Elmer Woggon

Who was 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.

Born and raised in Toledo, Ohio, Woggon was interested as a child in American Indians. Developing his drawing skills through the Federal School cartoon correspondence course, he got a job at the Toledo Blade as cartoonist, commercial artist and eventually art editor. With the American public's fascination after World War I with airplanes and daring aviators, in 1929 he tried an aviation-themed comic strip called Skylark. It failed "because its creator had never been in a plane".