Inkwell Awards Announces Sinnott Legacy Inking Challenge Featuring Al Milgrom’ Hulk Auctions to go live

This event was launched in 2021 to commemorate the life and long career of the late, Eisner award-winning ink artist, Joe Sinnott, and the former annual inking event that had borne his name since 2010. The previous Challenge featured Sinnott’s oft-partner, Ron Frenz, with Thor and his Amazing Spider-Man Sunday news strip partner, Alex Saviuk, with Spidey and Mary Jane. This year, artist Al Milgrom‘s exclusive Incredible Hulk pencil art was scanned and sent to a variety of ink artists to embellish.  Al’s career started in 1972 with ink assisting Murphy Anderson and Crusty Bunkers before he was credited for inking jobs. Around 1975, he was pencilling Captain Marvel (following Jim Starlin) and Guardians of the Galaxy in Marvel Presents. For much of his career, he was not only penciling and inking titles but he was also an editor from 1977 at DC, where he also co-created Firestorm. He started editing at Marvel in 1979, leading to a memorable ten-year stint on Marvel Fanfare. In the 1980’s, not only was Al incredibly prolific with inking much of the Marvel Universe of projects, but he was also hired for his writing on Spider-Man and the Hulk. Joe Sinnott was paired with Al for a couple of notable, long stints at Marvel in the 1980’s, such as the Avengers for 2 years, followed by West Coast Avengers for 2 years, and many covers, starting in the late 1970s through the 1980s.

The eBay listings will read “Welcome to the Inkwell Awards’ JOE SINNOTT LEGACY INKING CHALLENGE!  This 11″x17″ page of art on 2-ply board has exclusive blueline (printed) pencil art by legendary artist ALLEN MILGROM and it was hand-inked by artist XXXXXXX, then signed by both artists and donated to the non-profit Inkwell Awards. It comes with a Certificate of Authenticity, authorized, numbered and signed by Inkwells’ director, Bob Almond. This event is a tribute to the extraordinary life & career of artist Joe Sinnott (1926-2020) who was the Inkwell Awards first special ambassador and Hall of Fame namesake. He spearheaded the first eight years of Inking Challenges until his passing. The ongoing “Legacy” Challenge features former art partners (and friends in many cases) with whom Joe worked beside on various runs at Marvel. In this case, Al & Joe had a long collaboration on both the Avengers and Avengers West Coast in the 1980’s and teamed up for several covers from the 1970s-1080s, including on the Incredible Hulk, which Al felt inspired to draw for the recent program.”

Inkwell Awards founder & director, Bob Almond shared “Al was thrilled to see the outpouring of participating artists and non-artists taking the plunge for what he felt might be difficult pencils to ink. He was quite impressed with the results!”

Bob continued, “Over the winter after some participants dropped out and new ones were added, 46 artists have volunteered to participate by inking the blueline pencils printed on board with the option of using the clean, slick line for which Sinnott was known, or in their own way to showcase how much the ink artist can contribute stylistically. Both professionals from mainstream and indie/small press and non-artist amateurs were allowed to take part for the Inkwell’s mission-related promotional and educational fundraiser project. As in past years, Sinnott’s son Mark and daughter-in-law Belinda are also contributing. And ink artists new to the Challenges include Steven Baskerville, Kevin Kobasic, Henry Martinez, Tom Raney and Matt Slay, among others. Two artists, JE Lozano and Geof Isherwood, who reside in Canada were delayed from getting pieces in on time due to the postal strike so they’re listed as currently tentative.”

Besides the attached gif, you can find most of the images at the organization’s Comic Art Fans gallery and at their Facebook Inkwell Awards group. The auctions will run biweekly starting Saturday January 11 at the Inkwell’s eBay store.

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.