The scripted and rehearsed recording was made in 1965, during Wally Wood’s brief stint working for Stan. Steve Ditko was still at Marvel, but he isn’t heard. Jack Kirby later regretted participating, despite his apparent enthusiasm at the time. Joe Sinnott didn’t return to the Bullpen until a few months later.
I know that one of my audio transfers was used for the video shared on Boing Boing, because of the “thump” heard while artist Don Heck is talking. The audio was captured lovingly and with careful attention to detail, using high-quality audio equipment, as I explained here fifteen years ago.
At the request of Mark Sinnott, I scanned a picture of the original, unedited cover to Journey Into Mystery #83 that his dad, Joltin’ Joe Sinnott, inked over Jack Kirby’s pencil art, for the first appearance of The Mighty Thor. Hover over the color picture to see how the illustration looked on Joe’s drawing table. Click here to see the scan I’m sending to Mark.
A point of particular interest to Silver Age comic book fans is the fact that the figures of the alien stone men were removed (undoubtedly at Stan Lee’s direction) during post-production, after Joe had inked them and turned in the finished job. Later, another comic book inker, who I shall not name, took it upon himself to sometimes erase background figures from Jack Kirby’s penciled pages, rather than ink them.
Marathon Monday is going to be hot! One year when I ran Boston the sun was brutal and the temperature was hovering around 90 and, believe me, in that heat you take almost every water stop! At the 24-mile mark is Coolidge Corner, and tomorrow, one day before 25,000 pairs of running shoes go by that spot, Morgan Spurlock will be at the Coolidge Corner Theatre for the premiere of his new documentary, Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope.
Friday morning, Spurlock was on PRI’s The Takeaway, talking about comic books and the San Diego convention.
[audio:http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/audio.wnyc.org/takeaway/takeaway041312j.mp3|titles=The Takeaway: Morgan Spurlock on ‘A Fan’s Hope’]
Spurlock says that without the involvement of Stan Lee and Joss Whedon he probably wouldn’t have gotten permission from the convention to make the movie, but Morgan is a known name and his reputation precedes him — in a good way, I think. He’s a friend to fanboys and a kindred spirit. Speaking of somebody with a reputation, here’s a picture of me with Smilin’ Stan “The Man” Lee at a show in NYC a couple of weeks ago.
When I was down in New York I stopped at the table of the Jack Kirby Museum. I donated some money and chatted with the guys representing the organization. We talked about the Kirby family’s ongoing litigation with Disney-Marvel, and we agreed it’s a shame how the company took the path it did, rather than offering an out-of-court settlement.
There’s a vocal contingent of Jack supporters who are out to make Stan the bad guy for stealing credit that rightfully should be shared with Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko. But the well was poisoned long before the so-called Marvel Universe came into being in the 1960’s. As the late Joe Simon said on page 114 of My Life in Comics, “Jack always thought Stan had told his uncle that we were working for DC. He never gave up on that idea, and hated him for the rest of his life — to the day he died.” The hard-line Jack supporters have taken Kirby’s hatred to heart, and I think their zeal has caused them to lose their perspective. As I told the Kirby Museum reps, I will not support Jack by hating Stan.
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!
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!
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.
