George Pérez
George Pérez in May 2012.
Born	(1954-06-09) June 9, 1954 (age 58) New York City, New York, US
Nationality	American
Area(s)	Writer, penciller, inker
Notable works	Avengers, vol. 3 Crisis on Infinite Earths New Teen Titans Wonder Woman, vol. 2
Awards	Eagle Award, 1979, 1980, 1986, 2000 Inkpot Award, 1983 Jack Kirby Award, 1985, 1986

George Pérez (born June 9, 1954)^[1][2] is a Puerto Rican-American writer and illustrator of comic books, known for his work on various titles, including Avengers, Teen Titans, and Wonder Woman.

Early life[link]

Pérez's family moved from Caguas, Puerto Rico^[3] in the 1940s and settled in the Bronx, New York, where there was and continues to be a large Puerto Rican community. His parents became factory workers. Pérez started drawing at the age of five.^[2] Eventually, his family moved to Flushing, Queens, New York where Pérez often visited a comic book store called Mike's Comic Hut. He became fascinated with comic books and their illustrations.^{[citation needed]}

Career[link]

Early career[link]

Pérez's first involvement with the professional comics industry was as artist Rich Buckler's assistant in 1973.^[2] Within a year, Pérez had embarked on his own professional career, which included a run on "Sons of the Tiger", a serialised action-adventure strip published in Marvel's long-running Deadly Hands of Kung Fu magazine and authored by prolific comics writer Bill Mantlo. He and Mantlo co-created the White Tiger (comics' first Puerto Rican superhero)^[4] a character that soon appeared in Marvel's color comics, most notably, the Spider-Man titles.

Pérez came to prominence when he started illustrating Marvel's The Avengers, starting with issue #141. His early style seemed very much influenced by Jack Kirby, one of Marvel's leading creators from the 1960s, albeit with more realistic anatomy and a penchant for making his worlds seem bright and beautiful. In the 1970s, Pérez illustrated several other Marvel books, including Creatures on the Loose featuring the Man-Wolf, Inhumans, and Fantastic Four. Whilst most of Pérez' Fantastic Four issues were written by Roy Thomas or Len Wein, it would be a Fantastic Four Annual^[5] where he would have his first major collaboration with writer Marv Wolfman.

[edit] The New Teen Titans

In 1980, while still drawing The Avengers for Marvel, Pérez began working for their rival DC Comics. Offered the art chores for the launch of The New Teen Titans, written by Wolfman, Pérez' real incentive was the opportunity to draw Justice League of America (an ambition of Pérez' which "seemed like a natural progress from the Avengers").^[6] Long-time Justice League artist Dick Dillin died right around that time, providing the perfect opportunity for Pérez to step in as regular artist.^[6] While Pérez's stint on the JLA was popular with fans, his career took off with the New Teen Titans.^[7] The New Teen Titans was launched in a special preview in DC Comics Presents #26 (October 1980).^[8] This incarnation of the Titans was intended to be DC's answer to Marvel's increasingly popular X-Men comic, and Wolfman and Pérez indeed struck gold.^[9] In August 1984, a second series of The New Teen Titans was launched by Wolfman and Pérez.^[10] Moreover, Pérez's facility with layouts, details, and faces improved enormously during his four years on the book, making him one of the most popular artists in comics^[11][12] as evidenced by the numerous industry awards he would receive during this time. (See Awards section below.)

[edit] Crisis on Infinite Earths

Pérez took a leave of absence from The New Teen Titans in 1984^[13] to focus on his next project with Marv Wolfman, DC's 1985 50th-anniversary event, Crisis on Infinite Earths. Crisis purportedly featured every single character DC owned, in a story which radically restructured the DC universe's continuity.^[14] Pérez was inked on the series by Dick Giordano, Mike DeCarlo, and Jerry Ordway.^[15] After Crisis, Pérez inked the final issue of Superman (issue #423) in September 1986, over Curt Swan's pencils for Part 1 of the 2-part story Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? by writer Alan Moore. The following month, Pérez was one of the artists on Batman #400 (October 1986)^[16] Wolfman and Pérez teamed again to produce the History of the DC Universe limited series to summarize the company's new history.^[17]

