseball diamonds around Saugerties. “I lived around two blocks from the ballfield and I played all day, hitting balls, catching. That was before Little League. There were two teams in town, the Twisters and the Tamers. My brother played for the Tamers and I played for the Twisters. We played twice a week all throughout the Summer of 1936. The next year the Lions Club formed a community league. They named teams after major league teams and I played on the Yankees. That was perfect for me, as at that time, I was a big time Yankees fan.

“Even though we lived fairly close to New York, I didn’t see a Major League game until 1941. It was the first game of the Dodgers/Yankees series. We sat five rows behind Babe Ruth and it was a huge thrill for me! He was my hero!

“Before that, in the 1930s, Lou Gehrig was my idol. I grew up in a time when two of the greatest all-time players were active. And when I began sketching players, I gravitated towards the ‘old-timers.’

“Now, having said that, I was able to combine my love of sports with my art many times. My art hangs in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. My portraits of Roberto Clemente, Monte Irvin, Josh Gibson, and Babe Ruth decorate their walls. I may not have been able to play professionally, but my pencil hit a home run… four times!”

Joe’s artwork has graced the pages of many sports comic books, too. He has illustrated the stories of Mickey Mantle, Brooks Robinson, Duke Snider, and even Pete Rose! Don’t think that he’s only a two-sport artist: want some tennis tips? Check out “Stan Smith’s Tennis Tips,”

Chapter Six

A Thing for Bing here are many sides to Joe Sinnott.

Sports-wise, he roots for the San Francisco Giants. Artwise, he has a thing for the ‘Thing’.

Musically speaking, Bing Crosby looms large in his life.

“Back in 1939, my mother listened to a half-hour of Bing every day. I was 12 and it came across to me that he could sing every type of song ever written — Western, jazz or crooning. He could sing anything he put his voice to, and sounded excellent to my young hearing,” Joe said.

That started a lifelong love of all things Bing Crosby. And when the chance came to meet Bing Crosby, Joe jumped at it!

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THIS SPREAD AND NEXT: Bing Crosby illustrations by Bing fanatic Joe Sinnott. ©2007 Joe Sinnott.

“It was late March or early April 1945, and two sailors and I were walking down Hollywood Boulevard when a Cadillac pulled up next to us, and I said to my two buddies, ‘That’s Bing Crosby!’

“They didn’t believe me.

“He got out of the car, walked past us, and went in this tobacco store, and we still didn’t know what to do.

We were a little scared so we didn’t know whether to

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follow him in or wait ’til he came out. So we waited until he came out and he was stuffing his pipe with the tobacco and he walked right by us; he looked at us, but he walked by us. I had a little pencil in my pocket and I tore up the — we had a piece of paper from a program that we had and I said, ‘I’ve got to ask him for his autograph.’ So I went up to him and I said, ‘Bing!’ I called him before he got in his car and I said, ‘Could I have your autograph?’ And he said, ‘Sure, guys, but keep walking.’ He said, ‘Don’t stop.’ He didn’t want to draw a crowd probably.”

A CONVERSATION WITH CROSBY “For a young guy, meeting his idol, it was an experience I never forgot. Actually, I still have it and it looks like he just wrote it yesterday. I don’t know how it survived over all these years. But, in any case, I said to him, ‘The only thing...’.

We talked to him, but I don’t remember most of the conversation, but I did say to him, ‘Bing, what movie are you making?’ He said, ‘Oh, a little thing called The Bells of Saint Mary’s.’ He got in his Cadillac, and it was a convertible with the roof down. So he waved to us and then took off down Hollywood Boulevard. But that was a great experience as you can imagine, meeting your idol, so to speak.

“After that, I took extra delight in Bing Crosby. I went to every film he made, and as an adult, I even had a Bing Crosby radio show with a good friend, Jim Johnson. For three hours every week, we played and talked Bing Crosby.

