Steve Roper and Mike Nomad
Encyclopedia
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
that ran under various earlier titles (proposed as The Great Gusto, published as Big Chief Wahoo, then Chief Wahoo and Steve Roper, Steve Roper and Wahoo, and then Steve Roper) from November 1936 to December 26, 2004. Initially distributed by Publishers Syndicate (Publishers-Hall Syndicate
Publishers-Hall Syndicate
Publishers-Hall Syndicate was a newspaper syndicate founded in 1944 by Robert M. Hall, the company's president and general manager.Hall had worked for The Providence Journal during high school, followed by three years at Northeastern Law School and four years at Brown University...
), and then by Field Enterprises
Field Enterprises
Field Enterprises was a private holding company founded on August 31, 1944, by Marshall Field III and others whose main asset was the Chicago Sun. That same year the company acquired the book publishers Simon & Schuster and Pocket Books....
, it ended at King Features Syndicate
King Features Syndicate
King Features Syndicate, a print syndication company owned by The Hearst Corporation, distributes about 150 comic strips, newspaper columns, editorial cartoons, puzzles and games to nearly 5000 newspapers worldwide...
. Despite the changes in title, characters, themes and authors, the entire 68-year run formed a single evolving story, from an Indian who teamed up with an adventurous young photojournalist to two longtime friends ready to retire after their long, eventful careers.
The strip was originally proposed by Elmer Woggon
Elmer Woggon
Elmer Woggon , who signed his art Wog, was the creator of an early newspaper comic strip that eventually developed into the long-running Steve Roper and Mike Nomad....
as The Great Gusto, drawn by himself and written by Allen Saunders
Allen Saunders
Allen Saunders was an American writer, journalist and cartoonist who wrote the comic strips Steve Roper and Mike Nomad, Mary Worth and Kerry Drake...
(who would also write Mary Worth
Mary Worth (comic)
Mary Worth is a newspaper comic strip, which has had a seven-decade run since it began in 1938 under the title Mary Worth's Family. Distributed by King Features Syndicate, this pioneering soap opera-style strip had an influence on several realistically drawn continuity strips that followed.Mary...
and Kerry Drake
Kerry Drake
Kerry Drake is the title of a comic strip created for Publishers Syndicate by Alfred Andriola as artist and Allen Saunders as uncredited writer...
), although contrary to some sources (e.g., Toonopedia) it never appeared under that title. J. Mortimer Gusto was a freeloading opportunist based on the film persona of W.C. Fields. In his autobiography, Saunders said Fields was flattered. But the syndicate preferred his sidekick Wahoo, so the proposal was revamped to center on him, and the strip debuted on November 23, 1936 as Big Chief Wahoo.
Characters and story
Wahoo was a short Native AmericanNative Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
in a ten-gallon hat who was played for laughs but showed courage, loyalty, and common sense. It was whites who were often the targets of the jokes (Wahoo: "Paleface full of prunes!"), and of vigorous defenses of Native Americans (e.g., December 16, 1941). Wahoo was rich due to the discovery of oil
Oil
An oil is any substance that is liquid at ambient temperatures and does not mix with water but may mix with other oils and organic solvents. This general definition includes vegetable oils, volatile essential oils, petrochemical oils, and synthetic oils....
on his land back in Te(e)pee Town (spelled both ways in the strip), and headed to New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
to find his girlfriend Minnie Ha-Cha, who had gone away to college and was now a beautiful singer in a nightclub. On the way, he was joined by Gusto, who liked Wahoo's medicine so much that he bottled it up for sale as Ka-Zowie Kure-All. Gusto continued as a support character through August 1939, and then was dropped. (For more on Wahoo, see Elmer Woggon
Elmer Woggon
Elmer Woggon , who signed his art Wog, was the creator of an early newspaper comic strip that eventually developed into the long-running Steve Roper and Mike Nomad....
article; for a picture of Wahoo, Gusto, and Minnie, see Woggon's biography card at the National Cartoonists Society.)
The strip initially revolved around humorous tales, such as stories about people trying to cheat Wahoo out of his money or fish-out-of-water tales of Wahoo in New York or Hollywood. But from the beginning, it was a continuity strip, and had already moved into serious adventure by 1940, when a dashing young photojournalist named Steve Roper was introduced. (Sundays continued to do gags until rejoining the main plot line in 1944.) By World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Roper was the lead in war-oriented adventures, and the strip was retitled Chief Wahoo and Steve Roper in 1944, then Steve Roper and Wahoo in 1946, and in 1947 simply Steve Roper, as Wahoo and Minnie were written out (last seen on February 26 and November 19, 1947, respectively). As a very different kind of strip now, its artwork lost its earlier cartoonishness, ghosted by artists like Woggon's brother Bill Woggon
Bill Woggon
William Woggon was an American cartoonist who created the comic book Katy Keene.Woggon was born the fourth of six children in Toledo, Ohio, and he grew up there. Fascinated by an art correspondence course that his older brother Elmer Woggon was taking, he became interested in drawing...
