Frank Stack
{{short description|Cartoonist}}
{{Other people|Frank Stack}}
{{Infobox comics creator
| image =
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| birth_name =
| birth_place = Houston, Texas, U.S.
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1937|10|31}}
| death_date =
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| area = Cartoonist, Printmaker, Painter
| cartoonist = y
| art = y
| alias = Foolbert Sturgeon
| notable works = {{plainlist|
- The Adventures of Jesus
- Our Cancer Year}}
| awards = Harvey Award, 1995
Haxtur Award, Artist That We Love, 2006
Inkpot Award, 2011
| website =
| spouse = Mildred Roberta "Robbie" PowellWilder, Amy. [http://www.columbiatribune.com/arts_life/ovation/artists-consider-balance-boundaries-when-depicting-the-human-body/article_fc1fda34-d557-11e2-b50c-10604b9f6eda.html?m=inline_content "Artists consider balance, boundaries when depicting the human body,"] Columbia Daily Tribune (June 16, 2013). (m. 1959–1998; her death)
}}
Frank Huntington Stack (born October 31, 1937, in Houston, Texas)[http://deniskitchen.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=bios.stack Frank Stack / Foolbert Sturgeon Biography and Information: Comic Book Art - Underground Comix] is an American underground cartoonist and fine artist. Working under the name Foolbert Sturgeon to avoid persecution for his work while living in the Bible Belt, Stack published what is considered by many to be the first underground comic, The Adventures of Jesus, in 1964.{{Cite book | last1=Stack | first1=Frank | authorlink1=Frank Stack | last2=Shelton | first2=Gilbert | authorlink2=Gilbert Shelton | title=The New Adventures of Jesus | date=25 December 2006 | publisher=Fantagraphics Books | page=[https://archive.org/details/newadventuresofj00fran/page/9 9] | chapter=Introduction | isbn=978-1-56097-780-3 | chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/newadventuresofj00fran/page/9 }}{{Cite book | last=Skinn | first=Dez | authorlink=Dez Skinn | title=Comix: The Underground Revolution | date=20 May 2004 | publisher=Thunder's Mouth Press | page=34 | chapter=Heroes of the Revolution | isbn=978-1-56025-572-7}}
Stack's main artistic influences were Gustave Doré, Roy Crane, and V. T. Hamlin.[http://library.missouri.edu/specialcollections/bookcol/comic/stack/ "Special Collections and Rare Books: Frank Stack Collection,"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170417194552/http://library.missouri.edu/specialcollections/bookcol/comic/stack/ |date=2017-04-17 }} University of Missouri Libraries. Accessed Dec. 29, 2016. He is widely known as a printmaker, specializing in etchings and lithographs, and his sketchy comics style evokes Stack's background as an etcher. (His technique of creating etchings on-site was featured in American Artist magazine.){{cn|date=December 2016}} His oil paintings and watercolors mostly feature landscape and figure compositions. He lives in Columbia, Missouri, where he was a longtime professor at the University of Missouri.
Education and teaching career
Stack graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a BFA in 1959.[http://www.askart.com/AskART/artists/biography.aspx?artist=124757 Frank Stack - Artist, Art - Frank Huntington Stack] He received his M.A. at the University of Wyoming, and also studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Académie de la Grande Chaumière of Paris.
He was a long-time professor of art at the University of Missouri, where he taught from 1963 to 2001, and is now a professor emeritus. In addition, he did teaching stints at Appalachian State and Virginia Tech.{{cn|date=December 2016}}
Comics
While at the University of Texas, Stack joined the staff of The Texas Ranger student humor magazine in 1957,Holland, Richard A. The Texas Book: Profiles, History, and Reminiscences of the University (University of Texas Press, 2006), pp. 223–299. and was editor of the magazine in 1958–1959. As editor, Stack aspired for the Ranger to emulate the humor exemplified by The New Yorker and Punch. He published comic strips by fellow UT student Gilbert Shelton, later known for Wonder Wart-Hog and The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers.
Soon after graduating from UT, Stack entered the U.S. Army, stationed at Governors Island, New York, in 1961–1962.
Although he had already graduated in 1959, starting in 1962, (using the pen-name Foolbert Sturgeon) he published The Adventures of Jesus in The Texas Ranger (as well as early counterculture publications like The Austin Iconoclastic and The Charlatan). In 1964, then Texas Ranger editor Gilbert Shelton collected about a dozen of the Jesus strips, designed a cover, and made 50 photocopies of the collection, giving them to associates around the UT campus.Fox, M. Steven. [http://comixjoint.com/godnose-2nd.html "God Nose."] ComixJoint. Accessed Dec. 5, 2016.
