by Joshua H. Stulman

Joe Sinnott was the most senior of Marvel’s “Living Legends” until his death at the age of 93 this past June 25th. Sinnott was a core member of Marvel’s 1960’s art talent that helped grow the company into todays multi-billion dollar asset. He is also one of the few artists to work almost exclusively for Marvel from its renaissance in the early 1960’s to present.

Sinnott was born on Oct. 16,  1926, and grew up during the emergence of the Golden Age of Comics. He served in the Navy during World War II at Okinawa, and was awarded several medals. In the early 50’s, a young Joe Sinnott found work as an art assistant for Tom Gill while attending The School of Visual Arts (SVA). The Golden Age of Comics was coming to an end in the early 1950’s, and the super-hero genre was fading out. Sinnott’s comic artwork from this period was on Westerns for Dell Comics, but quickly segued into work for Marvel, which at the time was called “Atlas.”

Stan Lee hired Sinnott to work on Western, Military, and Horror comics as a freelance artist in the mid-1950’s. Its during this period that Sinnott met some of Stan Lee’s other freelance artists like Gene Colan, Bob Powell, and Syd Shores. During the economic hardship at Marvel in the late 1950’s, Sinnott and many of the freelance artists were side-lined. Sinnott found steady work on the Catholic comic series, Treasure Chest, which was promoted and distributed in Parochial Schools. Sinnott would continue to receive assignments for Marvel on occasion. By early 1960’s, Marvel was beginning to ramp up their line of science fiction series; Strange Tales, Journey Into Mystery, and Tales To Astonish; and Sinnott began to get work on these titles as an inker. Here, Sinnott first collaborated with Jack Kirby at the dawn of Marvel’s Silver Age.

Sinnott’s first super-hero work at Marvel was as inker on Fantastic Four # 5 (1962) that featured the very first appearance of Doctor Doom. His inking style emphasized broad strokes and areas of deep blacks that was a perfect match for Jack Kirby‘s dynamic artwork. Sinnott also inked the first appearance of Thor in Journey Into Mystery # 83. By 1965, Sinnott worked almost exclusively for Marvel and was the third part of the iconic Stan Lee / Jack Kirby run on Fantastic Four, which was one of the leading comics of the industry. While working as inker on Fantastic Four, Sinnott inked the first appearances of The Black Panther, The Silver Surfer, and Galactus. Although he was not considered a “creator” of these characters, it is undeniable that he played a huge role in shaping the final presentation of the artwork.

Sinnott became a key member of Marvel’s artist bullpen. He continued a long association with Fantastic Four well after the Lee/Kirby run ended, sometimes serving as penciller & inker. His work on Silver Surfer’s first solo series saw the character’s origin as well as the introduction of the villain, Mephisto. During the 1970’s, Sinnott’s artistic touch was felt on many of Marvel’s covers. In fact its safe to say that if Marvel was introducing a new character, Joe Sinnott was the premier inker for the job. Sinnott inked covers include the first appearance of Thanos, Falcon, Adam Warlock, Juggernaught, Captain Britain, Nova, Luke Cage & Iron Fist Team and many more.

You many instead want to call Sinnott, Marvel’s #1, because his inking can be found on many of the first issues of the 1970’s, which include What If? # 1, Spider-Woman # 1, Nick Fury # 1, Ghost Rider # 1, Warlock # 1, Nova # 1, Ms. Marvel # 1.

During the later part of his career in the 1980’s, Joe Sinnott enjoyed lengthy runs on Avengers as well as Thor. He also worked on Marvel’s 80’s licensed comics including Thundercats. Sinnott is one of the rare bullpen artists who had steady work at Marvel for the rest of his life.

In the early 1990’s, Sinnott left regular comic book work to ink the syndicated Spider-Man Newspaper Comic Strip written by Stan Lee. Sinnott continued to ink the strip through 2019 nearly until his death. He became a regular attendee of comic conventions both large and small, and made regular appearances at the Albany Comic Con.

I met Joe many times over the past decade. He was humble and enjoyed talking with fans. He was always surrounded by family. When the line died down after the first 2 hours of a convention, Joe was always approachable and happy to talk about his experiences in the industry. He especially enjoyed talking about baseball and was an avid Yankee fan whose professional artwork is included in the Baseball Hall of Fame museum. If you asked him what one of his favorite comic works were, you might be surprised at the answer, The Life of Pope John Paul II. Sinnott pushed for Marvel to do the comic book, which was reluctant due to its religious content, but eventually moved forward with the project that saw publication in 1983.

Joe Sinnott worked for nearly 70 years in the comic industry. He was perhaps Marvel‘s best secret and was instrumental in shaping the “Marvel” art style. Joe Sinnott was a true Marvel Legend and his contributions to the industry will live on for many years.

Joshua H. Stulman

Owner, Brooklyn Comic Shop