, Don Dean, and (from December 1945 to July 1954) Pete Hoffman
Pete Hoffman
Pete Hoffman is an American cartoonist. He is known for his work on the adventure strips Steve Roper and Jeff Cobb.-Early years:...
. But Woggon remained the strip's letterer and researcher until 1977, shortly before his death in 1978.
1946–70
After his World War II service in Navy intelligence, Roper got a job at Spotshot magazine (renamed Spotlight in 1950), and from then on the main action was set in New York City. As good with his fists as with his cameras and typewriter, he built a reputation as a racket-busting ace reporter and editor. The strip's popularity grew: after the March 1948 birth of a son to Roper's friends Sonny and Cupcake Brawnski, there was a national write-in of suggested names from readers.In 1951, Steve got engaged to his "boss lady," Kit Karson, but when he was framed on a story in 1953 and broke jail, she abandoned him. (The experience left him a "confirmed bachelor.") Vindicating himself in a major crime ring bust, he was snapped up by the competition, crusty Major J. Calhoun McCoy at Tell magazine (soon renamed Proof). He continued exposing crimes and frauds, even on routine assignments like covering rock stars or beauty pageants, but his sense of moral outrage kept landing him in fiendish criminal traps ("deathtrap
Deathtrap
Deathtrap may refer to:*Deathtrap , a 1978 play by Ira Levin which received a Tony Award nomination for Best Play*Deathtrap , a 1982 film based on the Levin play*Deathtrap , a plot device in fiction and drama...
s") that nearly finished him — and some of the crooks he sent "up the river" to prison with his exposés came back for revenge. Meanwhile, on the domestic side, in 1953 he took in a Korean war orphan, So-Hi Chong, as his ward, intending to adopt him. But after 1958, So-Hi was not seen again in the strip, apparently going off to live with the Brawnskis.
On July 12, 1954, the artwork was taken over by William Overgard
William Overgard
William Overgard , was an American cartoonist and writer with a diverse opus, including novels, screenplays, animation, and the comic strips Steve Roper and Mike Nomad and Rudy. For a picture, see his biography card at ....
, who on June 17, 1956 introduced a character whom he had tried unsuccessfully to feature in a strip of his own. Mike Nomad (born Nowak in Kraków
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
, Poland) had served in World War II as an Army commando. After working in oil fields, he looked up Roper to verify his Proof photo of a smuggler he thought he had killed. They solved the case together, and then Roper got him a job at Proof as a truck driver. In 1962, Nomad got his own room over the restaurant of Chinese wisdom-quoting Ma-Jong, and she became a permanent member of the cast as his landlady.
The two men were different: pipe-smoking Roper was a fast-thinking, stylish, college-educated "straight arrow," the adopted son of a wealthy San Francisco family, while flat-topped Nomad was a tough, street-smart antihero, loyal to friends and family but not averse to deceiving, and often AWOL from work as he barged into risky situations without thinking them out. But as McCoy pointed out (1957), a "Nomad" was a "wanderer," and Roper was likewise kept on the move by his career. Their friendship and interaction as men became a lasting theme of the strip. In the next 25 years, they alternated or joined forces in stories about people (especially the memorable women each attracted) whose problems often drove them to crime. The dual protagonists were recognized in April 1969 by the last name change, Steve Roper & Mike Nomad. For a picture of Roper and Nomad ca. 1965, see Overgard's National Cartoonists Society biography card.
1970–2004
In February 1970, Roper was promoted by McCoy to editor-in-chief at Consolidated Publications, Inc., with new challenges, though he continued to do investigative reporting. Then, in August 1976, after years of lecturing his pal to look before he leaped, he leaped for love in his late forties and married young reporter Trudy Hale. Meanwhile, Nomad, who remained footloose and single despite four close calls, was laid off from Proof and got new jobs, with new dangers, as a cab driver (1976) and then independent trucker (1981). In a gripping climax in 1983, Roper lost his wife (traumatized in an explosion, committed to a mental hospital, and soon divorcing him), got fired for taking dangerous risks in an exposé of political bribes, and then moved to Florida to make a new start as a TV news anchor.In 1979, Allen Saunders retired and gave the writing of Steve Roper and Mary Worth to his son John Saunders (not the Canadian-born sportscaster), a Toledo TV broadcaster who sometimes assisted him. There has been conflicting information on this transition. John (1986) said he had helped since 1949 and had done the "writing chores" since the early 1950s; and in its release on his death in 2003, King Features Syndicate
King Features Syndicate
King Features Syndicate, a print syndication company owned by The Hearst Corporation, distributes about 150 comic strips, newspaper columns, editorial cartoons, puzzles and games to nearly 5000 newspapers worldwide...