Stack's most prolific period as a cartoonist was in the late 1960s and early 1970s. During this period, Rip Off Press (co-founded by Shelton and fellow UT cartoonist Jaxon) published three issues of Stack's Jesus Comics, as well as such solo titles as Feelgood Funnies and Amazon Comics. In 1972 Stack contributed to The Rip Off Review of Western Culture with "Jesus Goes To The Faculty Party." In addition to publishing several articles in The Comics Journal, Stack contributed comics to such anthologies as Zero Zero, Blab!, Snarf, Rip Off Comix, and Weirdo. His strips The Case of Dr. Feelgood and Dorman's Doggie were syndicated by the Underground Press Syndicate in 1976–1978.
From 1986 to 2001, Stack was a regular contributor to Harvey Pekar's American Splendor. He also illustrated the acclaimed nonfiction graphic novel Our Cancer Year, written by Pekar and his wife Joyce Brabner, which won the 1995 Harvey Award for best original graphic novel.[http://www.harveyawards.org/awards_1995win.html Harveyawards.org] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100716172409/http://www.harveyawards.org/awards_1995win.html |date=2010-07-16 }}
Personal life
Exhibitions
- 2012 – 2013: State Historical Society of Missouri (University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri) — "Frank Stack at 75"{{cite web|title=Exhibition - Frank Stack at 75|url=http://www.missourilife.com/events/exhibition--frank-stack-at-75/|website=Missouri Life|access-date=2016-06-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160814083642/http://www.missourilife.com/events/exhibition--frank-stack-at-75/|archive-date=2016-08-14|url-status=dead}}
Comics and books
- The Adventures of Jesus (published in zine form by Gilbert Shelton, 1964)
- Jesus Comics (Rip Off Press, 1969–1972)
- #1: The New Adventures of Jesus (1969)
- #2: Jesus Meets the Armed Services (1970)
- #3: Jesus Joins the Academic Community (1972)
- Feelgood Funnies (2 issues, Rip Off Press, 1972, 1984)
- Amazon Comics (Rip Off Press, 1972)
- Dorman's Doggie (Rip Off Press, 1979) {{ISBN|9780878160976}}
- Our Cancer Year (Four Walls Eight Windows, 1994) — written by Harvey Pekar and Joyce Brabner
- Naked Glory: the Erotic Art of Frank Stack (Eros Comix, 1998) {{ISBN|9781560972297}}
- The New Adventures of Jesus: The Second Coming (Fantagraphics, 2007) {{ISBN|9781560977803}}
Filmography
- 2010 - A Horrible Way to Die - Elderly Man
- 2012 - V/H/S - Old Man (segment "Tape 56")
Notes
{{reflist}}
Further reading
- Mayer, Olivia. "Frankly Speaking." Scene Magazine (Columbia Daily Tribune) (Sept. 27, 1990), cover and pp. 10–11.
- "50 Plus Spotlight: Frank Stack." Columbia Daily Tribune (Aug. 13, 1992), suppl. p. 7.
- "Frank Stack," Comic Book Superstars (Kraus Publications, 1993), pp. 200–201.
- "Sketchbook," The Comics Journal #162 (Oct. 1993), pp. 115–119.
- Pekar, Harvey. “Frank Stack, an Appreciation.” Inks (Feb. 1996), pp. 24–29.
- "The Authoritative Frank Stack, or, Foolbert Sturgeon on Jesus, Crumb and Cancer," The Comics Journal #189 (Aug. 1996), pp. 92-110.
External links
- {{IMDb name|3400177}}
- [https://www.lambiek.net/artists/s/stack_frank.htm Stack bio] at Lambiek's Comiclopedia
- [https://library.missouri.edu/specialcollections/collections/show/27 Frank Stack Collection] at the University of Missouri Libraries
{{Underground comix cartoonists}}
{{Inkpot Award 2010s}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stack, Frank}}
Category:Underground cartoonists
Category:American comics artists
Category:Virginia Tech faculty
Category:University of Missouri faculty
Category:University of Texas at Austin alumni
Category:Artists from Columbia, Missouri
Category:University of Wyoming alumni
Category:School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumni