What do you think?
Rate this book
Frank Johnson, Secret Pioneer of American Comics Vol. 1: Wally's Gang Early Years (1928-1949) and The Bowser Boys
When Frank Johnson, an itinerant musician and shipping clerk, died in 1979, he left behind a startling more than 2,300 notebook pages of comics and 131 unbound drawings, among them a massive, continuous story line beginning in the earliest surviving notebook dated 1928 — before the existence of comic books! — and following the exploits of his own cast of characters across 50 years until Johnson passed away. During this lifelong project, Johnson invented in private many of the conventions and tropes that define comics storytelling, effectively enacting an alternative secret history of the comics medium.This debut publication of Johnson’s work is the first of two 600+ page volumes that will collect the best 1200 pages of his comics, including Wally’s Gang, his 50-year magnum opus chronicling the humorous, cliff-hanging adventures of a group of bachelor friends; The Bowser Boys, a seamy, darkly slapstick depiction of bohemian street life that could be considered the first underground comic series; and, coming in Volume 2, Juke Boys, absurd, self-reflexive graphic experimentation.Curator and historian Chris Byrne and fine artist and graphic novelist Keith Mayerson have brought this astounding work into the light of day and provide historical background and analysis.
633 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 6, 2024
4 people are currently reading
66 people want to read
About the author
Frank Johnson
132 books6 followersLibrarian Note: There are more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 29, 2024
Redrawing the history of 'comic books' and celebrating the creative joy of all 'outsider' artists
In my half century as a journalist covering religious and cultural diversity, I have profiled hundreds of "outsider" artists whose unique creations in music, visual arts, filmmaking, poetry and sculpture have been a rich part of global cultures for thousands of years. I am continually looking for those overlooked men and women who are spreading joy—or are sharing their laments—through whatever art-forms they can envision.
I once profiled an Appalachian artist who constructed his entire two-story home to look like a gigantic duck (covering the entire duck-shaped home in shingles that looked like feathers) as his tribute to the birds he loved. In Asia, I profiled an artist who created an enormous shrine to his ancestors made entirely of seashells and beautiful stones he found along the ocean shore. I profiled an Appalachian coal miner who recreated the entire book of Genesis in wood-carved tableaux that eventually wound up at the Smithsonian. And, perhaps my personal favorite: I profiled an Appalachian woman who fashioned musical instruments from gourds so that she and her friends could play gospel tunes.
So, you can see right away why I was so eager to read and review this beautiful, fascinating, 634-page tribute to the comic books created by the until-now-unknown comic pioneer Frank Johnson. The debut of this selection of Johnson's comics now will redraw our official history of American comic books. That will take some time, but that rewriting is sure to come—especially since this book was produced by the highly respected Fantagraphics and includes extensive opening essays by curator and historian Chris Byrne and fine artist and graphic novelist Keith Mayerson.
At this point, though, Frank Johnson does not even have a Wikipedia page—although that is certain to change over the next year or so. And Wikipedia still sums up the official history of American comic books pretty much like all the other history books, to date:
This new Fantagraphics volume contains examples from half a century of the comic books Frank Johnson drew in blank, bound notebooks that were available in stores for students and office workers from the 1920s until his death in 1979. In other words, Johnson was creating full-fledged comic books a decade before Famous Funnies. His own private creative instincts led him to envision, plan, write and draw what is now considered an important American art form—years before there was any example on the market.
What could possibly have kept Frank Johnson going for so long in this private pursuit?
I remember interviewing Minnie Black, the Appalachian gourd artist who created an entire band's worth of instruments from gourds. She eventually appeared nationwide on radio and TV and had a sampling of her work collected by the Smithsonian—but in her early years as a gourd artist, her friends thought she was a bit eccentric even by Appalachian standards.
"Minnie, you created the first all-gourd band anyone has ever heard," I said to her in our first of a couple of interviews over the years. "What made you think of this? And what kept you going even when no one seemed interested, at first?"
"I just wanted to make a joyful noise unto the Good Lord and I saw a gourd one day that was shaped like a dulcimer—and the next thing I knew, I was seeing gourds that looked like other instruments, too," she said.
Minnie was a full-fledged artist—the Smithsonian would call her a "folk" or "naive" artist—for years before the world discovered her body of work.
What's so fascinating about Johnson's body of work, beyond his pioneering creative vision, is that—like Minnie Black's gourds—his comics reflect the challenges of his life.
