articles/announcements

 

(New Bedford, MA/USA—August 10, 2020) The 2020 delayed AWARD RECIPIENT RESULTS were post on First Comics News August 6 and on our website we posted the 2020 Results in the Awards section on August 8 which additionally supplied the nominees percentages and all the winners’ statements, including on video. This article here is an additional run down but akin to the ones we printed by me for the annual Joe Sinnott Inking Challenge Books, with info bits for the record added in.

 

Favorite Inker: Favorite ink artist over the pencil work of another artist.

(Cannot also be nominated for the “Props” award.)

A) Mark Morales: Amazing Spider-man, Avengers (Marvel)

B) Joe Prado: Superman (DC)

C) Norm Rapmund: Batgirl, Batman, Batman Beyond, Flash Forward, Tales from the Dark Multiverse: Death of Superman, Wonder Woman (DC)

D) Walden Wong: genLOCK, Justice League (DC), Crazy, Incredible Hulk: Last Call, Marvel’s Hero Project Season 1: Mighty Rebekah, X-23 (Marvel)

And the winner, with 43% of the votes, is WALDEN WONG! An eight-time Inkwell winner now, this is Walden’s second win for Favorite Inker!

 

Most-adaptable:  

Artist showing exceptional ink style versatility over other pencil artists.

A) Marc Deering: Joker: Year of the Villain (DC); Black Panther, Immortal Hulk, Red Goblin/Red Death, Star Wars: Doctor Aphra, Venom Unleashed (Marvel)

B) Jonathan Glapion: Aquaman, Batman: Last Knight on Earth, Joker: Year of the Villain, Terrifics (DC); Spawn (Image)

C) Scott Hanna: Justice League Odyssey, Suicide Squad (DC); Avengers, Dr. Strange (Marvel)

D) Jay Leisten: Absolute Carnage, Daredevil, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-man, Return of Wolverine, Symbiote Spider-man (Marvel)

E) Norm Rapmund: Batgirl, Batman, Batman Beyond, Flash Forward, Tales from the Dark Multiverse: Death of Superman, Wonder Woman (DC)

F) J.L. Straw: Aliens: Rescue, Halo: Lone Wolf (Dark Horse)

G) Walden Wong: genLOCK, Justice League (DC); Crazy, Incredible Hulk: Last Call, Marvel’s Hero Project Season 1: Mighty Rebekah, Star Wars: Age Of Republic Heroes–Obi-Wan Kenobi; X-23 (Marvel)

With 41% of the votes, our nine-time winner is again, WALDEN WONG! This is his record-setting sixth Most-Adaptable Award trophy since 2014.

 

Props award: Ink artist deserving of more attention for their work over other pencil artists. (Those nominated for, or past winners of, “Favorite Inker” are ineligible.) 

A) Eber Ferreira: Freedom Fighters, Detective Comics, Supergirl (DC)
B) Stefano Guadiano: Walking Dead (Image); DCeased (DC)

C) Jonathan Glapion: Aquaman, Batman: Last Knight on Earth, Joker: Year of the Villain, Terrifics (DC); Spawn (Image)

D) Le Beau Underwood: Absolute Carnage: Captain Marvel, Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur (Marvel); Noble (Lion Forge)

The winner, with 32% of the votes, is EBER FERREIRA!  This is Eber’s 4th Inkwell Award nomination overall in this category and his second win in this category.

 

The S.P.A.M.I: Favorite Small Press And Mainstream/Independent ink work over another pencil artist (non-Marvel//DC work).

) David Cabeza: Superb (Lion Forge)

B) Adelso Corona: Bloodshot (Valiant)

C) Anthony Fowler: Firefly (Boom Studios)

D) Stefano Guadiano: Walking Dead (Image)

E) Le Beau Underwood: Noble (Lion Forge)

With 22% of the votes, our winner is STEFANO GAUDIANO in what turned out to be the closest race! He had previously taken this category in 2016 and last year but has been a nominee and often the runner-up every single year since 2013.

 

All-in-one award: Favorite artist known for inking his/her own pencil work.

A) Brad Krause: Grave World (Radiance Media)

B) Sean Gordon Murphy: Batman: Curse of the White Night (DC)

C) Stan Sakai: Usagi Yojimbo (IDW)

D) Liam Sharp: Green Lantern (DC)

The winner, with 34% of the votes, is: LIAM SHARP! This is Liam’s second Inkwell nomination AND win in this category, the first time being in 2018! He’s also the first winner to win twice for this category in 10 years.