The power of radio has always intrigued me, and I

Chapter Seven

Speaking of Joe... uch as Jack Kirby codified the language of comic book storytelling, his illustrious cohort Joe Sinnott wrote the rules for comic book brush technique. The study of his sinuous, thickand-thin India ink lines are a required procedure for anyone who hopes to understand even the most basic elements of classic comic book inking. In fact, for the Comic Book Art and Graphic Novel classes that I’ve taught at the Pennsylvania College of Art and Design, I make the study of Sinnott’s work a key part of my

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BELOW: Joltin’ Joe salutes Stan the Man in this tribute drawing. The Thing ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc. Art ©2007 Joe Sinnott.

courses. His technique is so perfect, so seminal, and so influential on modern comics that he’s one of the few inkers whose work has become a mandatory cornerstone of my lessons. I explain to students that they can certainly branch out from there, but the classic rudiments that they’ll need all begin with Joe Sinnott. With a deft swoop of ink line to the curve of a bicep, Sinnott can convey more form than a hundred crosshatched pen lines or feathered brush strokes could convey. It’s quite astounding. As far as I’m concerned, in theory and practice, comic book inking technique all starts with Sinnott. He’s one of the true icons of the field.

Absolutely.

--Timothy Truman Back in the ‘old’ days, if someone asked me who the best three inkers in the business were, I would say Frank Giacoia, Dick Giordano and Joe Sinnott. As a ‘Marvel’ mate, I have always loved Joe’s work. No matter how simple the pencils were, the result was always beautiful.

We haven’t worked much together; primarily on The Hulk comic strip in the 1980s and his inking over Frank’s pencils were wonderful. As penciler on the Spider-Man daily strip, I watch with awe his inking on the Sunday panel and still wonder, after almost 50 years in the business, how he can turn squiggles into the most amazing backgrounds. He is still at the top of his game. He is more than an inker; he is a stylist, and the best finisher we have in the industry today.

-- Larry Lieber Joe Sinnott was the first professional inker I ever had.

I had entered a Fantastic Four piece in a fanzine contest (EPOCH) and Joe had been contacted to ink it. When it came back, Joe had some nice things to say about my pencils. Later on, when I was writing and penciling The Fantastic Four, whatever I asked for, Joe delivered. I remember one scene where I had asked for a black marble

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floor, and Joe, being the professional he is, worked very hard to get the floor right. As a writer, I knew absolutely that I could trust him. Whatever I penciled, no matter how rough it was, I knew what it would turn out like. That’s the mark of an exceptional inker.

-- John Byrne Joe Sinnott is, and has been, the best inker in comics for almost 60 years. He has also done countless books for alternate publishers penciling and inking to show what a complete artist he is. Any aspiring comics artist would be wise to check out his body of work to see the polished, consistent quality he is noted for. Beyond that, there has never been a more reliable artist or a better person in the business. It’s a pleasure to know him and to be his friend and colleague.

-- John Romita Sr. As far as I know, I’m one of the few people who has ever inked Joe’s pencils (very intimidating). He drew a few figures for The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe.

Joe is a sweet lovely guy who reminds me a lot of a children’s host on a TV show when I was a kid, Officer Joe Bolton, friend of the Three Stooges.

Joe loves his family, his God, baseball and drawing pictures.

-- Josef Rubinstein I first met Joe Sinnott at a New York City convention back in the mid-’70s. I remember having a really nice conversation with Joe which made me realize why he was considered one of the truly nice guys in the business.

We were both asked to judge the comic book costume contest (which incidentally were outstanding). This was, unfortunately for me, the only encounter I had with Joe in all the years he and I have been in this industry.

Of course, I was fortunate enough to have Joe ink my penciling many times (Rom, among others), and as he did with everyone he inked, he made me look good! There is no question that Joe is a consummate professional. He

recently celebrated his 80th birthday, and as far as I know he is still working.

ABOVE: From left, it’s John Romita Sr., Joe Sinnott and Stan Lee in a recent photo.

-- Sal Buscema I was very late discovering Joe Sinnott’s magnificent talents. During the ’60s, when most comic book fans were eagerly awaiting the next issue of Kirby and Sinnott art on The FF or Thor or Cap, I was reading Mad magazine and totally oblivious to the Marvel explosion. When I finally did turn my attention to super-hero comics in 1973, I fell under Neal Adams’ spell and was totally absorbed in trying to learn his type of detailed, realistic comic art. But, as I began to try to add more dynamics to my penciling, I started studying Kirby and Buscema, and I finally noticed Joe Sinnott. His inking always streamlined the pencils in such a confident, informed way. He knew just how thick or thin to make a line, where to add a black, and where to add rendering or leave it out. He made the extremely difficult art of inking over another artist look easy, and that’s the true sign of a master. Of course, part of the reason for this is that Joe is a very skilled penciler as well, as his Pope

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Kirby was the King, but only as a penciler. The undisputed King of Inking was Joe. He was tied to Jack with a rope, and the two formed the most powerful teamup ever in comics. I admit, mine were not the greatest pencils in the world, and though I was doing one of the top five books at Marvel, The Incredible Hulk, I gave up pretty early on having the pleasure of Joe’s inking on my work. The other thing that puts Joe at an even more kingly level, was the fact that he could draw really well. But, it’s like the fast-balling closer who never really gets to show his stuff as a starting pitcher. We rarely saw the complete talent.

