by Tim Lasiuta

Brush Strokes

With

GreatnessGWith

THE LIFE & ART OF

Table of ContentsDEDICATION In Memory of Betty Sinnott by Mark Sinnott ..................................................................6

INTRODUCTION Stan the Man & Jovial Joe by Stan Lee ........................................................................7

WORD FROM THE WATCHER In the Beginning ..................................................................................8

CHAPTER ONE Out of School and Into Print ........................................................................................9

CHAPTER TWO Enter Stan Lee ..........................................................................................................21

Found Treasure The Treasure Chest Comics Years ........................................................................33

Junior Effort Working for Classics Illustrated ..............................................................................41

COLOR GALLERY ................................................................................................................................49

CHAPTER THREE The Fantastic Four and Beyond ..............................................................................57

The Lost Superman/Spider-Man Pages by Terry Austin ..........................................................76

CHAPTER FOUR With One Single Panel ............................................................................................78

Sinnott Strips ..............................................................................................................................82

CHAPTER FIVE Penciler Up! ..............................................................................................................86

CHAPTER SIX A Thing for Bing..........................................................................................................88

CHAPTER SEVEN Appreciations: Speaking of Joe… ..........................................................................92

CHAPTER EIGHT Pin-Up, Anyone? ..................................................................................................111

CHAPTER NINE While Bing Gently Sings ........................................................................................116

SINNOTT GALLERY ..........................................................................................................................121

CHECKLIST Joe Sinnott Comicography............................................................................................124

AFTERWORD Just A Guy Named Joe by Mark Evanier ....................................................................128

BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................................130

SPECIAL THANKS ............................................................................................................................131

A MESSAGE FROM THE ARTIST From Joe, With Love ..................................................................132

“I am the Watcher, guardian of a thousand worlds and countlesssentient life forms. Universes have passed away before

my eyes, and galaxies born while I observe,and learn. Many are the chroniclers of my

observations, and many are the visualizers. Of these, Stan Lee,Jack Kirby and Joe Sinnotthave pleased me with theirtellings of our encounters...

“Of Sinnott, I could tell youmuch. Born in the CatskillMountains, Saugerties, New York, on your planet in

the United States, October 16th, 1926, to Catherineand Edward Sinnott. He was, as you Earthlings say, a precocious child. Athletic, artistic, and hard working, he was destined for greatness...

“I leave you now to explore Brushstrokes With

Greatness: The Life and Art of Joe Sinnott.”

A Word from the Watcher

In the Beginning...

8LEFT: Panel detail from Fantastic Four #113, pencils by John Buscema, inks by Joe Sinnott.

The Watcher ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

oe Sinnott got his early professional art education at the Cartoonists and Illustrators

School in the late 1940s. But his interest in arthad started years before that.

“My mom had run a boarding house in Saugerties,where many local teachers would stay. At the tender ageof three, in 1929, one of the teachers gave me a box ofcrayons with a decorated top, and after that, I drew allthe time. Whatever I could find, I’d draw on [it].

“One of our boarders, a German cook named BillTheison, used to draw on his clothes at night. When hefinished, his pants looked like an artist’s sketch pad filledwith cowboys, Indians, and soldiers of various types. Heinspired me to draw whatever I could, as often as Icould. And, like many of the kids at thetime, I loved the comic strips in thelocal papers. As a young man, Icopied as many of them as I could.Terry and the Pirates, Smilin’Jack, Jungle Jim and Flash Gordonwere my favorites at the time, andI learned so much from them aboutart, or at least I thought I did.”

“A GREAT TIME TO BE A KID!”

The late 1930s was a time of cultural explosion.Big Little Books, with content culled directly from thecomic strips, were everywhere! Comic books firstappeared in 1934 and, when Action Comics #1 rocked theworld in 1938, the invasion had started. Movie serialsfrom Republic Studios brought heroes to life on the bigscreen. The Lone Ranger, Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, andDick Tracy entertained children in theatres week afterweek. Joe Sinnott was no exception.

“Believe it or not, Superman was not my favoritecharacter as a child. I leaned more towards Congo Bill(from Action Comics #1) because he was similar to JungleJim by Alex Raymond. As kids, my friends and I ate upthe serials. Our dimes sure went a long way! A main feature, and a movie serial chapter… If we were lucky, a

cartoon, too. Of course, radio drama at thetime was no slouch either. [It was] theGolden Age of Radio, the Golden Age ofHollywood (and movie serials), andthe Golden Age of Comic Books,even though we didn’t know it. Itwas a great time to be a kid!”

High school was no differentfor Joe. “I was still drawing in highschool. So much so, that I was theart director for our class yearbook.In our school there were only twoart classes, Representation and

Design, so I had to learn anatomyfrom the comic strips.

That’s where [FlashGordon artist] AlexRaymond and [Wash Tubbs artist]Roy Crane were so instrumental. Iloved their work then, and still do.”

PLAYING BALL

“I had come out of the Navy in1946 after serving with the Fighting

Seabees over on Okinawa during the war.And when I came out, I knew I wanted to go to art

school, but I was piddling around. You know, I loved playingball. I was playing baseball and working up in a limestonequarry. The winter of ’48 was one of the worst in New York

BELOW: The Sinnott Familyin 1931. Art & photos courtesyof the Sinnott family.

J

Out of Schooland Into Print

Chapter One

ABOVE: Joe Sinnott, 1932.

LEFT INSET: Is it Jungle Jimor Congo Bill? Joe Sinnottdrawing from 1941.

9

State history. It got to be 30 below zero forweeks on end, so I finally decided it wastime to pack up and go to an artschool with a nice warm class-room and draw pictures. And,of course, the G.I. Bill wasvery, very beneficial. I couldn’thave done it, as most veteranscouldn’t have, without theG.I. Bill,” Joe said.

INTO THE BIG CITY

“So, in March of 1949, Iwent down to the Cartoonistsand Illustrators School to see ifI could make it. Living in upstateNew York, I was around 100 milesnorth, [and] I traveled down with mylittle samples. (By ‘samples’ I mean copiedstrips of Flash Gordon and Terry and the Pirates.There were other pieces, too, but those were the mostcommercial.) Naturally, I was a little apprehensive. I did-n’t think they were good enough for them to accept meinto the school. When I showed them to [CIS head] Silas

Rhodes, he said, ‘I’ve got to show these to[CIS head instructor Burne] Hogarth.’

And so he went in and I didn’t seeHogarth that day, but he cameback and he said Hogarth thinksthese things are terrific for aguy that supposedly neverhad any training. I thoughtthey were pulling my leg. Ithought they had troublegetting students and theywanted to make sure I wentto the school, so they were

buttering me up. Well, anyway,Hogarth thought they were

great and, of course, looking backon them now, they were pretty pitiful.

But, it was enough for me to get into the school.”

CARTOONISTS AND ILLUSTRATORS SCHOOL

When the Cartoonists and Illustrators School wasnew, it catered primarily to veterans interested in pursu-ing cartooning and illustration. Today, the school — now

11

BELOW: 1944 high schoolyearbook art by Joe Sinnott.Art & photos courtesy ofthe Sinnott family.

LEFT INSET: Sketch of theHollywood actor JohnWayne drawn by Joe Sinnottwhile in high school (1942).

he comic racks and newsstands of the early1950s were a wonderful place to linger.Colorful images of Superman, Batman,

Wonder Woman, The Lone Ranger, The Two-Gun Kid,Kent Blake, screaming horrific covers from EC, tanta-lizing images of The Ghost Rider and Gene Autry,alongside romance comics, drew young eyes back andforth. Pulp novels, lurid paperback covers, Amazingand Astounding, and celebrity tell-all magazines pulledreaders of all ages and demographics into a world offantasy and make-believe.