[edit] Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman was rebooted in 1987. Writer Greg Potter spent several months working with editor Janice Race^[18] on new concepts for the character, before being joined by Pérez.^[19] Inspired by John Byrne and Frank Miller's work on refashioning Superman and Batman, Pérez came in as the plotter and penciler of Wonder Woman.^[20] The relaunch tied the character more closely to the Greek gods^[21] and jettisoned many of the extraneous elements of her history.^[22] Pérez at first worked with Potter^[23][24] and Len Wein^[25] on the stories, but eventually took over the full scripting chores. Later, Mindy Newell joined Pérez as co-writer for nearly a year.^[26] While not as popular as either Titans or Crisis, the book was a very successful relaunch of one of DC's flagship characters,^[2][27]

[edit] The New Titans

Pérez returned as co-plotter/penciller with the New Teen Titans with issue #50 (Dec. 1988), the series again being renamed, this time to The New Titans. Issue #50 tells a new origin story for Wonder Girl, her link to Wonder Woman having been severed due to retcons in Crisis on Infinite Earths. Pérez remained as penciller with the book through to issue #55, 57 and 60, while only providing layouts for issues 58-59, and 61, with artist Tom Grummett finishing pencils and Bob McLeod as inker. The "A Lonely Place of Dying" storyline crossed over with the Batman title and introduced Tim Drake as the new Robin.^[28] Pérez remained as inker for the cover art to issues 62-67 (co-plotting the stories for 66-67) before departing from the Titans book once again.

Superman[link]

Pérez would be involved with Superman in various times over his career. In Action Comics #544 (June 1983), he designed Lex Luthor's trademark battlesuit.^[29] These new designs for the villain were featured as part of the licensed action figure toyline the Super Powers Collection and remain in use in today's DC Comics continuity. Pérez pencilled DC Comics Presents #61 (Sept. 1983) which featured a Superman/OMAC team-up. A few years later, Pérez inked John Byrne's pencils for the Superman/Wonder Woman story in Action Comics #600 (March 1988). He drew portions of Action Comics Annual #2 (1989) before taking over the title with issue #643 (July 1989). His work duties on Action Comics would change from writer/penciller, to co-writer/breakdowns, to providing breakdowns, with writer Roger Stern scripting stories and artists Brett Breeding and Kerry Gammill provided finishing art. Pérez briefly wrote Adventures of Superman, providing plots for issues #457-459 (Aug. 1989-Oct. 1989), and inks for issue #461 (Dec. 1989). Due to an already heavy workload while doing both Wonder Woman and Superman at the same time, he left Action Comics with issue #652 (April 1990).

[edit] War of the Gods / Infinity Gauntlet

It was during this run in 1991 that Pérez encountered problems working with DC.^[30] Pérez has stated that since the storyline's inception, which ran through the Wonder Woman comic and crossed over into others, he had trouble writing the War of the Gods storyline, mostly due to editorial problems.^[30] Pérez felt that DC wasn't doing enough to celebrate Wonder Woman's 50-year anniversary.^[6] To make matters worse in his eyes, DC didn't place War of the Gods in newsstand distribution, which meant that the comic book could only be found in comics specialty shops. Pérez had also built up a plot to marry the characters Steve Trevor and Etta Candy in his final issue. When he discovered that DC editors had decided to not only pass the Wonder Woman title's writing to William Messner-Loebs but also have Messner-Loebs write the final wedding scene, Pérez quit the title and separated himself from DC for several years.^[30]

Also in 1991, Pérez signed on to pencil the six-issue limited series Infinity Gauntlet for Marvel Comics, which was written by Jim Starlin. However, due to the turbulence happening concurrently with War of the Gods, this was a very stressful personal period for Pérez, and he was not able to finish penciling the entire run of Infinity Gauntlet, leaving the project part way through issue #4. The Infinity Gauntlet editorial team decided to find a replacement artist to finish the miniseries, and Ron Lim was the artist chosen (although Pérez offered to remain on as the inker over Lim's cover art for the remainder of the miniseries).

