William Overgard (April 30, 1926 - 1990), was an American cartoonist and writer with a diverse opus, including novels, screenplays, animation, and the comic strips
Steve Roper and Mike NomadSteve Roper and Mike Nomad was an American adventure comic strip that ran under various earlier titles from November 1936 to December 26, 2004...
and
RudyRudy may refer to:People* Rudolph, a male first name* Daniel "Rudy" Ruettiger, a motivational speaker and the inspiration for the film Rudy* Rudy Giuliani, a former mayor of New York City and 2008 US presidential candidate...
. For a picture, see his biography card at
National Cartoonists Society.
Early life
William Thomas Overgard was born on April 30, 1926 in Santa Monica, California, son of silent-movie actor William A. Overgard, and grew up there. Inspired as a boy by
Milton CaniffMilton Arthur Paul Caniff was an American cartoonist famous for the Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon comic strips.-Early life:Caniff was born in Hillsboro, Ohio. He was an Eagle Scout...
's
Terry and the PiratesTerry and the Pirates is the title of:* Terry and the Pirates , the comic strip created by Milton Caniff* Terry and the Pirates , a radio serial based on the comic strip...
, at age twelve he sent him a fan letter and samples of his own art, and received encouragement. They continued corresponding during Overgard's high school years and two years in the Navy during World War II. Afterwards, he headed for New York and worked with Caniff, assisting him on his new strip
Steve CanyonSteve Canyon was a long-running American adventure comic strip by writer-artist Milton Caniff. Launched shortly after Caniff retired from his previous strip, Terry and the Pirates, Steve Canyon ran from January 13, 1947 until June 4, 1988, shortly after Caniff's death...
. (He later regarded this apprenticeship as his only true training for cartooning.) Then, on Caniff's advice, he launched his own cartooning career in the 1950s with comic books such as
Jungle Jim,
Ben Bowie,
Daredevil, and the western
Black Diamond (Lambiek). He also freelanced in ghosted strips and animation, continuing to refine his artwork, and contributed to
Boy Magazine and the satirical
Whack.
A "syndicated gig"
In 1954,
Steve Roper artist
Pete HoffmanPete Hoffman is an American cartoonist known for his work on the adventure strips Steve Roper and Jeff Cobb. For a picture, see his biography card at .- Early years :...
was leaving to do his own strip,
Jeff Cobb. As recalled by Harvey (2004), Overgard "had been trying to get a syndicated gig, and when the
Roper job opened up, he was invited to compete with other candidates for the assignment. 'Fortunately,' he wrote, 'I managed to scoot by and win, and that was the beginning of my career as a strip cartoonist.' " The first strip he drew for
Steve Roper was for July 12, 1954, and from then on his photorealistic depiction of the characters and settings gave the strip a bold, attractive new look. When the writer,
Allen SaundersAllen Saunders, 1899-1986, was an American writer, journalist, and cartoonist who wrote Steve Roper and Mike Nomad, Mary Worth, and Kerry Drake. His full name was John Allen Saunders, which has sometimes led to confusion with his son John , who later continued two of his father's strips...
, was considering a counterfoil pal for "straight-arrow" Roper, Overgard suggested a character he had been working on and described as "a realistic working-man kind of guy who was not beyond taking any opportunity that presented itself" (Harvey, ibid). Thus appeared on June 19, 1956, the memorable Mike Nomad, who would expand story potential and audience appeal.
With a family started and the security of
Steve Roper, in 1954 Overgard and his wife Gloria "left behind their bohemian Manhattan life" (Traster 2007) and moved up the Hudson to a house on a rural site in Stony Point, NY, close to friend Caniff's home. He invested much of his earnings over the years in renovating the house (built in 1770) while also indulging a love of antique cars and motorcycles. He did his cartooning and writing at night, except when he and his wife entertained in "artsy soirees" in their home and gardens (Traster, ibid).
His distinctive artwork attracted attention. In 1963 (May 17), he wrote in
Time Magazine that a featured painting by pop artist
Roy LichtensteinRoy Lichtenstein was a prominent American pop artist, his work heavily influenced by both popular advertising and the comic book style...
"came close" to an August 6, 1961 panel of his
Steve Roper. (It was virtually identical, including Saunders' words without attribution.) He added: "Very flattering...I think?" He joined the
National Cartoonists SocietyThe National Cartoonists Society is the world's largest organization of professional cartoonists. It presents the Reuben Awards.The NCS was born in 1946 when groups of cartoonists got together to entertain the troops...
and clearly took pride in his work on the strip (which became
Steve Roper and Mike Nomad in 1969), giving it new popularity (Lambiek). He injected much of himself into its characters and settings. For example, Nomad likewise became an avid motorcyclist and in 1970, competed in a
MotocrossMotocross is a form of motorcycle sport or all-terrain vehicle racing held on enclosed off road circuits. Motocross is derived from the French, and traces its origins to British scrambling competitions...
race in Mexico (where Overgard was temporarily residing); while in 1976, Roper bought a country home like Overgard's (original Traster article) and by 1983, now bearded, he even looked like his artist and shared his interest in antique cars.