But comic books were the king, and a young StanLee, working for his uncle Martin Goodman at AtlasComics was at the top of his game. Writing piles of storiesfor artists like Jack Keller, John Severin, Al Williamson,and Paul Reinman, another freelancer was always welcome.

Enter Joe Sinnott. By 1950, Joe was working withTom Gill producing filler stories for Stan and AtlasComics. And with Red Warrior and Kent Blake under hisbelt, Joe was ready to join the ‘big boys’ at Atlas.

FOLLOWING BETTY’S ADVICE

Imagine this scene if you will:Stan at his desk. Piles of legal padsto his left. Cup of coffee steaming atone edge near a half-eaten sandwich,telephone at the other edge. Behindhim, on a table, stacks of artworkready to be proofed and lettered. Aknock comes at the door.

“Come in,” Stan says.A tall, well-dressed artist

enters. He offers his hand. “Mr. Lee,my name is Joe Sinnott. I have beenworking with Tom Gill as his assis-tant over the last few months.”

Stan looks up and smiles.“Pleased to meet you, Joe. So,

you are the guy who helps Tom! You

guys are doing great work onthose fillers for me.”

Joe just smiles. “I’d like togo freelance, on my own andwork for Atlas/Timely, if you’llhave me. After all, I have donemost of the Red Warrior bookwe just handed in. And KentBlake is one of my jobs, too.”

Stan nods. “Well, in thatcase, I’ll give you a script…Here, a short western called‘The Man Who Wouldn’t Die’[published in Apache Kid #8].Bring it in when you’re done.”

And that was it. “I’veknown Stan for 56 years now,and still work with him on theSpider-Man Sunday strips, inking Alex Saviuk. I workedvery hard to impress Stan on my first story for him.Looking back on it now, I know I put a lot of time and

Chapter Two

Enter Stan Lee

T

ABOVE: Splash page of firstSinnott-published Atlaswork, Apache Kid #8. ©’07Marvel Characters, Inc.

Professional comic book artist JoeSinnott in his studio, circa 1950s.

21

effort intoit, butnow Ithink,‘That’s alittle stiffhere andthere. Ishouldhave done this,shouldhave donethat.’ Butthat’s thebenefit ofexperi-ence. Forthat time,I did mybest andStan tookit andafter Ihanded

that job in, he gave the first of many more scripts,” Joesaid.

Atlas/Timely comics were full of“filler” stories. The title charactershad the main story, and the rest ofthe books were the short four-,five- or six-page tales Stan and hisstaff would punch out.

STAN LEE, SUPER-SCRIBE

“Stan is really an amazing writer. Youshould have seen him behind hisdesk. He’d take out yellow legalpaper and he’d block it off, fouror five or six panels, and he’d let-ter into the panels the balloonand the dialogue, and captionsthat he wanted. And, ofcourse, then theytyped it up into ascript form. Hedid full scripts

for every story he wrote during the 1950s until the ComicsCode Authority pushed the comic book industry into nearbankruptcy and oblivion. He really is a prodigious, tirelessworker,” Joe said.

The story of comic books is really the story of culturalchange. Super-heroes ruled the comic racks as long as thereading public looked beyond themselves for inspirationduring the war. When the soldiers came back from serv-ice, the allure of super-heroes faded, and Western comicssurged as entertainers like Roy Rogers, Gene Autry,Hopalong Cassidy, and The Lone Ranger pushed theindustry forward. Stan Lee, sensing the shift in populartrends, joined in with Western heroes with Two-Gun Kid,Rawhide Kid and Kid Colt, then later, with romancecomics and the horror genre fueled by EC and Bill Gaines.

“Stan used to knock them out unbelievably—theWesterns, war stories, science-fiction and romance, justanything you could think of, trying to hit upon a trendthat would sell. And, of course, we did have trends in theearly ’50s, the Korean War being one. We drew an awfullot of war stories and of course, then the horror trendcame on and EC really was responsible for the success ofthe horror books, and so Marvel tried to emulate them.Horror was a lot of fun, actually. It really was. I loveddoing cemetery scenes at night and you could really do alot of blacks and it was just a fun thing. But then, some ofthe smaller companies went a little bit too far. They gottoo graphic, too gruesome, and they instituted the Comics Code.

“Looking back, stories like ‘Drink Deep Vampire’,‘The Last of Mr. Mordeaux,’ ‘Cry Werewolf,’ and

22

ABOVE: Atlas horror art by Joe Sinnott. ©2007

Marvel Characters, Inc.

INSET RIGHT:Ink study drawn by JoeSinnott in the 1950s.©2007 Joe Sinnott.

LET THE INKING COMMENCE

“Stan called me up and this was, I think, ’61, andwe were doing monster books in that period. Hereagain, we were looking for a trend, something thatwould sell, and Jack was great at doing the monsterbooks. Jack always had to have an inker, and so Stancalled me up. I had never inked anyone else at the timeand he said, ‘Joe, I have a story that Jack penciled, but Ican’t get anybody to ink it. Could you ink it for me?’ SoI said, ‘Sure, Stan. Send it up.’ It was called ‘I WasTrapped By Titano, The Monster That Time Forgot’[Tales To Astonish #10]. Later on, we did a story with acharacter called Pildorr. The stranger the name, the better the monster, I guess!

“Later, Stan asked me if I would ink a couple ofWesterns for Jack Keller, which I did, too. We did ‘TheMan From Fargo’ and ‘Beware the Gun Wizard’ in KidColt #90 together. He was such a terrific artist to workwith. He had done Westerns for Stan from the early’50s, too, on his flagship titles, and was so prolific.”

ENTER THE FF

The introduction of the Fantastic Four in 1961changed comic books forever. Prior to their appearancein November 1961, team books had been limited primarily to DC Comics. Challengers of the Unknown,the Justice Society of America in All-Star Comics, andJustice League of America featured teams, but not likethis one. The Justice League had debuted one year earlier in November 1960, and was changing the wayfans looked at comics, but they were still the samesuper-heroes. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby createda team with a monster, invisible woman,flaming boy, and stretchy scientist, who allstruggled with rejection, prejudice andpersonal issues.

A few months later, Spider-Man appeared in AmazingFantasy #15, and opened thefloodgate of Marvel-createdheroes. Then the mightyhammer Mjolnir jolted the heavens with Thorappearing in Journey IntoMystery #83. The Marvelrevolution was coming.

FANTASTIC #5

“Before Stan called me to ink Jack onFantastic Four #5, I never knew

The Fantastic Four existed. Ilived up here in New York, in theCatskill Mountains, and I never

went down to the city at that time. Iused to go down in the Fifties, but with

more assignments, my time became veryvaluable. Every Friday, I’d bring my

five- or six-page story down,because I penciled and inkedeverything in those days, andStan would give me a new

37

ABOVE: Fantastic Four #1[Nov. 1961] cover recreationby Joe Sinnott, based on artby Jack Kirby (pencils) andSol Brodsky (inks). ©2007Marvel Characters, Inc.

INSET LEFT: Cover detail of Journey Into Mystery#83 [Aug. 1962], featuringthe debut of The MightyThor. Pencils by Jack Kirby,inks by Joe Sinnott. ©2007Marvel Characters, Inc.

script. I’d go home and start it on Monday andI’d finish it on Thursday and I’d bring it inFriday, and they’d repeat the cycle. So then itgot to the point where I stopped going downto the city. Everything was done by mail and Ididn’t know what books were coming out,even. I didn’t know who or what the charac-ters were when Stan called me up one day andsaid, ‘Joe, I’ve got a book here by Jack Kirby.I’d like you to ink it, if you could. I can’t findanybody to ink it.’ So I said, ‘Send it up.’ I didn’t even ask him what it was, so when itcame in the mail, it was The Fantastic Four #5and I was dumbfounded by the great art andthe characters. The Thing, Reed Richards, SueStorm, and Johnny were great.

