Month: July 2021

Inkwell Awards Announces Artists For Joe Sinnott Tribute Inking Challenge

(New Bedford, MA/USA—July 2, 2021) The non-profit Inkwell Awards, devoted to promoting the art of comic book inking, has released the list of artists participating in its first Joe Sinnott Tribute Challenge Spotlight. The event features artist Ron Frenz’s exclusive pencil art of Marvel’s Thor, which was scanned and sent to a variety of ink artists to embellish. The artwork will be then auctioned for fundraising.

According to founder/director Bob Almond, the event was launched to commemorate the life and career of legendary ink artist Joe Sinnott around the anniversary of his passing last year, along with the annual inking event that bore his name since 2010.

“Our previous Sinnott Inking Challenges were major events for us and our supporters,” Almond said. “Joe would give us a tightly and/or loosely pencilled drawing of a popular character. Then ink artists of various experience levels would complete the scanned art in black and white, each bringing his or her own style to the piece. Fans are then able to see the difference in the pencilled and inked versions to better understand how much inkers contribute to the artform.”

The Tribute furthers the inking advocacy’s dual mission of promoting the artform and educating the public. Each inked page will be signed by Frenz and the inker. All pages, plus a certificate of authenticity signed by Almond, will then be auctioned off as a fundraiser in biweekly waves beginning Monday, July 5.

Sinnott’s son and estate agent, Mark Sinnott, said, “Bob Almond and I had decided that we would put an end to the Joe Sinnott Inking Challenge with the passing of my dad last June, but this was too good a tribute to refuse. This was all made possible by our good friend Joe Goulart, who had reached out to Joe’s long-time collaborator Ron Frenz, to take on this task…I agreed that yes, this would indeed be a great honor and tribute for my dad. I know that Joe would be so pleased and proud of everybody’s effort in making this happen. All the different interpretations that were done with Thor, the additions of some wonderful backgrounds, it was all truly such a great display of love and a fantastic tribute to Joe which I know he would have loved to have seen. He always enjoyed seeing the pieces that were turned in for all the previous Challenges. This tribute “4 Joe”, was something very special.”

“On behalf of the Inkwells,” added Almond, “our sincerest thanks to Mark, Joe, Ron, the over four dozen participating inkers, and all involved for their cooperation, support of our program, and appreciation of ink artists.”

The participating artists that gave tribute to Joe are:
Gerry Acerno
Kent Archer
Jeff Austin
Charles Barnett III
Mike Barreiro
Noah Barrett
Sean Begley
Joe Bennett
Steven Berry
Ken Branch
Eliot Brown
Richard Clark
Kevin Conrad
Adelso Corona
Marc Deering
John Dell
Guy Dorian Sr.
Ed Eargle
William Egli
John Floyd
David Fox
Ramona Fradon
Rusty Gilligan
Jeff Graham
Don Ho
Michael W. Kellar
Scott Koblish
Enrique Lopez
J. E. Lozano
Criss Madd
Pablo Marcos
Jose Marzan Jr.
Mark McKenna
Nick Nix
Joe Orsak
Dan Parsons
Mike Pascale
Mark Pennington
Joe Prado
ince Rodriguez
Alex Saviuk
Tom Schloendorn
Belinda Sinnott
Mark Sinnott
Andy Smith
Cam Smith
J. David Spurlock
Mark Stegbauer
J.L. Straw
Jason Sylvestre
Jim Tournas
Jonas Trindade
LeBeau Underwood
Larry Welch
Keith Williams