Frankieboy

A lonely man, a cigarette, a hotel hallway - this is the setting for an ironic take on Sinatra Lore. The Golden Era, chock-a-block with mementoes from better days, has faded into a hazy labyrinth where all that is left of the adoring public is Melba the chambermaid, and as fate would have it, she is immune to the Sinatra charisma.
Fueled by the contents of his flask, frankieboy staggers for all eternity through the corridors of a hotel whose name he has forgotten.

Now and then he meets old buddies: Dean Martin, Sammy Davis jr., Ava Gardner and many more come across (for instance in form of indoor plants or shabby furniture) to have a little conversation with old blue-eyes.

The comic strip "frankieboy" creates a distinctive atmosphere within its own abstract world by means of a precise yet ironic approach to the Sinatra mystique.

Careful research and a narrative vein which is accurate down to the smallest details create a blend of anecdotes, liner notes and Sinatra-specific themes, represented by means of an intentionally reduced drawing style.
Thereby frankieboy's contrariness exposes the absurdity of his old-fashioned macho-image.

Each "frankieboy"-episode is designed to be a minimalistic short-drama, a self-contained unit, therefore not necessarily to be seen in a determined order. There is no linear action; everything spins around the main character's chaotic associations.


Rat Pack

Middle aged men behave like brats and people love them for it. In the age of political correctness, the Rat Pack is experiencing a renaissance. The fact that on April 15, 1998, Frank Sinatra, the last figure of these show-biz icons, made his exit into the Big Cosmic Casino hasn't had any negative effect on the popularity upsurge. In fact, quite the contrary: bestsellers like Bill Zehme's affectionate lifestyle bible "The Way You Wear Your Hat - Frank Sinatra And The Lost Art Of Living" resurrected a forgotten world of peculiar rituals. Out of print old LPs were rereleased on CD. And of course, Hollywood also jumped on the bandwagon. After HBO's Rat-Pack movie with Ray Liotta as Sinatra and Joe Mantegna as Dean Martin, Martin Scorsese announced his own plans for a Dean Martin film, with Tom Hanks playing the lead


Frankieboy's Hyperlinks

Las Vegas has degenerated into a theme park, and the legendary Sands Hotel, the rat-pack headquarters of yore, was torn down long ago. Yet the myth is experiencing a reincarnation in the media even outside the frankieboy-episodes. Entertaining and informative websites on this theme are sprouting like mushrooms in the internet community; a selection of these can be found on frankieboy's hyperlinks.
http://evolver.at/frankieboy/links/index.html


Frankieboy's Gallery

Only few people know that frankieboy, just like the talented amateur painter Frank Sinatra, has a weakness for modern art. Assembled with his signature impeccable taste, his collection of international works of art includes paintings, photography and drawings from Austria, Germany, the USA and Brazil and was expanded into a multi-faceted virtual gallery last year.
http://evolver.at/frankieboy/galerie.html



Frankieboy's soundtrack:
LOUIE AUSTEN - CONSEQUENCES
cheap records 031
Order: http://www.mdos.at/



KONTAKT: Stefan Stratil Rennweg 96/12A-1030 tel 0043-1-7963895 fax 0043-1-7986791
"frankieboy" Online-Comicstrip --- each month a new episode --- © Stratil & Friedrich 97-00
Translation: Anthony de Bedts (english), Anne-Françoise Roelandts (french)
The "frankieboy"-Website is a Subpage of the net-magazine EVOLVER. All rights reserved.
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The Chairman of the Board






The Rat Pack






Dino






Sammy






Love






Good Times



Art
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