Frank O'Neal (May 9, 1921 – October 10, 1986)
at the Lambiek Comiclopedia. Retrieved on June 3, 2017
Archived
from the original on May 6, 2012. was an American cartoonist best known for his
comic strip ''Short Ribs'', which he wrote and drew from 1958 to 1973.
Early life and career
Born in
Springfield, Missouri
Springfield is the third largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and the county seat of Greene County. The city's population was 169,176 at the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Springfield metropolitan area, which had an estimat ...
, O'Neal was kept on the move by his traveling father, and the youth grew up in Arkansas, California, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Tennessee and Washington, D.C.
He studied for three years at the
Jefferson Machamer School of Art in
Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing t ...
and sold his first cartoon professionally in 1950, to the ''
Saturday Evening Post''.
After six years of
freelance cartooning, he spent a year and a half drawing
storyboards.
His feature "How to Bring Up Parents" ran in ''
Redbook'' for three years.
Later career
The syndicate
Newspaper Enterprise Association
The Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA) is an editorial column and comic strip newspaper syndication service based in the United States and established in 1902. The oldest syndicate still in operation, the NEA was originally a secondary news ...
(NEA) released his
comic strip ''Short Ribs'' as a daily on November 17, 1958, and additionally as a Sunday comic on June 14, 1959.
[''Short Ribs'']
at Don Markstein's Toonopedia
Archived
from the original on June 3, 2017. The gag-a-day comic had no regular characters, but frequently featured such recurring settings as a medieval king's court and the American
Old West
The American frontier, also known as the Old West or the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that began with European colonial ...
.
In 1973, O'Neal turned over the strip to his assistant, Frank Hill, while O'Neal focused on advertising-industry work,
including an 18-month stint as advertising manager for the ''Carmel Pine Cone'', a weekly newspaper in
Carmel, California
Carmel-by-the-Sea (), often simply called Carmel, is a city in Monterey County, California, United States, founded in 1902 and incorporated on October 31, 1916. Situated on the Monterey Peninsula, Carmel is known for its natural scenery and ric ...
, beginning in 1974. The final ''Short Ribs'' strip ran Sunday, May 2, 1982.
Awards
He won the 1964
National Cartoonists Society's Division Award for Newspaper Strips: Humor for ''Short Ribs''.
[ Requires hitting "See Winners" link in order to view.]
Personal life
O'Neal and his wife Bettie had two children, John and Mollie.
He was living in or near
Pacific Grove, California
Pacific Grove is a coastal city in Monterey County, California, in the United States. The population at the 2020 census was 15,090. Pacific Grove is located between Point Pinos and Monterey.
Pacific Grove has numerous Victorian-era houses, s ...
, at the time of his death at age 64.
[
]
References
External links
*
American comic strip cartoonists
1921 births
1986 deaths
People from Carmel-by-the-Sea, California
{{US-cartoonist-stub