Butch “Superfrog” Anton Passes Away at 81

Robert “Butch” Alan Anton, affectionately known in the sign industry as “Superfrog,” passed away Sept. 14 at HIA Heather’s House in Fargo, ND, according to a post by Wright Funeral Home, Moorhead, MN. He was 81.

A Celebration of Life will be held Sept. 22 at 4 p.m., with visitation from 2-4 p.m., at Wright Funeral Home. Burial will be at Elmwood Cemetery, Sabin, MN, at a later date.

A full obituary will be available from Wright Funeral Home soon. The page already includes several posts from friends and loved ones, including Wade Swormstedt, former editor-in-chief and associate publisher of Signs of the Times: “Butch brought such sheer joy to the sign industry. My favorite example was his creating a checkerboard inside a bull’s pen. You could bet on which square the bull would leave its first cowpie. I must have been at 40 sign shows at which Butch provided hands-on seminars. Superfrog was truly larger than life. Perhaps most importantly, he was kind.”

Superfrog’s career had many highlights…

Superfrog Signs & Graphics (Moorhead, MN) was established in 1972, and according to Superfrog.com’s “About Superfrog” page, he got the nickname when he became a master instructor for scuba diving at a very young age. The site states he trained over 2,500 people around the world in scuba diving and thus earned the “Superfrog” moniker.

Butch “Superfrog” Anton demonstrating sandblasting in 1982. Photo courtesy of Mike Jackson.

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He led the instruction on sandblasting at the Letterheads’ 1982 Oklahoma Bash, hosted by Mike Jackson. For more on that, see the full article from BLAG. (Editor’s Note: Our thanks to Sam Roberts of BLAG for help with this article.)

Also according to Superfrog.com, “In 1990, Butch was chosen to be an educator on the national signshow circuit. His status grew and he was asked to do shows all over the world… Butch has written countless articles for various industry magazines and has appeared in many educational videos. His innovative ideas changed the sign industry in many ways, the most obvious being the three-tier pricing concept.”

Frog Juice, a solvent-based liquid laminate intended for most digital printed inks and many other surfaces — which he had a hand in developing and marketing — remains popular today and is available from Blue Ridge Sign Supply (Asheville, NC).

One of his vehicle graphics articles for ST in March 2006, “Variety Spices Up Signmaking,” is still available, as is “A Banner Makeover” from the very next month.

This story is still developing.