Inkwell Awards @ Heroes Con 2011

With the 2011 Heroes Comic Con (http://www.heroesonline.com/heroescon/) only about two weeks away, The Inkwell Awards (http://inkwellawards.com) have more details to share about their final 2011 Inkwell tour stop and the scheduled ceremony to take place that weekend of June 3-5.  "While this is our fourth annual awards culmination, it's our first live ceremony, so we want to make it special", shared Bob Almond, the non-profit organization's founder and director.  "Much of our inking advocacy will be at the show and for the ceremony, which will take place Saturday afternoon at the Charlotte Convention Center at a room and time slot to be announced.  We have some notable creators who are graciously involved with the proceedings like artist Dan Panosian who will act as Keynote Speaker.  Artist and former Inkwell committee member Tim Townsend will act as our Presenter. Tim will announce the results from the online April public ballot.  There was a phenomenal response this year at the ballot box and there are some real surprises from our tally of winners.  I'll be hosting the ceremony.   Acting as hostess will be our spokeswoman, Ms. Inkwell, who will be portrayed at this venue by model Kathy Taylor.  We'd hoped to have Joe Sinnott attend the event as our Guest of Honor, but that wasn't ultimately possible. We hope Joe can attend in this capacity in 2012."

"To close out the Ceremony, there will be a small Live Auction for some key pieces of original art donated in support of the Awards" Bob continued.  "Acting as Auctioneer will be artist and Inkwell Ambassador Ethan Van Sciver.  The items to be auctioned will include the signed cover art for the 2010 Wizardworld: New England Con Exclusive Donation Drive book of the character Ms. Inkwell.  This was drawn and inked by artist Craig Rousseau and will include his preliminary art and a multiple-autographed copy of the book.  Another item will be a Kirbyesque image of DC's Kobra rendered, signed and donated by Michael Netzer (which was published in the Jack Kirby Collector magazine).  Michael also donated an unpublished tribute piece to legendary artist Gene Colan."  Michael Netzer commented in an email to Bob  "I figure it's a good time to be thinking about Gene these days as he's back in the hospital. Maybe a good additional reason that it appears in your auction and goes to a cause I'm sure both Gene and Clifford (Meth) are happy to support."  Bob chimed in "Clifford Meth subsequently said that he was very happy about us auctioning off the piece so we feel truly honored to have received it".

After the ceremony the new 2011 Inkwell Awards Donation Drive book will be available for a $15 donation.  Produced by founding committee member Jim Tournas, it showcases the awesome artistic donations from the artist community since the last collection.   And it has an introduction by writer and founding committee member Danny Best.  "It's a nice annual album consisting of great artwork that you'd never see unless you were bidding on these one-of-a-kind gems online" observed Bob.  "This edition's color cover art will be rendered by artist and Inkwell contributor Louis Small, Jr.   The Ms. Inkwell character rendered by Louis is inspired by model Hanna Pawlowska who acted as the spokeswoman and was well-received at the previous 2010 Heroes show."

Bob commented in closing "Speaking on behalf of the entire team, we are exceptionally thrilled and honored that promoter Shelton Drum invited us to be part of his amazing show in Charlotte.  It lifted my spirits after a rough year and he and his staff have been extremely helpful and generous in assisting us every step of the way.  Shelton's Heroes show is famous for its extraordinary support of comics artists. Heroes continues this tradition by giving time and recognition to the true underdogs of comics: the ink artists!"

The Inkwell Awards (http://www.inkwellawards.com) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote and educate about the art form of comic book inking and to annually recognize and award the best ink artists and their work. Now wrapping up their fourth year, the organization is overseen by a number of industry professionals such as founder & director Bob Almond, Jimmy Tournas, Bob Shaw, Nathan Massengill, and Daniel Best who make up the IA core committee, and Adam Hughes, Mike Marts,Ethan Van Sciver, Mark Brooks, Sal Velluto, Mike McKone, Trevor Von Eeden and J. David Spurlock who make up their IA ambassadors, and numerous contributors such as Mark McKenna, Dan Panosian, Louis Small, Jr. and Randy Green among others. They sponsor the Dave Simons Inkwell Memorial Scholarship Fund for the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon & Graphic Art and host the Joe Sinnott Hall of Fame.

Independent Road w/Peter Palmiotti episode #29

Here is my first podcast with Independent Road hosted by Peter Palmiotti, episode #29 to be exact, talked about inking, comics, movies, Inkwell Awards, Heroes Fallen Studios Inc and a few other things as well. Go take a listen while you do some artwork or clean the house. 

