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Mark your planners! This is the verified and official list of conventions and events we’ll be attending. I’ll be traveling with/setting up for the non-profit along with spokesmodel Ms. Inkwell Hailey Skaza-Gagne at each stop unless it says otherwise. This is going to be a much busier than usual year for us but besides our regular con supporters some new supportive shows are bringing us out to new locations and that certainly helps with exposure. FCBD is pending for me.

INDIANA COMIC CON: April 14-16
KUBERT SCHOOL SCHOLARSHIP CEREMONY: Friday May 5
FCBD: Saturday May 6 (tbd) ??
ALBANY COMIC CON: Sunday June 4
HEROES CONVENTION: June 16-18
TAMPA BAY COMIC CON: July 28-30
BOSTON COMIC CON: August 11-13 (w/ Hailey but no Inkwell Awards set up so not an official non-profit stop)
TERRIFICON: August 18-20
RHODE ISLAND COMIC CON: November 10-12

TODAY is the 2nd non-profit Inkwell Awards BLACK (ink) FRIDAY! All items listed in our website’s Store is 50% off the listed prices this weekend (as long as funds are received by midnight Sunday the 27th EST) plus s&h. Books! DVDs! Prints! and more, while supplies last! (T-shirts are a flat $5 each but please email us to ask about the remaining designs, colors and sizes as they aren’t presently listed in the store.) You can follow the instructions when you add items to the cart like about using a special code to activate the discount.  If there are any problems while shopping please simply email Bob at dmralmond@gmail.com

UPDATE, JULY 12: While we waited for the ceremony video to be uploaded and prepared, I posted the full, original transcript on June 23 below. Tech-God Rhys Evans was able to set up the video above today and upon viewing you’ll see that I clearly had to improvise and cut out most of my prepared speech to make time for all of our guest speakers and award recipients who made statements. Now we have the best of both worlds. (Video taken by James McGee) Bob

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Welcome to the Inkwell Awards 9th annual, and 6th live, awards ceremony! To all the new attendees, a sincere thanks for your support for the recognition of and promotion for the art form of comic book inking, and for returning attendees and members, much gratitude for your ongoing solidarity. This year we have a special treat and privilege to share with you. We are tossing the script and usual structure of the ceremony for a more than worthy reason as we will be starting off with a milestone, special appearance and presentation by Jim Steranko. But before I officially present him, I want to make a request and a note: please refrain from using any flashbulb photography while Jim is on stage. And second, Jim will be discussing a variety of things related to inking and among those things will be mentioning of a couple of notable ink artists who happen to be the latest lifetime achievement award recipients. They will be further mentioned later when I present all of the 2016 award winners. So now that we have that all covered, I am truly honored at this time to call to the podium, illustrator, publisher, author, musician, escape artist and Eisner Hall of Fame comics creator, Jim Steranko!”

<Jim speaks>  

Before proceeding I want to give a Heroes’ thank you to Shelton Drum who reached out and welcomed us six years ago for this convention to be our host show. I also want to pass the love on to Andrew Mansell, Rico Renzi, Trey Alexander, Karla Marsh and the entire Heroes Con staff. Unlike some, Shelton and company are not dismissive of ink artists. They are true supporters, friends and fans of inkers and it’s thanks to them that we get our own day to be heard and recognized.

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Gifs have really taken off on Facebook lately. And after we launched our Joe Sinnott Inking Challenge spin-off program The Sinnott Inking Challenge Spotlight (the first one being on JIM LEE), I was impressed to see that FB friend and artist Patrick Blaine had cobbled together the Superman images by starting with Jim’s pencils and flashing like a dozen inked versions in succession for the viewer to visualize what each inker brought to the table. This gif, posted 4/13, went viral and was shared 1037 times (to date) for the first, incomplete version and 854 times (to date) for the updated version posted the next day! I contacted thanked Patrick for creating this brilliant tool for bringing exposure to our eBay auctions and for capturing and displaying within seconds to anyone not in the know exactly what the unique contribution of ink artists is. As an anonymous FB observer posted on Facebook on April 15:

“Very cool. I’ve always understood how penciling, coloring and even lettering styles can differ from person to person. Never could quite wrap my head around inking though. This shows the same pencilling inked by different inkers. I think I finally get it.”

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