Frank Springer
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Frank Springer (born December 6, 1929) is an American comic book and comic strip artist best known for Marvel Comics' Dazzler and Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.; and, with writer Michael O'Donoghue, for one of the first adult-oriented comics features in the U.S., "The Adventures of Phoebe Zeit-Geist", in the magazine Evergreen Review.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life and career
Springer graduated from Malverne High School in Malverne, Long Island, New York, in 1948, and from Syracuse University with an art degree in 1952. He then served with the U.S. Army through 1954, and the following year became assistant to cartoonist George Wunder on the comic strip Terry and the Pirates, on which Wunder had succeeded famed creator Milt Caniff. Leaving in 1960 to freelance, Springer broke into comic books two years later with Dell Comics' Brain Boy, starring a telepathic government agent created by Herb Castle and Gil Kane in Four Color Comics #1330 (June 1962). Springer drew the spin-off series' five-issue run of #2-6 (Sept. 1962 - Nov. 1963).
[edit] Silver Age comics
During the remainder of the 1960s early '70s Silver Age of comic books, Springer became a prolific penciler-inker across much of Dell's line, drawing issues of Ghost Stories, Movie Classic, Tales from the Tomb, Toka: Jungle King, and the movie/TV tie-in series The Big Valley, Charlie Chan, Iron Horse and The New People, among other comics. He debuted at DC penciling Batman #197 and both penciling and inking the lead feature, "Dial H for Hero", in House of Mystery #171 (both Dec. 1967). Springer went on to draw an issue each of Detective Comics and Our Army At War, an anthological story in another House of Mystery, and the first two issues of Secret Six — the initial one perhaps uniquely beginning its story on the cover rather than on the inside page one — After that smattering, however, he found more regular work at rival Marvel Comics.
There he made an auspicious if unenviable debut on the fill-in issue Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #4 (Sept. 1968), an origin story retelling sandwiched between writer-artist Jim Steranko's final two issues of his landmark and highly influential signature series. Springer nonetheless soldiered on, succeeding the departed Steranko and drawing issues #6-11. He additionally drew Captain Marvel #13-14 (May-June 1969) and a Hercules back-up story in Ka-Zar #1 (Aug. 1970) before concentrating on his ongoing Dell work through 1973, when that company ceased publication.
[edit] Later comic books
Springer returned to draw a handful of stories for Marvel's black-and-white horror-comics magazines in 1974 and '75, and then sprang from title to title, penciling sporadic issues of The Avengers, Captain America, The Spectacular Spider-Man, and Spider-Woman, among others, and also inked many Marvel and DC Comics.
He then became regular penciler of Marvel's The Savage She-Hulk — drawing most issues from #10-22 (Nov. `1980 - Nov. 1981), and, for a much longer run, the female superhero series Dazzler from #4-31 & 35 (June 1981 - March 1984 & Jan. 1985), plus the Dazzler stories in What If? Vol. 1, #34 (Aug. 1982) and Marvel Graphic Novel #12 (1984).
Springer's other 1980s comics include issues of Marvel's Conan the Barbarian and its toy-license titles based on the properties G.I. Joe and Transformers; and, for DC, a return to the Secret Six in Action Comics Weekly, and issues of Manhunter and Green Arrow, issue #68 (Nov. 1992) of which was Springer's last known comics work.
Miscellanea includes the Atlas/Seaboard series Cougar in the 1970s, and Continuity Comics' Armor in the 1990s.
[edit] Adult satire
With the dark-humor writer-provocateur Michael O'Donoghue — who a decade later would be the first head writer of NBC's groundbreaking TV comedy series Saturday Night Live — Springer from 1965-66 worked on "The Adventures of Phoebe Zeit-Geist", one of the first mature-audience comics in the U.S. Appearing in the magazine Evergreen Review, it joined such features as Playboy's "Little Annie Fanny" and Magazine Enterprises' "The Adventures of Pussycat" as sexually oriented comics features in mainstream media — variously ahead of the nascent or not-yet-existing underground comix. "Zeit-Geist", unlike its innocently bawdy contemporaries, had a darker, sometimes brutal edge, with scenes of bondage depicted as torture rather than Bettie Page playfulness. Evergreen Review publisher Grove Press collected the series as a 1968 book.
Springer also drew the series "Frank Fleet" for Evergreen Review from 1969-70, and from 1971-88 was a regular contributor to the satiric magazine National Lampoon, under the pseudonyms Francis Hollidge and Bob Monhegan.
[edit] Comic strips and cartoons
After having assisted Wunder on Terry and the Pirates from 1955-60 and then moving to comic books, Springer returned to comic strips as penciler of the syndicated newspaper strip Rex Morgan, M.D. from 1979-81. He also drew the Incredible Hulk newspaper strip, starring the Marvel Comics' antihero; the romance strip The Virture of Vera Valiant, with writer Stan Lee; and The Adventures of Hedley Kase in the 1990s. Springer's cartoon art has appeared in Games Magazine, Muppets Magazine, the New York Daily News, Playboy, Sports Illustrated for Kids, and elsewhere.
In the 1960s, he did unspecified work on the animated TV series Space Ghost.
[edit] Later years
Springer and wife Barbara Bunting, whom he married in 1956, moved to Maine in 1995, where the artist has since worked in the medium of oil painting.
[edit] Personal
The couple have five grown children. In 1982, just shy of his 53rd birthday, Springer ran the New York City Marathon.
[edit] Awards
- National Cartoonists Society Reuben Award — Comic Books (Story): 1973, 1977, 1981
- Inkpot Award: 2004
[edit] Quotes
Springer at 2004 Comic-Con International [1]: "There were some raggedy times, but I always had work, raised five kids, bought some houses, bought some cars ... I've been lucky".
[edit] References
- Lambiek Comiclopedia: Frank Springer
- National Caroonists Society mini-autobiography
- Don Markstein's Toonopedia: Brain Boy
- The Comic Strip Project Credits: Rex Morgan, M.D.
- The World Encyclopedia of Comics', edited by Maurice Horn (Philadelphia, Chelsea House, 1999), entry pp. 722-723
- The Who's Who of American Comic Books, by Jerry Bails & Hames Ware (Detroit, Mich.: J. Bails, 1973-1976), entries pp. 251, 332
