Pete Hoffman
| Pete Hoffman | |
|---|---|
| Born | February 22, 1919 |
| Died | September 7, 2013 (aged 94) Toledo, Ohio |
| Nationality | American |
| Area(s) | Cartoonist |
|
Notable works
|
Steve Roper and Mike Nomad Jeff Cobb |
Pete Hoffman (February 22, 1919 - September 7, 2013) was an American cartoonist. He is known for his work on the adventure strips Steve Roper (later Steve Roper and Mike Nomad) and Jeff Cobb.
Born in Toledo, Ohio, the youngest of four children of Rose and Abraham Hoffman, Hoffman showed artistic talent early, publishing an Old West-themed drawing in the Toledo Times when just a kindergartner at Warren School. He attended the University of Toledo, where he earned a bachelor's degree in advertising and marketing while cartooning for the student newspaper and serving as art editor of the yearbook. After working for six months as an advertising artist for a local department store, Hoffman served in the U.S. Army Air Corps in England during World War II, achieving the rank of captain and receiving the Bronze Star Medal.
Afterwards, he returned to Toledo and stopped by to see Steve Roper authors Allen Saunders and Elmer Woggon; he had met them as a student cartoonist and had been sending them additional sketches during the war. Liking his work, Saunders hired him as a new ghost for Woggon because Publishers-Hall Syndicate had complained that the artwork still looked too cartoonish for an adventure strip. The strip continued to appear as "Steve Roper by Saunders and Woggon." Hoffman's name was seen only in the sequence of June 9–14, 1947, when Roper's friend Sonny Brawnski wrestled "Poison Pete Hoffman" after threatening to throw him into Toledo's Maumee River.
Hoffman gave the postwar Steve Roper the more serious look it needed as it settled into a modern urban setting. Hoffman said of his work, "The strip was in a transition stage and a more illustrative style of drawing was desired. My style fit their needs. I enjoyed ghost-drawing the characters for nearly nine years." The ghost was no secret, however: a 1953 article on Steve Roper in the Toledo Blade described Hoffman's role in the strip and pictured him working with Saunders and Woggon in their studio.
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Wikipedia