Allen and John Saunders Papers

John Allen Saunders was born in Lebanon, Indiana on March 24, 1899. Early in his life he showed an interest in art, but did not study it seriously until after his collegiate years at Wabash College. At Wabash, he received both his Bachelor and Masters of Arts in English and French, and was awarded a Phi Beta Kappa key. After graduation he left for Chicago to embark on a journalism career but would promptly return to Wabash to join the faculty as a professor of Romance Languages.

While teaching, he learned to draw by taking the Landon correspondence course and attending classes at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. He would later claim to be the favorite instructor on campus because of his tendency to draw on the blackboard during class. Saunders taught at Wabash for seven years and during his summers did assorted odd jobs, including a tour with the Chautauqua Play Company in a play called Message from Mars. During this time he also wrote novels, plays, and started a comic strip called Miserable Moments in 1922. It was released by the United Feature syndicate, but was short lived.

After seven years at Wabash, Saunders took a leave of absence in 1929 and went to Cleveland to work as a journalist. When he got there, however, he found that the job wouldn't be open for three more weeks. The Cleveland Press gave him an option to work at an affiliated paper, the Toledo News-Bee, until the job opened. He took the offer, found that he liked Toledo, and stayed there the rest of his life, working at the News-Bee until it folded in 1938. While working at the News-Bee, Saunders met Elmer Woggon, Art Director at the Toledo Blade. The two hit it off and in 1936 began collaborating on cartoon advertisements. At this same time they began developing a comic strip called The Great Gusto about a medicine-show man not-so-loosely based on W.C. Fields (Woggon was the artist, while Saunders did the writing). The strip failed after a short time but one character, a Native-American named Big Chief Wahoo, did generate interest and soon the strip had changed its name and focus to Chief Wahoo. The strip became popular but had its limitations in being able to create a continuous story line so Saunders and Woggon introduced a new character, journalist Steve Roper. This character helped make the strip one of the most popular in America and soon not only did Steve Roper steal the title of the strip from "the Chief" but also his girlfriend, Mini-Ha-Ha.

Steve Roper and Chief Wahoo, like all of Saunders' comic strips, was handled by the Publisher's Syndicate. This meant that they would sell and distribute his strips to newspaper subscribers around the country and later the world. If an editor, client, or reader had a complaint about a strip, it would be handled by the syndicate. Later, the Publisher's Syndicate was bought by the Field Newspaper Syndicate.

In 1940, another strip distributed by the Publisher's Syndicate, Apple Mary, was in trouble of disappearing when its writer, Martha Orr, decided to stop writing it after her marriage. The syndicate asked Saunders to take over the strip, which he did with help of cartoonist Dale Conner. The name of the strip was changed from Apple Mary to Mary Worth's Family and was signed Dale Allen. In 1942, Ken Ernst took over the artistic chores, and after this the title was shortened to Mary Worth.

Saunders' most successful comic strips went through a great many changes in characters, artists, style, and popularity. Mary Worth would change from Orr's apple-selling grandmother to a matriarch of a large estate, whose main purpose seemed to be giving advice to the forlorn. After Steve Roper took over the focus of Big Chief Wahoo, it soon became the most popular adventure strip in the country. This was especially true after the addition of a new character, Mike Nomad, a creation of cartoonist Bill Overgard, who took over for Woggon in 1953 (the name of the strip was shortened to just Steve Roper and is currently called Steve Roper and Mike Nomad).

Saunders was also involved in other comic strips throughout his career, either as a writer or consultant. Two of these were: Kerry Drake, started in 1943, in which he was a ghostwriter for Alfred Andriola; Dateline: Danger, in which he served as a consultant to his son, John, the strip's writer. Dateline: Danger was actually the first comic strip to feature a major character who was Black. Saunders also did art for many advertisers including: Chevrolet, Pillsbury, Jello/General Foods, Phillip Morris, American Newspapers Association, and Dr. Grabow Tobacco Pipes (Saunders was an avid pipe smoker).

Saunders retired in 1979, leaving the reins for all his strips to his son, John, who had already worked on Steve Roper since 1950. John became primary scriptwriter in 1955. He had previously been working at local (Toledo) radio and television stations. Like Allen, he attended Wabash College where he wrote and edited a campus humor magazine, "The Caveman," which had been started years before by his father. He also had experience writing as a combat reporter for Stars and Stripes during World War II. As of 1991, John was still penning Mary Worth and Steve Roper.

Besides his professional life, Allen Saunders was a member of many community and national organizations including: Toledo Board of Education, President; Masons; Rotary, President of local chapter; Players (N.Y.C.); Chairman of the President's Committee on Employment of the Physically Handicapped (during the Eisenhower Administration); National Cartoonists Society , President; and Chairman of the Newspaper Comics Council.

Allen Saunders died on January 28th, 1986 at St. Luke’s Hospital in Maumee, Ohio. Allen Saunders’ son (John) died on Nov. 15, 2003.