Later years
In 1971 Overgard also took on the scripting of
Kerry DrakeKerry Drake is the title of a comic strip created for Publishers Syndicate by Alfred Andriola as artist and Allen Saunders as uncredited writer...
after Saunders quit (Lambiek), and as that strip ended, began a new one he both wrote and drew,
Rudy, which debuted on January 3, 1983. By then, there were disagreements over the writing of
Steve Roper (Harvey, 2004) with Allen Saunders and son John who succeeded him in 1979. After his strip for April 7, 1985 (not 1982 as sometimes reported), Overgard left
Steve Roper, immediately replaced by
Fran MateraFrancis "Fran" Matera is an American comic strip artist best known for his work as the artist of the King Features Syndicate adventure strip Steve Roper and Mike Nomad from 1984 to 2004.-Early life and career:...
, and devoted himself to
Rudy. Unfortunately, despite favorable reviews,
Rudy came to an end later that year on December 22.
Overgard had already expanded into screenplays and televised cartoons, now scripting episodes of
ThunderCatsThunderCats is an animated television series that was produced by Rankin/Bass Productions debuting in 1985, based on the characters created by Tobin "Ted" Wolf...
. He had also been writing adventure novels, and in 1988 published his last one,
A Few Good Men, about the U.S. Marines' 1931 intervention in the Sandinista war in Nicaragua. He continued his longtime interests in antique cars and music-making, especially the banjo. He died in Stony Point on May 25, 1990, survived by wife Gloria, sons Tom and Matthew, and daughter Jennifer Magnusson, and leaving an archive of his earlier
Steve Roper work at
Syracuse UniversitySyracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, U.S.A.. It was founded as a university in 1870, but its roots can be traced back to a seminary founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832 which eventually became Genesee College...
.
His work
Overgard's fiction includes the novels
Moonlight Surveillance,
Pieces of a Hero,
Once More the Hero,
Shanghai Tango,
The Evil Chaser,
The Divide,
The Man from Raffles, and
A Few Good Men. Their situations vary, but they show thorough background research, vivid characterization, imaginative fast-moving plots, tension-ratcheting twists, and the attention to descriptive detail that would come naturally to a writer who was also a story strip artist. His screenplays include
The Last Dinosaur (1977),
The Bermuda DepthsThe Bermuda Depths is a 1978 fantasy film originally broadcast as a made-for-TV movie written by Arthur Rankin Jr. of Rankin/Bass fame. It is available on DVD-R on-demand directly from the Warner Bros. Archive shop.- Plot :...
(1978),
Ivory Ape (1980),
Bushido BladeBushido Blade has various meanings:* The Bushido Blade is a 1981 movie, featuring Richard Boone, Toshiro Mifune, Sonny Chiba, Mako and James Earl Jones.* Bushido Blade is a 1997 PlayStation video game featuring one-on-one combat by LightWeight....
(1981), and the animated cartoons
Silver Hawks and 19 episodes of
ThunderCats (airing in the mid-1980s).
He is more remembered for his 31 years (almost half his life) on
Steve Roper. It stood out with its finely realistic artwork, "one of the best-drawn and stylish adventure strips" (Marschall 1985), and he varied it with fast-sequence montages, close-ups, and views from different angles. Each panel showed meticulous attention to background, body language and action, lighting/shadowing, perspective, and composition; he also did the lettering after 1977. With sharp-looking men and knockout women (even passers-by had individual looks), he defined the strip's characters and showed them aging attractively over the years. The strip's realism was underscored by its consistency: after working out the details for people and settings (e.g., a tattoo on Nomad's shoulder, or the decor and furnishings of Roper's home and office), Overgard consistently depicted them in later episodes, even years later.
Rudy showed similar artwork, but a very different situation. It was launched (in Overgard's own words, 1984) "to the puzzled disbelief of comic traditionalists. A gag strip about a talking monkey in Hollywood, drawn in a realistic continuity style? What?" Rudy was a
Bonobo ChimpanzeeThe Bonobo , Pan paniscus, until recently called the Pygmy Chimpanzee and less often, the Dwarf or Gracile Chimpanzee, is a great ape and one of the two species making up the genus Pan. The other species in genus Pan is Pan troglodytes, or the Common Chimpanzee...
who otherwise resembled actor
George BurnsGeorge Burns , born Nathan Birnbaum, was an American comedian, actor, and writer.His career spanned vaudeville, film, radio, and television, with and without his wife, Gracie Allen. His arched eyebrow and cigar smoke punctuation became familiar trademarks for over three quarters of a century...
, right down to the cigar, wise cracks, and career in vaudeville, movies, and standup comedy. "Literate and well-drawn," (Marschall 1985), the strip had a nostalgic charm of the old Hollywood of Overgard's youth. Holtz (2005) added that it showed smart humor, character-driven stories, intelligent writing and great art that "transcends the run-of-the-mill comic strip level"— all of which (in his opinion) "doomed" it in an era favoring minimalist gag strips.
The 1984 collection of
Rudy strips ended with a drawing of its protagonist, sport coat flung over his shoulder and lighting a cigar as he walked away with a simple "Ciao." It could have been Overgard's own exit six years later.