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.
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.
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.
Monday, while Denro and I were hanging out with Joe Sinnott, on the Kirby Dynamics blog Robert Steibel happened to post a nice piece about Joe’s inking on a classic Jack Kirby splash page, and today he posted a follow-up. This is a scan of the page from a copy of the original 1968 comic book that you can click to enlarge.
What isn’t obvious on the printed page, but can’t be missed on the original art, is the white-out and re-inking that was done on Alicia Masters’ hair.
My vote is this work was not done by Joe, but in the Marvel bullpen by somebody else, and I’m tempted to say Dick Ayers. Although it isn’t easy keeping a consistent line when inking on top of dried white-out, the brushwork doesn’t look like Joe’s “feathering” technique. It would be helpful to see a scan of the original art for page #2, because Alicia’s hair appears to have been partially reworked there, too, especially in the second panel, although the pen lines are definitely Joe’s.
Joe’s perfectionism might have led him to go over his work again, but when more than one panel is involved it’s more likely that Stan decided he wanted changes made. And if the finished art were already in Stan’s hands in the city, he wouldn’t have sent it all the way back up to Saugerties, he would have had somebody in the office do it.
Here is a short interview with Joe that confirms something I’ve always assumed — Joe met Jack Kirby for the first time in 1972, and not in 1975 as has been repeated many times.
The reason why I have always thought that Jack and Joe met in ’72 is because I know they were both at Phil Seuling’s 1972 Comic Art Convention in New York, as was I.
I wonder what the Statler-Hilton management thought when they saw the huge, broken mirror on a hallway wall? Did they write it off, or make the con pay for it? They should have charged the convention, because Seuling broke it. I saw it happen when he jumped up on a table that was placed against the mirror. He was with some other guys, and they all ran off like school kids who had broken a window while playing baseball. I was only 16 years old, and I wasn’t going to get blamed for it and try to convince hotel security it was broken by the guy who organized the convention, so I took off too!
Follow-up: The Kirby Museum has just posted photographic proof that Jack and Joe met in ’72, and here it is.
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.
