Inkwell Awards

The Inkwell Award, sometimes shortened to the Inkwells, is a trophy given in the field of inking in American comic books. The awards were partially named after the Yahoo group whose members include many in the inking community, and after the personal website name of organization founder Bob Almond. The awards concept was created in an "Inkblots" column by Almond in Sketch Magazine #35 in 2007, which saw print in 2008 after the group formation. The mission statement is, "To promote and educate about the craft of comic book inking and to show recognition for ink artists."

Membership and history
In January 2008, Bob Almond began an online discussion on the Inkwell Yahoo Group about recognition for comic book inkers. where the topic of an award was broached. Almond invited participants from the group to form a core committee. The founding members were artists Tim Townsend, Jim Tournas, and Bill Nichols, and writer Daniel Best. Artist Adam Hughes and DC Comics editor Mike Marts were recruited to lend support.

For year one, the committee selected several career-retrospective categories. The resulting ballot was open and ran for two months from April through May with the committee selecting nominations for the Hall of Fame award, the "Joe Sinnott", named in honor of that veteran inker. Voting took place online and was open to the public. Following the inaugural results, Townsend departed in July and Nichols in August. The core group choose as successor artist representative Bob Shaw in November and artist-writer Dave Simons in December. An Inkwell Awards forum was created September 16, 2008.

The following year, with the partially revised ballot categories, a separate Nomination Committee was selected to choose nominees whose work had appeared in the previous year. The election took place for one month in June 2009. Following Simons' death, the core created the the Dave Simons Inkwell Memorial Scholarship for students attending the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art. Artist Nathan Massengill joined the core after the 2009 awards were announced. In January 2010, artist Ethan Van Sciver joined the core.

Wizard Entertainment announced in February 2010 that it would support the Inkwell Awards through promotion and space at its shows, and by sponsoring the awards' first live presentation, scheduled to take place at The New England Comic Con on October 1–3, 2010. Voting was rescheduled from June to August. In March, the organization introduced its spokesperson character, Ms. Inkwell, conceived by Almond and designed by artist Randy Green with assistance from Massengill. The character debuted publicly at the Pittsburgh Comicon on April 23, 2010.

Funding
The Inkwell Awards are self-funded and rely entirely on donations. A 2010 donation book produced by Jimmy Tournas debuted at the Boston Comic Con that April.

Award Winners
Favorite Inker
 * 2008 (retro) Terry Austin & Joe Sinnott (tie)/ (modern) Danny Miki
 * 2009 Wade Von Grawbadger

Favorite Finisher / Embellishe
 * 2008 (retro)Tom Palmer/ (modern) Kevin Nowlan

Most-Prolific Inker
 * 2008 Danny Miki

Most-Adaptable Inker
 * 2008 Danny Miki
 * 2009 Tim Townsend

Props Award
 * 2008 Danny Miki
 * 2009 Matt Ryan

MVP Award
 * 2008 Danny Miki

The Call of Duty Award
 * 2008 Bob Almond

The "SPAMI" Award (Small Press and Mainstream-Independent)
 * 2009 Tim Townsend

The All-in-One Award
 * 2009 Mike Mignola

The Joe Sinnott Hall of Fame Award
 * 2008 Joe Sinnott
 * 2009 Terry Austin/ Dick Giordano

Contributors
Volunteer contributors include artist Dan Panosian, who designed the Inkwell Awards logo. In January 2010, artist Randy Green was added as visual designer of the Ms. Inkwell charity spokesperson character, personified by model Chrissy Cutler.