{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Frank Minnitt | image = Frank John Minnitt.jpg | alt = <!-- descriptive text for use by speech synthesis (text-to-speech) software --> | caption = | birth_name = Frank John Minnitt | birth_date = {{Birth date|1894|09|03|df=y}} | birth_place = Southgate, London | death_date = {{Death date and age|1958|05|12|1894|09|03|df=y}} | death_place = | other_names = | occupation = illustrator, cartoonist | years_active = 1920s–1950s | known_for = comic papers (1920s1950s) | notable_works = ''Knockout'' comic | spouse = Alice Davie (m.1919)<br />Evelynne Thelma Snell (m.1947) | children = 2: daughter, son }} '''Frank John Minnitt''' (3 September 1894 – 12 May 1958) was a British illustrator and cartoonist who drew for over 100 comic magazines from the 1920s to the 1950s. He is perhaps best known for his depictions of Billy Bunter in the comic ''Knockout'' between 1939 and 1958.
Minnitt was born in Southgate in London in 1894, the youngest of five sons of Mary Ann Smith (1854-1943) and William Robinson Minnitt (1858-1927). Educated at the Hugh Myddleton School in Islington, aged 14 he was the London Junior Boxing Champion; later, he followed his father into working for the General Post Office (GPO) before serving with the Coldstream Guards during World War I. He was sent to France where he suffered injuries from mustard gas<ref name=Sothebys>[http://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/8331397.Sothebys_called_in_to_verify_cartoon_copper/ 'Sothebys called in to verify cartoon copper' - ''Echo'' 15 August 2010]</ref> which affected him for the rest of his life. After the war Minnitt returned to the General Post Office, later working as a welder with a taxi firm before becoming an artist.<ref name=Knockout>{{Cite web |url=http://www15.brinkster.com/hiamie/greyfriars/sh/Bunter_in_the_Knockout.htm |title='Billy Bunter in the ''Knockout''' |access-date=2012-09-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120111093457/http://www15.brinkster.com/hiamie/greyfriars/sh/Bunter_in_the_Knockout.htm |archive-date=2012-01-11 |url-status=dead }}</ref> A completely self-taught cartoonist, around 1920 Minnitt began to contribute single joke cartoons to the comics of the Amalgamated Press (AP). Subsequently, his work appeared in various titles including ''Comic Life'', ''Joker'', ''Merry & Bright'', ''Butterfly'', ''Jolly'' and ''Sparkler''.<ref>[http://www.lambiek.net/artists/m/minnitt_f.htm Frank Minnitt on ''Lambiek Comiclopedia'']</ref>
From 1936 he began to submit work to D.C. Thomson and his drawings appeared in the Fun Section of ''The Sunday Post'' and ''The Dandy''. He took over drawing Billy Bunter’s picture strip from C. H. Chapman in Amalgamated Press’s ''Knockout'' comic in 1939, drawing the popular character in a round-style. Minnitt drew a beaming and bouncy Bunter, which at first followed Chapman's style, then later branched into a style of his own, concentrating on slapstick humour. By 1942 the Famous Five had vanished from the strip, replaced by Jones Minor, who had all the good qualities Bunter lacked, but who was prone to being led astray by Bunter. The form-master, Mr Quelch, stayed (at least in name), but he lost his dignity and aloofness. It was an entirely different Greyfriars School from that described by Charles Hamilton in ''The Magnet'' but it became immediately popular, with Minnitt continuing to draw Bunter until shortly before he died in 1958. In the mid to late 1940s his work appeared in a number of different short-run titles issued by small publishers; these included ''Comicolour'', ''Jingo'', ''Swell Comic'', ''Big Laugh'', and various others. During World War II he lived in Leigh-on-Sea in Essex.<ref name=Sothebys/>
He married Alice Davie in 1919, and had a daughter Betty (1920–2009). He married Evelynne Thelma Snell (1912–2003) in 1947 and with her had a son, John Frank Minnitt (born 1950).<ref name=Knockout/>
On his death the drawing of Billy Bunter in ''Knockout'' was taken over by artists Eric Roberts and Reg Parlett.
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Sources== * ''Frank Minnitt'' by Alan Clark (''Golden Fun'', Summer 1986) * ''Knockout Comic: An Illustrated Guide'' by David Ashford, John Allen-Clarke & Steve Holland (CJ Publications, 1997)
==External links== *[http://www.dandare.info/history/golden_age.htm Minnitt]{{Dead link|date=November 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} on the ''Dan Dare'' - The Golden Age of AP Comics website{{Dead link|date=December 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Minnitt, Frank}} Category:1894 births Category:1958 deaths Category:20th-century English illustrators Category:English children's book illustrators Category:English magazine cartoonists Category:English humorists Category:English comics artists Category:British Army personnel of World War I Category:Coldstream Guards soldiers Category:Billy Bunter Category:Artists from the London Borough of Enfield Category:People from Southgate, London