The book opens with selections of Johnson's Bowser Boys comic books, whose "heroes" are a group of homeless alcoholic friends who pursue booze with clever twists and turns every day of their lives. They rise to the challenges of daily life—even though their clothes are rags, they are covered in grime and Johnson draws them with flies buzzing around their heads.
As it turns out: At one point in Johnson's real life, he was an out-of-control alcoholic himself and clearly these comics are a kind of wildly satirical exorcism of that raging addiction. Eventually, he became a devoted member of AA, but that era seems to have remained in his mind and heart for the rest of his life. We don't know for sure, because Johnson left few biographical details when he died, but these comics could have been cautionary humor to share with friends Johnson got to know at his AA meetings. Perhaps some surviving friend will surface, now that Johnson is receiving more publicity, to fill in that biographical gap.
However, the majority of this book focuses on his decades-long Wally's Gang series of comic books. This series feels like a first cousin to Archie and Gasoline Alley: a small-town gang of friends forever facing challenges in their relationships—and often pulling pranks on one another.
Some outsider artists attain a measure of fame in their lifetimes. For example, Minnie Black eventually appeared on Johnny Carson's late-night talk show. In fact, I helped with her ascent into the public eye as a journalist, publishing one of the first major profiles of Minnie for a national wire service in the 1970s. She thoroughly enjoyed all the attention she received until she eventually died in 1996 at age 97.
However, far too many "outsiders" only shine posthumously. Keith Mayerson captures the bittersweet truth of Frank Johnson's career in this haunting line: "Frank Johnson laid out the future of comics for an audience of no one."
No one was aware of his astonishing lifetime output until his descendants realized there was value in all those notebooks he had stored away.
If you would like to glimpse what the other kind of outcome for an American outsider artist can look like, you can watch a marvelous 4-minute video of Minnie Black uploaded to YouTube in 2023 by the Appalshop Archive.
For Frank Johnson, the creation of his body of work was enough to keep him going for many decades. The sheer joy he found in creating these stories is obvious in the glee shared by members of Wally's Gang. And, now, his family can celebrate the true creative genius of their patriarch.
In my half century as a journalist covering religious and cultural diversity, I have profiled hundreds of "outsider" artists whose unique creations in music, visual arts, filmmaking, poetry and sculpture have been a rich part of global cultures for thousands of years. I am continually looking for those overlooked men and women who are spreading joy—or are sharing their laments—through whatever art-forms they can envision.
I once profiled an Appalachian artist who constructed his entire two-story home to look like a gigantic duck (covering the entire duck-shaped home in shingles that looked like feathers) as his tribute to the birds he loved. In Asia, I profiled an artist who created an enormous shrine to his ancestors made entirely of seashells and beautiful stones he found along the ocean shore. I profiled an Appalachian coal miner who recreated the entire book of Genesis in wood-carved tableaux that eventually wound up at the Smithsonian. And, perhaps my personal favorite: I profiled an Appalachian woman who fashioned musical instruments from gourds so that she and her friends could play gospel tunes.
So, you can see right away why I was so eager to read and review this beautiful, fascinating, 634-page tribute to the comic books created by the until-now-unknown comic pioneer Frank Johnson. The debut of this selection of Johnson's comics now will redraw our official history of American comic books. That will take some time, but that rewriting is sure to come—especially since this book was produced by the highly respected Fantagraphics and includes extensive opening essays by curator and historian Chris Byrne and fine artist and graphic novelist Keith Mayerson.
At this point, though, Frank Johnson does not even have a Wikipedia page—although that is certain to change over the next year or so. And Wikipedia still sums up the official history of American comic books pretty much like all the other history books, to date:
The term comic book derives from American comic books once being a compilation of comic strips of a humorous tone. The first modern American-style comic book, Famous Funnies: A Carnival of Comics, was released in the U.S. in 1933 and was a reprinting of earlier newspaper humor comic strips, which had established many of the story-telling devices used in comics.
This new Fantagraphics volume contains examples from half a century of the comic books Frank Johnson drew in blank, bound notebooks that were available in stores for students and office workers from the 1920s until his death in 1979. In other words, Johnson was creating full-fledged comic books a decade before Famous Funnies. His own private creative instincts led him to envision, plan, write and draw what is now considered an important American art form—years before there was any example on the market.