(in turn cited by Markstein) said he had had "full responsibility" over Steve Roper since 1955. This claim is not supported in Allen's own candid discussions of "the strips that I write" (articles in 1953, 1971, and 1983-85 autobiography), and the scripting continued to show his unique writing style, characterization, and plotting until 1979. The strip itself first acknowledged John as assistant on December 25, 1976, and as the writer on October 28, 1979. As the obituary in his hometown newspaper (Toledo Blade, 2003) put it, "John Saunders began working on the strips (i.e., Steve Roper and Mary Worth) periodically during the 1950s, but took over in 1979."
In early 1985 (his last strip was for April 7), Overgard left to focus on his own comic Rudy and other work, and the artwork was then taken over by Fran Matera
Fran Matera
Francis "Fran" Matera is an American comic strip artist best known for his King Features Syndicate adventure strip Steve Roper and Mike Nomad from 1984 to 2004. In addition to his extensive experience in newspaper strips, Matera also spent many years in the comic book industry, particularly for...
. The strip was now focused on Nomad, who won a state lottery and was cajoled into a detective business with cop Francis Hogan (1989)— usually as a bodyguard-chauffeur with a penchant for stumbling into crime rings. Their main client (beginning December 1991) was a motel chain owner, the inimitable Emma Stopp. Nomad got engaged to social worker Meg Carey in a long, bumpy relationship that would break up in 2000. Meanwhile, finishing his broadcasting work with some freelancing, Roper retired in Florida and was oddly kept out of sight for ten years. But in 1997 he returned: after brooding over his losses, he had gone to work on a newspaper, and was later fired (1998) for upholding truth over employee loyalty. Tired of the "prison of journalism," he joined Nomad and Hogan in detective work, and by the end of the strip he had again become the leading character. John Saunders continued to write the strip until his death on November 15, 2003. Officially, Matera took over the writing until it was discontinued by the syndicate, although it was ghosted by Keith Brenner, J.S. Earls and Geoffrey Brenneman in the final years. In the strip's last days the dailies featured stories involving Mike, while the Sundays focused on Steve. It has been reported that the dailies of that period were combinations of reprinted and some new art, remaking older stories. One late story dealing with the widow and child of a Iraq-fighting Marine had been told during the 1980s, when the Marine had met his death in Lebanon.
Analysis and conclusion
Steve Roper explored human foibles and two men's responses to a variety of issues; and through the life story of Roper, it also showed two journalists' views (Allen and John Saunders) of changes in their profession over the course of the 20th Century. Roper and Nomad upheld a male code of honor in their work and personal lives, but unlike the idealized heroes of other adventure strips, they had well-developed, believable personalities with flaws, moods, and complex depths. They were good at what they did, but also miscalculated sometimes and dealt realistically with the consequences. Allen Saunders (1949 Brandenburg article) said his characters became "awfully real" to him, and in 1971 he quoted Milton Caniff
Milton Caniff
Milton Arthur Paul Caniff was an American cartoonist famous for the Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon comic strips.-Biography:...
as saying Nomad was "the most real character that ever appeared in a comic." Also unlike story strips that always reset to the same status quo, Roper and Nomad developed through their successes, losses, and changes in life over the years, and they gradually aged — from a cocky, adventurous Roper at 22 to both men in their sixties, seasoned and ready for a change.
They got one: an ending that fell back through past stories to return them to a key December 1986 talk of a voyage together, this time leading to a new outcome and retirement. The final strip (Sunday December 26, 2004) wordlessly showed Roper visiting his ex-wife's grave with a daughter whom she had borne in the hospital without telling him — and who was now likewise a journalist.
Sources
- Ridgeway, Ann N. (interviewer). 1971. Allen Saunders. The Journal of Popular Culture 5 (2), 385-420.
- Brandenburg, George A. 1949. Soap Opera in Comics? Never, Says Saunders. Reprinted in Stripper's Guide May 2007.
- Harvey, R. C. 2004. Rants and Raves, opus 149.
- The Toledo Blade. 1953. Seymour Rothman, "Evolution of a Comic Strip," Pictorial, August 9 1953, p. 5-6. Reprinted in Steve Roper and Wahoo, Blackthorne Publishing, book 2 (1987).
- Obituaries: John P. Saunders 1924-2003. The Toledo Blade. November 17, 2003.
- Saunders, John. 1986 (and 1987). Foreword to Steve Roper and Wahoo. Blackthorne Publishing, books 1 and 2.
- Browne Popular Culture Library News. 2007. Allen and John Saunders Collection, March 17, 2007.