Joseph Leonard Sinnott (; October 16, 1926 June 25, 2020) was an American

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

artist. Working primarily as an

inker The inker (sometimes credited as the finisher or embellisher) is one of the two line artists in traditional comic book production. The penciller creates a drawing, the inker outlines, interprets, finalizes, retraces this drawing by using a pencil ...

, Sinnott is best known for his long stint on

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Comics'' in ...

' '' Fantastic Four'', from 1965 to 1981 (and briefly in the late 1980s), initially over the

pencils A pencil () is a writing or drawing implement with a solid pigment core in a protective casing that reduces the risk of core breakage, and keeps it from marking the user's hand. Pencils create marks by physical abrasion, leaving a tra ...

of Jack Kirby. During his 60 years as a Marvel freelance artist and then remote worker salaried artist, Sinnott inked virtually every major title, with notable runs on '' The Avengers'', '' The Defenders'', and ''

Thor Thor (; from non, Þórr ) is a prominent god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred groves and trees, strength, the protection of humankind, hallowing, ...

''. In the mid-2000s,

Stan Lee Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber ; December 28, 1922 – November 12, 2018) was an American comic book writer, editor, publisher, and producer. He rose through the ranks of a family-run business called Timely Publications which ...

cited Sinnott as the company's most in-demand inker, saying jocularly, " ncilers used to hurl all sorts of dire threats at me if I didn't make certain that Joe, and only Joe, inked their pages. I knew I couldn't satisfy everyone and I had to save the very most important strips for im To most pencilers, having Joe Sinnott ink their artwork was tantamount to grabbing the brass ring." Sinnott's art appeared on two US Postal Service commemorative stamps in 2007, and he continued to ink ''

The Amazing Spider-Man ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' is an ongoing American comic book series featuring the Marvel Comics superhero Spider-Man as its main protagonist. Being in the mainstream continuity of the franchise, it began publication in 1963 as a bimonthly per ...

'' Sunday comic strip until his retirement in 2019.

Early life and career

Joseph Leonard Sinnott' was born October 16, 1926, in Saugerties, New York. He was one of seven children to Edward and Catherine McGraw Sinnott; his siblings were Edward and five who predeceased him: Ann / Anne, Frank, John a.k.a. Jack, Leonard and Richard.Joe Sinnott
(official site). . He grew up in a boarding house that catered primarily to schoolteachers, some of whom inspired in the young Sinnott a love of drawing. His childhood comics influences include the

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics ter ...

Terry and the Pirates ''Terry and the Pirates'' is an action-adventure comic strip created by cartoonist Milton Caniff, which originally ran from October 22, 1934, to February 25, 1973. Captain Joseph Patterson, editor for the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate, ...

'' and the

characters

Batman Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on March 30, 1939. I ...

, Congo Bill,

Hawkman Hawkman is the name of several superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Dennis Neville, the original Hawkman first appeared in ''Flash Comics'' #1, published by All-American ...

and

Zatara Giovanni "John" Zatara is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. He debuted as a superhero, starring in his own stories in '' Action Comics'' during the Golden Age of Comics. He first appeared in the fi ...

. Sinnott attended the schools St. Mary of the Snow and Saugerties High School. Following the death in action of his brother Jack, a member of the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, ...

's Third Division, in 1944, Sinnott acceded to his mother's wishes not to be drafted into the Army himself, and he enlisted in the U.S. Navy in the autumn of that year. After serving with the Seabees in

Okinawa is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 Square kilometre, km2 (880 sq mi). ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, driving a munitions truck, he was discharged in May 1946 and awarded the Asiatic–Pacific Campaign Medal, the World War II Victory Medal, and the

Navy Occupation Service Medal The Navy Occupation Service Medal is a military award of the United States Navy which was "Awarded to commemorate the services of Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard personnel in the occupation of certain territories of the enemies of the U.S. durin ...

. After working three years in his father's cement-manufacturing plant, he was accepted into the

Cartoonists and Illustrators School The School of Visual Arts New York City (SVA NYC) is a private for-profit art school in New York City. It was founded in 1947 and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design. History This school was started by ...

(later the School of Visual Arts) in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in March 1949, attending on the

GI Bill The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly known as the G.I. Bill, was a law that provided a range of benefits for some of the returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as G.I.s). The original G.I. Bill expired in 1956, bu ...