What could possibly have kept Frank Johnson going for so long in this private pursuit?
I remember interviewing Minnie Black, the Appalachian gourd artist who created an entire band's worth of instruments from gourds. She eventually appeared nationwide on radio and TV and had a sampling of her work collected by the Smithsonian—but in her early years as a gourd artist, her friends thought she was a bit eccentric even by Appalachian standards.
"Minnie, you created the first all-gourd band anyone has ever heard," I said to her in our first of a couple of interviews over the years. "What made you think of this? And what kept you going even when no one seemed interested, at first?"
"I just wanted to make a joyful noise unto the Good Lord and I saw a gourd one day that was shaped like a dulcimer—and the next thing I knew, I was seeing gourds that looked like other instruments, too," she said.
Minnie was a full-fledged artist—the Smithsonian would call her a "folk" or "naive" artist—for years before the world discovered her body of work.
What's so fascinating about Johnson's body of work, beyond his pioneering creative vision, is that—like Minnie Black's gourds—his comics reflect the challenges of his life.
The book opens with selections of Johnson's Bowser Boys comic books, whose "heroes" are a group of homeless alcoholic friends who pursue booze with clever twists and turns every day of their lives. They rise to the challenges of daily life—even though their clothes are rags, they are covered in grime and Johnson draws them with flies buzzing around their heads.
As it turns out: At one point in Johnson's real life, he was an out-of-control alcoholic himself and clearly these comics are a kind of wildly satirical exorcism of that raging addiction. Eventually, he became a devoted member of AA, but that era seems to have remained in his mind and heart for the rest of his life. We don't know for sure, because Johnson left few biographical details when he died, but these comics could have been cautionary humor to share with friends Johnson got to know at his AA meetings. Perhaps some surviving friend will surface, now that Johnson is receiving more publicity, to fill in that biographical gap.
However, the majority of this book focuses on his decades-long Wally's Gang series of comic books. This series feels like a first cousin to Archie and Gasoline Alley: a small-town gang of friends forever facing challenges in their relationships—and often pulling pranks on one another.
Some outsider artists attain a measure of fame in their lifetimes. For example, Minnie Black eventually appeared on Johnny Carson's late-night talk show. In fact, I helped with her ascent into the public eye as a journalist, publishing one of the first major profiles of Minnie for a national wire service in the 1970s. She thoroughly enjoyed all the attention she received until she eventually died in 1996 at age 97.
However, far too many "outsiders" only shine posthumously. Keith Mayerson captures the bittersweet truth of Frank Johnson's career in this haunting line: "Frank Johnson laid out the future of comics for an audience of no one."
No one was aware of his astonishing lifetime output until his descendants realized there was value in all those notebooks he had stored away.
If you would like to glimpse what the other kind of outcome for an American outsider artist can look like, you can watch a marvelous 4-minute video of Minnie Black uploaded to YouTube in 2023 by the Appalshop Archive.
For Frank Johnson, the creation of his body of work was enough to keep him going for many decades. The sheer joy he found in creating these stories is obvious in the glee shared by members of Wally's Gang. And, now, his family can celebrate the true creative genius of their patriarch.
March 1, 2024
If this isn’t the greatest prank ever pulled off in the history of comics, then it certainly has to be only one of the most astonishing discoveries of outsider art since Henry Darger.
Though you can see a little bit of artists like Herriman and Segar and early Wolverton in these works, they were created basically in a silo, seemingly uninfluenced by his contemporaries in newspapers and comic books.
This work deserves deeper research and should in theory spark a massive reappraisal and discussion of the earliest history of graphic storytelling.
Though you can see a little bit of artists like Herriman and Segar and early Wolverton in these works, they were created basically in a silo, seemingly uninfluenced by his contemporaries in newspapers and comic books.
This work deserves deeper research and should in theory spark a massive reappraisal and discussion of the earliest history of graphic storytelling.
June 29, 2024
This is the first of two volumes attempting to bring recognition to an unknown artist by reprinting the work he produced for years that was until recently unseen by the world.
“During this lifelong project, Johnson invented in private many of the conventions and tropes that define comic storytelling, effectively enacting an alternative secret history of the comics medium” (cover blurb).
There is nothing extraordinary about these “comics” outside of their historical perspective. They are silly, slapstick, gag-oriented stories drawn in mostly 3 panels and then 4 panels per page. Some of it is understandably politically incorrect now and the gang of bachelor’s attitudes toward women is dated, but….