The Joe Sinnott Inking Challenge via Inkwell Awards

Joe Sinnott. The name immediately evokes to mind many things: legendary inker, community-respected veteran artist, gentleman, fan-favorite and art partner of Jack Kirby. For the non-profit organization the Inkwell Awards, Joe is their Hall of Fame namesake and recipient, a living representation of what the art form of inking is really about with a decades-spanning career of work to prove it.

This year The Inkwells wanted to try out a new, additional way of expressing their mission of promoting, educating and recognizing inking and its artists. Utilizing two of Joe’s original penciled images of Namor the Sub-Mariner and Dr. Doom, the organization offered a variety of ink artists in the community a rare opportunity to ink over the pencil art of an inking legend, The 2011 Joe Sinnott Inking Challenge. Both characters are instantly familiar from Joe’s long run on Fantastic Four, where he inked a number of artists, including a career defining run over Jack Kirby, along with Rich Buckler, George Perez and John Byrne.

The art, previously donated on blank variant cover comics for fundraising, was enlarged and converted to blueline on comic-sized boards before being sent out to the chosen inkers. “Some of the inkers challenged themselves to capture the feel of Joe’s clean line work while retaining their own individual style,” Bob Almond, founder & director of the Inkwell Awards, stated. “Others, especially those inkers known for their finishing work, took the spirit of the drawing and amped it up to the next level, bringing in their own sensibilities and drawing skills. Neither approach is ‘wrong’ and seeing both methods actually enhances the experience.”

By posting the images side-by-side in their ComicArtFans gallery, this will allow the public to compare the pieces and see what each artist brings to the table and educate people about what inking involves. “This was a concept inspired by promoter Steve Morger’s annual Inking Panel which takes place at his ‘Super-Con’, now the ‘Big Wow Comicfest’ (http://www.super-con.com/),” said Bob Almond, “and he gave me his enthusiastic blessing about using the idea for our needs.

“We hope that this will become an annual event,” continued Almond, “and Joe, in anticipation of upcoming films, will be penciling two more cover pieces, Captain America and Thor, as donations and we will use those images for the 2012 Sinnott Inking Challenge. So check out our gallery and you can be the decider on who led the challenge in inking Joe Sinnott!”

The list of inker participants all lending their generous time and effort spans from the legends of the bronze-age right on up through the modern-age and today’s hot talents: Mike Allred, Kent Archer, Terry Austin, Rick Bryant, Ernie Chan, Klaus Janson, Jay Leisten, Pablo Marcos, Jose Marzan, Jr., Mark McKenna, Bob McLeod, Al Milgrom, Dan Parsons, Sean Parsons, Jack Purcell, Josef Rubenstein, Tom Schloendorn, Jim Tournas and Bob Wiacek. Some of the inked pieces are already posted at the gallery, with more being added as they come in:

Dr. Doom:http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryRoom.asp?GSub=110821,
Namor:http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryRoom.asp?GSub=110820

Another aspect to this project is fundraising. This June marks the scheduled first live awards ceremony for The Inkwells at Heroes Con with Inkwell committee, ambassadors, contributors, and spokesmodel Ms. Inkwell in attendance and with all of the public invited to attend and join the fun. The organization is co-sponsoring the costs of the event with Heroes which will especially include all travel expenses of the award recipients who will be announced exclusively that weekend. So besides the usual ongoing fundraising achieved through their online auctions, this is another opportunity to do so. The pages of original blueline-inked art will be up for auction at ComicArtFans starting Sunday March 20 and will probably run for more than one week. They can be found at the Inkwell Awards auction page at http://www.comicartfans.com/auctions/AuctionProfileAuctions.asp?GCat=35444

The Inkwell Awards (http://www.inkwellawards.com) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote and educate about the art form of comic book inking and to annually recognize and award the best ink artists and their work. Now in the midst of their fourth year, the organization is overseen by a number of industry professionals such as founder & director Bob Almond, Jimmy Tournas, Bob Shaw, Nathan Massengill, Daniel Best and Kris Fenol who make up the IA core committee and Adam Hughes, Mike Marts, Ethan Van Sciver, Mark Brooks, Sal Velluto, Mike McKone, and Trevor Von Eeden who make up their IA ambassadors, and numerous contributors such as Mark McKenna, Dan Panosian, Louis Small, Jr. and Randy Green among others. They sponsor the Dave Simons Inkwell Memorial Scholarship Fund for the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon & Graphic Art and host the Joe Sinnott Hall of Fame.

Joe Sinnott with Ms. Inkwell (Chrissy Cutler) 2010 Pittsburgh Comicon

The 2011 Inkwell Awards ballots go live April 1st-30th so please vote!