Frank King
Encyclopedia
Frank Oscar King was an American cartoonist
best known for his popular, long-run comic strip Gasoline Alley
. In addition to innovations with color and page design, King introduced the concept of real time continuity to comic strips by showing his characters changing with age over generations.
King was born in Cashton, Wisconsin
, and when he was four years old, his parents, Carol and John King, moved to Tomah, Wisconsin
to run the family general store. He started drawing while growing up in Tomah. When he graduated from Tomah High School in 1901, he began earning $7 a week at the Minneapolis Times, doing drawings and retouching for four years.
, he spent three years with the Chicago Examiner, where he worked next to cartoonist T. S. Sullivant
. In 1909, according to his friend, Chicago cartoonist Lew Merrell, King left the Examiner to work at the Chicago Tribune
for a weekly pay increase of 50 cents. At the Tribune he worked alongside Dean Cornwell
and Garrett Price.
In Tomah, he had grown up with Delia Drew, and they married in 1911 when they were both 28 years old. The couple lived in Glencoe, Illinois
.
The Rectangle began as a Chicago Tribune page featuring a variety of cartoons and serial features. King's Rectangle Sunday page, usually printed in black-and-white outside the comics section, was a late addition to a page that ran for years in the Tribune. On January 9, 1913, King introduced a bounded rectangle containing themed single-panel gags (beginning with a page headed Hints to Husbandettes), but pages in that format did not appear with any regularity until February 1914. The Rectangle title was finally introduced on December 27, 1914.
King created several recurring strips, including Tough Teddy, The Boy Animal Trainer, Here Comes Motorcycle Mike, Hi Hopper (about a frog) and his first successful full-page comic, Bobby Make-Believe (1915). During World War I, King was overseas drawing scenes of the war for publication in American newspapers.
King recalled, "My brother had a car that he kept in the alley with a fellow by the name of Bill Gannon and some others. I'd go to his house on Sunday, and we'd go down the alley and run into somebody else and talk cars. That was the beginning of Gasoline Alley." After King began the daily Gasoline Alley strip (August 24, 1919), The Rectangle appeared sporadically and finally came to an end on February 8, 1920.
King often credited his wife, Delia, for providing a "woman's angle" to Gasoline Alley. The central character of Walt was based on King's brother-in-law, Walter White Drew (1886–1941), and he used his own son, Robert Drew King, as the model for Skeezix. Tomah's Dr. Johnson was the inspiration for the character of Doc, and Bill in the strip was based on Bill Gannon.
King hired young Bill Perry from the Chicago Tribunes mail room and then trained him to work as his assistant. Although King leaned toward a homespun simplicity in his Sunday story situations, he also introduced some unusual experiments with time and space, as noted by comics critic Paul Gravett
:
The success of Gasoline Alley escalated until it was published in over 300 daily newspapers with a daily combined readership of over 27,000,000. According to Lew Merrell, the strip and its merchandising made King a millionaire.
In 1929, the Kings moved to Florida. For 20 years, they lived between Kissimmee, Florida
and St. Cloud
at his Folly Farms estate on the northeast shore of Lake Tohopekaliga
. The cartoonist's estate of 230 acre (0.9307778 km²) along the Lake is still there, hidden among the other houses in the Regal Oak Shores subdivision.
In 1941, King wrote, "Just what the future holds for Skeezix and Gasoline Alley nobody knows. If permitted a fanciful prophecy, I should say that Skeezix will eventually marry, probably raise a family and make Uncle Walt a happy foster grandparent. Skeezix's offspring will in turn grow up, marry and have children. They in turn will thrive and mature and repeat the customary cycle ad infinitum."
At Folly Farms, during the 1940s, King spent time on his hobbies—sculpting, collecting maps, playing the fiddle and raising amaryllis bulbs. He retired from the Sunday strip in 1951, letting his assistant Bill Perry to take over. King retired from the daily in 1959, turning it over to Dick Moores
, his assistant since 1956. The strip continues until the present day.
In later years, King lived in Winter Park, Florida
. On June 24, 1969, Dennis Green, a King employee for many years, arrived to prepare King's breakfast. He heard King moving around the house and later found his body on a bathroom floor. King was buried in Tomah's Oak Grove Cemetery beside his wife, Delia, who died in 1959. The couple's son, Robert King, lived in Des Plaines, Illinois
.
and Buffalo, New York
, and his artwork is in the permanent collection of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum
. In 1955, he was an honored guest at Tomah's Centennial celebration and presented with an Indian headdress. His desk is on display at the Tomah Area Historical Society Museum, and in 1969, Gasoline Alley signs were placed along Superior Avenue in Tomah.
