Frode Øverli (born 15 August 1968 in

Bergen Bergen (, ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county on the Western Norway, west coast of Norway. Bergen is the list of towns and cities in Norway, second-largest city in Norway after the capital Oslo. By May 20 ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

) is a Norwegian

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics terminology#Captio ...

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comics illustrators/artists in that they produce both the litera ...

, considered one of the most successful in

Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...

Biography

He began his career in 1984 when his

parodies A parody is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satirical or ironic imitation. Often its subject is an original work or some aspect of it (theme/content, author, style, etc), but a parody can als ...

of ''

The Phantom ''The Phantom'' is an American adventure comic strip, first published by Lee Falk in February 1936. The main character, the Phantom, is a fictional costumed crime-fighter who operates from the fictional African country of Bangalla. The char ...

'' became a regular feature in the Norwegian publication of the ''Phantom'' serial

comic book A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...

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At that time, Frode was still a student, but dedicated much of his time to writing. Two years later, he was a regular cartoonist for the recently launched humour magazine ''

Pyton ''Pyton'' was a Norwegian comic book A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often ...

'', notable for its gratuitous

toilet humour Toilet humour or potty humour is a type of off-colour humour dealing with: defecation (including diarrhea and constipation), in which case it is called scatological humour (compare scatology); urination; flatulence, in which case it is called f ...

. In the beginning he illustrated stories written by authors Dag E. Kolstad, John Kåre Raake, and later Bjørn Ousland. However, he eventually resigned to write his own material, as it was limited what the others could write for him. The best known comic strips from his ''Pyton'' period are ''Deep Shit Junkies'', a comic about a heavy metal band, and ''Birger-Egil'', about a pair of siamese twins with completely different personalities. In 1997 he decided to start working on his own, and eventually split with ''Pyton''. He created a strip first titled ''A-laget'', about three soccer supporters, but the concept evolved into what became the strip ''

Pondus ''Pondus'' is a comic strip created by the Norwegian cartoonist Frode Øverli. Since its start in 1995, it has become one of the most successful comic strips in Scandinavia. It has been translated to several languages, including Danish, Engli ...

'', one of Scandinavia's most successful comic strips of all time. Along with ''Pondus'', he also created two other comics series, ''Riskhospitalet'' (''The Risk Hospital'' - a wordplay on the name of prominent Norwegian hospital,

Rikshospitalet Oslo University Hospital, Rikshospitalet, is one of the four main campuses of Oslo University Hospital in Oslo, Norway. It was an independent hospital, ''Rigshospitalet'', later spelled ''Rikshospitalet'' ("The National Hospital"), from 1826 to 20 ...

(National Hospital)), but Øverli discontinued this series when ''Pondus'' gained unexpected popularity. In 2000 he began creating the single panel

cartoon A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently Animation, animated, in an realism (arts), unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or s ...

''Rutetid'' (a pun on "transportation schedule" and "time for a panel"), published in ''Pondus'' and other publications. Øverli is a cartoonist, considered one of the most successful in Scandinavia. He has received the Norwegian

Sproing Award The Sproing Award is awarded by Norsk Tegneserieforum (NTF), an organisation to promote interest and understanding for comics in Norway. Since 1987, the award has been presented for the ''Best Norwegian Strips'', a comic strip or comic book by a No ...

twice; in 1998 following the first ''Pondus'' album, ''Alt for Norge'' (''All for Norway'', named after

Harald V Harald V (, ; born 21 February 1937) has been King of Norway since 1991. A member of the House of Glücksburg, Harald was the third child and only son of King Olav V of Norway and Princess Märtha of Sweden. He was second in the line of succ ...

's royal motto) and in 2003 for the ''Pondus'' Christmas album ''Pondus Julespesial''. In 2006 he received the prestigious Swedish

Adamson Award Adamson Awards is a Swedish award awarded to notable cartoonists, named after the famous Swedish comic strip "Adamson" (Silent Sam). There are two award categories: International and Swedish cartoonist. They have been presented by the Swedish A ...

. In addition to his cartoon work, Øverli has provided illustrations for several books. He currently lives on the Norwegian west-coast island

Askøy Askøy is a Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county, Norway. The island municipality is located in the Midhordland district of the county, sitting in a large group of islands immediately northwest of the city of Bergen, which i ...

Bibliography

Comic strips

Norwegian volumes

French volumes

Awards

* 1998:

, for ''Pondus, Alt for Norge'' * 2003: Sproing Award, for ''Pondus, Julespesial'' * 2006:

, for ''Pondus''

Sources

Frode Øverli and ''Pondus'' dossier
Avistegnernes hus ;Footnotes

External links

on Lambiek Comiclopedia
Pondus official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Overli, Frode 1968 births Living people Norwegian comic strip cartoonists Norwegian comics artists Norwegian comics writers Norwegian parodists Norwegian satirists Satirical comics artists Norwegian humorists Artists from Bergen Writers from Bergen