Another thing is that Joe is one of the most amiable and gentlemanly humans I have ever known. If you meet him for the first time, you feel like he has been a life-long friend. As many did, I made a drawing for his 80th birthday celebration. He sent me one of the nicest thank you cards in return, even though life has been very rough for him lately. That’s the kind of guy Joe is. More guys like that would make the comics biz a lot better place to work.

I feel privileged to know him.

--Herb Trimpe As you may have noticed, Mr. Joe Sinnott has left these pages as the inker of The Mighty Thor. The reasons have nothing to do with high ranking Marvel officials, disgruntled creative people, cosmic calamity or personal tragedy. But, it does have to do with something a starry eyed eleven-year-old never considered.

It was in the pages of Fantastic Four #110 that I first discovered Mr. Sinnott’s work (over the pencils of John Buscema) and was irrevocably hooked! The striking clarity, life and vibrancy of his line is like no one else’s. His work truly stands out as the finest example of an inker’s craft!

Years pass away (never mind how many) and a still starry-eyed Penciler from Pittsburgh finds himself among the ranks of privileged professionals to have his work brought to life by Mr. Sinnott’s brush and pen.

And then, Thor #400 happened and Joe Sinnott consented to be our regular inker. Believe me, I thought I had died and gone to heaven! Every issue became a textbook to me on how it should be done — a consistent and lasting lesson on creativity and professionalism, and two-anda-half odd years worth of fantastic Thor material.

It wasn’t until almost a year ago that I was finally presented with the opportunity to meet Mr. Sinnott, and his

wonderful wife and family at a comic convention. His wit and gentle humor, his obvious enthusiasm for his work, and his incredible professionalism were a sincere inspiration to a young buck screw-up like myself. (This meeting was also where I first learned that Mr. Sinnott inked Thor’s first appearance in Journey Into Mystery #83.)

Which brings me to that thing that a starry-eyed eleven-year-old never considered: Mr. Joe Sinnott is leaving regular comics work after 40-odd years in his first steps towards a well deserved retirement. As a fan and beneficiary of his extreme talent and aforementioned professionalism, I will miss him.

His fine ink line is gone from these pages, but his influence on this book, and every other Marvel title, will last a very, very long time… and we’re all much the richer for it! Please, accept our sincere and heartfelt thanks, sir, and our appreciation for a job well done!

Doctor Doom ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

-- Ron Frenz (from Joe’s final issue inking Thor)

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never be settled, I maintain Sinnott to be Kirby’s greatest inker.

And if Kirby is indeed the greatest penciler in comic book history, and his FF work his greatest single body of work, then Joe Sinnott can justifiably stake a claim as the greatest inker in the history of the medium.

-- Arlen Schumer Long before I ever met Joe Sinnott, I got to know him through his comics work. Just about every Saturday throughout most of the 1960s, my dad would dutifully drive my brother Bill and me the few miles to a neighboring town where we would visit arcane establishments that sold used comic books. For five cents each, we would pick up back issues of wonderful stuff from times that were as recent as the previous week or as far back as a decade prior to our respective births. Going into those places was like opening one of Forrest Gump’s boxes of chocolate.

Among the comics that I acquired during that time were a batch of Treasure Chest comics that featured artwork by the great Reed Crandall. Crandall may have been the reason that I shelled out a series of nickels for those books, but I was also impressed by the work of other artists who drew for Treasure Chest. One of those talented guys was Joe Sinnott.

I started to notice Joe’s name on other stuff and to recognize his art. The combination of his work and my liking of the Beatles was almost enough to persuade me to buy the higher-priced Beatles comic that Joe drew during the earlier days of Beatlemania. I can still remember holding the book in my hands and looking through it and wondering if I could afford such an extravagance before I returned the comic to its place on the spin-rack. As my daughter Kate (an avid Beatles fan) is fond of reminding me, I made a big mistake that day.

