Frank Delbruck's webcomics are among some of the most popular works in the formative years of the medium. They are still frequently accessed and discussed by the foremost critical thinkers in the genre. They have been translated into 27 different languages and have been inspiration to some of today's best talent.

This showing displays some of his physical works, in order to gain more insight into the working methods and mindset of one of webcomics most aggressive and misunderstood artists. It is our intention that upon closer inspection of his physical work, one can begin to gain a greater appreciation for the work that has help mold the idea of what we know as modern webcomics.

Roger Handolf
Curator; Handolf-Tate Museum

Frank Delbruck was born September 12th 1966. Frank was an only child and by all accounts, didn't do well in school. His grades were average at best, and his time was spent reading comics.

"I was big into Sgt. Rock then. Kubert was the man, to me. His linework was incredible. I remember how he drew the stubble on Rocks face. It was a great style. I copied those a lot."
Delbruck, wetalkcomics.com interview

"Mort Drucker was a guy I got a lot from. A great style. And those feet! They were the best…"
Delbruck, aenueman.com interview

Frank continued to draw, self-taught, until he took his first art class at El Camino Junior College on Torrance, California. Frank flourished there. Making work that would later prove to be the birth of his artistic statement. He fell in with a group of fellow artists and comics enthusiasts.

"Delbruck was a different breed. You could see it then. In hindsight, he was finding his voice, working out what he wanted to say and do. But when you walked into the studio and he was cutting up pieces of bread and gluing them on pencils, trying to make his own unique sponge brush, then you had to wonder."
Norman Kirk, a college friend

Delbruck tried to get work in print comics. He diligently made submissions to all of the major companies and spent a lot of time searching out people to collaborate with. More often than not he was refused, mostly due to his unorthodox approach to art making.

"We all used to laugh at his submissions. Don't get me wrong though. They were good, he was a good artist. But it's hard not to laugh when someone sends in five 24x36 oil painted canvases with 46 panels on each one. You think 'does this guy really expect to get a job drawing Daredevil?'"
Jason Tulare, Mailroom clerk at Marvel Comics

Frustrated with not being able to break into the comics industry, He began making his own mini-comics. Most notably, his "hand-made minis", Wherein he would print comics with blank panels, then draw them in for each individual person. Surviving "hand-made minis" are rare and difficult to find.

"That got kind of tiring at a convention. Especially when you finish working on one for 3 hours, and the guy decides not to buy it. I mean c'mon, You can't afford 2 bucks? When someone did get it, though, they were amazed. Really. That's why I kept doing them. That, and its was such good exercise."
Delbruck, walkingedges.com interview

After being at El Camino for 8 years and being no closer to a degree than when he started (due to his refusal to take non art-related subjects), Delbruck began to spend more time on the Internet. Some say it began by Delbruck's necessity for a Chinese sable brush that some one said he could buy cheap online. Then he came across webcomics. A world began to open to him.

"At that time you had mostly strips. Hardly anyone was doing long-form stuff, or even Flash for that matter. Lots of people talked about it, but few did. Most people were taking their "strips" and sticking one under the other on a webpage till they had something longer than a print page. That was the extent of the innovation."
Delbruck, walkingedges.com interview

"Most people thought I was starting a new gag strip. They all said 'LOL, good one, can't wait to see what other funny hi-jinks you pull off'. I had to tell them I'm not a gag strip guy. Do you see a fucking 'keen' anywhere in my url?"
Delbruck, Webart Monthly interview

He quickly moved into more serious work, creating "It's Cool in Hell" and "Save me the Porkfat", as well as starting his more experimental series "Heads In The Sand".
"Heads in the sand" would prove his most influential series, but at the time it was not well received.

"I remember thinking 'what the hell IS this? First I have to wait ten hours for it to download, then it's all about him and his broken toaster? If this is webcomics, forget it.' I laugh now. If only I knew then. His stuff was way ahead of its time.
James Maxwell, webcomics professor at Pepperdine

Perhaps Delbruck's biggest tragedy was that for all the hard work he put into the making of these comics, they were only displayed at 75 dpi. At the time, monitors were very poor resolution, making much of the attention and detail in his work undecipherable. This would prove to be Delbruck's biggest complaint regarding webcomics, and the focal point of many of his antics.

"I mean you've got a world audience, and you can't make the screen better? Who the fucks working on this thing? Don't THEY want to see some more detail? Do they care that I used a one-hair fucking brush to ink in the freckles in her reflection in the black of 'The Nothings' boots? "
Delbruck at a conference for Computer Technologies, before he was removed by security.

After the publishing of "Bite the Pencil, It's No Longer Your Friend" in late 2005, Delbruck began a descent into darker times. The loss of 2 day jobs in a row (due mostly to outbursts by him) coupled with his inability to get readers to subscribe to his comics/journal site (the now defunct delbruckisgod.com) forced him into great desperation.

"He'd just get on the Message boards and badger us. It was silly at first, because he hadn't made a comic in months, and he was going around telling everyone how much they sucked and how he was the only one doing anything innovative. It just sounded like sour grapes. But after a while, when he got more aggressive and personal with fellow artists, it got kind of sad. Like he wanted the community to hate him. I guess he was trying to break ties…"
"Jeremy Darteest", Webcomics Artist

It all ended with what would be his last posting:

"I missed the boat I guess. Cause it hasn't been built yet. I thought I had something, but I musta been wrong. There aint nothing here, and webcomics will die out in the next two years, mark my words…"
Delbruck, from his index page, December 28th 2005.

It is reported that after this post Delbruck set fire to all of the art he had in his apartment, including the originals to many of his webcomics. Witnesses report they heard a gunshot approximately 3 minutes after the smoke alarms began to sound. When fire officials arrived, they found Delbruck slumped over by the charred remains of his work.

All that remains of Delbruck's webcomics is what was culled from his webspace and hardrive (including 17 unpublished comics and one 6-part series. Why he never publicly posted this work is a mystery, as it has come to be regarded as seminal and groundbreaking) The majority of what remains of Delbruck's physical work are collected in this show.