Bob Thaves’ comic strip characters Frank and Ernest have amused

readers with their puns and observations for more than 20 years. Slackers

before slackers were cool, the pair can usually be found hanging out at the

water cooler at one of their “temp” jobs or wrestling with the

technological terror of copying machines. As a strip,Frank and Ernest

takes the daily frustrations of life and turns them into humor everyone can

share.

Thaves is definitely not a slacker, having cranked out comic strips

since high school. After creating strips for both the student newspaper and

the humor magazine at the University of Minnesota, Thaves worked for

magazines such as the Saturday Evening Post and Saturday

Review.

These days, the artist has made himself available to fans via the

America Online computer network. At the end of every strip, Thaves offers

his e-mail address, “[email protected].” In an electronic interview

conducted over this network, Thaves talked about his career and his

characters.

His famous pair was born in the early 1970s. The idea caught on, and

Thaves moved up the syndication ladder.

“Frank and Ernest was syndicated a little more than 20 years

ago,” he says.”The characters grew out of the magazine cartooning. I wanted

to use a duo like Laurel and Hardy.”

Creating a comic strip every day for two decades can be a challenge. As

easy going as Frank and Ernest are, Thaves must be diligent.

“Ideas are sometimes easy to get, but usually hard,” he says. “It takes

work because it has to be done every day and on deadline. There’s no such

thing as calling in sick.”

Thaves is always open to ideas from other people. “If people offer an

original, usable suggestion, I use it,” he says.

Some evolutions in the strip have taken place over the years as Thaves

works to create new ideas. The main example of this is in the character

Ernest. “He spoke little, or none at all, originally,” says Thaves, “but I

decided it works better when he participates more. It makes the strip

less one-dimensional and allows him to turn the tables on Frank

sometimes.”

When Ernest speaks these days, he’s likely to offer pun filled summaries

of complex topics. His synopsis of Melville’s Moby Dick, for example,

was “Frail Male Fails, Pale Whale Prevails.”

Besides his own, Thaves favorite cartoons are older ones. “I like

Krazy Kat, by Herriman; Toonerville Trolley, by Fontaine Fox;

and a lot of the ‘story strips’: Dick Tracy, Terry and the

Pirates, Orphan Annie and Pogo,” he says. “My all-time

favorite would be Krazy Kat.”

Thaves sees his amusing pair lasting for a long time. “I will continue

to do the strip as long as (1) I enjoy doing it; (2) I remain healthy; and

(3) papers continue to buy it,” he says.

Meanwhile, his inclusion of his America Online address has gotten him a

lot of feedback from readers. “There is a ton of e-mail,” he says,

“literally thousands over the past 6 months.”