Lank Leonard

Frank E. Leonard (January 2, 1896 – August 1, 1970), better known as Lank Leonard, was an American cartoonist artist who created the long-running comic strip Mickey Finn, which he drew for more than three decades.

Biography Early life and career Born in Port Chester, New York in 1896, Leonard decided early in his childhood that he wanted to be a cartoonist while he made copies of Buster Brown, Happy Hooligan, Little Nemo and The Katzenjammer Kids, eventually creating his own characters. In high school, he was the art editor of his school newspaper.

After his high school graduation, Leonard took a job as a bookkeeper at a local factory, where he also drew cartoons for the plant's house organ. He studied at a business college from 1914 to 1915, then served in the U.S. Army during World War I.

Briggs referred him to Chicago Tribune editorial cartoonist Carey Orr, who suggested Leonard take the C. L. Evans correspondence course in cartooning. Leonard did so, mailing in assignments drawn in hotel rooms as he traveled about the country. Later, he took night courses at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago , and New York's Art Students League.

After World War II, Leonard began working in Miami, Florida, during the winter months, and in 1950, he bought a split-level home in Miami Shores, spending ten months of the year there, drawing and playing golf.

On Saturday, March 10, 1951, at his new Miami Shores home, he hosted a gathering of cartoonists. Attending the party were Colin Allen, Frank Beck, Wally Bishop (Muggs and Skeeter), Dick Briefer, Al Fagaly, Quin Hall, Bill Holman, Fred Lasswell, Al Posen, Zack Mosley, Leonard Sansone, Chuck Thorndyke, Burt Whitman and Elmer Woggon.

In 1951, Leonard and Bishop left Florida for Washington's Carlton Hotel, where they joined other members of the National Cartoonists Society for breakfast on November 6 with Harry Truman. Gathered in Washington to help the Treasury Department sell Defense Stamps, the group presented Truman with a bound volume of their comic strip characters, some interacting with caricatures of Truman.

In the early 1960s, Leonard let Weiss take over the writing of the strip. Leonard died in 1970, two years after retiring. Lank and Florence Leonard had two children, Jim and Nancy. Jim was born in 1956. Daughter Nancy attended Salve Regina College in Newport, Rhode Island.