Frank Bolle facts for kids
| Born | June 23, 1924 Italy |
|---|---|
| Died | May 12, 2020 (aged 95) Weston, Connecticut |
| Nationality | American |
| Area(s) | Cartoonist, Penciller, Inker, Letterer |
| Pseudonym(s) | FWB F. L. Blake |
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Notable works
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Winnie Winkle The Heart of Juliet Jones Boys' Life Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom |
| Awards | Inkpot Award (2003) |
Frank W. Bolle (born June 23, 1924 – died May 12, 2020) was a talented American artist. He drew many popular comic strips and comic books. He was famous for his work on newspaper strips like Winnie Winkle and The Heart of Juliet Jones.
Frank Bolle also drew for comic books such as Tim Holt and Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom. For 18 years, he was an illustrator for the Boy Scouts of America magazine Boys' Life. He helped create the masked Old West comic-book hero, the Black Phantom. Sometimes, Bolle used different names for his work, like FWB or F. L. Blake.
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Early Life and Education
Frank Bolle was born in Italy. When he was five years old, he moved to the United States to live with his mother in Brooklyn, New York. He grew up in Brooklyn with his mother, Mary, and stepfather, Egidio "Louie" Covacich.
Bolle went to the High School of Music & Art in Manhattan. After high school, he served in the United States Army Air Force from 1943 to 1946 during World War II. When he returned, he studied at Pratt Institute and graduated in three years.
A Career in Comics and Art
Starting in the 1940s and 1950s
Frank Bolle began his art career in 1943. He started by drawing backgrounds for companies that created content for early comic books. His first known drawings were for "Terry Vance" detective stories in Marvel Mystery Comics in 1943.
After serving in World War II, Bolle regularly drew for comics. He worked on "Freddy Freshman" for Fawcett Comics and also for McCombs. He sometimes signed his work for Lev Gleason Publications as FWB.
In 1951, Bolle helped create the Black Phantom, a masked hero from the Old West. This character appeared in Tim Holt comics. He also drew the main "Tim Holt" stories and "Redmask." For DC Comics, Bolle drew the cyborg superhero "Robotman" in Detective Comics from 1951 to 1952.
From 1955 to 1957, Bolle drew Robin Hood stories for comics. He also drew fantasy stories for Atlas Comics, which later became Marvel Comics. These stories appeared in titles like Mystic and Strange Tales. By the mid-1950s, Bolle also illustrated juvenile fiction books, including those about Gene Autry & Champion, Lassie, and The Lone Ranger. Later, he drew for the Choose Your Own Adventure children's book series.
In 1957, Bolle started working on newspaper comic strips. He began by drawing backgrounds for the "On Stage" strip.
Work in the 1960s
From 1960 to 1969, Bolle wrote and drew his own Sunday comic strip called Children's Tales. He would illustrate classic stories like "Cinderella" and "Rumplestilskin" over three Sundays. In between, he also created his own original stories.
He also drew the daily and Sunday strip Debbie Deere from 1966 to 1969. For another syndicate, he wrote and drew the strip Quick Quiz from 1964 to 1965. Around this time, he also started illustrating for magazines like Stag.
Bolle used the name F. L. Blake for a book cover in 1963. He continued drawing comic books, including the superhero series Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom from 1963 to 1967. He also did some work for DC Comics and Dell Comics.
In 1966, Bolle began a long partnership with Boys' Life magazine, the publication for the Boy Scouts of America. Until 1981, he drew many comic strips for the magazine. These included Bible Stories, Pedro Patrol, Pee Wee Harris, and The Tracy Twins. He also drew other art for the magazine and adapted famous books like "The Tripods" and "Between Planets" into comic form.
From 1965 to 1975, Bolle drew covers for nonfiction paperback books on topics like sports and hobbies.
From the 1970s to the 2000s
Bolle drew new stories for horror comics magazines like Eerie and Vampirella in the early 1970s. In 1973, he inked many stories for Marvel Comics, including for The Avengers and The Defenders. He also continued to work for Dell Comics and Gold Key Comics, drawing for Flash Gordon, Ripley's Believe It or Not!, and even a short return to Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom.
In the 1970s, his comic strip work included Alexander Gates (1970–1971), about an astrologist. He also drew Best Seller Showcase (1977–1978), which adapted popular novels like Raise the Titanic. From 1978 to 1980, he drew Encyclopedia Brown. He was also a ghost artist for the Rip Kirby strip from 1977 to 1994. He even drew the Sunday Tarzan strip for a month in 1982. He once said he grew up admiring Prince Valiant and later got to pencil some of those strips himself.
Bolle's last known comic book work was in 1989 for Marvel's Captain Marvel.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Bolle drew and lettered the Winnie Winkle strip for many years. He also worked on The Heart of Juliet Jones from 1989 to 2000. He lettered the Annie strips in the 1980s and 1990s and did some ghost art for it. He also did ghost art for Gil Thorp in 1995, 1996, and 2008. From 1999, he drew the Apartment 3-G strip until it ended in 2015, when he was 91 years old.
From 1996 through at least 2009, Bolle drew pictures of pets for the Westport Pet Company. He also created custom pet portraits. He illustrated a children's book called My Cat Merigold in 2008.
As late as 2004, he was a special guest at Comic-Con International: San Diego, a big event for comic fans.
Awards and Recognition
Frank Bolle was honored with the Inkpot Award in 2003. This award recognizes people who have made great contributions to comics and science fiction.
Personal Life
As an adult, Frank Bolle lived in Weston, Connecticut, with his wife, Lori. They had two children, a daughter named Laura and a son named Frank.
Frank Bolle passed away on May 12, 2020, at the age of 95. He was buried in Willowbrook Cemetery in Westport, Connecticut.