King's Highway in Florida is named to honor Frank King; it runs south from Neptune Road to King's Folly Farms estate. Mr. Enray, the banker in Gasoline Alley during the late 1940s, was based on Kissimmee's real-life banker N. Ray Carroll. When Carroll was a state senator, he had the road named after King by a resolution of the Florida Legislature.
He was twice honored for his work by the Freedom Foundation, and he received awards three times from the National Cartoonists Society
.
Cartoonist
A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is usually humorous, mainly created for entertainment, political commentary or advertising...
best known for his popular, long-run comic strip Gasoline Alley
Gasoline Alley
Gasoline Alley is a comic strip created by Frank King and currently distributed by Tribune Media Services. First published November 24, 1918, it is the second longest running comic strip in the US and has received critical accolades for its influential innovations...
. In addition to innovations with color and page design, King introduced the concept of real time continuity to comic strips by showing his characters changing with age over generations.
King was born in Cashton, Wisconsin
Cashton, Wisconsin
Cashton is a village in Monroe County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 1,005 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Cashton is located at ....
, and when he was four years old, his parents, Carol and John King, moved to Tomah, Wisconsin
Tomah, Wisconsin
Tomah is a city in Monroe County, Wisconsin, United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 9,093. The city is located partially within the Town of Tomah.-Education:...
to run the family general store. He started drawing while growing up in Tomah. When he graduated from Tomah High School in 1901, he began earning $7 a week at the Minneapolis Times, doing drawings and retouching for four years.
Chicago cartoonists
In 1905-06, he studied art at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. After a spell at Chicago's AmericanChicago's American
Chicago American, an afternoon newspaper in Chicago, Illinois, was the last flowering of the aggressive journalistic tradition depicted in the play and movie The Front Page....
, he spent three years with the Chicago Examiner, where he worked next to cartoonist T. S. Sullivant
T. S. Sullivant
Thomas Starling Sullivant was an influential American cartoonist who signed his work T. S. Sullivant. Best known today for his animal caricatures, he drew political cartoons and illustrated children's books....
. In 1909, according to his friend, Chicago cartoonist Lew Merrell, King left the Examiner to work at the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
for a weekly pay increase of 50 cents. At the Tribune he worked alongside Dean Cornwell
Dean Cornwell
Dean Cornwell was an American illustrator and muralist. His oil paintings were frequently featured in popular magazines and books as literary illustrations, advertisements, and posters promoting the war effort. Throughout the first half of the 20th century he was a dominant presence in American...
and Garrett Price.
In Tomah, he had grown up with Delia Drew, and they married in 1911 when they were both 28 years old. The couple lived in Glencoe, Illinois
Glencoe, Illinois
Glencoe is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2010 census, the village population was 8,723. Glencoe is located on suburban Chicago's North Shore. Glencoe is located within the New Trier High School District. Glencoe is regarded as one of the most affluent suburbs on...
.
The Rectangle
King created several recurring strips, including Tough Teddy, The Boy Animal Trainer, Here Comes Motorcycle Mike, Hi Hopper (about a frog) and his first successful full-page comic, Bobby Make-Believe (1915). During World War I, King was overseas drawing scenes of the war for publication in American newspapers.
Gasoline Alley
On Sunday, November 24, 1918, the bottom quadrant of The Rectangle featured Walter Wallet and his neighbors Bill, Doc and Avery as they repaired their automobiles in the alley behind their houses. The corner was titled Sunday Morning in Gasoline Alley.King recalled, "My brother had a car that he kept in the alley with a fellow by the name of Bill Gannon and some others. I'd go to his house on Sunday, and we'd go down the alley and run into somebody else and talk cars. That was the beginning of Gasoline Alley." After King began the daily Gasoline Alley strip (August 24, 1919), The Rectangle appeared sporadically and finally came to an end on February 8, 1920.
King hired young Bill Perry from the Chicago Tribunes mail room and then trained him to work as his assistant. Although King leaned toward a homespun simplicity in his Sunday story situations, he also introduced some unusual experiments with time and space, as noted by comics critic Paul Gravett
Paul Gravett
Paul Gravett is a London-based journalist, curator, writer and broadcaster who has worked in comics publishing and promotion for over 20 years....
:
- Other precedents from America’s newspaper supplements were occasional experiments by Frank King in his Gasoline Alley Sunday pages where he would turn the whole page into one continuous landscape. For example, on 24 May 1931, King uses an unrealistic, almost isometric perspective to turn the page into a single image, like a diagram viewed from above, of the neighborhood and its assorted residents. This angled aerial view he divides into 12 equal panels, each containing at least one fresh character to contribute their own moment of comedy. In more of an ensemble of jokes than a strictly linear narrative, no characters appear here more than once. King went further, however, in 1934 when over three consecutive weeks he used the whole page as one image to portray a house being built, from bare site to construction to finishing touches. The first of these, dated 25 March 1934, presents repeated images of Skeezix and his pal Whimpy as they play around the foundations dug out of their favorite baseball diamond and meet a local girl. Here the threesome move around 12 identical square panels and time unfolds in sequence, although jumping ahead sometimes by a considerable period from one to the next.