“The issue [contains] Doctor Doom’s firstappearance, and the Fantastic Four and Doomgo back in history to become pirates. As ayoung Terry and the Pirates fan, Stan’s storywas right up my alley. So I had a ball inking it.I remember when I mailed it back, Stan calledme. He said, ‘Joe, we liked it so much, I’mgoing to send you #6.’

“So he sent me #6, but I had committedmyself — at that time, I had picked up anotheraccount at Treasure Chest magazine and thiswas a 65-page [serialized] story I was going to have to do

on one of the Popes [“TheStory of Pope XXIII”].

I had committed myself to it, so when I had started #6, Ithink I just did a panel or two. I had to send it back toStan. I said, ‘Stan, I committed myself for this big story,and I have to do it.’ So that’s the reason I got off of TheFantastic Four right away.”

LO, THERE SHALL BE A RE-TEAMING

Joe picked up where he left off in Fantastic Four #44(November 1965), with “The Gentleman’s Name isGorgon,” and it was the first of 48 consecutive issues ink-ing Jack Kirby on the title. “I stayed on it right up to #92(November 1969) and then I was really burned-out, and Icalled Stan. I said, ‘Stan, I’ve got to take a vacation.’ So Idid, and Frank Giacoia did the next couple of issues. Icame back with #95 and stayed until #102, which wasJack’s last issue for quite some time.”

The Fantastic Four run from #44 to #92 is one of themost fondly-remembered in comic book history, encom-passing the introduction of some of Jack and Stan’s greatestcreations. The Silver Surfer, Galactus, Gorgon, Black Bolt,

40

INSET RIGHT: FantasticFour #5 [July 1962] cover(pencils by Jack Kirby, inksby Joe Sinnott). This issuefeatures the first teaming ofKirby and Sinnott on theirmost fondly-recalled collab-

oration, the FF. ©2007Marvel Characters, Inc.

BELOW: Panel detail fromFantastic Four #5. Pencilsby Jack Kirby, inks by JoeSinnott. ©2007 Marvel

Characters, Inc.

Crystal, Karnak, Triton, and the Black Panther all arrived in a nine-issue span (#44-52) and set the tone for the Lee/Kirby/Sinnott run.

MARVELING AT KIRBY

“I remember getting Kirby pages in the mail during that timeand marveling at them—not for too long, of course, because I didhave to get to work and ink them. But, as nice as they were to lookat, some pages would take more time. Jack did excellent work, allthe time. Near the end of his life, when I got something of his toink, it slipped a little, but I always managed to tweak it so no onesaw the difference.

“Comic fans always remember Jack for his amazing machines,and larger-than-life panels and splash pages, and surprisingly, thatmade his art easier and faster to ink. As great as Galactus was, thesheer amount of detail Jack put into his armor made those storiesmore work, but definitely satisfying. Judging from the stories thathave used Galactus since then, fans and writers must have likedwhat we did back then! Of course, that’s not the only highlight ofthat run either. The Silver Surfer went on to his own series, and theInhumans have made their own mark on Marvel history.”

41

Classics Illustrated is probably the least understood and mostunderestimated comic book series in the history of illustrated story-telling. The Gilberton Company produced original adaptations of classic novels and plays from 1941-62. A secondary Gilbertson line,Classics Illustrated Junior, adapted fairy tales and children’s stories.Teachers scorned them, students loved them, but love them or not,they sold up to four million copies a month around the world!

Artists contributing to the series included Alex Blum, Jack Kirby,George Evans, L.B. Cole, Norman Nodel, Dik Browne, Rudy Palais,Pete Costanza, Kurt Schaffenberger, Sal Trapani, Joe Orlando, GrahamIngels, Al Williamson, Angelo Torres, Roy Krenkel, John Severin, ReedCrandall, Norman Saunders, Don Perlin, and Joe Sinnott.

“I only had time to do one Classics Illustrated. ‘The EnchantedDeer’ appeared in issue #554 (Sept. 1958). Based on a BrothersGrimm fairy tale, it was a delightful story similar to Hansel and Gretel.I even did most of the fillers for that issue, too,” Joe recalled.

JuniorEffort

JuniorEffort

ABOVE: Splash panel from Fantastic Four #44. Pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Joe Sinnott.©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Joe Sinnott penciled and inked one story for Gilberton:Classics Illustrated Junior #554, “The Enchanted Deer”[Sept. 1958]. ©2007 the respective copyright holder.

“Believe it or not, even thoughJack and I had worked together forquite some time (I mean, Ihad inked his work andmailed it back toMarvel), we hadnever met until1972 at a convention inNew York, andthen again laterin ’75. By the way,that convention re-unitedme with Stan, whom I hadn’t seen foralmost 17 years, too! But, youknow, I probably had workedwith Jack for at least tenyears, on and off, on different things before Imet him. And I nevertalked to him, not once,on the phone, eventhough we did so manyFantastic Four issues as ateam. He never called to say, ‘Joe,I’d like you to do this with this characteror this panel,’ or, ‘Don’t do this,’ or, ‘I like whatyou’re doing.’ I never talked to him on the phone, neverever, all the time that we worked together all those years,and he never put a note on the borders for me — nothing.

I don’t think therecould have been anybody

that was more of a prodigiousworker than Jack. I’m sure he

worked seven days a week and he probably burned themidnight oil, too.”

The legacy of Jack Kirby is incredible. Not only arethere 50 issues of The Jack Kirby Collectormagazine, butalmost every artist who touches the Fantastic Four orCaptain America is influenced by his work. “Not only washe fast, but he was also versatile. He did westerns,

romances, science fiction, war, newspaper comic strips,and even worked as an animator during

the 1930s, too,” Joe commented.“Even at DC Comics, he

stood out as one of theirmost creative artists.”

THE MISSINGFANTASTIC FOUR

PAGES

The departure ofJack Kirby from Marvel

Comics in 1970 shockedcomic fans. How could Jack

leave Marvel? And then go over to DCComics—the ‘enemy’? Whatever caused the rift

between Stan and Jack sent waves through Marveldom.Fantastic Four #102 marked the end of the Kirby era onthe FF. Waiting in the wings were talented men like John

42

ABOVE/INSET BELOW:Though they collaborated foryears prior, Jack Kirby andJoe Sinnott didn’t meet inperson until 1972! The

photographs of the pair onthis page are from 1975.

INSET RIGHT: Cover detailfrom Fantastic Four #50

[May 1966], with pencils byJack Kirby and inks by JoeSinnott. ©2007 Marvel

Characters, Inc.

Color GalleryColor Gallery

Pin-up art penciled, inked andcolored by Joe Sinnott. Gawain ©2007 King Features. 49

Over an extended period, Joe Sinnott produced imaginative covers for cross-word puzzle magazines. ©2007 the respective copyright holder.

Kent Blake of theSecret Service isremembered — andpenciled, inked andcolored — by JoeSinnott in this 2004pin-up. Kent Blake©2007 MarvelCharacters, Inc. Art©2007 Joe Sinnott.

Pin-up art penciled, inkedand colored by Joe Sinnott.©2007 Joe Sinnott.

Pin-up art penciled, inked and colored by Joe Sinnott.All characters ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc. Art ©2007 Joe Sinnott.

52

ith the departure of Jack Kirby from MarvelComics, The Fantastic Four fell into goodhands.

“I continued to ink The Fantastic Four until the early#300s on a more casual basis. Having worked on it solong, I think I added a sense of continuity to the title thathelped make it a fan favorite. Big John Buscema penciledThe Fantastic Four for around 30 issues, and he was anamazing draftsmen to work with. He could draw any-thing. I had inked him on The Silver Surfer and TheMighty Thor before this, so I appreciated his talentsalready. His greatest comic book achievement was Conan,of course, with Roy Thomas for more than 20 years.

