A toast to the father of Frank and Ernest

August 10th, 2006

I’d like to raise a glass to Bob Thaves, the creator of Frank & Ernest and an originator in the field of comics. Mr. Thaves sadly passed away last Tuesday at the age of 81, leaving behind his loving family and many generations of F&E fans.

Thanks to his twisted phrases and unconventional observations of life, Bob Thaves changed the way comics are read and drawn. This is easily demonstrated by the tremendous success of Frank & Ernest over the past 30+ years - appearing in over 1,200 newspapers worldwide and read by more than 25 million people daily.

The F&E comic strip was a platform for his many innovations including:

• the first single comic panel presented in a strip format
• first to vary the roles and settings of its characters
• first to use block lettering with a font he created
• first to use comic book-style digital coloring for the Sunday pages (introduced in 1995)
• and one of the first comic strips to have its own website - www.frankandernest.com.

Thank you, Mr. Thaves, for the many years of insightful humor and contributions to your craft.

And now, a word from our sponsor.

Philosophy of Life: What it comes down to is, when you come into the world you have nothing … when you leave you have nothing … and in between there’s the IRS.

–Bob Thaves

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