The success of Gasoline Alley escalated until it was published in over 300 daily newspapers with a daily combined readership of over 27,000,000. According to Lew Merrell, the strip and its merchandising made King a millionaire.
In 1929, the Kings moved to Florida. For 20 years, they lived between Kissimmee, Florida
Kissimmee, Florida
Kissimmee is a city in Osceola County, Florida, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 59,682. It is the county seat of Osceola County...
and St. Cloud
St. Cloud, Florida
St. Cloud is a city in Osceola County, Florida, United States. The population was 35,183 at the 2010 census. St. Cloud is closely associated with the adjacent city of Kissimmee and its proximity to Orlando area theme parks, including Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando Resort, and Seaworld.St...
at his Folly Farms estate on the northeast shore of Lake Tohopekaliga
Lake Tohopekaliga
Lake Tohopekaliga Tohopeka ; Tohopekaliga [from tohopke /to-hó:pk-i/ fence, fort + likv /léyk-a/ site] Lake Toho, West Lake, or simply Toho for short, native name meaning "we will gather together here", is a lake in Osceola County, Florida, United States. It is the primary inflow of Shingle Creek,...
. The cartoonist's estate of 230 acre (0.9307778 km²) along the Lake is still there, hidden among the other houses in the Regal Oak Shores subdivision.
In 1941, King wrote, "Just what the future holds for Skeezix and Gasoline Alley nobody knows. If permitted a fanciful prophecy, I should say that Skeezix will eventually marry, probably raise a family and make Uncle Walt a happy foster grandparent. Skeezix's offspring will in turn grow up, marry and have children. They in turn will thrive and mature and repeat the customary cycle ad infinitum."
At Folly Farms, during the 1940s, King spent time on his hobbies—sculpting, collecting maps, playing the fiddle and raising amaryllis bulbs. He retired from the Sunday strip in 1951, letting his assistant Bill Perry to take over. King retired from the daily in 1959, turning it over to Dick Moores
Dick Moores
Richard Arnold Moores was an American cartoonist whose best known work was the comic strip Gasoline Alley, which he worked on for nearly three decades.-Early Life:...
, his assistant since 1956. The strip continues until the present day.
In later years, King lived in Winter Park, Florida
Winter Park, Florida
Winter Park is a suburban city in Orange County, Florida, United States. The population was 24,090 at the 2000 census. According to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2006 estimates, the city had a population of 28,083. It is part of the Orlando–Kissimmee Metropolitan Statistical Area...
. On June 24, 1969, Dennis Green, a King employee for many years, arrived to prepare King's breakfast. He heard King moving around the house and later found his body on a bathroom floor. King was buried in Tomah's Oak Grove Cemetery beside his wife, Delia, who died in 1959. The couple's son, Robert King, lived in Des Plaines, Illinois
Des Plaines, Illinois
Des Plaines is a city in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It has adopted the official nickname of "City of Destiny." As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 58,720. It is a suburb of Chicago, and is next to O'Hare International Airport...
.
Awards and exhibitions
King had one-man shows in Springfield, IllinoisSpringfield, Illinois
Springfield is the third and current capital of the US state of Illinois and the county seat of Sangamon County with a population of 117,400 , making it the sixth most populated city in the state and the second most populated Illinois city outside of the Chicago Metropolitan Area...
and Buffalo, New York
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
, and his artwork is in the permanent collection of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum
Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum
The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, a research library of American comic art, is affiliated with the Ohio State University library system in Columbus, Ohio...
. In 1955, he was an honored guest at Tomah's Centennial celebration and presented with an Indian headdress. His desk is on display at the Tomah Area Historical Society Museum, and in 1969, Gasoline Alley signs were placed along Superior Avenue in Tomah.
King's Highway in Florida is named to honor Frank King; it runs south from Neptune Road to King's Folly Farms estate. Mr. Enray, the banker in Gasoline Alley during the late 1940s, was based on Kissimmee's real-life banker N. Ray Carroll. When Carroll was a state senator, he had the road named after King by a resolution of the Florida Legislature.
He was twice honored for his work by the Freedom Foundation, and he received awards three times from the National Cartoonists Society
National Cartoonists Society
The National Cartoonists Society is an organization of professional cartoonists in the United States. It presents the National Cartoonists Society Awards. The Society was born in 1946 when groups of cartoonists got together to entertain the troops...
.
- 1949: Silver T-Square Award
- 1957: Humor Comic Strip Award
- 1958: Reuben Award