When Joe started inking Jack Kirby on Marvel’s Fantastic Four, I was there with my twelve cents. The Kirby/Sinnott team was a match made in some four-color Heaven. All the power and dynamism of Kirby’s work was kept intact by Joe’s inking, but there was an extra something there that no one... not even Kirby himself... could have provided.

Years later, I found myself making a living by working at the creation of comics. I wrote and drew and inked and colored whenever I could, but most of my comics work involved lettering for just about every comics com-

pany that had a book on the newsstands. Inevitably, I was forced to letter a very late book for Marvel that was in the midst of being inked. Using photocopies of the penciled art, I created the captions and balloons on separate paper.

These were then ... in the Marvel offices ... cut out and pasted down on the inked artwork. When I saw what had been done with my lettering, I was not happy and made a point of insisting that I would handle all the paste-ups on anything that I might letter in a similar manner in the future.

That’s the reason that, once a month, the Federal Express truck would pull up in front of our house and drop off the latest batch of inked-by-Joe Sinnott Fantastic Four pages. I had usually at least gotten a start on the lettering, having received the final script about the time that Joe was finishing his work on the inked art. As I finished the lettering (being able to be more precise because I was basing my stuff on the inked art instead of mushy

BELOW: Captain America pin-up penciled by Jim Steranko and inked by Joe Sinnott. ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Chapter Eight

Pin-Up, Anyone? he career of Joe Sinnott post-‘retirement’ has been busy. The weekly assignment of SpiderMan has been a challenge unto itself, but not too much of a stretch for a man who could ink while he was sleeping better than most awake!

But while his regular work had stopped, his production of pin-up and commission art increased. Not only did he keep an active sketchbook, but he also created a variety of pin-up quality pages with characters from the Fantastic Four to Kent Blake.

Of course, The Thing has been a popular character in many of the prints he has drawn.

A complete listing of art created by Joe would fill this book many times over, and it would make the most exacting student of art drool with envy. A short

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glimpse into the portfolio of Joe Sinnott might include some of the selections you see gracing these pages.

Pick a topic… he’s done a character study, sketch, or full print. Pick a character, he can do it. Cowboys, cowgirls, soldiers, actors, singers, super-heroes, children, passion, peace, educational material, advertising art, and even battling animals.

Dig back into his portfolio, and you will find a lifetime of doodles, studies, and works in progress that will never see ink or print. Look into the cabinets of comic pages executed with his comic book costars from Tom Gill to Alex Saviuk and everyone in-between. And appreciate the talent that took the simplest of ideas to fruition.

That is the art of Joe Sinnott.

LEFT: Western-themed pin-up by Joe Sinnott. ©2007 Joe Sinnott.

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Brush Strokes With Greatness:

JOE SINNOTT

Joe Sinnott is a true living legend. During his 56-plus-year career in comic books, he has worked in every genre, and for almost every publisher. As a young artist in the 1940s, he started with Stan Lee at Timely Comics, then branched off to Charlton Comics, Treasure Chest, and Dell as a top penciler. But the creation of the Fantastic Four in 1961 by Stan and Jack Kirby ushered in the Marvel Age of Comics, and Joe began a long and storied association with Marvel as its top inker. His deft touch can be seen on almost every book published by Marvel in the ’60s to the late 1980s, and today, Stan and Joe continue that tradition with the Sunday Spider-Man comic strip. Brush Strokes With Greatness celebrates the storybook career of the versatile artist, as he demonstrates his passion for his craft. In it, Joe shares his experiences working on Marvel's leading titles, memories of working with Lee and Kirby, and rare and unpublished artwork from his personal files. This book features dozens of colleagues and co-workers paying tribute to Joe and his amazing body of work, plus an extended Art Gallery, and a Checklist of Joe's career. Don't miss this once-in-a-lifetime celebration of all things Sinnott, which includes a Foreword by Stan Lee, and an Afterword by Mark Evanier.

(136-page trade paperback with color) $17.95 (Digital Edition) Silver Surfer and the Thing pin-up

by Joe$6.95 Sinnott. Characters ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc. Art ©2007 Joe Sinnott. http://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=95_93&products_id=544

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