The late, great Marvel Comics Legend, Joe Sinnott
I’m back home from my visit to Saugerties, and I sure hope I didn’t give Joe Sinnott my cold! Today I had the great pleasure and honor of spending time with Joe in his studio.
Here’s a rarity — Stan Lee original art! Stan sent this hand-made card to Joe for his birthday some years back.
My thanks to Mark Sinnott for the invitation to Joe’s open house at the Dutch Ale House, and thanks to Joe, Mark, and the Sinnott family for their hospitality this weekend.
What a great day (despite having a bad cold)! D.F. Rogers and I are in Saugerties, NY, hometown of Joltin’ Joe Sinnott, the greatest ink man the comic book business has ever had. Joe held court at an open house in his honor at the Dutch Ale House. I was Joe’s cab driver to the event, which was arranged by Joe’s son Mark, and what a great turnout! Every time the line in front of Joe started to thin out, another group came in and Joe was kept busy at his table, signing autographs and chatting with fans and pros alike, for nearly four hours.
Here is Joe with comic book artist Walt Simonson, and his wonderful wife Louise, a writer who is affectionately known in comics fandom as “Weezie.” On the right is Joe with his surviving siblings.
This was how the scene looked before it got really busy. On the right is Joe Staton, who recently took over as artist on Dick Tracy, and with him is inker Terry Austin, whose work is second only to that of Joe himself.
Mark Sinnott has announced that his dad, Marvel Comics legend Joe Sinnott, will have some of his fantastic art on display at the Dutch Ale House in Joe’s hometown of Saugerties, NY. The opening for the two-month showing will be next Sunday, February 20 at 3 pm, and I’m hoping to be there with D.F. Rogers, esq. Denro has done an incredible job of locating issues of comic books for Joe that he worked on decades ago, where Joe had only the story title on file because the publisher didn’t have a specific issue in mind for the assignment.
Mark is the world’s biggest Jethro Tull fan, and at this moment one of Ian Anderson’s flutes is in orbit on the International Space Station, with astronaut Catherine Coleman.
Had a great surprise tonight. Joe Sinnott’s son Mark called Denro to say he was in town with his wife Belinda and their daughter Erin, who’s attending college in Boston. Erin is a writer, who already has two published novels to her name, with a third in the works right now.
We all met up downtown and went out to dinner. I love talking comics and music, but I have to take a backseat to Mark and Dennis when they get going on sports. My sport is running, and being not far from the Boston Marathon finish line this evening, I’m wavering on my decision to give up 26.2-mile road races.
This is one very happy lifelong Giants fan, a true believer from NY to SF. Enjoy it, Joe!
Here’s me last Sunday at the Albany Comic Con, with Denro and the Sinnott boys — Joe, his son Mark, and grandson Trevor. It was great seeing Joe getting around with no trouble at all, since his hip replacement surgery. I treated everybody to dinner and we all had a great time!
Joe is a lifelong fan of the Giants baseball team, going back to their years in New York, so he was very happy with their win against the Phillies last Saturday night. Joe’s mother’s uncle was John McGraw, which explains his continued loyalty to the Giants after they moved to San Francisco in 1957. Tonight they play the Texas Rangers in game 1 of the World Series. Friends who know Dennis as a loyal Boston Red Sox fanatic, and not a comic book fan, will be shocked to see that he donned a Giants cap! This proves that Dennis is second to none in his admiration and appreciation of Mighty Joe Sinnott. Considering how much I admire the man, that’s saying something!
