My friend Frank

I attended the launch for the latest comic book by American artist Clarence ‘Otis’ Dooley. The book, called Time for Frank and His Friend (2012), is a collection of original illustrations by Dooley, first published in 1979. On the walls of this big open space at adhocPAD were original sketches of Frank. The artistic style of the comic illustrations are distinctively from the 1970’s, even further back to the 50’s.

Something in the biography of the artist struck me as an overwhelming similarity to myself. Dooley was born in Illinois in 1945. His skills for comic illustration flourished while serving in the army. He then worked as a catalogue illustrator but resigned to pursue working on his comic, Frank and His Friend, which was published in 1975. Frank was a highly popular character when Otis died suddenly in 1984. Thirty years later, original sketches were found and published in a collection called Finding Frank and His Friends (2010). The sketches were found in an old trunk and published by Curio & Co and edited by Melvin Goodge.

What if I told you that Dooley and his character Frank were pure nostalgic myths? Dooley never existed, and neither did his comics. Dooley is the pseudonym of the artist Cesare Asaro. Frank is a very real character, but he was not a 1970’s comic. The editor Melvin is not real, either.

I was drawn into this provocative idea of fictitious memories. The collectible products from Curio & Co were intriguing; collectable space cadet badges from the 1960’s and a Time Machine Manual. This instruction guide, published in 1953, contains detailed diagrams and user information for the Gadabout Time Machine. It was made by Cudworth-Hooper, one of the world’s largest manufacturers.

How do you know that I am real? I could be like Frank, a character, or like Dooley, a guise. For sure, I was standing there looking at comics sketches and taking photographs. But were there really three expat girls there? You’d have to ask someone who was there if they remember me. You could ask the artist who the book launch was for. Oh wait, he wasn’t real, was he? For all you know, I could be like Dooley or Frank too.

The real works of a never existing comic are published by Curio & Co and available to buy from: http://www.curioandco.com. You can follow Curio & Co on Twitter and Facebook. Check out the artist Cesare Asaro’s blog at http://cesareasaro.blogspot.com/.