I’m going to direct you over to Mark Evanier’s widely-read News From ME blog. He has inside information and interesting insights regarding DC’s bosses assigning an inker for Jack Kirby after he moved there from Marvel.
Category: Joltin’ Joe Sinnott
The late, great Marvel Comics Legend, Joe Sinnott
A Cartoonist Named Sinnott
The Sunday Boston Globe magazine celebrated the paper’s 150th anniversary. Two pages were devoted to a bit of comic page history. I was amused to see the Globe had a local comic strip drawn by a William J. Sinnott.
I’ve Got An Inkling
My Economics advisor at the small college I attended liked teaching there because he could express his views on Political Economy without getting in trouble. Avoiding trouble is also the reason I prefer having my old weblog to posting on fan forums.
Some of the controversies regarding classic comic books concern the various combinations of pencil artists and inkers. Here is an excellent comparison of original pencil art to finished inks.
Frank Giacoia was a top-notch professional. His direct and distinctive inking style was unmistakable, while adhering to the original pencils. Stan Lee often credited Joe Sinnott as “Embellisher,” rather than as an inker. On the left is a face drawn by Jack Kirby that Frank inked, and on the right is the same character as inked by Joe.
A few years separate these two examples. In that time Jack had adjusted his drawing to accommodate the switch to smaller original art — from 12″x16″ to 10″x15″ — but I think it’s still a valid comparison.
Joe said he sometimes felt he put too much of his own style on Jack’s faces. But Stan brought Joe back to Marvel to ink “The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine” for a reason. As I liked to tell Joe, his “friendly faces” were the very thing that got me started reading the Fantastic Four. Here’s a picture I took looking over Joe’s shoulder as he drew Superman for a fan five years ago. As you can see, Joe inked exactly the same way that he drew.
Stan said he liked to see how artists handled mundane, everyday scenes. Here’s a panel from a Captain America story, half of it taken up with Stan’s dialogue, that shows how perfectly Joe enhanced Jack’s art, adding expressive subtlety to the faces.
Joe and Stan Remembered
I took a break from blogging on October 15. The next day would have been Joe Sinnott’s 95th birthday. Having let the occasion get past me, I’ll make up for it now.
This photo was inscribed by Joe to Stan Lee in 2012. Stan kept it in his office until he passed away, three years ago yesterday. Joe first worked for Stan in 1951.
Joltin’ Joe Remembered
Today was spent celebrating the life and career of Joe Sinnott with his family and friends.
Staton in Place
An hour chatting with one of my favorite comic book artists, Joe Staton, who is the penciler for the Dick Tracy comic strip. I’m expecting to see Staton this weekend at a memorial service for our late mutual friend, Joe Sinnott. It’s being held in the same town where Joe lives.