A guy named Joe

Mark Evanier has a post with this video interview with the great Joltin’ Joe Sinnott, the finest ink man there ever will be in comic books. Original art that has been graced by the Sinnott touch is a thing to behold.

Interview with comics legend Joe Sinnott, Part 1 from The Comic Archive on Vimeo.

Joe talks about the work his son Mark has done cataloging all of his published work. Denro has done a lot to find copies of all those comics, including Joe’s unsigned stories, for Joe and Mark.

Joe goes into some technical detail about his preferred tools of the trade, which is a treat for me, a wannabe cartoonist from long ago. Joe has praise for the former quality of Strathmore paper, which used to be made at a now-closed mill on the Westfield River, in Massachusetts. Knowing that comic books were drawn on Strathmore paper was one of the reasons why I decided to attend Westfield State College.

Here I am in Joe’s home studio, where he produced the finished art for some of the finest Marvel Comics ever done. I’m holding up two Alley Awards that Joe won for his work on the Fantastic Four.

Home, Cold Home

There’s still no electricity at home. The utility company says it should be back on by Wednesday night, but if it isn’t we’ll be looking for a hotel room. I’ve got the fireplace going in the evening, and I can run space heaters off the portable generator. I have a 5-gallon gas container, but I wish the generator’s tank were bigger. We have oil lamps, and they work great. I can see why sperm whales were hunted to near extinction before petroleum took over. My GE Superadio III, 17 years old, has been our primary source of entertainment.

Compliments of great guy Mark Sinnott, here’s a follow-up pic from the Albany Comic Con, with me on the right, with Denro and Joe Sinnott. Men with caps! As always, I make a point of not looking directly into a camera flash, which is painful for somebody who has lattice degeneration.

Albany Comic Con

After a harrowing drive in a freak snow storm last night, especially nerve-wracking when going through the Berkshires, Denro and I are in Albany for a comic book convention. These one-day shows are nice because they’re small and manageable. Joltin’ Joe Sinnott is here, and this is a picture of Denro with Joe.

Dennis is holding the original art to page #19 of Fantastic Four #46, the third issue of many that Joe inked over Jack Kirby’s pencil art. Technically, it’s the fourth issue of FF Joe handled because he had inked ish #5, before leaving Marvel for a while when he was under contract with Treasure Chest comics.

The power is out at my house and at Dennis’ too. I’m told there is a large tree down that’s blocking my street. It’s a dead end, so I’ll be returning to a dark, cold house in a neighborhood I can’t leave!

Happy Birthday, Joe Sinnott!

Marvel Comics art legend Joltin’ Joe Sinnott is 85 today. Hover over the picture to see Joe “back in the day,” as he likes to say. The thing about Joe is, looking at the artwork he does now, there’s no “back in the day” about it, because it’s as perfect as ever.

I didn’t start collecting comic books until early 1966, after the Batman TV show premiered, so I’d missed a lot of great Sixties issues and I really appreciated comics with reprints (although later I was dismayed to learn the artists and writers received no reprint royalties). Marvel Tales #10, September ’67, reprinted the Thor story from Journey into Mystery #92, May ’63. That was the first time I saw art that Joe had both penciled and inked. From that I was able to get a better appreciation for what Joe did to give Jack Kirby’s forceful Fantastic Four art such an attractive and clean appearance.

For much better printing quality than this scan from Marvel Tales #10, I recommended The Mighty Thor Omnibus, Vol. 1, which I was happy to get for my birthday. I don’t know how much of the book was taken from original art, but this particular story sure appears as though it was.

Joe will be appearing at the Albany Comic Con in two weeks, Sunday, October 30, and you can be sure Denro and I will be there!

King Kirby’s family loses claim to legacy

Well, this is disappointing. The family of Jack Kirby, the most powerful single creative force comic books will ever have, has lost their suit to obtain the copyrights of the characters that populate the Marvel Entertainment empire.

It’s a sad state of affairs that a settlement couldn’t be reached, where Kirby’s estate gets a share of the proceeds from the movies that are doing so well. It’s saddens me there’s so much bad blood between the Kirbys and Stan Lee, and also between Lee and Steve Ditko. I love everything these guys did, and I’m not comfortable taking sides, but the anti-Stan sentiment that has developed bothers me. Just as the Beatles did their best work together, so did Jack and Steve when working with Stan. Kirby saw the possibilities of his creations as major media entertainment, but Stan deserves credit for making it happen. I just wish the Kirbys could cash in the success of the franchise. Even better would be an alternate reality fantasy where Jack and Stan sued together as co-creators, as Siegel and Shuster did for Superman.

P.S. I haven’t seen the Captain America movie yet, so I don’t know who gets credit for the character. With Jack Kirby, Joe Simon co-created Cap, and he had his own lawsuit. Simon says (sorry, couldn’t resist), “I’ve been happy with the results of our various legal entanglements, and my relationship with Marvel is very good these days.”

P.P.S. Joe Sinnott submitted a statement to the court in March. It’s at this link.

Saugerties salutes native son Joe Sinnott

The 4th of July parade in Saugerties, NY featured grand marshall Joe Sinnott. Joe served in WWII, enlisting in the Navy after his brother Jack was killed in France.

Joe is 84, and take a look at his perfect-as-ever finished ink art over Alex Saviuk’s pencils for yesterday’s Spider-Man comic strip. Joe has said that he thinks he hit his peak about 50 years ago, and he’s just stayed there. It’s no brag, it’s just fact!

Here’s an example of Joe’s supremely masterful and clean inking over Jack Kirby’s pencils for Fantastic Four #63, in 1967 (borrowed from Rob Steibel’s Kirby Dynamics blog). The notes in the margins were written by Jack, and those notes get into the extremely contentious subject, that’s currently being litigated, of who created the characters of the Marvel Comics universe.