Friday, December 6, 2019, marked what would have been the 90th birthday of comic artist Frank Springer. Across his career, Springer was the recipient of multiple Reuben awards from the National Cartoonists Society and worked for some of the industry’s top publishers. But how did this New York native become such a driving force in the comic world? 

Growing up, Springer drew inspiration from adventure comic strips and magazine cover illustrations by Norman Rockwell, Dean Cornwell, and J.C. Leyendecker. After graduating from Malverne High School, he earned his art degree from Syracuse University. In 1952, he was drafted into the US Army, where he spent much of his service “drawing pictures, drawing charts and that kind of thing.” Following his discharge in 1954, Springer began freelancing in New York. He later served as an assistant to cartoonist George Wunder on the comic strip Terry and the Pirates before drawing for Dell Comics’ Brain Boy. 

Throughout the Silver Age, Springer became a prolific penciler-inker for many of Dell Comics, including Ghost Stories, Movie Classic, Tales from the Tomb, Toka: Jungle King, The Big Valley, Charlie Chan, Iron Horse, and The New People. He made his debut at DC Comics, penciling on both Batman and House of Mystery and later drawing issues in Detective Comics, Our Army at War and Secret Six. By the early 1970s, Springer found regular work with Marvel primarily on Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD and Captain Marvel. He briefly left Marvel to re-focus his attention on his ongoing Dell work, until the company disbanded in 1973. 

Back at Marvel, Springer bounced from title to title, sporadically penciling such titles as The Avengers, Captain America, The Spectacular Spider-Man, and Spider-Woman. He also drew The Incredible Hulk newspaper strip and worked with Stan Lee on The Virtue of Vera Valiant. Eventually, Springer became the regular inker for the Savage She-Hulk, along with penciling a long-run of Dazzler and Marvel Graphic Novel. During the ‘80s, Springer worked on Marvel’s toy license titles based on G.I. Joe and Transformers, as well as returning to DC for Action Comics Weekly, Manhunter and Green Arrow. He also worked on the Atlas/Seaboard series Cougar and Continuity Comics’ Armor. 

Along with Michael O’Donoghue, Springer created “The Adventures of Phoebe Zeit-Geist” for Evergreen Review magazine. This feature was one of the first mature audience comics and was praised by Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau for being “an absolutely brilliant, deadpan send-up of adventure comics, but with a very edgy, modernist kind of approach.” Springer also drew “Frank Fleet” for Evergreen Review and was a regular contributor to National Lampoon. His cartoon art also appeared in Games Magazine, Muppets Magazine, the New York Daily News, Playboy, Sports Illustrated for Kids, among others. 

Over the years, Springer was awarded the National Cartoonists Society Reuben Award in 1973, 1977, and 1981. At one point he served as president of the National Cartoonists Society and was a founding member of the Berndt Toast Gang – a group of Long Island cartoonists who honored cartoonist Walter Berndt. Springer sadly passed away in 2009, but his work left a lasting impact on the industry at large. Archie comics artist Stan Goldberg once said: “Very few people could surpass him as an artist, as a gentleman, and as a true gentleman in my field...When you see a Frank Springer job, you know it's going to be the best job in the world.”