Jon Samsel

I had the good fortune of interviewing Bob Thaves, cartoonist and creator of Frank & Ernest, a popular strip syndicated by United Media in over 1,200 newspapers worldwide and read by 25 million fans daily.

In the early Seventies, Bob had plenty of syndicates interested in picking up Frank & Ernest. The problem was, they all wanted him to change his format.

You see, Bob was pushing a new concept––the single panel strip. Traditionally, cartoonists created comics using single “panels” and rectangular “strips.” Strips such as Dick Tracy consisted of multiple square panels strung together to form a rectangular box. Single panel comics such as Family Circle were fitted into a single square box. Frank and Ernest, on the other hand, broke all the rules by framing a single panel comic in a rectangular box.

The single panel strip format was aesthetically pleasing and allowed Bob to mask his poor lettering skills (the extra space allowed him to use larger letters).

In an industry that did not welcome change, Bob was steadfast in his resolve to create Frank & Ernest as a strip. If he couldn’t create his way, he simply wouldn’t create the strip at all. In the end, NEA broke down and picked up the strip for syndication.

Upon release, Frank & Ernest (and its unorthodox format) was accepted immediately. Nowadays, there are numerous successful single panel strips (Mister Boffo, Nonsequitor) gracing funny pages across America.

For the 25 years that followed, Bob faced a new challenge––creating a humorous new strip each and every day. What could possibly motivate someone to create over 9,000 comic strips, you ask?

“The greatest spur is a deadline,” offers Bob Thaves. “When I was creating strips for magazines, I was free to create as the spirit moved me. That’s not the case with newspapers. Material needs to be delivered on time. There are times when you are simply not inspired. You’ve got to put something down on paper. At that point, it’s not so much creation as it is production.”