Because of the debacles over War of the Gods and Infinity Gauntlet, it was during this time that Pérez began to gain a reputation as a creator who could not finish projects as planned. Furthering that impression, he went on to work with independent comic book publishers Malibu Comics, drawing Break-Thru and Ultraforce (both titles were part of Malibu's Ultraverse imprint), and then working at Tekno Comix drawing I-Bots. However, despite being paid well by both publishers, he had no enthusiasm drawing the characters, and lost interest in drawing the titles.

[edit] 1990s and return to The Avengers

In the 1990s, Pérez left the spotlight, although he worked on several popular projects, most notably at Marvel Comics with Sachs and Violens and Hulk: Future Imperfect, both written by Peter David. Pérez first returned to DC Comics in October 1996, returning to another incarnation of the Teen Titans. Teen Titans (vol. 2) was written & penciled by Dan Jurgens, with Pérez as inker for the first 15 issues (of its twenty four-issue run). The series ended in September 1998.

Pérez finally returned to a major ongoing title for the third series of The Avengers, written by Kurt Busiek, where he remained for nearly three years, again receiving critical and fan acclaim for his polished and dynamic art. After leaving the book, he and Busiek worked to produce the long-awaited JLA/Avengers inter-company crossover, which saw print in late 2003.^[31] A JLA/Avengers crossover was to have been published in the 1980s,^[32] but differences between DC and Marvel forced the comic to be canceled.^[6] As the artist on the story, Pérez had drawn approximately 21 pages of the original crossover, which were not published until the 2004 hardcover edition of JLA/Avengers: The Collector's Edition.^[33]

Gorilla Comics and CrossGen[link]

Pérez has one creator-owned comic, the unfinished Crimson Plague. A science fiction story about an alien with ultra-toxic blood, the first issue was published in 1997 by the now defunct Event Comics. In June 2000, the original first issue was re-published by Gorilla Comics with additional material and pages, with a follow-up issue published in September 2000. Due to the extreme high costs of being a self publisher,^[34] which ended up being a financial burden and putting himself in major debt, Pérez ended Crimson Plague a second time and it is unknown if he intends to do anything else with the comic. George Pérez Storyteller includes artwork from the unpublished third issue of Crimson Plague.

Pérez worked for CrossGen early in the new century. He penciled four issues of CrossGen Chronicles.^[35] His main project for the company was penciling Solus.^[36] Although intended to be an ongoing series, it only lasted for eight issues before it was canceled due to CrossGen's bankruptcy.

Return to DC[link]

In May 2006, Pérez illustrated the cover art to one of the alternative covers to the direct market release of the annual Official Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide (36th edition) featuring Wonder Woman. He drew the first ten issues of DC's The Brave and the Bold (vol. 2, 2007–2010) with writer Mark Waid.^[37] Pérez worked on Infinite Crisis, the follow-up to Crisis on Infinite Earths, as a fill in artist. He worked on Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds in 2008-2009, thus contributing to every chapter of DC's Crisis trilogy. He is also working with Marv Wolfman on a direct-to-DVD movie adaptation of the "Judas Contract" story arc from Teen Titans. However work on this project has stalled.

He is a co-chairman of the board of the comic industry charity The Hero Initiative^[38] and serves on its Disbursement Committee.^[39] In 2005, an animated version of Pérez made a cameo appearance in the Teen Titans animated series episode called "Go", which was an adaptation of The New Teen Titans #1. In the episode "For Real" André LeBlanc attacks a bank called "Bank of Pérez". In City of Heroes, a Massively Multiplayer Online RPG about superheroes, an entire zone within the game (Pérez Park) is named after him.

The New 52[link]

In September 2011, DC launched a new Superman series written by Pérez, who also provided breakdowns and cover art, with full interior art by Jesús Merino.^[40][41] Perez would remain on the series up to issue #6, with artist Nicola Scott penciled issues #3, 5, and 6. The New Teen Titans: Games hardcover graphic novel,^[42] was published the same month reuniting the creative team of Wolfman and Pérez.^[43] He is also inker of the new Green Arrow series that launched in September 2011, inking over artist Dan Jurgens' pencils, reuniting the initial art team from the mid-1990s Teen Titans series. Pérez and Kevin Maguire will be alternating as artist of a revival of the Worlds' Finest series, which will be written by Paul Levitz.^[44]

Bibliography[link]

Interior pencil art[link]

DC[link]

