Frank Sels studied art in Antwerp, after which he worked in a printing firm for a short while. He joined Studio Vandersteen in 1963, and succeeded Karel Verschuere on 'Karl May' and on 'De Rode Ridder', introducing the King Arthur-cycle in the series. Sels was the artist of King Arthur-cycle in the 'Rode Ridder' series. Starting in 1964, he illustrated several comics in the magazines Ons Land and Ohee, working with scripts by Lorenzo Wadlin and his childhood friend Hugo Renaerts. He specialized on historical, viking and western stories, including 'Mister Grizzly', 'Abraham Lincoln', 'De Ilias' and 'Tall Bull'. For magazine 't Kapoentje he worked on 'Arkulleke', 'Bongo Tegen de Kux Klan', 'Kleine Antilope' and 'De Avonturen van de Zeearend'.
In 1966, Sels resigned from Vandersteen, only to return when he didn't find work with newspaper Het Volk. He got a job at the 'Bessy' studio, where he and Edgard Gastmans were responsible for the production of stories for Bastei Verlag in Germany. After a final break with Vandersteen in 1969, they began working with Bastei directly. Sels created the series 'Silberpfeil, der Junge Häuptling', that appeared in the weekly Felix, and from 1971 in its own weekly comic.
Sels opened a studio for his large production, and employed among others Robert Wuyts, Eric De Rop, Jean Bosco Safari, Claus Scholz, Jan van Rooy and his son Erwin. Through Studio Sels, he earned the reputation as the fastest comic artist in Europe, cranking out as much as 42 pages a week, without too many concessions to quality. 'Silberpfeil' also appeared as 'Zilverpijl' in Ohee in Belgium, and the production for Germany lasted until 1986. Frank Sels commited suicide in 1986.
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