Frank Johnson was a long time Mort Walker assistant who took over the drawing of Boner's Ark after Walker himself left the strip (in the early seventies, I guess). I think you can see the change after 1969, as I will show below. Around that same time he also had his own weekly fill-in strip in the New York Sunday paper, which used all sorts of specially made strips as filler material. Later Johnson took over the inking of Dik Browne's Hi and Lois, although that may have been after Browne died. Mort Walker once told me a salty anecdote about Johnstone telling him 'he loved Dik'.
6 comments:
Wow, I totally forgot about Beany. Thanks for the nostalgia!
Frank Johnson, Mort Walker and Dik Browne all drew in a very similar style, that was typically American. In Europe it never caught on, where humor cartoonist drew in a totally different style. Franquin, Uderzo, Morris, though inspired by American cartoonists, had a totally diferent style from their American counterparts, and themselves influenced most European cartoonists.
Ger Apeldoorn,
Don't forget that Frank Johnson produced the Boner's Ark strip from the 80s until the 2000s (when this strip was canceled).
He also produced the centenary Bringing up Father comic strip, between 1980 (replacing the duo Bill Cavanaugh & Hal "Camp" Campagna) and 2000 (when this strip was canceled).
There's an article about him, which's included in the December 1983 issue from the Cartoonist PROfiles magazine (http://cartoonistprofiles.com). Enjoy to give a peek on this article.
Frank Johnson took over the inking of Hi and Lois, not Hagar The Horrible. After Dik Brown's death, Dick Hodgens took over the inking on Hagar.
Thanks Bob. I will correct that.
Hi Ger, I stumbled upon your blog just as you mentioned. I began assisting Chance Browne on the Hi and Lois comic in 2007. Filling in here and there and helping him keep up to deadline. In 2009 I began drawing and inking the strip by myself, while Chance enjoys playing his guitar and family in retirement. In November of this year, King Features agreed to start letting my name appear in the comics. Appreciate your love of comics. It is truly a great profession and one I feel extremely fortunate to get paid to do! Toonfully, Eric Reaves
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