. Sinnott's first solo professional art job was the backup feature "Trudi" in the St. John Publications humor comic ''Mopsy'' #12 (Sept. 1950). Cartoonists and Illustrators School instructor Tom Gill asked Sinnott to be his assistant on Gill's freelance comics work. With classmate Norman Steinberg, Sinnott spent nine months drawing backgrounds and incidentals on, initially, Gill's Western-movie tie-in comics for

Dell Comics Dell Comics was the comic book publishing arm of Dell Publishing, which got its start in pulp magazines. It published comics from 1929 to 1974. At its peak, it was the most prominent and successful American company in the medium.Evanier, Mark" ...

.Irving, p. 27 Sinnott recalled in 1992 "taking the

Long Island Rail Road The Long Island Rail Road , often abbreviated as the LIRR, is a commuter rail system in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of New York, stretching from Manhattan to the eastern tip of Suffolk County on Long Island. With an average week ...

every weekend and working all day Saturday and Sunday." He said in 2003, "Tom was paying us very well. I was still attending school and worked for Tom at nights and nweekends,"Pe
"Joe Sinnott Timely/Marvel/Atlas Credits"
at AtlasTales.com, Sinnott worked uncredited with Gill on at least

Atlas Comics Atlas Comics may refer to * Atlas Comics (1950s) Atlas Comics is the 1950s comic-book publishing label that evolved into Marvel Comics. Magazine and paperback novel publisher Martin Goodman, whose business strategy involved having a multitud ...

' ''Red Warrior'' #1 (Jan. 1951) and ''Kent Blake of the Secret Service'' (May 1951 – Jan. 1952)
Archived
from the original on January 2, 2011. with night work added after he tired of commuting to

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United States and the 18 ...

and "began working nmy room on 75th Street for $7 a week." Sinnott in 1992 recalled his earliest work for Gill being the

Western comic Western comics is a comics genre usually depicting the American Old West frontier (usually anywhere west of the Mississippi River) and typically set during the late nineteenth century. The term is generally associated with an American comic books ...

''Red Warrior'' and later including ''Kent Blake of the Secret Service'', both for

, a predecessor of

. "Tom would do all of the heads. We'd do everything else. We'd do the backgrounds and the figures, but since they were Tom's accounts, he'd do the heads so it looked like his work. I did this for about nine months. It was great learning," he said,"The Joe Sinnott Interview" p. 21 adding, "I can never have enough good to say about Tom Gill. He gave me my start."

Timely/Atlas

Branching out professionally, Sinnott in 1951 met with editor

' 1950s iteration

, having reasoned, he recalled, "'Gee, Stan can't turn me down because he's accepting all the work we bring in'. So I went over to see Stan and he gave me a script right away...." Due to creator credits not generally being given at the time, sources differ on Sinnott's first non-Gill Atlas assignment. One standard source gives two stories published the same month: the four-page Western filler "The Man Who Wouldn't Die" in ''

Apache Kid Haskay-bay-nay-ntayl ( 1860 – in or after 1894), better known as the Apache Kid, was born in Aravaipa Canyon (25 miles (40 kilometers) south of San Carlos Agency) into one of the three local groups of the Aravaipa/Arivaipa Apache Band (in Apa ...

'' #8 (Sept. 1951), and the two-page "Under the Red Flag" in ''Kent Blake of the Secret Service'' #3 (Sept. 1951). Regardless, Sinnott would go on to draw a multitude of stories in many genres for the company throughout the decade: horror,

science-fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

and supernatural-fantasy stories for ''Adventures into Terror'', ''Astonishing'', '' Marvel Tales'', '' Menace'', '' Journey into Mystery'', '' Strange Tales'', '' Uncanny Tales'' and others; war-comics stories for ''Battle'', ''Battle Action'', ''Battlefield'', ''Battlefront'', ''Combat'', ''Navy Combat'' and others, including historical war stories in ''Man Comics''; biblical stories in ''Bible Tales for Young Folk''; Westerns in ''Frontier Western'', ''

Gunsmoke Western ''Gunsmoke Western'' was an American comic book series published initially by Atlas Comics, the 1950s forerunner of Marvel Comics, and then into the 1960s by Marvel. A Western anthology that ran 46 issues, it featured early stories of the Marvel ...

