Bob Thaves

Bob Thaves (Robert Thaves, 1924–2006) was an American cartoonist best known for creating the newspaper comic strip *Frank and Ernest*. The strip, built around two friendly characters and a steady stream of wordplay, became widely syndicated and helped establish Thaves as a distinctive voice in American gag cartooning. Working in the tradition of the daily newspaper comic, he developed a style that favored concise setups, punchline-driven dialogue, and topical humor. Thaves’s work reached a broad readership through newspapers and later collections, and his name is often associated with quotable one-liners drawn from the strip’s jokes and observations.