Joe Sinnott Retires at 92

After 69 years in the comics industry, Joltin’ Joe Sinnott has officially retired…again.

He first retired 29 years ago but since that time has been inking the Amazing Spider-Man newspaper strip over Alex Saviuk’s pencils.

Joe Sinnott is considered by many to be one of the finest inkers ever to have graced the pages of Marvel Comics. He had been in the industry for years before gaining super-stardom inking Jack Kirby’s Fantastic Four for approximately 60 issues and then was responsible for keeping a consistent “Worlds Greatest Comic Magazine” feel to the title, through numerous artists, including John Romita, John Buscema, Rich Buckler, George Perez, John Byrne and Bill Sienkiewicz, to name a few.

Whenever Joltin’ Joe inked a story he brought a clean and polished look to many an artist and also made those issues standouts in whatever book he was working on.

I remember off the top of my head the short run inking Gene Colan on Captain America right at the end of the Silver Age. Or from the same time period, inking Jim Steranko on Captain America and Nick Fury. Some of my favourite issues were when he inked Kirby in the FF but some fantastic collaborations were in the latter issues of Tales of Suspense over Kirby, and the back up Inhumans feature in The Mighty Thor.

I would be remiss not mentioning the great run on Thor he did with Ron Frenz handling the pencilling chores much later in his career!

He will be continuing to appear at conventions.

Just for the fun of it, what is your favorite Joe Sinnott cover or story that he inked?

One of my all time favourites is Silver Surfer #3 where we meet Mephisto for the first time!

Thanks Joe, for all the grace and beauty you brought to so many of my favorite comics. He was elected to the Will Eisner Hall of Fame in 2013.

Continued Happy Collecting!

Dennis De Pues
Dennis De Pues

Dennis is an admitted "Son of the Silver Age", having grown up with the influences of Silver Age greats: Kirby, Colan, Romita and Buscema.Three decades later, he is the creator of Crash!! and Galloway Park. More is definitely on the way.

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mel taylor
mel taylor
5 years ago

Hey Dennis
This explains a lot! I have noticed that the last few weeks of Mutts in the Saturday funny pages have been inked by Joe Sinnot, and I wondered why. It’s been clear to me for years that Patrick McDonnell is a huge comics fan since so many of his strips have obvious comic references, with many parodies of covers, especially Marvels.This must have been a huge thrill for him to have Joe on board. As far as I have noticed, it’s only been this month so It may be over in a couple more weeks if it’s just for the month of April. Look for it on Saturday! And, if you ever pick up a Mutts anthology (highly recommended!), check out all the comic references in addition to his many fine art references (some of which are true fine art pieces themselves!).

As for my personal favourite Sinnot inked cover? Hands down, it has to be Fantastic Four #55. You can tell how much I loved this book since I bought it off the shelf years ago when it came out and my original copy is still in near mint condition. It’s one of my personal icons.

Anyroad, thanks for the heads up on Joe’s retirement. I just wonder if this one will last any longer than his last retirement!

cheers, mel

mel taylor
mel taylor
5 years ago

P.S.
I just googled “Joe Sinnot Inks Mutts” and there is more info for anybody interested. Apparently there are only the two strips, March 27 (FF#51) and April 13 (FF#67). I also looked back in my copy of The Best of Mutts and practically opened it directly to the page with his take on FF#1!

so long for now, mel

comicdenn
5 years ago

Yeah I saw the Mutts images.Pretty special.What an amazing career!