'', ''Two Gun Western'', ''Western Outlaws'', ''Wild Western'' and others, co-creating with unknown writers the titular heroes of ''The Kid from Texas'' and ''Arrowhead'', the latter starring a Native American warrior; and the occasional

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in C ...

story (''Caught'' ) and romance tale (''Secret Story Romances''). He said in 2003, "I used to go up o_the_office,_at_the_ o_the_office,_at_the_Empire_State_Building">Empire_State_Building.html"_;"title="o_the_office,_at_the_Empire_State_Building">o_the_office,_at_the_Empire_State_Building/nowiki>_and_sit_in_a_little_reading_room_with_four_or_five_other_artists._It_got_so_that_every_week_I_went_up,_the_same_guys_would_be_in_the_room._Bob_Powell_(comics).html" ;"title="Empire_State_Building.html" ;"title="Empire_State_Building.html" ;"title="o the office, at the Empire State Building">o the office, at the Empire State Building">Empire_State_Building.html" ;"title="o the office, at the Empire State Building">o the office, at the Empire State Building/nowiki> and sit in a little reading room with four or five other artists. It got so that every week I went up, the same guys would be in the room. Bob Powell (comics)">Bob Powell, Gene Colan, people like that. I got to talking to them. Syd Shores was [freelancing] there, too."Sinnott, ''Alter Ego'', p. 6 The pattern, Sinnott recalled, was for assistant art director Bob Brown to call each in turn to meet with Lee for "maybe ten or fifteen minutes.... There'd be a stack of scripts on the left side of his desk, typed on legal yellow paper. He'd take one off the top and didn't know what he'd be handing you. It could be a war story or a Western or anything. You took it home and were expected to do a professional job on it". Sinnott lived in New York City for three years while attending art school, living near Broadway and West 74th Street on

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

's Upper West Side, and then returned to his hometown of

Saugerties, New York Saugerties () is a town in the northeastern corner of Ulster County, New York. The population was 19,038 at the time of the 2020 Census, a decline from 19,482 in 2010. The village of the same name is located entirely within the town. Part o ...

, where he spent his life. During a 1957 economic retrenchment when Atlas let go of most of its staff and freelancers, Sinnott found other work in the six months before the company called him back. Like other freelancers there, he had taken sporadic cuts in his page-rate even before the company implosion. "I was up to $46 a page for pencils and inks. and that was a good rate in 1956, when the decline started. I was down to $21 a page when Atlas stopped hiring me. ... Stan called me and said, 'Joe, Martin Goodman told me to suspend operations because I have all this artwork in-house and have to use it up before I can hire you again.' It turned out to be six months, in my case. He may have called back some of the other artists later, but that's what happened with me".Joe Sinnott interview, '' Alter Ego'' #26 (July 2003), p. 11 He began doing such commercial art as billboards and record covers, ghosting for some

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. ( doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with the ...

artists, and a job for '' Classics Illustrated'' comics. Former

EC Comics Entertaining Comics, more commonly known as EC Comics, was an American publisher of comic books, which specialized in horror fiction, crime fiction, satire, war novel, military fiction, dark fantasy, and science fiction from the 1940s through th ...

artist Jack Kamen by this time was the art director of Harwyn Publishing's 12-volume, 1958 ''Harwyn Picture Encyclopedia'' for children, and had Sinnott join a roster of contributors that included such notable EC artists as Reed Crandall, Bill Elder, George Evans, Angelo Torres and Wally Wood. Sinnott also began a long association with publisher George Pflaum's ''

Treasure Chest Treasure (from la, thesaurus from Greek language ''thēsauros'', "treasure store") is a concentration of wealth — often originating from ancient history — that is considered lost and/or forgotten until rediscovered. Some jurisdictions leg ...

'', a Catholic-oriented comic book distributed in parochial schools. With Bob Wischmeyer, a ''Treasure Chest'' writer-editor, Sinnott collaborated on an unsold college-athlete

''Johnny Hawk, All American''.

Silver Age of Comic Books

During the late 1950s and 1960s period historians and collectors call the

Silver Age of Comic Books The Silver Age of Comic Books was a period of artistic advancement and widespread commercial success in mainstream American comic books, predominantly those featuring the superhero archetype. Following the Golden Age of Comic Books and an in ...