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THE STACEY ARAGON SPECIAL RECOGNITION AWARD (SASRA): Allen Bellman, Sal Buscema and Norman Lee

Other nominees: Jack Abel, Gene Day, Bill Everett, Frank Frazetta, Graham Ingles, Dennis Janke, Michael Kaluta, Pablo Marcos, June Tarpe Mills, Bob Oksner, George Papp, Wendy Pini, Stan Sakai, Bill Sienkiewicz, Dave Simons, Jim Starlin, Art Thibert, Charles Vess, Al Vey and Bob Wiacek

THE JOE SINNOTT HALL OF FAME: Bob Layton, John Romita Sr, and Bernie Wrightson

Other nominees: Brett Breeding, Johnny Craig, Mike Esposito, George Klein, Steve Leialoha, Pablo Marcos, Terry Moore, Mike Royer, Chic Stone and Bob Wiacek

 

The first Hall of Fame recipient had been nominated for this award four times, the last three years in a row, but this year, the fifth nomination was the one for “Babyface” Bob Layton!

 

The next Hall of Fame award goes to Jazzy Johnny, John Romita Sr.! At 90, John is now retired.

 

The third and only posthumous recipient is the “Master of the Macabre” himself, Bernie Wrightson, who was our first recipient after the debut of the Special Recognition Award in 2015 at Heroes Con while receiving treatment and surgery from his brain cancer that would tragically take him two years later. Bernie was previously nominated four times for the Sinnott Hall of Fame but the fifth times the charm. He is the first winner of the SASRA to also win the Sinnott Award.

Joe Sinnott, the award’s namesake and first 2008 winner, made the following statement about this year’s inductees late last year:

“It is with great pleasure that we have elected 3 very worthy and deserving artists to the growing list of members inducted into the Inkwell Awards Joe Sinnott Hall of Fame:

Bernie Wrightson, Bob Layton and John Romita.

I have never had the pleasure to work with Bernie Wrightson, but have admired his tremendous work for years. His work on Swamp Thing was a pleasure to see, but I feel that his Frankenstein art is some of the best work ever published. Bernie lived for many years in my hometown of Saugerties, and it was always a pleasure to see him. We always had great talks when we would get together. We all miss him very much. 

When Bob Layton was an up an coming artist, he would come to visit me at my home from time to time. We certainly had some great visits then, and still enjoy getting together at conventions. Bob’s work on Iron Man has certainly made a major impact on comics in recent years, and on the big screen as well. I did ink a cover with Bob many years ago. (Power Man #63). I am so proud of Bob and what he’s accomplished. 

What can I say of John Romita that hasn’t already been said. John is a legend in his own right. I have worked with him on countless projects throughout the years such as the Fantastic Four, Captain America and even a Star Wars Droids story. You can add in numerous covers as well. We don’t see each other as much as we once did, but it is always a great pleasure to spend time with John at the few shows that we do attend.

It is an honor to have these three outstanding gentlemen enshrined in our Hall of Fame. They have all brought a tremendous talent and plenty of hard work, dedication and class to the comic industry. Their pencil work alone is an asset to the industry, but their inked work makes it all the better. Great job!

Your friend,

Joe

(Joe Sinnott, December 29, 2019)

This would be Joe’s final Hall of Fame winners statement since he recently passed away June 25 at the age of 93.

Hall of Fame tributes will be added to the website by August or September.

On June 25 at 10:50am, grandson and author Dorian Jack Sinnott posted the following statement at the Facebook Joe Sinnott Art Page that he admins:

“It with great sorrow that we must announce the passing of Joltin’ Joe Sinnott on June 25th at 8:40am at the age of 93. He went peacefully with the knowledge that his family, friends, and fans adored him. He enjoyed life and was drawing up until the end. He always loved hearing from all of you and having your comments read to him. Each and every one of you were special to him.
The Sinnott family requests their privacy and understanding during this difficult time. Please send condolences to:
The Sinnott Family
27 Spaulding Lane
Saugerties, NY 12477
Thank you again for being such loyal and dedicated fans and friends to Joe. He considered all fans friends, and seeing you at cons and reading your messages was what kept him young at heart.
RIP Joe Sinnott
October 16th, 1926 – June 25th, 2020″

Inkwell Awards founder & director made the following statement on his Facebook account that same day:

“Joe Sinnott: 1926-2020

It’s true. Many of you may have already read about it. We at the Inkwell Awards lost the heart and soul of the Inkwell Awards family. I was informed by the family that Joe was in hospice Wednesday. I knew this devastating news was coming but I am still not ready for it. I’m trying to get my thoughts together but I’m overwhelmed by it all. For that please forgive me. I also have a computer issue atm and can’t retrieve a photo to accompany this post. (Update: pal Mike White sent me this pic from the 2018 Terrific since I don’t have access to my other photos atm. Thanks, Mike!)

