Phil Frank

Who was Phil Frank?

Phil Frank was an American cartoonist best known as the creator of the San Francisco-based comic strip Farley and the artist on nationally syndicated comic strip The Elderberries. Frank and Troise worked together on other comic strip projects, including Chateau Defeat and Miles to Go, plus Nigel Shiftright, Automotive Anachronism and the eponymous Frank and Troise, both for Road & Track magazine. Frank and Troise also collaborated on a series of "Teletoons" for Network World magazine.

Frank started cartooning at Michigan State University first by creating illustrations on classmates jackets and then with the university newspaper for $5 a strip. After graduation he took a job as an illustrator and humorist with Hallmark Cards in Kansas City, where his son Philip was born. Frank returned to teach at Michigan State for a few years, during which time his daughter Stacy was born. After moving to the Bay Area California in 1973, Frank was an illustrator for a variety of clients. He started his syndicated comic strip career with Travels with Farley, while he and his second wife, Susan, lived on a house boat in Sausalito, on San Francisco Bay.