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Frank M. Borth III (April 1, 1918 – August 9, 2009) was an American
comic book artist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comics illustrators/artists in that they produce both the literary ...
.


Biography

Borth was born and raised in
Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...
, eventually graduating in 1940 from the Cleveland School of Art, where he majored in illustration."New Sea Adventure Strip Will Appear in Times," ''
Tampa Bay Times The ''Tampa Bay Times'', called the ''St. Petersburg Times'' until 2011, is an American newspaper published in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. It is published by the Times Publishing Company, which is owned by The Poynter Institute ...
'' (Sept. 6, 1947)
Archived at Stripper's Guide
Moving to New York City, Frank Borth rose to prominence during the so-called "
Golden Age of Comic Books The Golden Age of Comic Books describes an era in the history of American comic books from 1938 to 1956. During this time, modern comic books were first published and rapidly increased in popularity. The superhero archetype was created and ma ...
", where he first (in 1941) worked on the feature "Pat Patriot, America's Joan of Arc," for
Lev Gleason Publications Lev Gleason Incorporated, formerly known as Lev Gleason Publishing, is a Canadian comic book company founded by Leverett Stone Gleason (1898–1971). They were the publisher of a number of popular comic books during the 1940s and early 1950s, incl ...
' '' Daredevil Comics''. After freelance jobs with
Timely Comics Timely Comics was the common name for the group of corporations that was the earliest comic book arm of American publisher Martin Goodman (publisher), Martin Goodman, and the entity that would evolve by the 1960s to become Marvel Comics. "Timely P ...
,
Harvey Comics Harvey Comics (also known as Harvey World Famous Comics, Harvey Publications, Harvey Comics Entertainment, Harvey Hits, Harvey Illustrated Humor, and Harvey Picture Magazines) was an American comic book publisher, founded in New York City by Alf ...
, and Picture Scoop, Borth found a home at
Quality Comics Quality Comics was an American comic book publishing Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, ...
, where he was responsible for characters such as
Spider Widow Spider Widow is a fictional superhero character that was published by Quality Comics during the Golden Age of Comic Books. The character was created by writer and artist Frank Borth, and debuted in '' Feature Comics'' #57, which bore a cover dat ...
and (for a time) Phantom Lady. Borth served in the military during
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, ending up in 1946 on Montauk Point, Long Island. It was there that he was inspired to create the sea adventure
comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics terminology#Captio ...
''Ken Stuart'', which was syndicated by the Frank J. Markey Syndicate from September 8, 1947, to 1950.Borth entry
''Who's Who of American Comic Book Artists, 1928–1999''. Accessed Jan. 5, 2018.
The Markey syndicate also attempted to syndicate Borth's strip ''Bouford'' in 1949.
Columbia Comics Columbia Comics Corporation was a comic book publisher active in the 1940s whose best-known title was '' Big Shot Comics''. Comics creators who worked for Columbia included Fred Guardineer, on ''Marvelo, the Monarch of Magicians''; and Ogden Whi ...
published one issue of a ''Ken Stuart'' comic book in 1948. Following the demise of ''Ken Stuart'', Borth worked on features for a few Ziff-Davis Comics titles, including "Skypilot" and "Captain Fleet." From the late 1940s onward, Borth worked extensively for the Ohio-based
Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
-oriented comic book publisher George A. Pflaum, whose most well-known title was '' Treasure Chest''. Borth worked on such ''Treasure Chest'' features as "Chuck White," "Frumson Wooters," and many others. Beginning in 1963, and lasting until the title's cancellation in 1972, ''Treasure Chest'' also serialized a drawing course called "Draw-Along with Frank Borth." In the mid-to-late 1960s, Borth became active in the Montauk community, eventually becoming councilman on the East Hampton town board in 1968, a position which lasted until 1972. From 1970 to 1983, Borth wrote the syndicated gag panel '' There Oughta Be a Law!'', taking over from co-creator
Harry Shorten Harry Shorten (1914–1991) was an American writer, editor, and book publisher best known for the Comic strip syndication, syndicated gag cartoon ''There Oughta Be a Law!'', as well as his work with Archie Comics, and his long association with Arch ...
."GREEN SHEET, THROWBACK THURSDAY — COMICS EDITION: 'There Oughta Be a Law!' tapped readers for material,"
''Milwaukee Journal Sentinel'' (May 05, 2016).
Despite retiring in 1983, Borth did occasional assignments for '' Cracked'' magazine, as well as ''
Asimov's Science Fiction ''Asimov's Science Fiction'' is an American science fiction magazine edited by Sheila Williams and published by Dell Magazines, which is owned by Penny Press. It was launched as a quarterly by Davis Publications in 1977, after obtaining Isaac ...
'', ''
Amazing Stories ''Amazing Stories'' is an American science fiction magazine launched in April 1926 by Hugo Gernsback's Experimenter Publishing. It was the first magazine devoted solely to science fiction. Science fiction stories had made regular appearance ...
'', and ''Monsters Attack'', in the following years. Borth died in Newville, Pennsylvania, on August 9, 2009, aged 91.Artist Frank Borth III, Of Montauk, Dies At 91
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Borth, Frank 1918 births 2009 deaths American comics artists Golden Age comics creators Artists from Cleveland