'Malabar, le Roi des Mers du Sud', #8 - Le Tigre Malais'.
Frank Val was an obscure mid-20th century French artist, working for Nice publishers on sensational comic books like 'Malabar, Le Roi des Mers du Sud' (1948) and 'Rex La Brousse' (1949-1950). He should not be confused with the Belgian comic creator Valentin Dufrasne, who signed with "Valentin" and "Val" during the same time period.
Récits complets
After World War II, the French comic industry recuperated by flooding the market with monthly comic books, containing one full story in each issue. Referred to in France as the "Récits Complets", many took inspiration from the Spanish and Italian tradition of landscape-format booklets, filled with thrilling adventures of heroic characters. Most of the artists working for these titles have remained obscure, with only a limited body of work. One of them was Frank Val (sometimes written as Franck Val), an artist active in the city of Nice.
In 1947 and 1948, Val was working for Publi-Vog, an imprint stationed a Ave du Maréchal Foch 37 in Nice. After the one-shot about masked vigilante 'Chicago-Kid' (Collection Publi-Police, 1947), Frank Val drew eight issues with 'Malabar, Le Roi des Mers du Sud' (1948), a hard-boiled jungle adventurer. In the following year, Frank Val was present at Voix Française, another publisher from Nice, based at Rue Gioffredo 62. There, he drew seven issues with the explorer 'Rex la Brousse' (1949-1950), who helped the English fighting the Japanese troops in Burma during World War II. After this date, no further work by Frank Val is known.
'Chicago Kid'.