“Then along came Richard Buckler Sr. for a coupledozen issues. Rich’s art always reminded of a crossbetween Kirby and Buscema, and it worked very well withmy inking once I got used to his pages. George Pérez,Keith Pollard, John Byrne, and Ron Frenz also worked onthe title, too, over the next few years, each adding theirown unique touch.”

BYRNE LONG NECKS

“I remember when I first started working with JohnByrne. He was very young at the time and he was still livingin Canada and he did a Fantastic Four. They asked if Iwould ink a Fantastic Four that he did so when I got it —and, of course, John and I have become very good friendssince then. John drew very long necks and I didn’t knowwhether to lower the heads or to erase the body. So, I hadto erase the heads and lower them. I called up John and Isaid, ‘John, I’d like to offer just a little opinion. You’remaking your necks too long…’ You see, John didn’t knowhe was making his necks long, and you could hear a pindrop. Then I told him, ‘You’re parting Johnny’s hair onthe wrong side of his head.’ I tell you, you could hear a pindrop again. So it’s strange.

“When you work on The Fantastic Four for all thoseissues that I did, you draw Johnny’s hair parted on theleft; then all of a sudden, when you get where it’s partedon the right, it throws you all off. I mean it’s amazing. But

John was one of the cleanest pencilers that I ever workedwith. His pencils were immaculate.”

PÉREZ, MAN OF DETAIL

“George Pérez and I worked on a few issues of theFantastic Four and other titles over the years. Even as ayoung artist, he was a great storyteller and his pencilsshowed just how much work he put into them. His panelswere always so busy with detail, cross-hatching, checker-

Chapter Three

TheFantasticFour andBeyondW

ABOVE: John Byrne (pencils)/Joe Sinnott (inks)Fantastic Four #209 [Aug.1979]. ©2007 MarvelCharacters, Inc.

57

boards, or something that madethem a little more difficult to workon. I remember one time there was asequence in the park: Sue was talkingto Alicia or somebody, and he had adownshot on the scene, and you see allthese pigeons, which they’re feeding.The next panel, instead of havingmaybe a three-quartershot of them, from thewaist-up, which is reg-ular storytelling practice, hehad a whole other downshot,one that’s almost, but notquite, the same identicalshot. I could have takena stamp pad and made acopy of it; he’d drawn bothin the same fine detail!”

MAKING HIS MARK AT MARVEL

By the early 1970s, Joe Sinnott’s mark was all overMarvel Comics. Other than his inking on The FantasticFour, his touch could be found on almost every title. “I’dstart working on The Defenders, get into a groove on thework, then be asked to ink someone else,” Joe remem-bered. Other professionals and fans noted that the“Marvel look” was due in large part to Joe’s inking and theremarkable consistency he provided, no matter who orhow good the penciler was. “I always had a tough timesaying no to Stan when it came to assignments.”

As Ron Frenz and Tom Defalco put it, “Back in ‘theday,’ you weren’t a Marvel guy until you were lucky to‘pitch one’ to Mr. Joe Sinnott!” It must have been truebecause Marvel readers were treated to Sinnott finisheson some of the most successful Marvel series until his“retirement” in 1992.

A partial listing oftitles Joe either did coversor interior art for reads likethe Marvel Comics Hall ofFame, and the correspon-ding list of artists whosepencils he inked reads like aWho’s Who in the comic

book world.In no parti-

cular order, Joeembellished Nova, Ms. Marvel, Marvel Two-In-

One, The Avengers, Black Panther, CaptainAmerica, Daredevil, Conan, The Dazzler,

Defenders, Devil Dinosaur, GhostRider, Incredible Hulk, TheInvaders, Iron Fist, Iron Man,

Marvel Treasury Edition, Rom, AmazingSpider-Man, Sub-Mariner, The Thing, Thor,West Coast Avengers, and even The X-Men! And you can’t forget the reprints

of his earlier inks either! He ‘put tobed’ the roughs of Jack Kirby, JimSteranko, Neal Adams, John

Romita, John Buscema, GilKane, Al Milgrom, RonFrenz, Ron Wilson,

Rick Hoberg, RichHowell, Jim

ABOVE: George Pérez pencils and Joe Sinnott inks this 1978 Spider-

Woman pin-up. ©2007Marvel Characters, Inc.

INSET RIGHT: John Carter,Warrior of Mars, is

depicted in this FOOMpin-up by penciler George

Pérez and inker Joe Sinnott.Characters ©2007 ERB, Inc.

INSET FAR RIGHT:Incredible Hulk #284 [June1983] cover art penciled by

Al Milgrom and inked by JoeSinnott. ©2007 Marvel

Characters, Inc.

58

ARTISTS ASSEMBLE!

Sinnott inked Barry Windsor-Smith in the classicAvengers #100 that featured anyone who ever was a member of the super-hero team. “As a young artist, Barryhad a great reputation for doing stylistic work. He hadbeen working on Conan and had begun to establish him-self. Today, his dual career as a fine artist and comic bookprofessional is a testament to his artistic growth. As muchas it was a great opportunity for me, it was for him, too.The book included so many different characters.”

Other artists graced by the Sinnott brush on TheAvengers included Rich Buckler Sr., Don Heck, JohnBuscema, Allen Milgrom (19 issues), and Bob Hall. Joeworked with Al Milgrom for a memorable 23-issue run onThe West Coast Avengers, as well.

“Al was a pleasant artist to work with. His pencilswere very straightforward and easy to follow. As much asI enjoyed doing The Avengers, I enjoyed the West CoastAvengers even more. The covers he and I drew for the titlewere lots of fun for us, and many other comics featured

our work.“As soon as Jim Steranko joined

Marvel, I started getting his jobs to ink.His style was so unique and his earlygrasp of storytelling so exciting, it wasboth a joy and job to ink his pencils. But, wow, I rememberworking on Nick Fury andCaptain America with Jim.”[Strange Tales #166-168, NickFury #1, Captain America#110, 111]

THE GOOD CAPTAIN

Captain Americawas Joe Simon and JackKirby’s greatest cre-ation. When CaptainAmerica burst onto the comicbook scene in 1941, super-heroes were everywhere.Superman, Batman, The GreenLantern, Wonder Woman,Captain Midnight, TheHuman Torch, and evenCaptain Marvel leapt off news-stands in glorious color.

“As a young boyat the age of 12or 13, I remem-ber readingCaptain America

and the whole con-cept of him. His costume

was so… colorful and it represented just who he was.During his early adventures,he fought the Nazis whereverthey were, and later on, theCommunists during theshort-lived revival in the’50s. Today, he is still very

61

ABOVE: Joe Sinnott inksBarry Windsor-Smith’s pencils on this page fromThe Avengers #100 [June1972]. ©2007 MarvelCharacters, Inc.

INSET LEFT: CaptainAmerica and The Falconpin-up by Joe Sinnott.Characters ©2007 MarvelEntertainment, Inc. Art©2007 Joe Sinnott.

Neal Adams. We did Thor #180-181together. “When Gods Go Mad” and“One God Must Fall” wereincredible penciling jobs. Heused imaginative layouts,compelling splash pages,and his technical graspeven then was amazing.Neal certainly was one ofthe stars of his generation,and right from his first workat Marvel [The X-Men #56]and his later work on Batman,you knew you were in for some-thing special. Those two issues wereno exception.”

THOR THE MIGHTY

“Speaking of Thor, my connectionwith him goes way back to his intro-duction in Journey Into Mystery#83. Stan and Jack had come upwith another character, whichreally wasn’t that uncommonfor them. They would invent alltypes of heroes and try to ridethe wave of the newest trend.That first story, ‘The Stone Men

From Saturn,’ was one of LarryLieber’s early stories,” Joe said. “Stan and I worked together on so

many books in the late ’50s and early ’60s.Even though he was the editor of Marvel at the

time, he would give me a rough plot to work with and Iwould go home and produce a full script,” Larry Lieberrecounted. “Journey Into Mystery #83 was like that. Stancreated this character, and this time he called him Thor,and it was my job to complete the story. My main inputon Thor was naming the alter ego, Dr. Donald Blake. Stanalways liked my names for the man behind the costume,and I liked doing them. As for Thor, Joe’s inks were so ele-gant on the book that it helped Jack’s cartoony style. Andof course, Thor is still with us today.”

