R.I.P. Frank Springer

[Sir Tim Drake]

Newsday reports (http://www.newsday.com/iphone/ny-lispri0612624091apr05,0,3568600.story) that Frank Springer has passed away at the age of 79.

This is quite unfortunate news; he was quite a well-respected artist and I know he has many fans on this forum. May he rest in peace.

[TVsGrady]

I remember Springer for his work on the Marvel Transformers book, which was the first comic series I really got into as a kid. :frown:

[dan bailey]

*sigh* Sorry to hear it. Was looking just a couple of days ago at a comic he'd inked -- Black Lightning #1.

[Lone Ranger]

That's very sad news.

I just read a couple of issues of Toka over the weekend.

I really loved his work - everything from Ghost Stories to Dazzler. Following up a legend is always tough, but I really think Springer did an excellent job on Nick Fury.

A very talented and underappreciated artist.

Looks like I'm rearranging blog topic this week.

[Paiute 1]

Makes me feel terrible for all the times I bad mouthed him. Even his worst was still better than anything I could ever do.
Rest in peace.

[Deathstroke]

My condolences on his passing.

[Red Oak Kid]

The first comic by Springer that I ever bought was Batman 200 but I never knew it was by him till just recently.

I first connected his name with his art in the comic book parodies he did for Natlamp.

Either CBA or Alter Ego had a great interview with him.

I think he was underappreciated in his day, at least by dummies like me.

I hope he didn't suffer.

[benday-dot]

I second LR's highlighting of Springer's Nick Fury work.

I'll also mention that Springer made significant artistic contributions to not only one of the finest horror comic books ever, but one of the best ever comics... period. His penciling of John Stanley' s exceptional scripts from Dell's giant-size Tales From the Tomb remains one of the art forms classic moments. RIP Frank Springer.

[hondobrode]

Loved his work on The Invaders and The Shadow back in the day. Even liked his Batman.

Very underappreciated artist. Again, like many from the Golden and Silver Ages, as I get older I grow to like their work more and more.

RIP Frank.

[holden_b]

A tribute site to Frank Springer has been set up so fans can leave their condolences and memories: http://www.lastingtribute.co.uk/tribute/springer/3056376

[Lone Ranger]

I just posted a piece on my favourite Springer work at Comics Should Be Good (link in my sig).

[Drusilla lives!]

It's rather strange really, I was browsing through some "Invaders" covers on the GCD (before hearing of Springer passing) and came across one (http://www.comics.org/coverview.lasso?id=31735&zoom=4) that I remembered from my youth as being really memorable as far as cover art and penciling... turns out it was Springer (inking). I think Lone Ranger mentions in his blog that he did some work on the title... definitely different from the usual Invader material of the time.

[benday-dot]

I was just reading an old Stan Lee Soapbox from a 1976 comic (Nova), and Stan was waxing excitedly in his usual manner of a couple new newspaper strips he was about to launch. One was of course Spider-Man, and the other would be The Virtue of Vera Valiant, with Frank Springer announced as the artist. I have no recollection of this strip. I gather it wasn't too mind-blowing, but the art looked pretty good. Here is a sample. (http://booksteveslibrary.blogspot.com/2005/09/vera-valiant-and-mary-hartman.html) Anybody else recall this short lived bit of bronze age Marveldom?

[Samanthab]

My deepest condolences...

[Red Oak Kid]

I was just reading an old Stan Lee Soapbox from a 1976 comic (Nova), and Stan was waxing excitedly in his usual manner of a couple new newspaper strips he was about to launch. One was of course Spider-Man, and the other would be The Virtue of Vera Valiant, with Frank Springer announced as the artist. I have no recollection of this strip. I gather it wasn't too mind-blowing, but the art looked pretty good. Here is a sample. (http://booksteveslibrary.blogspot.com/2005/09/vera-valiant-and-mary-hartman.html) Anybody else recall this short lived bit of bronze age Marveldom?

I don't know if Vera Valiant was published in a local paper but Signet put out two paperback book collections of the strip. I've got the first one and I've seen scans of #2 on the web.

[CJ Lentze]

I'm sorry to learn of this. One of the first comic books I read (Transformers # 44), had art by Frank Springer.

[Endless Flight]

Frank did quite a few issues of G.I.Joe for Marvel as well.

I enjoyed his work.

[MDG]

I don't know if Vera Valiant was published in a local paper but Signet put out two paperback book collections of the strip. I've got the first one and I've seen scans of #2 on the web.

I heard of it, but that's about it. Is it supposed to be a satire?

Springer is one of those artists it took me a while to get--and, like Frank Robbins, ill-suited (I thought) for Marvel in the 70s, which seemed to be going for a house style as much as possible. I like his Dell and NatLamp work a lot, though.

[Red Oak Kid]

I heard of it, but that's about it. Is it supposed to be a satire?

.

Yes it's a satire on soap operas and maybe even a satire on strips like Mary Worth.

Newspaper readers just weren't used to seeing such sly satire in the funny papers.


It would have been more at home in the National Lampoon.