, Sinnott continued doing occasional pencil-and-ink stories for

as it transitioned into the nascent

, contributing to such " pre-superhero Marvel" titles as '' Strange Tales'', '' Strange Worlds'', '' Tales to Astonish'', '' Tales of Suspense'' and '' World of Fantasy''. He also began a stint with the low-budget Charlton Comics, teamed as

penciler A penciller (or penciler) is an artist who works on the creation of comic books, graphic novels, and similar visual art forms, with a focus on the initial pencil illustrations, usually in collaboration with other artists, who provide inks, colors ...

with

Vince Colletta on several

romance-comics Romance comics is a comics genre depicting strong and close romantic love and its attendant complications such as jealousy, marriage, divorce, betrayal, and heartache. The term is generally associated with an American comic books genre published t ...

stories in series including ''First Kiss'', ''Just Married'', ''Romantic Secrets'', ''Sweethearts'' and ''Teen-Age Love'' that he would do through 1963. Sinnott's first collaboration with Jack Kirby, one of comics' most historically groundbreaking and influential creators and the penciler with whom he is most often identified, came with the war-comics story "Doom Under the Deep" in Atlas' ''Battle'' #69 (April 1960). After a supernatural Kirby story in '' Journey into Mystery'', #58 (May 1960), he inked Kirby's twice-reprinted giant-monster story "I Was Trapped By Titano the Monster That Time Forgot" in ''Tales to Astonish'' #10 (July 1960), although not the cover featuring that lead story. Sinnott in 1992 believed his first Kirby collaboration was a Western story titled "Outlaw Man from Fargo", but nothing approximating that appears in standard databases. Sinnott did one additional Kirby pre-superhero Marvel story, "I Was a Decoy for Pildorr: The Plunderer from Outer Space", in '' Strange Tales'' #94 (March 1962), before inking his first Marvel

superhero A superhero or superheroine is a stock character that typically possesses ''superpowers'', abilities beyond those of ordinary people, and fits the role of the hero, typically using his or her powers to help the world become a better place, ...

comic: both the cover and the interior of penciler Kirby's ''

The Fantastic Four The Fantastic Four is a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The team debuted in '' The Fantastic Four'' #1 (cover dated Nov. 1961), helping usher in a new level of realism in the medium. It was the firs ...

'' #5 (July 1962), the issue introducing the long-running

supervillain A supervillain or supercriminal is a variant of the villainous stock character that is commonly found in American comic books, usually possessing superhuman abilities. A supervillain is the antithesis of a superhero. Supervillains are of ...

Dr. Doom Doctor Victor Von Doom is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, and first appeared in ''The Fantastic Four'' #5 in July 1962. The monarch of the ficti ...

. Sinnott also inked a few panels of the following issue's second page, the remainder inked by another Kirby regular, Dick Ayers.Mark Sinnott's official checklist of his father's work states Joe Sinnot inked four panels: page 2, panels 5 to 8, of the otherwise Dick Ayers-inked ''The Fantastic Four'' #6 (Sept. 1962), per Sinnott and Müller, Index
"Joe Sinnott: ''Fantastic Four''"
The Grand Comics Database listing fo
''The Fantastic Four'' #6
gives panels 4 to 8. Sinnott explained his not remaining on ''The Fantastic Four'' after his single early issue: Sinnott had by then inked the introduction of the Norse god superhero

, in ''Journey into Mystery'' #83 (Aug. 1962). He also inked the following issue's Kirby cover, and, following his papal project, he both penciled and inked five subsequent Thor stories, in issues #91–92, 94–96 (April–Sept. 1963). Aside from these sporadic works, however, Sinnott was primarily inking for Charlton during this period, with occasional jobs for American Comics Group, ''Treasure Chest'', and

, for which he variously penciled and fully drew film and TV adaptations, and penciled the

one-shot One shot may refer to: Film and television * One-shot film, a feature film shot in one long take with no edits, or manufactured to look like so * ''One Shot'' (2005 film), a Sri Lankan action film directed by Ranjan Ramanayake * ''One Shot'' (2 ...

biographical comic ''

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

'' #1 (Nov. 1964). But then, in 1965, he returned to Marvel to work virtually exclusively, beginning with his inking the cover and the story, "Where Walks the Juggernaut", of '' The X-Men'' #13 (Sept. 1965). After this, Sinnott began his long and celebrated stint on a Marvel flagship title, '' Fantastic Four'', inking Kirby on "The Gentleman's Name Is Gorgon! or What a Way to Spend a Honeymoon!" in issue #44 (Nov. 1965). He remained on the series through Kirby's departure after issue #102 (Sept. 1970)—having contributed visually to the introductions of Lee/Kirby's

Galactus Galactus () is a fictional Character (arts), character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Formerly a mortal man, Galactus is a cosmic entity who consumes planets to sustain his life force, and serves a functional role ...