‘BIG’ CHARACTER BOOKS

“As an artist, I really liked working on the ‘big’ char-acter books, Captain America, The Hulk, Thor, TheFantastic Four, Silver Surfer, and titles like that. As acharacter, I liked The Thing. He was the most uniquecharacter that Stan and Jack ever created. I mean, thinkabout it: An astronaut, bombarded by comics rays, whoturns into a monster! In a way, The Thing represents theworst of mankind, with the best intentions. He had somany human frailties, he could be funny, but more oftenhe was angry and frustrated at the world. Even when hewas ‘cured’ and just plain Ben Grimm, he chose to be theThing once more when someone needed him. Once ahero, always a hero. Not only was he fun to draw, but youcould do so much with him—just take a look at howmany pin-ups of him I’ve done. He’s been Santa Claus, theCisco Thing (with Jack), a fisherman, a gangster, and somany other characters.”

The Thing, in addition to his central role in theFantastic Four, graduated to his own comic book in the

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INSET RIGHT: Joe Sinnottpin-up of the god of thunder.

Thor ©2007 MarvelCharacters, Inc. Art ©2007

Joe Sinnott.

BELOW: Joe Sinnott channels his old

collaborator in this JackKirby-inspired pin-up of theMighty Thor. Thor ©2007Marvel Characters, Inc. Art ©2007 Joe Sinnott.

summer of1983. JohnByrne con-tributed scriptingwhile Joe inked RonWilson’s pencils.Over the next 27issues, Joe wouldeither ink the storyand/or cover of 17books. “Ron’s pen-cils were very easy towork with. His sim-ple style was verydeceptive, and

reminded me of some of the great cartoonists I admiredthroughout my career. Together, we did some great covers,and some of the interior work wasn’t too shabby, either.”

“THE CISCO THING”

“After Jack left Marvel, every now and then I wouldget a call asking me to ink some of his commission art forhim. One time, he called me up and asked me to ink aFighting American piece for him. So I did it. Then heasked me how much I wanted for doing it… I said ‘noth-ing’, just do a drawing of the Thing for my son Mark. Sohe did... and the Thing became the Cisco Thing! I inked itup and colored it, and it is one of Mark’s favorites!”

The Incredible Hulk is a story of perseverance. “Stanand Jack were on a roll at this point. They had Thor, theFantastic Four, and by this time, Spider-Man had been indevelopment for some time. Actually, Jack had come upwith a treatment for Spidey that Stan didn’t like andrejected. Of course, the comic industry changed when

Amazing Fantasy #15hit newsstands with

68

ABOVE: Fantastic Four#79 [Oct. 1968] cover art byJack Kirby (pencils) and Joe

Sinnott (inks). ©2007Marvel Characters, Inc.

ABOVE: Fantastic Four#88 [July 1969] panel detailsporting Jack Kirby pencils

and Joe Sinnott inks. ©2007Marvel Characters, Inc.

Steve Ditko interpreting him just a little different.”The Incredible Hulk appeared in May of 1962 and

lasted only six issues, despite even the best efforts of StanLee and Jack Kirby. The comic world wasn’t ready for TheHulk yet, but he remained popular in his own back-upstories in Tales To Astonish, and later his own series,which still runs today. “I remember when the Hulk firstcame out,” Joe said. “Stan and Jack had another hit, eventually. I worked on The Incredible Hulk during SalBuscema’s penciling tenure (almost 20 issues), and onething I remember about his work is that his pencils werevery even and easy to ink. They were elegant in a verystraightforward way. Together, we worked on TheFantastic Four, a couple ofMs. Marvels, the Spider-Mancomic strip, and Rom for 13 issues. That was probablyour best collaboration together. Sal is a great artist andhe was a pleasure to work with.”

Team books like The Avengers and Fantastic Fourwere a natural for Joe. When Don Perlin gave up pencil-ing Captain America to John Byrne, Marvel offered himThe Defenders… and Joe Sinnott.

“Of all the team books I did, The Defenders wasprobably my least favorite,” Joe said, “and it was proba-bly due to some of the characters, not the art. Don Perlinis a real professional and his penciling shows that.”

THE MARK OF KANE

Over two decades, Joe worked with many of theGolden and Silver Age comic book legends.“Gil Kane and I did Tales of Suspense(Captain America), Ghost Rider,The Invaders and MarvelTwo-In-One. His art waseasy to work with, but Inever cared for his dis-tinctive style. We did dosome great Marvel Two-In-Ones (Man-Thing, Sub-Mariner, CaptainAmerica, Ghost Rider,Thor, Golem, Son of Satan),and I really liked the cover toGhost Rider #1. That one reallystands out for me, but there were manyothers.

“Another old-timer I worked with was Jim Mooney.We worked on Ms. Marvel together for a few issues. She

was a good character and hisart was simple and straightto the point. He remindedme of Sal Buscema, andthey were both gooddraftsmen. He and I bothworked at Marvel at thesame time during the ’70s

but unlike me, who stayedat Marvel, he worked at DC

for a long time on Supergirl andThe Legion of Super Heroes.”

FRIEND FRENZ

“Two of my favorite people to work with are RonFrenz and Terry Austin. Ron and I worked on TheFantastic Four and Thor during my last years at Marvel.

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ABOVE: Gil Kane penciled, and Joe Sinnott inked, this page fromMarvel Two-In-One #2[Mar. 1974]. ©2007 MarvelCharacters, Inc.

INSET LEFT: Cover detail with pencils by Sal Buscema and inks by(you guessed it!) Joe Sinnott.Tomb of Darkness #16[Sept. 1975]. ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

kay, we all know that my friend, “Gentleman”Joe Sinnott, is a penciler without peer, aninker of legend, and one of the nicest guys

currently residing in the Milky Way Galaxy, but didyou know that good ol’ Joe is also a magician? Nofoolin’! I didn’t either, until a recent lunch we shared,when Joe made an unpublished page from one of thegreatest comic book sagas ever produced appear beforemy very eyes!

The story begins a full 30 years before that noontimerepast (no wonder I was so hungry!) when, for three years,

I served as assistant and background inker for anotherterrific inker and all-around nice guy, Dick Giordano.During that period, as part of my duties, I was pleasedand extremely proud to ink the backgrounds on the his-toric first-time-ever crossover project between DC andMarvel Comics, rightly billed as “The Battle of theCentury,” Superman Vs. The Amazing Spider-Man.Produced by DC Comics, the story was skillfully writtenby Gerry Conway and excitingly penciled by Ross Andru,and was one of the most talked about comic books of1976, being well received by fans and pros alike.

Flash forward five years to 1981, when it was decidedthat the time had come for Marvel Comics to have theirturn at producing the second Superman and Spider-Manepic. Marvel head honcho Jim Shooter selected their pre-mier penciler and inker for the task of bringing his scriptto life: John Buscema and Joe Sinnott. A collective cheerwas heard throughout the land, and the work was begunin earnest.

One day in Marvel’s bullpen area, Jim approachedme with an idea. Knowing that I had inked the back-grounds on the first Superman/Spider-Man book (eventhough my name didn’t appear in the credits, it was themost widely known “secret” in the industry at the time),Jim decided that he would outdo DC and have the back-grounds on Marvel’s production inked by a whole squadof “superstar inkers” (his words, not mine). I had been aninker in my own right for a few years by this time and Jimfelt that if I acquiesced, he would then be able to talkother well-respected inkers into signing on. Little did hesuspect that most of us would have done so, and evengone without pay if necessary, for the opportunity to workwith one of our idols, Joltin’ Joe Sinnott!

