Frank Bolle

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Frank Bolle
Born(1924-06-23)June 23, 1924
Italy
DiedMay 12, 2020(2020-05-12) (aged 95)
Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom
AwardsInkpot Award (2003)
External image
image icon Frank Bolle, Westport, Connecticut, Public Library, August 2009. Archived from the original on December 4, 2017.

Frank W. Bolle (June 23, 1924 – May 12, 2020)

Old West comic-book heroine the Black Phantom. Bolle sometimes used the pen name
FWB and, at least once, F. L. Blake.

Early life

Frank Bolle was born in Italy and immigrated to the United States at age 5 to join his mother in

United States Army Air Force,[2] and after his return from World War II attended Pratt Institute on the G.I. Bill, graduating in three years.[3]

Career

1940s and 1950s

Bolle broke into comics in 1943, drawing backgrounds for

cover-dated Sept.-Oct. 1943).[5] He served in World War II,[6] and it is unclear if the small number of Bolle stories that appear in comics from U.S. Camera, Rural Home, and Green Publishing through 1946 were done during the war or were inventory from before his service. His comics output became regular soon afterward with a "Freddy Freshman" story in Fawcett Comics' Captain Marvel Jr. #46 (Feb. 1947) and work in Crown Comics from the publisher McCombs from 1947 to 1948. He did additional work for Fawcett, and signed some of his Lev Gleason Publications comics work FWB.[5]

Bolle himself, in an undated interview, conducted no earlier than 1992, did not mention his prewar work when asked about "the first comic book you worked on":

The first job I got... I had some samples I did for a little tiny outlet called Crown Comics [sic; title of series published by McCombs] where I wrote some stories and I started out by doing a filler — they had a 48-pager but they had space in the back, so they needed a one-page story. I said, 'If you need it Monday, I'll bring it in on Monday', and I wrote a cute little story and they printed it on the back and that was my first sample. Those were the first books I worked on when I got out of the service after World War II. I was 21 or 22.[3]

Black Phantom #1 (1954; no cover date). Cover art by Bolle.

With an unknown writer, Bolle co-created the masked

Western comic Tim Holt #25 (Sept. 1951).[7] Through 1954, he also drew the title feature as well as the backup feature "Redmask", then took over the art for the spinoff series Red Mask, drawing issues #42–53 to (July 1954 – May 1956). Additionally, for DC Comics, Bolle drew the cyborg-superhero feature "Robotman" in Detective Comics
#167–179 (Jan. 1951 – Jan. 1952).

From 1955 to 1957, Bolle drew

children's book series.[citation needed
]

From 1957 to 1961, Bolle began his long career in newspaper

Chicago Tribune-New York News Syndicate's daily and Sunday On Stage
from 1957 to 1961.

1960s

This briefly overlapped his own Sunday comic strip, the

Rumplestilskin' and I did them in three parts so they would appear on three Sundays. And in-between that I would also write original stories, so I wrote about 12 to 15 original stories, then I would switch back and forth from classics to originals."[3] For the same syndicate, he drew the daily and Sunday strip Debbie Deere, "a lonely hearts writer [who] would get involved in some of the letters she got. I did that for about 4 years," from 1966 to 1969.[4][3] For the Chicago Tribune-New York News Syndicate, he wrote and drew the strip Quick Quiz from 1964 to 1965. By this time he was also illustrating for magazines, beginning with the men's adventure title Stag from 1961 to 1962.[4]

He used the

Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom #6–19 (Nov. 1963 – April 1967) for Western Publishing's Gold Key Comics imprint, and did a small amount of work for DC Comics, Dell Comics, and Tower Comics
.

In 1966, Bolle began a long association with the magazine

John Christopher's "The Tripods"[citation needed] as well as an adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein's "Between Planets
."

From 1965 to 1975, Bolle drew covers for nonfiction paperback books including Baton Twirling, Invitation to Skin and Scuba Diving, Scuba, Spear & Snorkel, Soccer, and Boxing.[4]

1970s–2000s

Two stories he

Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom). Additionally, sometimes under his FWB pseudonym, he also contributed to Charlton Comics.[5]

His comic-strip work in the 1970s included drawing the daily and Sunday Alexander Gates (1970–1971); the title character, Bolle said, "was an astrologist, I did that for a couple of years",[3] For

ghost artist on the daily Rip Kirby for King Features Syndicate from 1977 to 1994, and, for one month in 1982, the Sunday Tarzan for United Feature Syndicate.[4][3] In an undated interview conducted no earlier than 1992, he said, "Today, I work on the Prince Valiant strip — I do some of them. It's funny — I grew up reading, admiring and copying Prince Valiant and today I'm the one penciling them!"[3]

Bolle's last known mainstream penciling and inking for comic books is the cover of Gold Key Comics' Shroud of Mystery #1 (June 1982). He later drew a page for the one-shot benefit comic

Captain Marvel vol. 2, #1 (Nov. 1989), over penciler Mark Bright.[5]

In the 1980s and 1990s, Bolle drew and

North America Syndicate strip Apartment 3-G in 1999.[4][10] He continued with the strip through its finale in November 2015,[citation needed
] by which point Bolle was 91.

