| Joe was born on October 16, 1926 in Saugerties, N.Y. to Edward and Catherine McGraw Sinnott. He is one of 7 children including Frank, Leonard (deceased), Ann, Edward, Jack (deceased) and Richard (deceased). His childhood dream was to be a cowboy. After High School Joe joined the U.S. Navy Seabees in Okinawa during WWII. Joe married Elizabeth (Betty) Kirlauski in 1950. Betty passed away in 2006 after 56 years of marriage. They had 4 children, Joe Jr., Linda (deceased), Kathy and Mark; Four grandchildren, Chris, Malissa, Erin, Trevor and three great grandsons, Vinnie, Joey and Tyler. Joe worked 3 years in a cement factory before entering the Cartoonists and Illustrators School in 1949 (now the School of Visual Arts) in N.Y.C. run by Tarzan artist Burne Hogarth. While there, he published his first comic book work Trudi, a 5 page filler story in Mopsy #12 (Sept. 1950) for St. John's Publishing. He also did work for one of his instructors at the school Tom Gill (long time Lone Ranger artist). He began working for Stan Lee at Timely (Marvel) in 1950, pencilling and inking crime, horror, war, westerns, sci-fi and romance books. He also illustrated material for Dell, Charlton, Treasure Chest and Classic Illustrated. He has illustrated the life stories of Babe Ruth, John Kennedy, Gen.MacArthur, Eisenhower, Pope John XXIII, The Beatles, Pope John Paul II, Mother Teresa, Mickey Mantle and many other famous people. In November 1965 Joe began working regularly with Jack Kirby on the Fantastic Four. It is that book that Joe is most well known for. He also worked on many other Marvel books such as Thor, Silver Surfer, Captain America, The Avengers, West Coast Avengers, The Hulk, The Defenders, The Invaders, Rom, The Thing, Ms. Marvel and Nick Fury to name a few. Joe's favorite character to draw is The Thing! Joe has won three Alley Awards as the comic industries best inker and an Inkpot Award at the 1995 San Diego Convention among numerous other awards. Joe semi-retired in 1992 from doing comic books to do the inking on the Sunday Spider-man comic strip which he is currently working on with Alex Saviuk for Stan Lee and King Features. |
