Clarence 'Otis' Dooley

Clarence ‘Otis’ Dooley was born in Kickapoo, Illinois in 1945. He first put his artistic skills to work drawing comics while in the military, and was part of the then-classified 22nd Division Caricature Corps. Discharged and back home in 1971, Dooley worked for the art department of Cudworth-Hooper Industrial, illustrating catalogs for hog oilers. When Frank and his Friend was accepted for syndication in 1975, Dooley quit the company to work on the comic full-time.

Though published for only nine years before Dooley’s untimely death in 1984, Frank and his Friend inspired countless cartoonists, and most of our favorite characters of the last twenty years owe something to the influence of Dooley’s work.