• 52 #25 (Nightwing backup story) (2006)
• Action Comics (full pencils): #643-645; (layouts only): #647-652 (1989–90)
• All-Star Squadron Annual #3 (among other artists) (1984)
• Batman #400 (among other artists) (1986)
• Brave and the Bold, vol. 2, #1-10 (2007–08)
• Crisis on Infinite Earths #1-12 (1985–86)
• DC Comics Presents (New Teen Titans preview story) #26; (Superman & Omac) #61 (1980–83)
• DC Universe #0 (among other artists) (2008)
• DC Universe: Legacies #5-6 (2010)
• Flash (Firestorm backup stories) #289-293 (1980–81)
• Heroes Against Hunger (among other artists) (1986)
• Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds, miniseries, #1-5 (2008–09)
• History of the DC Universe #1-2
• Infinite Crisis, miniseries, #3-4, 6-7 (among other artists) (2006)
• Justice League of America, #184-186, 192-197, 200 (1980–82)
• Justice League of America, vol. 4, #0 (among other artists) (2006)
• Justice Society of America, vol. 2, #82 (2006)
• Justice Society of America, vol. 3, #50 (among other artists) (2011)
• New Teen Titans, (title then changes to Tales of the Teen Titans) #1-4, 6-34, 37-50; Annual #1-3 (1980–85)
• New Teen Titans, vol. 2 (then New Titans) #1-5 (1984–85); #50-57, 60 (1988–89)
• New Teen Titans: The Drug Awareness (1983)
• New Teen Titans: Games, graphic novel (2011)
• Secret Origins (Robin) #50 (1990)
• Secret Seven, miniseries, #1 (2011)
• Supergirl, vol. 5, #8 (2012)
• Superman, vol. 3 #1-6 (2011–2012)
• Tales of the New Teen Titans, miniseries, #1-4 (1982)
• The Titans #25 (5-pages, among other artists) (2001)
• Teen Titans, vol. 2, #50 (among other artists) (2007)
• T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #4 (along with Cafu) (2011)
• Wonder Woman, #600 (among other artists) (2010)
• Wonder Woman, vol. 2, #1–24, Annual #1 (among other artists) (1987–88)
• War of the Gods, miniseries, #1-4 (1991)
• Worlds' Finest, #1 (2012)
• World's Finest Comics (Teen Titans) #300 (1984)

Image[link]

• Crimson Plague (unfinished) #1–2 (2000)
• Witchblade #92 (2-pages, among other artists) (2005)

Marvel[link]

• Astonishing Tales (Deathlok #25 (1974) 2-pages humor strip, Pérez' first published work for Marvel^[45])
• Avengers #141-144, 147-151, 154, 155, 160-162, 167, 168, 170, 171, 194-196, 198-202; Annual #6, 8 (1975–80)
• Avengers (vol. 3) #1-15, 18-25, 27-34 (1998–2000)
• Bizarre Adventures (Iceman) #27 (1981)
• Creatures on the Loose (Man-Wolf) #33-37 (1975)
• Deadly Hands of Kung Fu (Sons of the Tiger) #6-14, 16-17, 19-21, 30 (1974–76)
• Fantastic Four #164-167, 170-172, 176-178, 184-188, 191-192, Annual #14-15 (1975–78)
• Incredible Hulk #435 (along with Bruce Jensen) (1995)
• Hulk: Future Imperfect, miniseries, #1-2 (1992)
• Infinity Gauntlet, 6-issue miniseries, #1-3 (full pencils); #4 (along with Ron Lim) (1991)
• Inhumans #1-4, 8 (1975–76)
• Logan's Run #1-5 (1977)
• Luke Cage, Power Man #27 (1975)
• Marvel Comics Super Special #4 (1978)
• Marvel Fanfare (Black Widow) #10-13 (1983–84)
• Marvel Premiere (Man-Wolf) #45-46 (1978–79)
• Marvel Two-In-One #56-58, 60, 64-65 (1979–80)
• Monsters Unleashed (Gullivar Jones) #8 (1974)
• Sachs & Violens, miniseries, #1-4 (1994)
• Thunderbolts Annual 1997 (3-pages, among other artists) (1997)
• Ultraforce/Avengers (1995)
• Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction #2-3 (1975)
• What If (Nova) #15 (1977) - Pérez' first collaboration with Marv Wolfman-
• X-Men Annual #3 (1979)