[benday-dot]

Yes it's a satire on soap operas and maybe even a satire on strips like Mary Worth.

Newspaper readers just weren't used to seeing such sly satire in the funny papers.


It would have been more at home in the National Lampoon.

I need to check out more of the Vera strip. Stan Lee has always been such an unsubtle writer. He's been pretty good at humor, but it's hard for me to picture him writing an effective satire.

[Red Oak Kid]

I need to check out more of the Vera strip. Stan Lee has always been such an unsubtle writer. He's been pretty good at humor, but it's hard for me to picture him writing an effective satire.

Well I never claimed it was effective. And on second thought it might not be all that subtle.

But I'm still sure it is a satire.

[benday-dot]

Well I never claimed it was effective. And on second thought it might not be all that subtle.

But I'm still sure it is a satire.

Indeed. And from all I've read on it (not much, just random Internet fragments and opinions), it seemed to be a little short of of the right stuff to make a lasting go of it. And you are of course right ROK, satires need not be subtle to be called satires, I just assumed that this was the approach taken given the few samples I have been able to find.

[Dr.J.]

That's very sad news.

I just read a couple of issues of Toka over the weekend.

I really loved his work - everything from Ghost Stories to Dazzler. Following up a legend is always tough, but I really think Springer did an excellent job on Nick Fury.

A very talented and underappreciated artist.

Looks like I'm rearranging blog topic this week.

I have issue 8 to 11,of the shield series he did,as well as captain marvel 13-14.The cover of shield 8,was awesome!I beleive he also did issues 2 to 6,of brain boy. Recall seeing the original art,for the complete last issue once.

[Frayed Knot]

Indeed. And from all I've read on it (not much, just random Internet fragments and opinions), it seemed to be a little short of of the right stuff to make a lasting go of it. And you are of course right ROK, satires need not be subtle to be called satires, I just assumed that this was the approach taken given the few samples I have been able to find.


'The Virtues of Vera Valiant' was intended and written as satire, not only of those old-fashioned soap-opera type strips (someone mentioned 'Mary Worth') but also timed to build on the popularity of the then-current TV show 'Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman', itself a satire of TV soaps. Indeed some papers ran it under the title 'Vera Valiant, Vera Valiant' although that was never the intended name.
It debuted as a dailies plus Sundays strip in newspapers in October 1976 and, probably largely on the strength of Lee's name plus backing from the Los Angeles Times syndicate, was initially carried by a decent number of papers.

Vera was a (mid-30s?) girl from Hackensack, NJ who was in love with a man (Winthrop Smedley - CPA) who, alas, she could not marry seeing as how he was unable to divorce his wife who had been in a coma since developing sleeping sickness 14 years earlier on their wedding night. She also cared for her ne'er-do-well brother Herbert whose last-ditch attempt at gainful employment was, as the strip opened, taking correspondence courses in podiatry.
Yeah, not exactly subtle.

In the end it either wasn't good enough (opinions vary I suppose) or the average reader looking for a quick morning laugh didn't get it (always possible) but the number of papers carrying it started steadily diminishing just a few months into its run to the point where the strip was killed in September of '77. Above all it was mostly bad timing. Realistically drawn strips were dying at that point, being increasingly pushed out by single-panel gags and other 'funnies', and weren't about to make a comeback. Those pocket-sized paperbacks someone mentioned (I guess there were two) probably represent the entire ~11 month run.

[benday-dot]

'The Virtues of Vera Valiant' was intended and written as satire, not only of those old-fashioned soap-opera type strips (someone mentioned 'Mary Worth') but also timed to build on the popularity of the then-current TV show 'Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman', itself a satire of TV soaps. Indeed some papers ran it under the title 'Vera Valiant, Vera Valiant' although that was never the intended name.
It debuted as a dailies plus Sundays strip in newspapers in October 1976 and, probably largely on the strength of Lee's name plus backing from the Los Angeles Times syndicate, was initially carried by a decent number of papers.

Vera was a (mid-30s?) girl from Hackensack, NJ who was in love with a man (Winthrop Smedley - CPA) who, alas, she could not marry seeing as how he was unable to divorce his wife who had been in a coma since developing sleeping sickness 14 years earlier on their wedding night. She also cared for her ne'er-do-well brother Herbert whose last-ditch attempt at gainful employment was, as the strip opened, taking correspondence courses in podiatry.
Yeah, not exactly subtle.


Thanks for expanded information FK. And it is a shame on that last rather elegiac note...

Realistically drawn strips were dying at that point, being increasingly pushed out by single-panel gags and other 'funnies', and weren't about to make a comeback.

The newspaper funny pages are but a shadow of their former nobility. I suppose as well newspapers themselves are now but shadowy selves of what once they were. But that is for another discussion.

[Lone Ranger]

Just wanted to point out that Frank's son Bill stopped by my Comics Should Be Good Thread and added some very interesting info about his Dad.

I just noticed his post this morning. Follow the link and see the comments at the bottom of the page.

Legacy of Frank Springer (http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2009/04/07/scotts-classic-comics-corner-the-legacy-of-frank-springer/)