Joe Sinnott (1926–2020)

Like the other early iterations of the now classic Marvel superheroes, this volume of Thor’s early adventures is a mixed bag. For the most part, the stories rely on the conflict between Thor and his evil half-brother, Loki, who, while imprisoned in Asgard, has the ability to cause problems with his magic. Some of these stories are inspired; others, like the one where Thor gets knocked in the head in a certain spot that turns him evil, are not. The soap opera aspect that Stan Lee added to the genre is here in the unrequited love that Thor and his alter ego, Dr. Don Blake, have for his nurse, Jane Foster. Because Odin has ordered Thor never to reveal his true identity to a mortal, Thor/Blake cannot tell Foster his secret, and she, like so many others before her (I’m looking at you, Lois Lane), can’t figure out the tie between Blake and Thor. Other than Loki, the villains here are mostly forgettable.… (más)

Joltin’ Joe Sinnott, as he was sometimes known in Marvel’s credit boxes, was an American comic book artist who worked in both pencils and ink. He passed away on 25 June 2020 at the ripe old age of 93. He worked until March 2019 on the ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ strip for newspapers, as well as odd bits of commissioned artwork. Sinnott had a good run. In a fit of nostalgia for a childhood spent loving his brush strokes, I went mad and spent money – not much – on this digital edition first published in 2007. TwoMorrows has run out of papery versions but they are still available elsewhere for a not inconsiderable price. The digital worked fine for me and buying direct supports the publisher in these difficult days.

Joe Sinnott was born and grew up in Saugerties, New York State, in the Catskill Mountains. Apart from a spell in the U.S. Navy in World War II, where he served with the Fighting Seabees in Okinawa, he seems to have lived there most of his life. After the war, he studied at the Cartoonists And Illustrators School in New York City on the GI bill. One of his tutors, Tom Gill, took him on as an art assistant and he worked weekends and evenings on comic strips for Gill, learning a lot. Eventually, he was doing everything. Gill did much work for Stan Lee at Timely Comics, so Joe went to see him. Stan handed him a script from the top of a big pile and that was the start of a long working relationship. Sinnott remained friends with Tom Gill and was always grateful for the quality apprenticeship.

Although Sinnott worked mostly for Timely and, later, Marvel he did other stuff, too. In 1957, when Stan was ordered by Martin Goodman to get rid of all the freelancers and use up his stock of ready pages, Joe went to work for ‘Classics Illustrated’ and Charlton Comics. He did some advertising illustration, too. When Marvel started taking off again, Stan gave him Fantastic Four # 5 to ink. Later in the book, Joe lists his favourite work and FF # 5 is at the top of the list. Next is FF # 91 (‘The Thing Enslaved’) and then the covers of FF # 51 (‘This Man, This Monster’) and FF # 55 featuring Doctor Doom. His favourite character was the Thing. When Wally Wood saw Sinnott’s work on the Fantastic Four he said, ‘Now that’s how Kirby should be inked.’

Of course, Sinnott didn’t ink every issue of Fantastic Four from # 5 onwards. Wouldn’t that have been great? He had a prior commitment to do a comic book on Pope John XXIII for ‘Classics Illustrated’. However, he returned to the title with issue # 44 (‘The Gentleman’s Name Is Gorgon’) just as Kirby was hitting his peak. According to Mark Evanier, the way Joe inked the strip contributed to how Jack drew it. For one thing, it was worth doing your best work because Sinnott’s inks would enhance it. Unlike some inkers, he didn’t skip the hard bits or rub out figures he was too tired to bother with. He turned Kirby’s Krackle into circles, a style Kirby began to emulate in his pencils and made the Kirby glow shine brighter. He also made small adjustments to hands and corrected little errors. Some pencillers think the inker should follow their work exactly but that isn’t always for the best. Gil Kane resented his style being toned down but most readers think the work looked better inked by Sid Greene than by him. Kirby’s art was improved because Sinnott didn’t ink every squiggle or changed it if he did. The humans looked more human.

There’s a lot more to Joe Sinnott than just his work on Kirby. He stayed on the ‘Fantastic Four’ until 1981, giving the strip’s appearance a kind of unity when other artists took over, including John Romita, John Buscema, Rich Buckler and George Perez. He also had long runs on ‘The Avengers’, ‘The Incredible Hulk’ and ‘The Mighty Thor’. In general, he was given the top-selling books with the best artists.

There’s an amusing chapter where Sinnott gives his views on different pencillers. Nothing controversial or nasty as he was a nice man but interesting. John Byrne used to draw necks too long. The panels of Perez were busy with detail and took longer to do. Sal Buscema’s tight pencils were a pleasure to ink. Steranko drew every brick in the background and a page took twice as long as usual. Unknown to Joe, Steranko had titanic rows with Marvel’s production manager Sol Brodsky to make sure Sinnott inked his stuff. Everybody wanted Sinnott inking their stuff. Now and then DC tried to lure him away but Stan Lee assured him he would match whatever page rate they offered. That’s a good position to be in. Sinnott earned it.

As a Marvel/Kirby fanboy, I’ve focused here on that aspect of the book but there’s much more herein, including many tributes, and it’s filled with wonderful illustrations. Sinnott was no slouch as a penciller himself and did complete art jobs for many advertisers and some charity work, too. He was mad for Bing Crosby and supplied illustrations for the fan magazine. He also had a wife and family. Like most successful freelancers, he kept to a disciplined routine, working from 07:45 to 16:30 with a half-hour lunch break, maybe doing a little more after supper if necessary. Later, he went to conventions and mingled with the fans. He had a good life.

Joltin’ Joe has left and gone away but his legacy is a wonderful body of work. ‘Brush Strokes With Greatness’ is an interesting read, a great art book and a fine memorial to a decent man.

… (más)

Disabled Dr. Donald Blake vacations in Norway and finds a walking stick in a cave, one that, once he handles it, turns into Mjölner and turns Blake into the Norse god of thunder, Thor. It's quite cheesy and the plots are super-hero-tastic, but it's really wonderfully enjoyable. I know being Swedish may have something to do with why I like Thor a little more than I ought to, but I don't care. Having Odin's big face appear in the sky with invaluable advice and having Loki come up with his loony schemes is just hilarious. For those who go for Kindle-versions, though, know that that edition contains 10 fewer issues than the equivalent paper-version.… (más)

With the Fantastic Four breaking new comics ground and The Incredible Hulk making his uncertain way though his first abortive series, Marvel's growth continued at an increasing rate with 2 new superheroes making their debut in the same month. While Spider-Man would make his first appearance as a "one-off" feature snuck into the final issue of Amazing Adult Fantasy, Thor would rate his own continuing series immediately as the main feature in Journey Into Mystery.

This initial batch of stories is largely the work of prolific comic art genius Jack Kirby with Stan Lee and brother Larry Lieber handling the plots and scripts and Don Heck assuming the art duties toward the end of this volume.

Initially Thor is very much an earthly (or at least earthbound) superhero but the groundwork is laid early for the later mythic treatment of the character. The introduction of Thor's half-brother Loki and their father Odin would move the strip away from earth and onto a galactic scale.

Also included in this volume are the initial installments of Tales Of Asgard where Kirby would trial the mythic themes that would appear soon in the main series. Indeed these vignettes can also be seen as early experiments in the sword and sorcery genre which Marvel would capitalise on in the 70s. Even Kirby's post-Marvel work at DC - New Gods for example - would explore ideas laid out here in the mid 60s.… (más)