Just fifteen months ago I posted about the retirement of Joe Sinnott. Now, sadly, I’m posting about his passing. We lost Joe yesterday—he would have been ninety-four in October. Here are a couple of YouTube videos of Joe reflecting on his career.

Joe Sinnott inked the Fantastic Four for what felt like forever. At one of the New York Comicon panels I attended years ago (don’t ask me precisely which or when), I recall Stan Lee saying that he wanted to bring Sinnott aboard the FF earlier, but publisher Martin Goodman didn’t want to meet Sinnott’s page rate at the time, as even then Joe was considered one of the best craftsmen in the business and was always in high demand.

When Jack Kirby left Fantastic Four (and Marvel), the potential disaster was mitigated by the fact that Sinnott remained the book’s inker. His embellishments lent some continuity to the art that made the changeover a bit less jarring than it may have otherwise been. My own first issues of the title were penciled by George Pérez and inked by Sinnott.

Joe Sinnot was one of the medium’s superior artistic talents and a true gentleman who was very generous with his time, as recounted in last year’s post. Hopefully said post led to a few more postcards and letters being sent his way to express some much-deserved admiration and gratitude.

R.I.P., Joe Sinnott.