Legendary comic book artist Joe Sinnott passed away on June 25th at the age of 93. Sinnott had such a long and distinguished career as an artist that I really could not do him justice in a short blog post. I will touch upon a few highlights, but for a much more detailed examination of his career I strongly urge everyone to get a copy of Brush Strokes With Greatness: The Life & Art of Joe Sinnott written by Tim Lasiuta from TwoMorrows Publishing.
Joe Sinnott was born in Saugerties, NY on October 16, 1926, and he lived in that area for almost his entire life. Following service in the U.S Navy during World War II, Sinnott attended the Cartoonists and Illustrators School (now known as the School of Visual Arts).
One of his instructors was artist Tom Gill, who asked Sinnott to work as his assistant. Sinnott assisted Gil for nine months in 1949.
In 1950 Sinnott decided to find work on his own, and he was soon receiving regular assignments from Atlas Comics, the precursor to Marvel. Atlas editor Stan Lee assigned numerous stories for Sinnott to illustrate which saw print in the company’s war, horror, science fiction and Western anthologies.
In 1957 Atlas experienced a severe contraction due to its distributor American News Company being shut down by the federal government in an anti-trust case. Sinnott was one of the many freelancers let go by Atlas, and so he had to find work elsewhere. He worked for a number of clients, including Treasure Chest of Fun & Fact, an educational, Catholic-oriented comic book published by George A. Pflaum that was distributed to parochial schools in North America.
Stan Lee asked Sinnott to return to Atlas in 1959. Within two years the company had transformed into Marvel and begun its successful superhero revival. During this period Lee first had Sinnott work as an inker over Jack Kirby, initially on stories for Atlas war and monster anthologies, and then on some of the early Marvel superhero books, such as Fantastic Four #5 (July 1962) the first appearance of Doctor Doom, and Journey Into Mystery #83 (Aug 1962) the first appearance of Thor. Sinnott also contributed the full artwork for some of the early Thor stories that appeared in Journey Into Mystery in 1963.
Lee had actually wanted Sinnott to become the regular inker over Kirby on Fantastic Four following issue #5. However at this time Treasure Chest assigned Sinnott to draw the 65 page biography “The Story Of Pope John XXIII, Who Won Our Hearts,” which was serialized in nine issues between September 1962 and January 1963.
Soon another ambitious project was assigned to Sinnott, a biography of the British rock band the Beatles published by Dell Comics in 1964. Sinnott was given a mere month within which to illustrate the entire 64 page book. It speaks highly of both his talent and professionalism that he turned in the job on time while doing quality work. And, as I’ve observed before, drawing likenesses can be very tricky. All things considered, I think Sinnott did a fair job capturing the appearances of the Fab Four.
Following the completion of these two biographies, Sinnott began to work for Marvel almost exclusively. He also continued to illustrate stories and covers for Treasure Chest up until the title came to an end in 1972.
Sinnott did finally became the regular inker over Jack Kirby on Fantastic Four beginning with issue #44 (Nov 1965). The art team of Kirby & Sinnott on FF in the second half of the 1960s is highly acclaimed. As historian Mark Alexander stated in his book Lee & Kirby: The Wonder Years (TwoMorrows, 2011)…
“In an uncanny stroke of luck and perfect timing, just when Kirby gained the time to improve his artwork, Joe Sinnott became the FF’s regular inker. Sinnott was a master craftsman, fiercely proud of the effort and meticulous detail he put into his work. … That slick, stylized layer of India ink that Sinnott painted over Kirby’s pencils finished Jack’s work in a way that no other inker ever would. Comic fans had never witnessed art this strange and powerful in its scope and strength.”
Following a falling-out with Marvel, Kirby departed Fantastic Four with issue #102 (Sept 1970). Sinnott, however, remained on as the FF inker / finisher for 15 years, until issue #231 (June 1981). In the post-Kirby decade Sinnott inked pencilers John Buscema, Rich Buckler, George Perez, Keith Pollard, Bill Sienkiewicz and John Byrne on Fantastic Four. It’s generally regarded that Sinnott helped maintain artistic consistency on the title during the Bronze Age.
Sinnott became a much in-demand inker / finisher at Marvel from the mid 1960s thru the early 1990s. He was paired with numerous pencilers during this 27 year period. As longtime Marvel editor Tom Brevoort explained on his blog:
“Joe Sinnott defined the look of the Marvel art style as much as anybody this side of John Romita, and more than any other inker in the business. His smooth linework and clean finish gave a pristine, sleek, modernistic flavor to any assignment he worked his brush over, regardless of the penciler. He’s absolutely my favorite inker of all time, a guy who improved the quality of any series he was working on. Additionally, Joe is an absolute professional, and a hell of a nice guy.”
Sinnott’s last regular assignment for Marvel was Thor, paired with penciler Ron Frenz from 1989 to 1991, another wonderful collaboration. In 1991 Sinnott made the decision to retire from monthly comic books, although over the next 28 years he continued to contribute to various miniseries, special editions, pin-ups and other projects, and to ink the Sunday installment of the Spider-Man newspaper strip. In March 2019, at the age of 92, he FINALLY made the decision to completely retire as a professional artist, although he continued to draw for pleasure until nearly the end of his life.
The news of Sinnott’s passing this week was met with sadness. This was not only because he was an incredibly talented artist who worked on hundreds of great comic book stories, but because he was also a genuinely good person, beloved by friends, colleagues and fans alike. As comic book writer & historian Mark Evanier opined on his blog this week:
“If you were in a crowd of folks who worked in the comic book industry and announced, “Joe Sinnott was the best inker who ever worked in comics,” you wouldn’t get a lot of argument. If you said, “Joe Sinnott was the nicest guy who ever worked in comics,” you’d get even less.”
I was one of the many fans who was fortunate enough to meet Joe Sinnott when he was a guest at comic book conventions. He always came across to me as friendly, warm and down to Earth.
Sinnott was one of those people whose work I enjoyed before I met him, but afterwards I became even more of a fan by virtue of the fact that he was such a good guy.
Joe Sinnott leaves behind a rich, creative legacy, and he will definitely be missed. I wish to offer my condolences to his family and friends for their loss.
In My Not So Humble Opinion 
Another great, gone. 😦
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Reblogged this on Doctor Multiverse | 医家-多元宇宙 and commented:
We’ve lost another great from the Golden Age of comics…
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An amazing inker who turned the pencils of mediocre artists into art. The best Kirby artwork was Kirby inked by Joe Sinnott imho. God bless him and his family. He was a master.
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