DC and Marvel together[link]

• JLA/Avengers, miniseries, #1-4 (2003)

Covers only[link]

DC[link]

• Action Comics #529, 602, 646 (1982–89)
• Adventure Comics #484-486, 490 (1981–82)
• Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld #5-11 (1983–84)
• Batman #436-442 (1989)
• Batman and the Outsiders #5 (1983)
• Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest #17-18, 21-24, 35, 50, 61, 69 (1981–86)
• Blackest Night: Titans, miniseries, #3 (2009)
• DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest #19 (1982)
• DC Comics Presents #38, 94 (1981–86)
• Flash (vol. 2) #15-17 (1988)
• Green Lantern #132, 141-144 (1980–81)
• Infinite Crisis #1-7 (variant covers) (2005–06)
• Justice League of America #201-205, 207-209, 212-215, 217-220 (1982–83)
• Justice Leagues of:
  • JL? (2001)
  • Aliens (2001)
  • Amazons (2001)
  • Arkham (2001)
  • Atlantis (2001)
  • JLA (2001)
• Justice Society of America (JSA), vol. 2, #83-87 (2006)
• Legion of Super-Heroes #268, 277-281, 300 (1980–83)
• New Teen Titans #5 (1981)
• Teen Titans Spotlight #1, 19 (1986–88)
• Superman #364 (1981)
• Wonder Woman #283-284 (1981), #300 (b&w illustration on inside front cover) (1983)
• Wonder Woman, vol. 2, #25-32, 45-60, 120, Annual #2 (1988–97)
• World's Finest Comics #271, 276-278 (1981–82)

Marvel[link]

• Avengers #163-166, 172-174, 181, 183-185, 191-192 (1977–80)
• Captain America #243, 246 (1980)
• Defenders #51, 53, 54, 59, 64 (1977–78)
• Fantastic Four #183, 194-197 (1977–78)
• Iron Man #102, 103 (1977)
• Marvel Holiday Special #1 (1994)
• Marvel Team-Up #65 (1978)
• Marvel Two-In-One #32-33, 42, 50-52, 54, 61-63, 66, 75 (1977–81)
• Mighty Mouse #4 (1991) -an homage to Crisis on Infinite Earths #7 cover, which had been penciled by Pérez himself-
• Ultraforce/Avengers: Prelude (1995)
• X-51 #5 (1999)
• X-Men #112, 128 (1979)

DC and Marvel together[link]

• Crossover Classics: The Marvel/DC Collection Vol. 1 TPB (1992)^[46]

Awards[link]

Pérez won a 1979 Eagle Award (along with Jim Shooter, Sal Buscema, and David Wenzel) for Best Continued Story for his work on The Avengers #167, 168, 170-177.^[47] In 1980 he won the Eagle Award for Best Comicbook Cover for Avengers #185.^[48] He won the Eagle Award for Favourite Artist (penciller) in 1986.^[49]

Pérez received an Inkpot Award in 1983.^[50]

In 1985, DC Comics named Pérez as one of the honorees in the company's 50th anniversary publication Fifty Who Made DC Great.^[51]

His work (with that of Marv Wolfman and Romeo Tanghal), earned The New Teen Titans #50 a nomination for the 1985 Jack Kirby Award for Best Single Issue.^[52] His work (with that of Marv Wolfman) earned Crisis on Infinite Earths the 1985 and 1986 Jack Kirby Awards for Best Finite Series.^[53]

Pérez has won several Comics Buyer's Guide Fan Awards.^[54] He won the "Favorite Artist" award in 1983 and 1985 and "Favorite Penciler" in 1987. In addition, he won the "Favorite Cover Artist" award three consecutive years 1985-1987.

Pérez worked on several stories which won the CBG award for "Favorite Comic-Book Story":

• 1984 "The Judas Contract" in Tales of the Teen Titans #42-44 and Annual #3
• 1985 "Beyond the Silent Night" in Crisis on Infinite Earths #7
• 1989 "A Lonely Place of Dying" in Batman #440-442 and The New Titans #60-61

Crisis on Infinite Earths won the award for "Favorite Limited Series" in 1985.