Now, flash forward to 2006, to that miraculous daythat I met up with Joe, his wife Betty and son Mark, forone of our periodic lunches. I had decided to take advan-tage of the situation to ask Joe to autograph the smallstack of original comic art pages that I own from jobs thathe had inked, including our one “collaboration” referenced

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Sinnott Spotlight by Terry Austin

The Lost Superman-Spider-ManPages

OBELOW : Splash page from Marvel Treasury Edition#28 [July 1981] featuringJohn Buscema pencils andinks by Joe Sinnott (as wellas a zillion others; take a

look at the credits!). Spider-Man ©2007 Marvel

Characters, Inc. Superman©2007 DC Comics.

he comic pages of the major newspapers werepacked with fantasy during the 1930s and’40s. Flash Gordon, The Phantom, Prince

Valiant, Buck Rogers, Tarzan, Mandrake the Magician,and other adventure strips inspired youths all over thenation. Outstanding draftsmen likeRaymond, Hogarth, Flanders,McManus, Caniff, Crane,Andriola, Gould, Foster, andSickles served up creativemasterpieces daily tohungry comic stripfans.

Joe Sinnott was nodifferent than any of a hundred comic book profes-sionals. “I used to copy, when I wasa kid, Flash Gordon and Terry and the Pirates, but I think I was more influenced by Milton Caniff, Terry and the Pirates, than I was by Raymond, although I loved Raymond’s FlashGordon and Jungle Jim, of course,” Joe said.

“DOLPH FINLAY”

“I had been a successful comic book artist for over adecade already. And given my early inspiration from thenewspaper strips, I wanted to try my hand at a daily strip.That chance didn’t come until the late ’50s. After MarvelComics went belly-up [in 1957], a lot of the guys wholived in New York scrambled over to DC and the other

companies to get work. Living in Saugerties, I couldn’t doit so readily, but before I could, I got a call from one of theeditors at Watson Guptill (who published an art maga-zine). He told me, ‘My son has written a strip calledDolph Finlay and we have both admired your style. We

want you to draw it for us.’ So Isaid, ‘Okay.’ He said he had con-tacts in the industry and couldhelp with King Features. Thescript came up and it was abouta Navy frogman (now he’d be aNavy Seal) and it was prettygood. I inked and penciled it inthe evenings (as I had justpicked up some work with

Charlton and Treasure Chest) andthey showed it to King. It seems all

the syndicates were looking for funnystuff and that continuity strips were on

the way out.“What was amazing about it was that, even though

we got good reaction, they still said no! One year later,Lloyd Bridges came out with Sea Hunt, which was a greatsuccess. Editors may be smart, but they don’t alwaysmake great decisions!”

THE GHOST WHO WALKS

“Another character I loved as a kid was ThePhantom. I marveled at the artistry of Wilson McCoy andwhen he passed away in 1961 from jungle fever, I wanted

THIS SPREAD: Joe Sinnottproduced a sample Terry

and the Pirates strip,as well as these characterstudies, in the late 1950s.

Terry and the Pirates©2007 Tribune Syndicate.Art ©2007 Joe Sinnott.

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Chapter Four

With OneSingle Panel...T

to do The Phantom. I hadalready practiced my craft atAtlas, Marvel, Treasure Chest,and Dell, and felt confidentenough to do a good job. So, Iworked up a sample and sent itin.”

When the jungle vaporscleared, Sy Barry was given the

job instead of Joe Sinnott, after onestrip by Carmine Infantino, and he

worked on the Phantom until his retire-ment in the early ’80s.

JOHNNY HAWK, ALL AMERICAN

In the early 1960s, Joe Sinnott wasworking full-time for Dell, Treasure

Chest and Marvel Comics. “My editor atTreasure Chest, Bob Wischmeyher, called me

up one day and told me he had an idea for a strip calledJohnny Hawk, All American. He wanted to collaboratewith me. It was about a college athlete trying to make theteam. I knew how hard it was to sell a strip, so I workedon it at night after supper. Looking back, I thought I didsome of my best work ever on it. It would have been popular in 1939, but in 1962 with college age youths

79

BELOW: Sample Phantomstrip by Joe Sinnott. The Phantom ©2007 King Features. Art ©2007Joe Sinnott.

82

Sinnott StripsSinnott Strips

THIS SPREAD AND NEXT: Various newspaper strip samplesby Joe Sinnott. All are ©2007 the respective copyright holders.

love doing comic book art,” Joe said. “Butanother thing that’s dear to my heart issports. As a youngster, I played football for

the Eagles Club, and baseball around Saugerties in the’30s-’40s. I haven’t played football for a while now, butmy friends know how to get my attention: Just mentionthe San Francisco Giants.”

As a young man, football was his sport of choice. TheSaugerties area was not a pigskin hotbed, so as a result,the Eagles would play anyone who wanted a game. Beingthe mid-’30s, and the tail end of the Depression, fundingfor community teams was tough to find, even for uni-forms, but the Eagles were a determined team.

“We really wanted to stand out, so we needed a uni-

form. And the only way we could get them was to sellChristmas cards. There was a company who gave prizesfor selling a certain volume of cards, and it turns out theprize uniforms had a gold eagle on them! So, over the yearwe sold and sold until we all had uniforms. We weren’tthe best around, but we looked the best!”

When not playing baseball, Joe and his brotherscould be found on the baseball diamonds aroundSaugerties. “I lived around two blocks from the ballfieldand I played all day, hitting balls, catching. That wasbefore Little League. There were two teams in town, theTwisters and the Tamers. My brother played for theTamers and I played for the Twisters. We played twice aweek all throughout the Summer of 1936. The next yearthe Lions Club formed a community league. They namedteams after major league teams and I played on theYankees. That was perfect for me, as at that time, I was abig time Yankees fan.

“Even though we lived fairly close to New York, I didn’tsee a Major League game until 1941. It was the first gameof the Dodgers/Yankees series. We sat five rows behindBabe Ruth and it was a huge thrill for me! He was myhero!

“Before that, in the 1930s, Lou Gehrig was my idol. Igrew up in a time when two of the greatest all-time playerswere active. And when I began sketching players, I gravi-tated towards the ‘old-timers.’

“Now, having said that, I was able to combine mylove of sports with my art many times. My art hangs inthe Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Myportraits of Roberto Clemente, Monte Irvin, Josh Gibson,and Babe Ruth decorate their walls. I may not have beenable to play professionally, but my pencil hit a home run…four times!”

Joe’s artwork has graced the pages of many sportscomic books, too. He has illustrated the stories of MickeyMantle, Brooks Robinson, Duke Snider, and even PeteRose! Don’t think that he’s only a two-sport artist: wantsome tennis tips? Check out “Stan Smith’s Tennis Tips,”

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Chapter Five

Penciler Up!

I

ABOVE: Sports nostalgiacartoon by Joe Sinnott.©2007 Joe Sinnott.

here are many sides to Joe Sinnott.Sports-wise, he roots for theSan Francisco Giants. Art-

wise, he has a thing for the ‘Thing’.Musically speaking, Bing Crosbylooms large in his life.

“Back in 1939,my mother listenedto a half-hour of Bingevery day. I was 12 and itcame across to me that hecould sing every type of songever written — Western, jazzor crooning. He could sing any-thing he put his voice to, andsounded excellent to myyoung hearing,” Joe said.

That started a life-long love of all thingsBing Crosby. And whenthe chance came to meetBing Crosby, Joejumped at it!

“It was late March or earlyApril 1945, and two sailors and Iwere walking down HollywoodBoulevard when a Cadillac pulledup next to us, and I said to mytwo buddies, ‘That’s BingCrosby!’