I am privileged that Joe was my friend. I believe the last time I spent with Joe was last year’s gallery of his life and career in Saugerties, NY. There was a tentative plan to visit him after the holidays but plans changed. I had been making calls to Joe monthly and as the pandemic hit us it tragically meant a quarantine for Joe from the outside world. I tried calling him weekly. We last spoke in mid-May and it was possibly the longest call we’d ever had together. He told me he was looking forward to my next call and I know the isolation was rough on him. I tried calling two more times but I couldn’t seem to connect with him. Mark Sinnott told me he was also having a hard time reaching him. I was soon informed that Joe was transferred to the hospital because he was weak and had lost a lot of weight. Anyone who knew Joe knows he was relatively thin so that info seriously concerned me. Calls were not possible and it was hoped that he’d be stronger and bounce back after a month’s stay. But he declined further and this week I was informed he was in hospice. And now he’s gone. I wish I’d had another visit or another call with him. Wish I’d made more time to try to catch him on the phone.

When the Inkwell Awards were formed over 12 years ago there was little to no hesitation that Joe would be our Hall of Game Award namesake. His reputation was sterling, his body of work legendary, his talent universally recognized. And he was a fine gentleman of a human being. Joe was ecstatic when we asked for his approval in 2008 and when he was announced as our first special ambassador. Joe gave our fledgling non-profit the credibility and respect that we needed in order to survive long term and he was thrilled when we attended shows together and got to meet the team volunteers and spokesmodels. It amazed me that the quality of his ink lines and drawing prowess at his age were still unmistakable and flawless as anything he’d done over the decades. He only began to slow down a year or so ago, reducing workload and public appearances. He cherished meeting his peers, friends and fans at every location. But the travel, the sketching, even signing items became too draining for him. Mark was staunch and resolute about looking after his dad and thank God for that. It was comforting to know Mark would always be his top advocate, deciding on what was best for his health. In the past couple of years I began hugging him more when we got together. I’m not sure how a Navy Seabee who had stormed Okinawa in WWII felt about that but he never showed disapproval. Everyone loved Joe and he always reciprocated, the nicest guy and most sincere man around anywhere. Even with his relatively small stature he was a giant among artists, setting the bar high and showing others how it was done. He inspired everyone and I was always fond of him and truly honored to be his friend. I loved this exceptional man. And I will always miss him.

A world without Joltin’ Joe is a sad, poorer place. But his art career achievements, his work, his humanity, his legacy will always bring love and joy to the world.

Sincere condolences on behalf of the Inkwell Awards to his beloved family and loved ones for their incredible loss.”

On June 30 Dorian posted this update:

“Joe was buried today privately with military honors and a beautiful Catholic mass at St. Joseph’s Church. He was surrounded by his family. Thank you to Father Chris and Deacon Smith for the beautiful service. Joe would have been honored.
A celebration of life for Joe will be held at a future date. Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers ?”

 

July 2- Bob Almond: “I am sorry to have taken so long to post this at the Inkwell website. It has been a devastating, somber week of mourning.  I am heart-broken. Joe was a fundamental, crucial part of our organization FROM DAY ONE soon after we formed in January 2008. He was 81 then. Twelve and a half years he served. If our late, beloved Stacey Aragon was our heart, then Joe was our soul, and he always will be. Picking Joe for his role as special ambassador and Hall of Fame namesake was a no-brainer. He is debatably the best damn ink artist ever in the industry of comic book sequential art. And his reputation as a gentleman and kindhearted and altruistic person trumped even the artistic achievements. Just having his name associated with us gave us credibility and respect. I thank my lucky stars that when Jim Tournas and I first approached him and his son Mark at the 2008 NY Comic Con that they accepted. Mark was Joe’s handler & protector. He was the essential liaison between his dad and us and if it wasn’t for him the many accomplishments we made would never have happened, thousands of fundraising dollars would not have been raised. He was/is under-appreciated and awarding him an Above & Beyond Award hopefully showed him how important he truly was to us. I attended numerous shows beside Mark & Joe, had dinners with them, my senior spokesmodel Hailey and other close friends of the Sinnotts, and I had the joy of visiting the family at their home and Joe at his apartment. I became part of their family and Joe became my cherished friend. I didn’t see that coming in a million years. (And it’s so ironic that between the mid-1980 to early 1990 Wrightson Halloween parties in Woodstock and the Ramapo High School Cons that followed, both in the upper state New York region that I would not run into Joe in his Saugerties backyard for years. I guess I’ll always be tied to that community of fine folks and legendary artists.)

