Born in Johannesburg on 24th September 1941, Frans attended the Witwatersrand Technical College after his school years, completing a very thorough three year diploma in Commercial Art.

Frans Esterhuyse accredits his lecturers there for the foundation which started his career, beginning with a number of advertising agencies and private companies before he joined the Perskor group of newspapers as a political cartoonist.

Characterised by his trademark "kat", Frans' cartoons have been carried by most of the country's Afrikaans newspaper titles from Die Transvaler to, most recently, Beeld. Over the years he has established himself amongst the best of the fine crop of current Afrikaans speaking cartoonists.

Another passion is his love for painting. Working in oils, he paints portraits (by commission), landscapes, still lifes, "in fact, anything where a profound atmosphere caught my eye", he says.

Frans contends that it is extremely difficult for him to choose between cartooning, comic strips and corporate work and so he manages to find time for all of these disciplines.

Frans has been married for 44 years and has two children and three grand children. He lives in the Western Cape.