Posted By Dan Greenfield on Mar 21, 2025 | 5 comments

FRANCO’s FREE-FOR-ALL FRIDAYS!

By FRANCO

Comic strips.

I used to cut them out of the Sunday papers. I was a big fan of comic strips. It was clear to me at an early age that I’m more attracted to the visual than the written word. The comics would always catch my eye in newspapers first. But the Sunday papers, comics were wrapped on the outside of the paper. What an enticement! Those four-color funnies had my name written all over them. But then I saw The Amazing Spider-Man strips! That banner across the top! How can he lift that bus?

I loved this image so much!

Charlie Brown and Snoopy. Beetle Bailey. I would even read that mushy Brenda Starr stuff or the Prince Valiant stuff I didn’t understand sometimes. But Spider-Man was in there too!

My mind just did not comprehend what was happening. So like every day, there would be comics in the newspaper for… free???

I had not quite grasped the concept that someone had paid for the paper and left it there. On Sundays (or rather Mondays) someone would leave that paper at the restaurant my dad worked at in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and, because it had comics in it, my dad would bring it home to me. I would dutifully cut out my favorites and tape them onto a sheet of looseleaf paper and put them in order in my dedicated comics Trapper Keeper. I created my own comics library.

The hours I would sift through those and look at the artwork was truly a magical time. I never forgot them. Explains why all these years later I have collections of Peanuts and Calvin and Hobbes and The Far Side. And The Amazing Spider-Man, which was collected by IDW a while back.

We’ll probably talk about Ben Day dots and even my feelings about Roy Lichtenstein another day.

Speaking of painting. I love to paint. Sometimes I create a painting in the moment. Other times it’s planned out (way too much) but when I was creating this painting below, in my mind, it reminded me of that dot pattern. I guess the circles were my homage to the Sunday strips.

I never know where inspiration for a painting will come from. In retrospect I think I should have put in more colored circles. Maybe next time.

Yeah… I know, my mind is weird.

Happy Friday!

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MORE

— SPIDER-MAN: The Patron Saint of Nerds Everywhere. Click here.

— ROBIN: A Legacy Character Done Right. Click here.

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Franco and his forehead have traveled the world and he writes and draws stuff. Franco is the creator, artist and writer of Patrick the Wolf Boy and Aw Yeah Comics! Franco has worked on books/comics, including Tiny Titans and Superman Family Adventures. Franco was also a high-school teacher and is one of the principal owners of Aw Yeah Comics retail stores. Dan made Franco add that he has won three Eisners.