William Overgard Cartoons

An inventory of his cartoons at Syracuse University

Finding aid created by: TRO
Date: Jul 1969

Revision history:
23 Mar 2007	converted to EAD (MRC)

Biographical History

William Overgard (1926-1990) was born in Southern California and as a young boy was a fan of the Terry and the Pirates comic. A fan letter he wrote to Milton Caniff led to a correspondence lasting several years and "the only formal training in the cartoon field I was to have." (Encyclopedia of American Comics, p. 282)

In 1948 Overgard launched his career, drawing Crimebuster, the boy hero of Boy Comics, the Little Wise Guys in Daredevil, and a Western strip about a masked cowboy entitled Black Diamond. For Dell, his next employer, Overgard worked as an assistant to Caniff on Steve Canyon and drew at least one original issue of the strip. In 1954 he was assigned to draw Steve Roper, which had for several years been ghosted by various artists though still appearing under the name of the original artist, Elmer Woggon. Overgard was allowed to sign his own name to the strip, and he remained with it for nearly thirty years. For a few years in the early 1970s he also was responsible for the Kerry Drake strip. He left Steve Roper in 1982 in favor of Rudy, an original strip of his own creation about a chimpanzee.

In addition to his artistic endeavors, Overgard wrote thriller novels, screenplays, and scripts for animated series such as Thundercats. He also plays the banjo.

Scope and Contents of the Collection

The William Overgard Cartoons consists of a single series containing daily and Sunday panels for the Steve Roper newspaper comic strip.

Arrangement of the Collection

Cartoons are divided into daily and Sunday strips and then arranged chronologically.

Restrictions

Access Restrictions: There are no access restrictions on this material

Use Restrictions: Written permission must be obtained from SCRC and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.

Related Material

Special Collections Research Center has collections of over eighty cartoonists. Please refer to the SCRC Subject Index for a complete listing.

Subject Headings

Persons

Overgard, William. Steve Roper.

Subjects

American wit and humor, Pictorial.
Caricatures and cartoons, United States.
Cartoonists, United States.
Comic books, strips, etc.

Genres and Forms

Cartoons (humorous images).
Comics.

Occupations

Cartoonists.

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Preferred citation for this material is as follows:

William Overgard Cartoons
Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Library

Table of Contents

Cartoons

Inventory