It’ll be hard going forward without his good-spirited laughter and smile. He is loved. He is missed. He left this world a much better place and we tragically shall never see his like again. But I count my lucky stars for every moment and conversation I ever had with him as it enriched my life. Forward and upward the Inkwell Family soars into the next decade as a successful advocacy organization. Thank you, Joe!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(New Bedford, MA/USA—May 6, 2020) The Kubert School had their annual scholarship awards event earlier in May via a virtual scholarship ceremony through Google Meet, due to the Covid-19 global pandemic. The Inkwell Awards’ 11th Dave Simons Inkwell Memorial Scholarship Award of $1000 was presented to second-year student Ryusei Sawada. The school posted an announcement of all award recipients on its website.

Sawada is an aspiring artist originally from Tokyo, Japan, whose ultimate goal is to work for publishers like Marvel, DC, and Image as an inker/artist. He entered the Kubert School right out of high school.

Normally, according to The Inkwell Awards’ founder/director Bob Almond, the non-profit would send a representative to the Dover, NJ institution to attend the live ceremony and personally congratulate the winning student. But due to shelter-in-place orders, they were unable to, and school director Carol Thomas informed him that the school had already set up remote learning, which will remain in place until the end of the year.

“There were some timing issues but the virtual ceremony was a great idea,” said Almond. “This way the lucky winner was able to get even more public recognition. Kudos to school director Mike Chen and the Kubert School staff for getting it done despite many challenges. We hope to be there next year to shake the hand of the winner.”

The Inkwells created the scholarship award on behalf of their ink artist friend and committee member, Dave Simons, shortly after his passing in 2009, with the approval of his sister, Bette Simons. Bette shared the following statement:

“We are all navigating uncharted waters in this current environment. With unity, strength and faith we will manage to get through this and be stronger. Even considering all that is happening in the world right now, we must still manage to maintain some sense of normalcy which is why, for the 11th year, I am honored to recognize the recipient of The Dave Simons Inkwell Memorial Scholarship for 2020.

For those of you that do not know Dave or perhaps even his accomplishments, I can tell you that he devoted his entire life to being the best artist he could be and only wanted to get better. He was always critical of his work, looking for the most seemingly insignificant detail that would have made it even just a little bit better.

He was a mentor to many and was mentored by many of the best in the business. He thrived on interacting with others, sharing ideas and inspiration. He had great successes and crushing failures but with the failures, he never lost sight of the fact that he was doing what he loved most.

It will be 11 years next month since Dave passed and I miss him every day. I have no words to express my gratitude to all of the people that continually support this scholarship program. It takes relentless effort and dedication to be able to make this presentation in Dave’s memory every year. For that, I am eternally thankful.

Congratulations to this year’s recipient Ryusei Sawadi. I wish you much success and happiness.”

Dave Simons (1954-2009) was an American artist known for his work on the characters Conan, Ghost Rider, Red Sonja, Howard the Duck and Spider-Man for Marvel Comics, and “Forgotten Realms” for DC Comics. He was also a storyboard artist for the award-winning animated TV show, “Courage the Cowardly Dog,” while simultaneously handling the art for DC’s comic book spin-off. To date, Inkwells has raised $11,000 in his name to students in need.

Our host show the Great Philadelphia Comic Con! was forced to shut down for April 3-5 by the Governor of PA as a precaution for the Covid-19/Coronavirus pandemic. The show and our awards ceremony has been rescheduled to September 4-6, 2020. Here is the statement from the promoter of the show: “We regret the disappointment and inconvenience this turn of events has caused. Like every business we are all at the mercy of the status of the virus and the preventative actions of the federal state of emergencies. We will be monitoring and reporting any relevant convention changes for us. Thanks for your understanding.”

In response to the Coronavirus/Covid-19 virus pandemic the state of Massachusetts called a state of emergency and after much deliberation the Ace Comic Con: Northeast- Boston decided to cancel the show March 20-22 in the hopes of rescheduling it again, but with no guaranties. We are in communications with our Inkwell host-show the Great Philadelphia Comic Con! and while the show is presently expecting to be held along with our awards ceremony, we’ll keep you posted here should these plans change.

Some of you might have noticed that for the past week this site had a different look. We’ve been working over the past year+ with new senior contributor Steven Freivogel to upgrade the venue and while it’s now uploaded it’s still a work in progress as we try to fine-tune it. This is the third site for our non-profit, the first being set up by committee member Jim Tournas in 2008 and the second version set up by committee member Sarah Covert (now Gerhardt) and Bob Almond in 2011. But now in 2020 as we are entering our second decade of existence the team wanted us to progress with the times. Much kind thanks to all the time & effort on the parts of not only Steven but Mike Pascale, Rhys Evans and Tim Aslat w/ Daniel Best (both who’ve been our webmasters since 2008 and were instrumental with the changeover). We continue to work at making our site the one-stop resource for all things inking!

