For the first time since 2009, the Inkwell Awards public ballot will incorporate a change in a category. The Joe Sinnott Hall of Fame Award will now be handled internally by the separate HoF Nomination Committee (HoFNC) all the way through instead of having the public make the final two choices from the tallied nominees.
I barely knew the man and legend. But I do know that, to my shock, he accepted my invitation to be an ambassador for my Inkwell Awards last year and to be associated with us (much thanks goes to J. David Spurlock for the nudge). This lent us a huge amount of credibility and exposure as he was debatably (although I doubt anyone would debate it) our top creator to represent us, which says an awful LOT considering our other brilliant ambassadors and their talent & reps). And he personally handed out three Dave Simons Inkwell Memorial Scholarship Fund Awards to his students for us at the school that bears his name, a school that represented the sequential art field like no other. He was so active, strong and busy that I figured he’d surely be around for some time to come. Starting professionally at the age of TWELVE, he was one of the final surviving innovators of the golden-age of comics and one who helped to develop our sequential art form as a teacher and mentor for decades. Honestly, it’s more of a loss to this industry and community than I can even properly express.
I sincerely extend all of my best wishes to his family and loved ones on behalf of the Inkwell Awards family. May he rest and peace. Thanks a lot, Joe! ~B~
*ITEM! Ink artist Phil Moy posted this file on our Facebook group page which shows a giant Ms. Inkwell illustration that he donated to our upcoming Ms. Inkwell Gallery book used on the promotional screens above Artists Alley at San Diego Comic-Con. Thanks to Phil for giving Ms. India Wells some west coast cred while plugging himself.
*ITEM! Check out our spankin’ new FAQ page to answer all of those pesky inquiries you’ve been wondering about all this time. And reading our updated History page can’t hurt!
*ITEM! Congratulations to Inkwell Awards committee member Michael W. Kellar for his promotion to the position of Assistant Director starting this month of August. This will mean that Mike will help me add some much-coveted order to my present load of chaos. Wish us luck!
*ITEM! Speaking of the Ms. Inkwell Gallery book, that was intended for a summer release, it’s now scheduled for a late fall release. But we have some big surprises in store for it that we’ll be sure to announce soon!
*ITEM! And speaking of books, our 2012 Donation book that debuted at Heroes Con is now available at our Store for a donation of $15. And within a week we’ll be able to take orders for our Special Signed & Numbered (limited to only ten copies) Edition signed by cover artist Mike McKone and signed by producers Jim Tournas and Bob Almond on the title page inside.
(From Bob Almond’s posts on Facebook today):
STOLEN! Got back parcels of our Inkwell Awards materials following Heroes Con from the USPS and one box was empty although it had the stamp for $13.44 and had been resealed. Problem is we didn’t insure the box so I could only get the postage reimbursed and place a report with the inspector general. Stolen items include the final three out of the five limited and numbered Joe Sinnott Inking Challenge editions (signed by Joe, Terry Austin, Daniel Best and myself), (6?) copies of the Joe Sinnott signed & numbered editions of the book, several regular edition copies, regular editions of our Donation Books from 2010 (Randy Green cover), 2010 (Craig Rousseau cover), and 2011 (Louis Small cover) including almost half of the signed and numbered copies of the Craig Rousseau 2011 edition, the 2010 (Rousseau cover) multi-signed edition (Craig Rousseau, Bob Almond, Enrique Savory, Jr., Sara Richard, Brian Kong, Jim Tournas, Joe Sinnott, Mike McKone, Nicole Hansche, Ethan Van Sciver and Joe Haley), and the last three Joe Sinnott signed 2010 blank variant printer defect editions. Other stolen items in that box were a couple of Vanguard Pruductions books donated by J David Spurlock like Irwin Hasen: Loverboy and The Edge signed by Bill Sienkiewicz. Probably more…as they come to me.
This may not seem like much but we’re still a small non-profit with a meager budget at best so this hit after so many recent financial losses are crippling to the organization. I won’t hold my breath but hoping for a miracle. Please contact Bob at dmralmond@gmail.com
Developing….
(L-R) Haley Greenleaf as the hostess Ms. Inkwell, Bob McLeod as Keynote Guest Speaker and Bob Almond as the ceremony host
Columnist/reporter Michael Dunne of First Comics News has reported on one challenge highlight of Bob Almond’s ceremony speech at the 2012 Heroes Con Inkwell Awards award ceremony from June 23. That message was the following:
“And by the way, while I don’t want to be ‘that guy’ who presumes to know better and tell others how to do their job better, with all due respect intended, speaking on behalf of the ink artists of our community, I’d like to put out a request to the prestigious Eisner Awards, our industry’s comparable Academy Awards: would you please consider returning the Best Inker category to your annual ballot, please? By removing it, for reasons of supposed lack of clarity of what it is we do, you do us a disservice and disrespect combining us to a category titled “Best Penciller/Inker or Penciller/Inker Team” which removes the distinction of our specialty and comes across like we’re unworthy of a category. Can we get enough grass root support from our community to actually effect change for the better? Perhaps we can work with them on this…I’m certainly offering.”
For the full video of the awards ceremony in it’s entirety please check back to this site as it will be posted here in the near future.
Ernie Chan: July 27, 1940–May 16, 2012
Yesterday we lost another Filipino comic book master illustrator and ink artist only one week after Tony Dezuniga – Ernie Chan. Ernie was a favorite inker of mine as a young fan. I only saw a couple of covers of his early DC Batman work, but it was his less than one year run on the Incredible Hulk inking over the pencils of Sal Buscema where he became a hero to me.
As reported today at First Comics News the Inkwell Awards’ fifth season is well under way with their first show stop in Pittsburgh next week and the next two new Ms. Inkwell models revealed and the dates for this year’s voting period established for next month!
Guest column by ink artist Phyllis Novin
Phyllis Novin here. A quick word of thanks to Bob for letting me shamelessly plug my inking class at MoCCA NYC on his nifty website.
I’m teaching four, 2 hour classes on inking 3/28, 4/4, 4/18 & 4/25.
This is a hands-on inking course designed for those new to comic book inking as well as for those who want to expand their basic inking skills. While primarily brush-orientated, you will also be working with crow quill pens and other tools both rational and irrational. You will not only learn inking techniques but get an understanding of the basic framework behind inking. You will know what you need to do on a page and why.
John passed away February 12 at the age of 90. His impressive art career in comic books spanned 60 years and he was working right until the end. He usually inked his own pencils but I will always appreciate his ink work over Herb Trimpe’s Incredible Hulk , his EC Comics work and his work with his sister Marie. Here is his wikipedia entry of full career accomplishments and this is Mark Evanier’s blog entry on him. Rest in peace, John.
ITEM: Are you an aspiring ink artist looking to have your samples reviewed/critiqued? Post them at the new Inkwell Awards Artist Alley Forum here at the website where professional artists Jay Leisten and Michael W. Kellar are available to do so! This replaces our old forum (that replaced the P.J. Magalhaes inkers.org forum), now archived, with Sarah L. Covert as the new moderator with Damon Owens stepping down after years of moderating the old venue.
Please register and sign up NOW!
ITEM: The 2012 Inkwell Awards nominations have been submitted, tallied and validated! Here are the Nomination Committee members this time around and they deserve an enthusiastic round of applause! Public ballots will go live at our website homepage on May 1-15. The Heroes Comic Con will take place June 22-24. The Awards Ceremony has not yet been scheduled. We will keep you posted.