“They didn’t believe me. “He got out of the car,

walked past us, and went inthis tobacco store, and westill didn’t know what to do.We were a little scared sowe didn’t know whether to

follow him in or wait ’til he cameout. So we waited until he

came out and he wasstuffing his pipe with

the tobacco and he walked right by us; he looked

at us, but he walked by us. I hada little pencil in my pocket

and I tore up the —we had a piece of

paper from a programthat we had and I said, ‘I’ve got to ask him for his

autograph.’ So I went up to himand I said, ‘Bing!’ I called him before

he got in his car and I said, ‘Could Ihave your autograph?’ And he said,

‘Sure, guys, but keep walking.’ He said,‘Don’t stop.’ He didn’t want to draw a crowdprobably.”

A CONVERSATION WITH CROSBY

“For a young guy, meeting his idol, itwas an experience I never forgot. Actually,I still have it and it looks like he just wrote

it yesterday. I don’t know how it survived over all theseyears. But, in any case, I said to him, ‘The only thing...’.We talked to him, but I don’t remember most of the con-versation, but I did say to him, ‘Bing, what movie are youmaking?’ He said, ‘Oh, a little thing called The Bells ofSaint Mary’s.’ He got in his Cadillac, and it was a convertible with the roof down. So he waved to us andthen took off down Hollywood Boulevard. But that was agreat experience as you can imagine, meeting your idol, so to speak.

“After that, I took extra delight in Bing Crosby. I wentto every film he made, and as an adult, I even had a BingCrosby radio show with a good friend, Jim Johnson. Forthree hours every week, we played and talked Bing Crosby.The power of radio has always intrigued me, and I

THIS SPREAD AND NEXT:Bing Crosby illustrations byBing fanatic Joe Sinnott.

©2007 Joe Sinnott.

Chapter Six

A Thing forBing

T

88

uch as Jack Kirby codified the language ofcomic book storytelling, his illustriouscohort Joe Sinnott wrote the rules for comic

book brush technique. The study of his sinuous, thick-and-thin India ink lines are a required procedure foranyone who hopes to understand even the most basicelements of classic comic book inking. In fact, for theComic Book Art and Graphic Novel classes that I’vetaught at the Pennsylvania College of Art and Design, Imake the study of Sinnott’s work a key part of my

courses. His technique is so perfect, so seminal, and soinfluential on modern comics that he’s one of the fewinkers whose work has become a mandatory corner-stone of my lessons. I explain to students that they cancertainly branch out from there, but the classic rudi-ments that they’ll need all begin with Joe Sinnott. Witha deft swoop of ink line to the curve of a bicep, Sinnottcan convey more form than a hundred crosshatchedpen lines or feathered brush strokes could convey. It’squite astounding. As far as I’m concerned, in theoryand practice, comic book inking technique all startswith Sinnott. He’s one of the true icons of the field.Absolutely.

--Timothy Truman

Back in the ‘old’ days, if someone asked me who thebest three inkers in the business were, I would say FrankGiacoia, Dick Giordano and Joe Sinnott. As a ‘Marvel’mate, I have always loved Joe’s work. No matter howsimple the pencils were, the result was always beautiful.We haven’t worked much together; primarily on TheHulk comic strip in the 1980s and his inking over Frank’spencils were wonderful. As penciler on the Spider-Mandaily strip, I watch with awe his inking on the Sundaypanel and still wonder, after almost 50 years in the busi-ness, how he can turn squiggles into the most amazingbackgrounds. He is still at the top of his game. He ismore than an inker; he is a stylist, and the best finisherwe have in the industry today.

-- Larry Lieber

Joe Sinnott was the first professional inker I ever had.I had entered a Fantastic Four piece in a fanzine contest(EPOCH) and Joe had been contacted to ink it. When itcame back, Joe had some nice things to say about my pen-cils. Later on, when I was writing and penciling TheFantastic Four, whatever I asked for, Joe delivered. Iremember one scene where I had asked for a black marble

BELOW: Joltin’ Joe salutesStan the Man in this tributedrawing. The Thing ©2007Marvel Characters, Inc. Art

©2007 Joe Sinnott.

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Chapter Seven

Speaking of Joe...M

floor, and Joe, being the professional he is,worked very hard to get the floor right. As awriter, I knew absolutely that I could trusthim. Whatever I penciled, no matter howrough it was, I knew what it would turn outlike. That’s the mark of an exceptional inker.

-- John Byrne

Joe Sinnott is, and has been, the bestinker in comics for almost 60 years. He hasalso done countless books for alternate pub-lishers penciling and inking to show what acomplete artist he is. Any aspiring comicsartist would be wise to check out his body ofwork to see the polished, consistent quality heis noted for. Beyond that, there has neverbeen a more reliable artist or a better personin the business. It’s a pleasure to know himand to be his friend and colleague.

-- John RomitaSr.

As far as I know, I’m one of the few people who has ever inked Joe’s pencils (veryintimidating). He drew a few figures for The OfficialHandbook of the Marvel Universe.

Joe is a sweet lovely guy who reminds me a lot of achildren’s host on a TV show when I was a kid, Officer JoeBolton, friend of the Three Stooges.

Joe loves his family, his God, baseball and drawingpictures.

-- Josef Rubinstein

I first met Joe Sinnott at a New York City conventionback in the mid-’70s. I remember having a really nice conversation with Joe which made me realize why he wasconsidered one of the truly nice guys in the business.

We were both asked to judge the comic book costumecontest (which incidentally were outstanding). This was,unfortunately for me, the only encounter I had with Joe inall the years he and I have been in this industry.

Of course, I was fortunate enough to have Joe ink mypenciling many times (Rom, among others), and as he didwith everyone he inked, he made me look good! There isno question that Joe is a consummate professional. He

recently celebrated his 80th birthday, and as far as I knowhe is still working.

-- Sal Buscema

I was very late discovering Joe Sinnott’s magnificenttalents. During the ’60s, when most comic book fans wereeagerly awaiting the next issue of Kirby and Sinnott art onThe FF or Thor or Cap, I was reading Madmagazine andtotally oblivious to the Marvel explosion. When I finallydid turn my attention to super-hero comics in 1973, I fellunder Neal Adams’ spell and was totally absorbed in try-ing to learn his type of detailed, realistic comic art. But, asI began to try to add more dynamics to my penciling, Istarted studying Kirby and Buscema, and I finally noticedJoe Sinnott. His inking always streamlined the pencils insuch a confident, informed way. He knew just how thickor thin to make a line, where to add a black, and where toadd rendering or leave it out. He made the extremely diffi-cult art of inking over another artist look easy, and that’sthe true sign of a master. Of course, part of the reason forthis is that Joe is a very skilled penciler as well, as his Pope

93

ABOVE: From left, it’s JohnRomita Sr., Joe Sinnott andStan Lee in a recent photo.

Kirby was the King, but only as a penciler. The undisputed King of Inking was Joe. He was tied to Jackwith a rope, and the two formed the most powerful team-up ever in comics. I admit, mine were not the greatestpencils in the world, and though I was doing one of thetop five books at Marvel, The Incredible Hulk, I gave uppretty early on having the pleasure of Joe’s inking on mywork. The other thing that puts Joe at an even more kinglylevel, was the fact that he could draw really well. But, it’s like the fast-balling closer who never really gets toshow his stuff as a starting pitcher. We rarely saw thecomplete talent.

Another thing is that Joe is one of the most amiableand gentlemanly humans I have ever known. If you meethim for the first time, you feel like he has been a life-longfriend. As many did, I made a drawing for his 80th birth-day celebration. He sent me one of the nicest thank youcards in return, even though life has been very rough forhim lately. That’s the kind of guy Joe is. More guys likethat would make the comics biz a lot better place to work.I feel privileged to know him.