Posted yesterday on social media:

“**AT LAST! INKWELL AWARDS FUNDRAISING AUCTIONS ARE BACK! Starting today we have 16 original art donations on the block on eBay for the next 7 days! Much kind thanks to the generosity of several donors and supporters such as Jae Lee, Elias Chatzoudis, Tony Kordos w/ Paul Pelletier, Joe Prado w/ Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez and Joe by himself, Brian Stelfreeze, Tom Raney, Walden Wong w/ Keith Giffen (2), Josef Rubinstein, Bob Camp, Mark Farmer, and a few past Inkwell Joe Sinnott Inking Challenges that weren’t run previously such as a Neil D Vokes embellished job over Loki, and for Erik Larsen’s Spotlight#3 Savage Dragon inks by Marc Deering, Scott James and Tom Schloendorn. These will be gradually leading up to the upcoming 4th Sinnott Inking Challenge Spotlight on…David Finch! PLEASE SHARE AND LOOK (BIDDING WOULD BE GREAT, TOO!) And thanks as always to my team that makes this all happen! https://www.ebay.com/sch/theinkwellawards/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from=&rt=nc&LH_Auction=1

On May 4 the Kubert School had their annual scholarship awards ceremony and the Inkwell Awards awarded their 10th Dave Simons Inkwell Memorial Scholarship Award with veteran core committee Erick Korpi representing our non-profit organization to AJ Cassetta. Special Inkwell ambassador, author and advocate Clifford Meth, who has represented us several times previously, was in absentia this year. So Erick assisted for disbursing his scholarships. Erick shared his experiences and details from this special event.

Thanks much to Michael Chen for the photos and info. And to Erick for taking the day to attend this event on behalf of us and the late Dave Simons and his sister Bette Simons Rock.

2019 Award Winners:

Danielle Farino — $1000 Dave Cockrum Scholarship
AJ Cassetta — $1000 Dave Simons Inkwell Memorial Scholarship Award
Adam Quinones — $250 Gene Colan Scholarship

Presenters:

Adam Kubert, Kubert School Co-President
Carol Thomas, Kubert School Associate Director
Erick Korpi, representing the Inkwell Awards
Lloyd Briggery, Kubert School Events Coordinator
Mark Monahan, representing the Dave Monahan Family
Tyler Chin-Tanner, President & Co-Publisher of A Wave Blue World
Lisa Y. Wu, VP of Sales & Marketing of A Wave Blue World

 

 

As reported at CBR and on Joe Sinnott’s Facebook page on March 18, first Inkwell special ambassador, Hall of Fame namesake, award recipient, Eisner Award winner, inking God and all-around great guy, JOE SINNOTT, is officially retired after 69 years of a continuous, prosperous and impactful comic book career in his life. Much-deserved relaxation for the Joltin’ One! He retired officially from Marvel Comics from monthly comic book deadlines back in 1992 (attached photo) and has worked on inking the Spider-man newspaper strip until this month as well as doing commissions, small assignments and convention hopping. Post retirement, only the convention attendance will continue and they will be limited and tentative dependent on Joe’s health. He’ll be doing limited signings at these shows but no sketching. How does this effect his association to the Inkwells? Not significantly. We will join him at two shows: at The Undiscovered Realm Comic Con in White Plains, NY May 4-5 we’ll be sitting beside him and we’ll both be in attendance at the Terrificon at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, CT August 9-11 (only 9-10 for Joe). We have the 6th Sinnott Inking Challenge Book & 10th Anniversary Album being produced after a three-year absence by new, incoming Book Production Editor Renee Woodruff. It will contain Joe’s “Sinnott Soapbox” and he will tentatively sign copies of this final edition to the Inkwell series. After giving Joe a season off, the 9th Joe Sinnott Inking Challenge has been discussed and is tentatively being considered with help from good family friend, handler and Inkwell senior contributor Jim Tournas. One thing is ultimately clear: the most important and shared goal of us and Joe’s family and friends is Joe’s health and wellness. Shows, signing and his Challenge, these are all subject to change and we will not put pressure on him about anything is he’s not up to it. After witnessing how Stan Lee’s final year played out we aim to be concerned and cautious about our loved one in our family first and foremost. He loves the medium and community but he still deserves to enjoy life in his twilight years. We hope you all understand.