(New Bedford, MA/USA—January 14, 2026) The 501(c)(3) non-profit Inkwell Awards, devoted to promoting the art of comic book inking, after having released the list of artists participating in its ninth annual Sinnott Inking Challenge Spotlight on November 10 along with its history and recapping Gene’s bio highlights, can now announce the dates that these pages will be on the Inkwell’s eBay store auction block. This year’s Challenge features legendary creator GENE COLAN’s tonal pencil of public domain properties like his iconic Dracula design from Marvel’s Tomb of Dracula series and Jack the Ripper in a Victorian London setting. The event is launching in 2026, the year that celebrates what would be his 100th birthday anniversary.
Inkwell director Bob Almond shared “Clearly a major obstacle is that Gene is no longer with us. This is the first time we didn’t have a featured living pencil artist but this commission piece has been circulating online for a few years and many have asked about what it would look like inked (even if that wasn’t the original intention which tempted us). We were able to acquire permission from the Colan Estate thanks to their estate attorney and Inkwell special ambassador, Clifford Meth and the owner of the original art, Simon Reed, in low-resolution to use as we wished for educational and fundraising purposes. Another difference from previous Challenges is that while Gene was an artistic collaborator with Joe Sinnott, notably on “Captain America”, making this eligible for the Joe Sinnott Legacy Challenge which is traditionally open to any inker participants, the nature and complexity of the image, especially in low-resolution, made us feel that we’d need to give it the Spotlight treatment of recruiting and extending invites to a limited selection of 10 of the best ink finishers in the industry, starting with those artists who have previously partnered with Gene. We are offering the art on the traditional 11″x17″ board in blueline with the logo.” A gif of submitted images is attached below (no file available yet from Janson and Raney at press time).
This year’s invited participating ink artists (in alphabetical order) currently are:
Sergio Cariello
Kevin Conrad
Scott Hanna
Geof Isherwood
Klaus Janson
Andrew Pepoy (14″x20″)
Tom Raney
Josef Rubinstein (painted in ink & watercolors)
Bob Smith
Keith Williams
The Challenge Spotlight furthers the inking advocacy’s dual mission of promoting the artform and educating the public. Each inked page will be signed by the respective inker and include a certificate of authenticity, signed with limited numbering assigned by Almond. All pages have been previewed at the Inkwell Awards Facebook group page as they came in and subsequently will be auctioned on the Inkwells’ eBay page in two waves occurring in consecutive weekly intervals starting on Saturday, January 17th. In the traditionally-displayed, animated gif of samples, fans will be able to see the difference in the pencilled and inked versions to better understand how much inkers contribute to the art form. Proceeds from the auction support fundraising for the Inkwells.
The Inkwell Awards is the only official 501(c)(3) non-profit organization whose mission is to promote and educate regarding the art form of comic-book inking, as well as annually recognize the best ink artists and their work. Established in 2008, the Inkwells are overseen by a volunteer committee of industry professionals and assisted by various professional ambassadors and contributors. They sponsor the Dave Simons Inkwell Memorial Scholarship Fund for the Kubert School and host the Joe Sinnott Hall of Fame Award. As of 2024, their live awards ceremony is hosted at the Hershey Comic Con.
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