Pondus #1/2000
Pondus #1/2000 is a landmark in Scandinavian comics publishing: it marks the launch of the first monthly magazine ever devoted to a Norwegian comic strip, a distinction confirmed by multiple sources. By giving Frode Øverli's everyman hero his own periodical home — five years after the strip debuted in a small local newspaper and three years after it broke nationally in Dagbladet — the issue elevated Pondus from newspaper filler to a standalone publishing franchise. The magazine format allowed the strip's two central characters, football-obsessed family man Pondus and his sardonic best friend Jokke, to be presented to readers as a curated recurring experience rather than a daily throwaway, deepening their cultural foothold across Norway and, soon after, Sweden.
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Frode Øverli, born in Bergen in 1968, spent roughly a decade as a staff cartoonist at the Norwegian humour magazine Pyton before leaving to develop his own material. His concept — originally titled A-laget and focused on three fanatical football supporters — debuted under the name Pondus in the local Sotra paper Vest-Nytt on 28 October 1995, then spent four years as a supporting strip in the Norwegian Ernie magazine before achieving national daily syndication in Dagbladet in April 1997. By 2000, the strip's reach and reader loyalty were strong enough that publisher Bladkompaniet, operating under the Schibsted umbrella, greenlit a dedicated monthly magazine; the first issue went on sale in July 2000. Øverli also launched his single-panel cartoon Rutetid that same year, which became a recurring feature within the new magazine.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Pondus #1/2000 (on sale July 2000) is the inaugural issue of the first monthly magazine ever built around a Norwegian comic strip.
- The magazine was published by Bladkompaniet under the Schibsted publishing group; the series later transferred to Egmont beginning with the first issue of 2007.
- All script, pencils, and inks throughout the series are by Frode Øverli (born Bergen, 1968); GCD credits Alf Steinsvik as colorist on the series.
- The two characters indexed for this issue — Pondus (real name Patrick Svensson, a Liverpool FC-obsessed bus driver) and Jokke (Joachim Jacobsen, a Leeds United supporter) — are the strip's two leads and had appeared in newspaper syndication since 1995.
- The strip originated as A-laget in 1995, renamed Pondus upon its first publication in Vest-Nytt of Sotra on 28 October 1995; 'Pondus' is Norwegian slang for belly, a nod to the lead character's physique.
- Øverli received the Norwegian Sproing Award for Pondus in 1998 (for the debut album Alt for Norge) and again in 2003, and the Swedish Adamson Award in 2006.
- A Swedish sister magazine launched on 6 June 2001, less than a year after the Norwegian debut issue, demonstrating the rapid regional expansion the magazine format enabled.
- Strips from this first issue were subsequently reprinted in later Pondus collected editions, as documented in the Grand Comics Database (e.g., the 'Baksiden' strip from #1/2000 reprinted in the Esperanto-language album Maltrafoj).
Cast · 2 characters
Full credits
Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers
▸ Reveal full plot — may contain spoilers
Pondus adopterer en flaske whiskey.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).