, the Silver Surfer, the

Black Panther A black panther is the melanistic colour variant of the leopard (''Panthera pardus'') and the jaguar (''Panthera onca''). Black panthers of both species have excess black pigments, but their typical rosettes are also present. They have been ...

, the Inhumans, Adam Warlock and other characters—and continued on through 1981, missing an issue here and there or simply inking the cover. He made a brief return in the late 1980s. His post-Kirby pencilers included John Romita,

John Buscema John Buscema (; ; born Giovanni Natale Buscema, December 11, 1927 – January 10, 2002)Social Se ...

, Bill Sienkiewicz, Rich Buckler, and George Pérez. A comics historian assessed the mid-1960s Kirby–Sinnott art collaboration: During the 1960s Silver Age, Sinnott also inked several Kirby

Captain America Captain America is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by cartoonists Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, the character First appearance, first appeared in ''#Golden Age, Captain America Comics'' #1 (cover ...

stories and his "The Inhumans" backup feature in ''Thor''; two Jim Steranko stories each of superspy Nick Fury and superhero Captain America; and Buscema's 38-page origin story in ''The Silver Surfer'' #1 (Aug. 1968), among other Marvel work. Sinnott recalled in 2006,

Later career

During his years as a Marvel freelancer, and then salaried artist working from home, Sinnott inked virtually every major title, with notable runs on '' The Avengers'', '' The Defenders'' and ''

''. Sinnott retired from comic books in 1992 to concentrate on inking ''

'' Sunday strip, and to do recreations of comics covers and commissioned artwork. He continued to contribute sporadically to Marvel, and for ''

'' vol. 6, #1 ( cover-dated Sept. 2011), he inked John Romita Sr. on one of six variant covers done for this premiere issue. Sinnott retired from the ''Amazing Spider-Man'' strip in March 2019, at age 92.

Personal life

In August 1950, during a two-week school vacation from the

(later the School of Visual Arts) in

, Sinnott wed Elizabeth "Betty" Kirlauski (March 7, 1932 – November 1, 2006),Lasiuta: "Dedication by Mark Sinnott", p. 6 to whom he remained married for 56 years until her death. The couple had four children: sons Joseph Jr. and Mark, and daughters Kathleen and Linda, the last of whom predeceased Sinnott. He died on June 25, 2020, age 93. His grandson Dorian specified, "He passed away this morning, June 25th, at 8:40 am at the age of 93. He enjoyed life and was drawing up until the end."

Awards and recognition

* 1995 Inkpot Award * 2008 Inkwell Hall of Fame Award * 2008 Inkwell Award for Favorite Inker (Retro; tied with Terry Austin) * 2008 Inkwell Awards Special Ambassador (2008–present) * 2013 Will Eisner Hall of Fame Award. He is the namesake of the Inkwell Award "Joe Sinnott Hall of Fame Award", or commonly called the Joe Sinnott Award.

Legacy

Two Jack Kirby–Joe Sinnott images are among those on the "Marvel Super Heroes" set of commemorative stamps issued by the U.S. Postal Service on July 27, 2007: the Thing and the Silver Surfer. Sinnott is named the No. 1 inker of American comics by historians at the

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

, Illinois, retailer Atlas Comics, on its list of the medium's top 20. .

References

Sources

External links

*
Archived
from the original on June 20, 2020, and more than 200 earlier dates. *

at the Lambiek Comiclopedia. . * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sinnott, Joe United States Navy personnel of World War II United States Navy sailors School of Visual Arts alumni 1926 births 2020 deaths People from Saugerties, New York Military personnel from New York (state) Silver Age comics creators Marvel Comics people People from the Upper West Side Inkpot Award winners