The character’s personalities are well defined and they are drawn as uniquely recognizable individuals. Despite the relative crudeness of the overall feel, the facial expressions and body language convey emotions and thought. The backgrounds are simple but effectively detailed.
The key significance is that this whole idea of sequential pictorial storytelling (aka comic books and/or graphic novels) was unheard of when this man was creating such stuff in hundreds of cheap notebooks. As a professional musician in Chicago, Frank Johnson (unschooled, untutored, unknown, and unpublished) apparently started creating these early comics (which actually pre-date the term itself) at age 16 and continued to do so for over 50 years.
“During this lifelong project, Johnson invented in private many of the conventions and tropes that define comic storytelling, effectively enacting an alternative secret history of the comics medium” (cover blurb).
There is nothing extraordinary about these “comics” outside of their historical perspective. They are silly, slapstick, gag-oriented stories drawn in mostly 3 panels and then 4 panels per page. Some of it is understandably politically incorrect now and the gang of bachelor’s attitudes toward women is dated, but….
The character’s personalities are well defined and they are drawn as uniquely recognizable individuals. Despite the relative crudeness of the overall feel, the facial expressions and body language convey emotions and thought. The backgrounds are simple but effectively detailed.
The key significance is that this whole idea of sequential pictorial storytelling (aka comic books and/or graphic novels) was unheard of when this man was creating such stuff in hundreds of cheap notebooks. As a professional musician in Chicago, Frank Johnson (unschooled, untutored, unknown, and unpublished) apparently started creating these early comics (which actually pre-date the term itself) at age 16 and continued to do so for over 50 years.
March 16, 2024
Fascinating story behind this fun and well formed work. More early 20th century folk art (and endless repository of old comedy routines and dad jokes) than anything else.
January 9, 2025
I was downright fascinated when I heard this book existed, and I'm glad I finally got a copy. Obscure outsider art with historical significance, mysterious unpublished works, lost media, and vintage humor strips. What's not to love?
When I was younger, I filled out several composition notebooks full of hand-drawn comics (which I have yet to unearth), but my output was nowhere near the volume or quality of what Frank Johnson was creating. It’s wild to think he stuck with these characters for decades, seemingly crafting these comics purely for himself, while pioneering tropes often credited to his more successful contemporaries.
I've seen people compare this to Henry Darger, but Darger was much more of a mental case, and his vast library of work remains unpublished, probably because it's indecipherable nonsense. The Wally's Gang characters, on the other hand, could've easily sat on newsstands alongside Archie and other humor comics, had he actually pursued a career as a cartoonist.
When I was younger, I filled out several composition notebooks full of hand-drawn comics (which I have yet to unearth), but my output was nowhere near the volume or quality of what Frank Johnson was creating. It’s wild to think he stuck with these characters for decades, seemingly crafting these comics purely for himself, while pioneering tropes often credited to his more successful contemporaries.
I've seen people compare this to Henry Darger, but Darger was much more of a mental case, and his vast library of work remains unpublished, probably because it's indecipherable nonsense. The Wally's Gang characters, on the other hand, could've easily sat on newsstands alongside Archie and other humor comics, had he actually pursued a career as a cartoonist.
Want to read
April 29, 2023Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book from the publisher through Edelweiss.
June 14, 2024
Very cool!
June 29, 2024
Come for the charming, brisk comedies; stay for the quiet wonder at how an ordinary man drove himself to give so much of his life to the creation
July 24, 2025
2025 Eisner Award finalist - Best Archival Collection/Project—Strips
This is quite an odd duck: a collection of albums of comics by a talented amateur over the course of fifty years. It's fascinating to see Johnson's evolving mastery of his artwork over the years. He was a proficient amateur with glimpses of greatness but for the most part these drawings don't quite rise to the level of professional artists of the time. Still, to see someone create what is essentially the first graphic novel--in secret--is worth publishing for historical reference.
This is quite an odd duck: a collection of albums of comics by a talented amateur over the course of fifty years. It's fascinating to see Johnson's evolving mastery of his artwork over the years. He was a proficient amateur with glimpses of greatness but for the most part these drawings don't quite rise to the level of professional artists of the time. Still, to see someone create what is essentially the first graphic novel--in secret--is worth publishing for historical reference.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews