The character of Ms. Inkwell was conceived one day at the fall 2009 Pittsburgh Comicon when Bob Almond was disappointed that he and contributor Tom Schloendorn couldn’t get the public’s attention to look at their charity materials.  After joking around about using a ‘booth babe’ mascot wearing a cheesy ink bottle costume and with an ink stopper on her head, Bob went over and spoke to Louis Small, Jr., an artist known for his working relationships with aspiring and professional models, to discuss the idea of creating a serious character that would be sexy but respectful, that wouldn’t actually be a ‘booth babe’ floozy. Bob discussed this to former Inkwell committee member Tim Townsend who referred him to artist Randy Green who agreed to design the character from Bob’s description and photo references along with feedback from committee member Nathan Massengill.  After seeing a few of Randy’s designs Bob chose the design of a professional business woman.

From this Bob created the identity of Ms. India Wells who ran her corporation India Wells, Inc.   She would be a celebutante who dressed in high-fashion. Bob’s thinking would be that the character would act as the organization’s spokesmodel and while visually provocative, she would be a person with respectability, that moms and their kids could approach at shows without discomfort, and bring credibility to the inking advocacy.

After consulting with Bob and the design, Louis Small, Jr. acted as Inkwell Awards live model liaison contributor and recruited Chrissy Cutler as the first model to portray her at the April 2010 Pittsburgh Comicon. Bob Shaw acted one time as liaison for Amy Fletcher at NYCC and Erick Korpi acted temporarily as a New England model liaison with Bethany Merino. While an effort was made to have some consistency by repeating models, it never quite worked out that way and a new model has appeared at each subsequent venue.

Make sure you check out the photo galleries of Ms. Inkwell spokesmodels.