From 1996 through at least 2009, Bolle did pet illustrations for the Westport Pet Company, as well as commissioned pet portraits, including one that was scheduled to appear in the Walt Disney Pictures movie Old Dogs.[11] He illustrated the 2008 children's book My Cat Merigold by Angelica Joy.[12]

As late as 2004, he was a guest and panelist at

Comic-Con International: San Diego.[13][14]

Awards

Bolle was one of 10 recipients of the 2003 Inkpot Award.[15]

Personal life

As an adult, Bolle lived in Weston, Connecticut, with his wife, Lori.[2] He had two children, daughter Laura and son Frank.[1]

Bolle died May 12, 2020, at the age of 95[1] and was interred at Willowbrook Cemetery in Westport, Connecticut.[16]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "Frank Bolle Obituary". Leo P. Gallagher & Son Funeral Home. Archived from the original on June 7, 2020. Retrieved June 10, 2020 – via DignityMemorial.com. Born in Italy on June 23rd, 1924 and traveled across the ocean alone at 5 years old to join his mother in Brooklyn, NY. He Grew up in NYC with his mother Mary and stepfather Egidio 'Louie' Covacich.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Bolle, Frank. "Frank Bolle". National Cartoonists Society. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved June 28, 2015. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y. June 23, 1924 and started drawing on any scrap of paper I could find.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Petrilak, Joe (n.d.). "Interview with Frank Bolle". Frank Bolle (official site). Archived from the original on October 16, 2016. Additional WebCitation archive on June 24, 2017. Note: Bolle's earliest Crown Comics credit in the Grand Comics Database is a one-page story featuring the children's-humor character Tacky in Crown Comics #8 (Feb. 1947).
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Bails, Jerry; Hames Ware. "Bolle, Frank". Who's Who of American Comic Books 1928–1999. Archived from the original on June 30, 2015. Retrieved 2015-06-28. Note: Information "by Frank Bolle via Jim Amash March 2006".
  5. ^ a b c d e f Frank Bolle at the Grand Comics Database.
  6. ^
    Lambiek Comiclopedia. Archives
    from the original on June 9, 2019. Note: Erroneously gives birth date as June 7, 1924.
  7. ^ Tim Holt #25 at the Grand Comics Database.
  8. ^ Kenfield, Bruce (n.d.). "Interview with Frank Bolle". RaiseTheTitanic.com. Archived from the original on October 25, 2015. Retrieved June 10, 2020.
  9. The Hartford Courant. Connecticut. Archived
    from the original on June 11, 2020. Retrieved June 10, 2020.
  10. ^ Apartment 3-G official website. Retrieved on December 10, 2015. "By Frank Bolle and Margaret Shulock". Archived from the original on December 10, 2015.
  11. ^ "Lori Bolle represents her husband Frank, with Bolle Studios". Fairfield County Business Connections. Archived from the original on December 5, 2008. Retrieved July 5, 2015.
  12. ISBN 978-1598585919
    .
  13. ^ "Latest News". Frank Bolle (official site). Archived from the original on May 12, 2013.
  14. ^ Evanier, Mark (June 9, 2020). "Frank Bolle, R.I.P." NewsFromMe.com. Archived from the original on June 11, 2020. Retrieved June 10, 2020.
  15. ^ "Inkpot Awards". San Diego Comic-Con International. 6 December 2012. Archived from the original on March 6, 2014. Retrieved March 13, 2014.
  16. ^ "Obituary of Frank W. Bolle". Willowbrook Cemetery. Archived from the original on June 11, 2020. Retrieved June 10, 2020.

Further reading

  • Strickler, Dave. Syndicated Comic Strips and Artists, 1924–1995: The Complete Index. Cambria, CA: Comics Access, 1995.
    ISBN 0-9700077-0-1
    .

External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Frank_Bolle&oldid=1177696414"