Number 2464: Joe Sinnott could draw horror

Joe Sinnott, comic artist, died this year at age 93. Despite his advanced age, it is still a bit jarring when I see the death notice for someone I admire, no matter how old. I admire Joe Sinnott’s art, and have enjoyed it for over 60 of Joe’s 93 years.

For Halloween I’ve got four stories Sinnott did for Atlas horror comics in the early '50s. The stories are well drawn and effective, especially one of my favorites, “The Witch in the Woods.” It retells the story of Hansel and Gretel as a comeback to enemies of horror comics. We can assume that horror stories have been told to children around the campfire probably as far back as early humans telling their kids tall tales of monsters and ghosts. I have shown these before, some years ago. They're just as fun to read now as they were then.

From Menace #7 (1953):

From Dead of Night #1 (1973); reprinted from Adventures Into Weird Worlds #6 (1952):

From Uncanny Tales #13 (1953):

From Uncanny Tales #16 (1954):

Number 2249: You’d have to be crazy not to like horror comics

 I have a couple of cute horror stories from 1950s Atlas Comics. “Cute horror” may sound like an oxymoron, but these have a light tone, and are also amusing.

I love stories from comic books that are about comic books; artists, editors, anything that makes me feel I am getting a look inside the busy atmosphere of a comic book publishing company. In “Raving Maniac” from Suspense #29 (1953), drawn by Joe Maneely, an irate critic of comics invades the office to complain about showing monsters, and the editor refutes his criticism. Frankly, if this is a poke at those who were publicly criticizing comic books at the time, then it would bounce off any comic book hater. As I have found out, it is nearly impossible to get past a prejudice with examples, facts, or even humor. Whoever wrote the story was preaching to the choir about comics; no one who hated them would be dissuaded from their hatred. They might also be upset about how the title is a pun on the resolution of the story, “Raving Maniac.”

I showed Stan Lee and Joe Sinnott’s “The Witch in the Woods” in a blog post from 2007, so I made some new scans. It is a funny story about a dad angry with his son for reading comic books when he should be reading “good” books, like Grimm’s Fairy Tales. I always thought “Hansel and Gretel” was a gruesome story, not that it bothered me. My mother regretted taking me to a puppet version of it when I was six or seven. Like the story, she didn’t think fare that included parents abandoning their children in the woods and having a cannibal witch was wholesome enough for me. Ha-ha. Little did she know how bent I was toward this sort of horror, even at such an early age.

From Menace #7 (1953):

Number 2242: You dirty rats!

I have been called a rat before, mostly by girls when I was still a teenager, but I never chose to be a rat. You see, according to “Men With Fangs!” this is how rat men come to be: They have to agree to join the league of rat men. And as the rat who moans that it is hard to get new converts explains, “It is so hard to get a human’s consent!” I have no difficulty believing that, even if the rest of the tale seems beyond far-fetched.

The ratty story is from Atlas Comics’ Suspense #25, and is drawn by Joe Sinnott.

Number 2008: Uncanny Joe Sinnott

Long one of my favorite comic book artists, Joe Sinnott, like the rest of the Atlas artists, went from genre to genre, including horror comics. These three five-page stories, all from Uncanny Tales, are fairly typical horror: someone does something bad to someone, and revenge is exacted appropriate to the evil deed. Joe does some pretty good ugly faces and walking corpses.

Later in his career Joe did some magnificent inking for Jack Kirby and other artists. We also saw his own pencil and ink art in comics like Treasure Chest of Fun and Facts, and other publishers.

I have gotta be me and point out a fubar in “Find a Pin and Pick it Up!” page two, where the BOOKS sign is supposed to be reverse lettering. Someone wasn’t paying attention. I would have imagined editor Stan Lee looking at it after Joe left the office, then grabbing another artist to “fix this, willya?” as I understood was his wont. Somehow it slipped through to amuse sourball Pappy 64 years later.

In order, stories are from Uncanny Tales #’s 13, 14 and 16, all from 1953.