See also[link]

	Puerto Rico portal
	Biography portal
	Literature portal

• List of Puerto Rican writers
• List of Famous Puerto Ricans
• Puerto Rican literature

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: George Pérez

• George Pérez at the Comic Book DB
• Interview with George Pérez
• George Pérez fan site
• Comic Book Awards Almanac
• Video interview with George Pérez by Galacticast
• Interview with George Pérez on (re)Search my Trash

Joe Sinnott
Sinnott at the November 2008 Big Apple Con in Manhattan.
Born	(1926-10-16) October 16, 1926 (age 85) Saugerties, New York, United States
Nationality	American
Area(s)	Inker
Notable works	Fantastic Four
Official website

Joe Sinnott (born October 16, 1926)^[1] is an American comic book artist. Working primarily as an inker, Sinnott is best known for his long stint on Marvel Comics' Fantastic Four, from 1965 to 1981 (with a brief return in the late 1980s), initially over the pencils of Jack Kirby.

During his 60 years as a Marvel freelancer and then salaried artist working from home, Sinnott inked virtually every major title, with notable runs on The Avengers, The Defenders and Thor. Marvel impresario Stan Lee in the mid-2000s cited Sinnott as the company's most in-demand inker, saying jocularly, "[P]encilers used to hurl all sorts of dire threats at me if I didn't make certain that Joe, and only Joe, inked their pages. I knew I couldn't satisfy everyone and I had to save the very most important strips for [him]. To most pencilers, having Joe Sinnott ink their artwork was tantamount to grabbing the brass ring".^[2]

Sinnott, who as of 2012 continues to ink the The Amazing Spider-Man Sunday comic strip, had his art appear on two US Postal Service commemorative stamps in 2007.

Early life and career[link]

Born in Saugerties, New York, Joe Sinnott was one of seven children to Edward and Catherine McGraw Sinnott; his siblings were Frank, Anne, Edward, and three who predeceased him, Jack, Richard and Leonard).^[3] He grew up in a boarding house that catered primarily to schoolteachers, some of whom inspired in the young Sinnott a love of drawing.^[4] His childhood comics influences include the comic strip Terry and the Pirates and the comic book characters Batman, Congo Bill, Hawkman and Zatara.^[5]

Following the death in action of his brother Jack, a member of the United States Army's Third Division, in 1944, Sinnott acceded to his mother's wishes not to be drafted into the Army himself, and he enlisted in the Navy in the autumn of that year.^[5] After serving with the Seabees in Okinawa during World War II,^[4] driving a munitions truck, he was discharged in May 1946.^[5] After working three years^[3] in his father's cement-manufacturing plant,^[5] he was accepted into the Cartoonists and Illustrators School (later the School of Visual Arts) in New York City in March 1949, attending on the GI Bill.^[6]

Sinnott's first solo professional art job was the backup feature "Trudi"^[7] in the St. John Publications humor comic Mopsy #12 (Sept. 1950).^[8] Later, during a two-week school vacation in August 1950,^[9] he married his fiancée Betty Kirlauski^[3] (March 7, 1932 - November 1, 2006),^[10] to whom he remained married for 56 years until her death.^[10]

Cartoonists and Illustrators School instructor Tom Gill asked Sinnott to be his assistant on Gill's freelance comics work. With classmate Norman Steinberg, Sinnott spent nine months drawing backgrounds and incidentals on, initially, Gill's Western-movie tie-in comics for Dell Comics.^[11] Sinnott recalled in 2003, "Tom was paying us very well. I was still attending school and worked for Tom at nights and [on] weekends. ... He was mainly drawing Westerns, like Red Warrior and Apache Kid for Stan Lee", editor-in-chief of the two successive companies, Timely Comics and Atlas Comics, that became Marvel Comics.^[12] "I have to give all the credit to Tom for giving me my start in comics," Sinnott added.^[13]

Timely/Atlas[link]

