Famed artist Joe Sinnott, one of the most in-demand inkers of Marvel’s Silver and Bronze Age, has announced his retirement. The news hit with the release of his final Sunday edition of the Amazing Spider-Man comic strip, which he has been inking since 1992.
The 92-year-old artist ends a bountiful run with Marvel Comics where he has worked in different capacities for nearly 70 years. Sinnott posted the final strip on his Facebook page with the note, “Today we honor Spidey with the final Sunday Spider-Man strip! Thanks Stan, for all the great memories. ‘Nuff said! (Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, Alex Saviuk, Joe Sinnott, Janice Chiang).”
Following a stint in the Navy, Sinnott began his career by studying in the Cartoonists and Illustrators School in New York City, in March 1949. His first professional art job was the backup feature “Trudi” in the comic Mopsy #12 (September 1950).
Tom Gill, an instructor at the school, asked Sinnott to become his assistant, drawing backgrounds and incidentals on the Western movie tie-ins at Dell Comics and then titles at Atlas. In 1951, he talked to Stan Lee about taking on some assignments for Atlas Comics and was rewarded with plenty of work. He drew stories for a multitude of titles, including Strange Tales, Tales to Astonish, Tales of Suspense, Adventures Into Terror, Battlefront, Navy Combat, Gunsmoke Western, Two Gun Western, and many more.
During this period, Sinnott also did some commercial art on record covers and billboards, and worked for a few other publishers, ghosting for some DC artists, he worked with publisher George Pflaum on the Catholic-oriented comic, Treasure Chest, collaborated with Bob Wischmeyer on the strip, Johnny Hawk, All American, and had a stint at Charlton on romance comics.
By the 1960s, Sinnott was working mostly as an inker, but he also did some penciling, including on early Thor appearances in Journey Into Mystery #91-92 and #94-96. His contributions as an inker are what cemented his highly regarded reputation, including inking Jack Kirby and Jim Steranko’s pencils on Captain America.
This period is particularly marked by inking Fantastic Four, starting with #44 in 1965, and the rest of Kirby’s run on the series – which saw the introduction of mainstays like Black Panther, Silver Surfer, Galactus, and the Inhumans. After Kirby left at #102, Sinnott continued inking or doing finishes for the title through the early ’80s, inking the works of John Romita, John Buscema, George Pérez, Rich Buckler, John Byrne, and Bill Sienkiewicz.
He had a lengthy run on both Avengers and West Coast Avengers, then moved to Thor where he did finishes for Ron Frenz in his final regular comic assignment. It was then that he took on the 27-year assignment inking the Amazing Spider-Man Sunday strip.
More than a few of the biggest names at Marvel have praised Sinnott’s talents as an inker. He has also been lauded by the larger comics community with an induction into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame in 2013, he won an Inkpot Award, and the Inkwell Awards honored him by naming their hall of fame, the Sinnott Hall of Fame.
