Holland, Frank Henry (1871 – 1945)

Frank Holland original cartoon artwork

Frank Holland was born in the East End of London. His father, Henry, worked as a glass bottle packer and a dressmaker. Frank was a scenic artist by 1891, and started working in comics and producing comic strips from 1895 to 1909. He was art editor for the illustrated magazine The Gleam, but drew his earliest comics forIllustrated Chips. In 1895 he published the comic strips 'Chips Colony' and 'Chokee Bill'. Holland is famous for being one of the pioneers in British comics, creating various short-lived humorous text comics, of which 'Those Terrible Twins' had the longest staying power. He also goes down in history for making the first comic strip revolving around a child character version of a media celebrity: 'The Leno Kids'. Holland then moved on to drawing political cartoons for magazines such as Fun and John Bull. He was then employed on the left leaning Sunday newspaper Reynolds News from 1905 until the mid 1930s. Frank Holland passed away in Oxford in 1945, at the age of 73.