Frode Øverli (born August 15, 1968 in

Bergen Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula o ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

) is a Norwegian comic strip cartoonist, considered one of the most successful in

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Swe ...

Biography

He began his career in 1984 when his

parodies A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its sub ...

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, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

.PDF
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 series which was produced by the company Gevion, and afterwards Bladkompaniet, between the years 1986 until 1996. An anthology magazine with no major main character, its style of humor focused mostly on satir ...

'', notable for its gratuitous

toilet humour Toilet humour, or potty or scatological humour (compare scatology), is a type of off-colour humour dealing with defecation, diarrhea, constipation, urination and flatulence, and to a lesser extent vomiting and other bodily functions. It see ...

. 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'', 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 200 ...

(National Hospital)), but Øverli discontinued this series when ''Pondus'' gained unexpected popularity. In 2000 he began creating the single panel cartoon ''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 twice; in 1998 following the first ''Pondus'' album, ''Alt for Norge'' (''All for Norway'', named after

Harald V Harald V ( no, Harald den femte, ; born 21 February 1937) is King of Norway. He acceded to the throne on 17 January 1991. Harald was the third child and only son of King Olav V of Norway and Princess Märtha of Sweden. He was second in the li ...

's royal motto) and in 2003 for the ''Pondus'' Christmas album ''Pondus Julespesial''. In 2006 he received the prestigious Swedish Adamson Award. 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 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. The administrative centre of the ...

Bibliography

Comic strips

Norwegian volumes

French volumes

Awards

* 1998: Sproing Award, for ''Pondus, Alt for Norge'' * 2003: Sproing Award, for ''Pondus, Julespesial'' * 2006: Adamson Award, 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 cartoonists Norwegian comics artists Norwegian comics writers Artists from Bergen Writers from Bergen