this is about bob. he’s a squirrel. a very loud and yet subtle squirrel.
Where do I begin?… probably at the beginning. My name is Frank Page—I am an illustrator and cartoonist in Central New York. Currently I am a graphic designer and editorial cartoonist at the Rome Daily Sentinel.
In the fall of 2001, I moved to Utica, NY. One saturday morning I was laying on the couch watching MAS*H and I happened to look out the window. What I saw would invariably change my life for better or for worse.
What I saw was a squirrel—kinda like when Bruce Wayne was trying to decide on what he should be and that pesky little bat came flying through his window. I didn’t decide that I wanted to become SQUIRRELMAN— bear with me.
So, my attention was drawn away (no pun please!) from Hawkeye and Colonel Potter for the moment and was focused on this little creature. He was running across a power wire like he’d been in the circus his entire life. Then he jumped a good distance from the power line onto a tree and scampered down the branches. The creature was graceful, but at the same time very clumsy. I called him Bob; thus inspiring the comic panel BOB THE SQUIRREL. I later learned, much to my landlord’s dismay, that this same beautiful creature I had dubbed BOB had started a family in the column of my porch. Hey at least I have a ready supply of material!
Toward the middle of 2007, more life changes happened. Because I’ve chosen to take events out of my life and “cartoonize” them, the strip took a decidedly more dark approach. But as with everything else, there is a silver lining. In the summer of 2010, I completed my graduate work, earning my MFA in visual art from the Vermont College of Fine Arts.