--Herb Trimpe

As you may have noticed, Mr. Joe Sinnott has leftthese pages as the inker of The Mighty Thor. The reasonshave nothing to do with high ranking Marvel officials, disgruntled creative people, cosmic calamity or personaltragedy. But, it does have to do with something a starryeyed eleven-year-old never considered.

It was in the pages of Fantastic Four #110 that Ifirst discovered Mr. Sinnott’s work (over the pencils ofJohn Buscema) and was irrevocably hooked! The strik-ing clarity, life and vibrancy of his line is like no oneelse’s. His work truly stands out as the finest example ofan inker’s craft!

Years pass away (never mind how many) and a stillstarry-eyed Penciler from Pittsburgh finds himself amongthe ranks of privileged professionals to have his workbrought to life by Mr. Sinnott’s brush and pen.

And then, Thor #400 happened and Joe Sinnott con-sented to be our regular inker. Believe me, I thought I haddied and gone to heaven! Every issue became a textbookto me on how it should be done — a consistent and last-ing lesson on creativity and professionalism, and two-and-a-half odd years worth of fantastic Thormaterial.

It wasn’t until almost a year ago that I was finally pre-sented with the opportunity to meet Mr. Sinnott, and his

wonderful wife and family at a comic convention. His witand gentle humor, his obvious enthusiasm for his work,and his incredible professionalism were a sincere inspira-tion to a young buck screw-up like myself. (This meetingwas also where I first learned that Mr. Sinnott inked Thor’sfirst appearance in Journey Into Mystery #83.)

Which brings me to that thing that a starry-eyedeleven-year-old never considered: Mr. Joe Sinnott is leav-ing regular comics work after 40-odd years in his firststeps towards a well deserved retirement. As a fan andbeneficiary of his extreme talent and aforementioned pro-fessionalism, I will miss him.

His fine ink line is gone from these pages, but hisinfluence on this book, and every other Marvel title, willlast a very, very long time… and we’re all much the richerfor it! Please, accept our sincere and heartfelt thanks, sir,and our appreciation for a job well done!

-- Ron Frenz(from Joe’s final issue inking Thor)

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Doctor Doom ©2007Marvel Characters, Inc.

never be settled, I maintain Sinnott to be Kirby’s greatestinker.

And if Kirby is indeed the greatest penciler in comicbook history, and his FF work his greatest single body ofwork, then Joe Sinnott can justifiably stake a claim as thegreatest inker in the history of the medium.

-- Arlen Schumer

Long before I ever met Joe Sinnott, I got to know himthrough his comics work. Just about every Saturdaythroughout most of the 1960s, my dad would dutifullydrive my brother Bill and me the few miles to a neighbor-ing town where we would visit arcane establishments thatsold used comic books. For five cents each, we would pickup back issues of wonderful stuff from times that were asrecent as the previous week or as far back as a decadeprior to our respective births. Going into those places waslike opening one of Forrest Gump’s boxes of chocolate.

Among the comics that I acquired during that timewere a batch of Treasure Chest comics that featured art-work by the great Reed Crandall. Crandall may have beenthe reason that I shelled out a series of nickels for thosebooks, but I was also impressed by the work of otherartists who drew for Treasure Chest. One of those talentedguys was Joe Sinnott.

I started to notice Joe’s name on other stuff and torecognize his art. The combination of his work and myliking of the Beatles was almost enough to persuade me tobuy the higher-priced Beatles comic that Joe drew duringthe earlier days of Beatlemania. I can still remember hold-ing the book in my hands and looking through it andwondering if I could afford such an extravagance before Ireturned the comic to its place on the spin-rack. As mydaughter Kate (an avid Beatles fan) is fond of remindingme, I made a big mistake that day.

When Joe started inking Jack Kirby on Marvel’sFantastic Four, I was there with my twelve cents. TheKirby/Sinnott team was a match made in some four-colorHeaven. All the power and dynamism of Kirby’s work waskept intact by Joe’s inking, but there was an extra some-thing there that no one... not even Kirby himself... couldhave provided.

Years later, I found myself making a living by work-ing at the creation of comics. I wrote and drew and inkedand colored whenever I could, but most of my comicswork involved lettering for just about every comics com-

pany that had a book on the newsstands. Inevitably, I wasforced to letter a very late book for Marvel that was in themidst of being inked. Using photocopies of the penciledart, I created the captions and balloons on separate paper.These were then ... in the Marvel offices ... cut out andpasted down on the inked artwork. When I saw what hadbeen done with my lettering, I was not happy and made apoint of insisting that I would handle all the paste-ups onanything that I might letter in a similar manner in thefuture.

That’s the reason that, once a month, the FederalExpress truck would pull up in front of our house anddrop off the latest batch of inked-by-Joe Sinnott FantasticFour pages. I had usually at least gotten a start on the lettering, having received the finalscript about the time that Joe was fin-ishing his work on the inked art. As I fin-ished the lettering (being able to be moreprecise because Iwas basing mystuff on the inkedart instead of mushy

109

BELOW: Captain Americapin-up penciled by JimSteranko and inked by JoeSinnott. ©2007 MarvelCharacters, Inc.

he career of Joe Sinnott post-‘retirement’ hasbeen busy. The weekly assignment of Spider-Man has been a challenge unto itself,

but not too much of a stretch for a manwho could ink while he was sleepingbetter than most awake!

But while his regular work had stopped,his production of pin-up and commis-sion art increased. Not only did hekeep an active sketchbook, but healso created a variety of pin-upquality pages with characters fromthe Fantastic Four to Kent Blake.Of course, The Thing has been apopular character in many of theprints he has drawn.

A complete listing of art created by Joe would fill this bookmany times over, and it wouldmake the most exacting studentof art drool with envy. A short

glimpse into the portfolio of Joe Sinnott might includesome of the selections you see gracing these pages.

Pick a topic… he’s done a character study,sketch, or full print. Pick a character, he cando it. Cowboys, cowgirls, soldiers, actors,

singers, super-heroes, children, passion,peace, educational material, advertising

art, and even battling animals. Dig back into his portfolio, and

you will find a lifetime of doodles,studies, and works in progress thatwill never see ink or print. Lookinto the cabinets of comic pagesexecuted with his comic book co-stars from Tom Gill to Alex Saviukand everyone in-between. Andappreciate the talent that tookthe simplest of ideas tofruition.

That is the art of JoeSinnott.

Chapter Eight

Pin-Up,Anyone?T

LEFT: Western-themed pin-up by Joe Sinnott.©2007 Joe Sinnott.

111

113Silver Surfer and the Thing pin-up by Joe Sinnott. Characters ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc. Art ©2007 Joe Sinnott.

Brush Strokes WithGreatness:

JOE SINNOTTJoe Sinnott is a true living legend. Dur-ing his 56-plus-year career in comicbooks, he has worked in every genre,and for almost every publisher. As ayoung artist in the 1940s, he startedwith Stan Lee at Timely Comics, thenbranched off to Charlton Comics,Treasure Chest, and Dell as a top pen-ciler. But the creation of the FantasticFour in 1961 by Stan and Jack Kirbyushered in the Marvel Age of Comics,and Joe began a long and storied asso-ciation with Marvel as its top inker. Hisdeft touch can be seen on almostevery book published by Marvel in the’60s to the late 1980s, and today, Stan and Joe continue that tradition with the SundaySpider-Man comic strip. Brush Strokes With Greatness celebrates the storybook careerof the versatile artist, as he demonstrates his passion for his craft. In it, Joe shares hisexperiences working on Marvel's leading titles, memories of working with Lee andKirby, and rare and unpublished artwork from his personal files. This book featuresdozens of colleagues and co-workers paying tribute to Joe and his amazing body ofwork, plus an extended Art Gallery, and a Checklist of Joe's career. Don't miss thisonce-in-a-lifetime celebration of all things Sinnott, which includes a Foreword by StanLee, and an Afterword by Mark Evanier.

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