Frank Bolle

Frank W. Bolle (June 23, 1924 – May 12, 2020) He grew up in that borough with mother Mary and stepfather Egidio "Louie" Covacich. From 1943 to 1946, Bolle served in the United States Army Air Force, He served in World War II, and it is unclear if the small number of Bolle stories that appear in comics from U.S. Camera, Rural Home, and Green Publishing through 1946 were done during the war or were inventory from before his service. His comics output became regular soon afterward with a "Freddy Freshman" story in Fawcett Comics' Captain Marvel Jr. #46 (Feb. 1947) and work in Crown Comics from the publisher McCombs from 1947 to 1948. He did additional work for Fawcett, and signed some of his Lev Gleason Publications comics work FWB.

With an unknown writer, Bolle co-created the masked Old West heroine the Black Phantom in Magazine Enterprises' Western comic Tim Holt #25 (Sept. 1951). Through 1954, he also drew the title feature as well as the backup feature "Redmask", then took over the art for the spinoff series Red Mask, drawing issues #42–53 to (July 1954 – May 1956). Additionally, for DC Comics, Bolle drew the cyborg-superhero feature "Robotman" in Detective Comics #167–179 (Jan. 1951 – Jan. 1952).

From 1955 to 1957, Bolle drew Robin Hood stories in ME's Robin Hood and the subsequent, TV series-based The Adventures of Robin Hood. For Marvel Comics' 1950s forerunner, Atlas Comics, he drew supernatural fantasy stories in the anthologies Mystic, Marvel Tales, Strange Tales, Journey into Mystery and other titles in 1956 and 1957. He was the uncredited ghost artist on the daily Rip Kirby for King Features Syndicate from 1977 to 1994, and, for one month in 1982, the Sunday Tarzan for United Feature Syndicate. 1996 He continued with the strip through its finale in November 2015, by which point Bolle was 91.

From 1996 through at least 2009, Bolle did pet illustrations for the Westport Pet Company, as well as commissioned pet portraits, including one that was scheduled to appear in the Walt Disney Pictures movie Old Dogs. He illustrated the 2008 children's book My Cat Merigold by Angelica Joy.

As late as 2004, he was a guest and panelist at San Diego Comic-Con.

Awards Bolle was one of 10 recipients of the 2003 Inkpot Award.

Personal life As an adult, Bolle lived in Weston, Connecticut, with his wife, Lori. and was interred at Willowbrook Cemetery in Westport, Connecticut.