Joe Sinnott is one of the greatest comic book inkers of all time. Actually, he’s the greatest. No finer hand has ever held pen and brush. I’ve been a fan of Joe’s work for over 40 years. Thirty years ago, when Joe made an appearance at a Boston comic book convention, I called him “a God of the industry,” and he still is.
Being a radio announcer at the time, I had access to a good quality portable tape recorder, making it possible for me to record an impromptu interview with Joe and a group of enthusiastic fans, including my best buddy, Dennis F. Rogers. Out of half an hour of tape I’ve spliced together a couple of clips.
In this part of the discussion, Joe Sinnott comments on comic books. That’s me asking the first question, sounding overly hyperbolic and just plain hyper.
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/OCT07/JoeSinnott.mp3]And in this segment, Joe talks about being a lifelong fan of Bing Crosby, who had died the day before this recording was made! That’s Dennis asking Joe about his hobby.
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/OCT07/SinnottOnCrosby.mp3]In retrospect, Dennis and I have always kicked ourselves for not spending the entire time talking with Joe about Bing, because we were plenty interested in the subject, and it was what he wanted to talk about. In recognition of Joe Sinnott, Der Bingle fan, here is Bing from one of Joe’s favorite periods, the early 30’s, singing “Pennies From Heaven.”
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/OCT07/PenniesFromHeaven.mp3]Additional Note: This recording of “Pennies From Heaven” came from a 1973 German LP that I own. D.F. Rogers, an amateur but highly proficient musicologist, believes this performance is most likely the original version, recorded for the Decca label on August 17, 1936.
Glad to hear Joe is still with us! Happy Birthday, “Ink God!” Very interesting interview. The sound quality was so good, it could have been done yesterday!
Yes, indeed! That is Scott McCloud, from Lexington, Massachusetts. At that time he was a senior in high school, if I remember rightly. His mother lives up the hall from my mother-in-law at a retirement community in the Boston area.
I’ve just changed the banner. Bing was in two movies with Grace Kelly. This scene is from “High Society.”
And yes, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOE SINNOTT!
Two quick additional comments: Today (10/16) is Joe’s 81st birthday! Happy Birthday, Joe! You can see some of Joe’s vintage “Bing Crosby” art at his website, under the Monthly Feature section.
http://www.joesinnott.com/
Secondly, if you listen closely to the background conversations in the 2nd interview, at about 3:13 you will hear a young Scott McCloud introduce himself to a fellow Kirby/Sinnott fan. Scott actually says “You don’t know me yet, but maybe…” Scott did break into comics and later wrote the influential “Understanding Comics” book. Click here.