Branching out professionally, Sinnott in 1951 met with editor Stan Lee at the company that would evolve into Marvel Comics, which at the time was transitioning between being known as Timely Comics and Atlas Comics. Sinnott was ghost artist on Tom Gill-credited stories for the company's Kent Blake of the Secret Service comic,^[12] and reasoned, he later recalled, "'Gee, Stan can't turn me down because he's accepting all the work we bring in'. So I went over to see Stan and he gave me a script right away...."^[14] Due to creator credits not generally being given at the time, sources differ on Sinnott's first non-Gill Atlas assignment. One standard source gives two stories published the same month: the four-page Western filler "The Man Who Wouldn't Die" in Apache Kid #8 (Sept. 1951),^[15] and the two-page "Under the Red Flag" in Kent Blake of the Secret Service #3 (Sept. 1951).^[16]

Regardless, Sinnott would go on to draw a multitude of stories in many genres for the company throughout the decade: horror, science-fiction and supernatural-fantasy stories for Adventures into Terror, Astonishing, Marvel Tales, Menace, Journey into Mystery, Strange Tales, Uncanny Tales and others; war-comics stories for Battle, Battle Action, Battlefield, Battlefront, Combat, Navy Combat and others, including historical war stories in Man Comics; biblical stories in Bible Tales for Young Folk; Westerns in Frontier Western, Gunsmoke Western, Two Gun Western, Western Outlaws, Wild Western and others, co-creating with unknown writers the titular heroes of The Kid from Texas and Arrowhead, the latter starring a Native American warrior; and the occasional crime story (Caught ) and romance tale (Secret Story Romances).^[17]

He said in 2003, "I used to go up [to the office, at the Empire State Building] and sit in a little reading room with four or five other artists. It got so that every week I went up, the same guys would be in the room. Bob Powell, Gene Colan, people like that. I got to talking to them. Syd Shores was [freelancing] there, too."^[18] The pattern, Sinnott recalled, was for assistant art director Bob Brown to call each in turn to meet with Lee for "maybe ten or fifteen minutes.... There'd be a stack of scripts on the left side of his desk, typed on legal yellow paper. He'd take one off the top and didn't know what he'd be handing you. It could be a war story or a Western or anything. You took it home and were expected to do a professional job on it".^[18]

Sinnott lived in New York City for three years while attending art school, living near Broadway and West 74th Street on Manhattan's Upper West Side, and then returned to his hometown of Saugerties, New York, where he spent his life.^[19]

During a 1957 economic retrenchment when Atlas let go of most of its staff and freelancers, Sinnott found other work in the six months before the company called him back. Like other freelancers there, he had taken sporadic cuts in his page-rate even before the company implosion. "I was up to $46 a page for pencils and inks. and that was a good rate in 1956, when the decline started. I was down to $21 a page when Atlas stopped hiring me. ... Stan called me and said, 'Joe, Martin Goodman told me to suspend operations because I have all this artwork in-house and have to use it up before I can hire you again.' It turned out to be six months, in my case. He may have called back some of the other artists later, but that's what happened with me".^[20]

He began doing such commercial art as billboards and record covers, ghosting for some DC Comics artists, and a job for Classics Illustrated comics.^[21] Former EC Comics artist Jack Kamen, now the art director of Harwyn Publishing's 12-volume, 1958 Harwyn Picture Encyclopedia for children, had Sinnott join a roster of contributors that included such celebrated EC artists as Reed Crandall, Bill Elder, George Evans, Angelo Torres and Wally Wood.^[21] Sinnot also began a long association with publisher George Pflaum's Treasure Chest, a Catholic-oriented comic book distributed in parochial schools. With Bob Wischmeyer, a Treasure Chest writer-editor, Sinnott collaborated on an unsold college-athlete comic strip Johnny Hawk, All American.^[21]

Silver Age of Comic Books[link]

During the late 1950s and 1960s period historians and collectors call the Silver Age of Comic Books, Sinnott continued doing occasional pencil-and-ink stories for Atlas Comics as it transitioned into the nascent Marvel Comics, contributing to such "pre-superhero Marvel" titles as Strange Tales, Strange Worlds, Tales to Astonish, Tales of Suspense and World of Fantasy. He also began a stint with the low-budget Charlton Comics, teamed as penciler with inker Vince Colletta on several romance-comics stories in series including First Kiss, Just Married, Romantic Secrets, Sweethearts and Teen-Age Love that he would do through 1963.^[17]