Bill Woggon
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Bill Woggon, 1911–2003, was an American cartoonist who created the comic Katy Keene. For a picture, see his biography card at the National Cartoonists Society, of which he was a member.
William Woggon was born the fourth of six children on January 1, 1911, in Toledo, OH, and grew up there. Fascinated by an art correspondence course that older brother Elmer Woggon took, he likewise got interested in drawing and showed ability. At 16, he took a job in a department store as commercial artist, and then the same kind of work at the Toledo Blade, where Elmer worked. By 1938, he was assisting Elmer in lettering and then drawing the latter's newspaper comic strip Big Chief Wahoo, which would later metamorphose into Steve Roper and Mike Nomad; but according to the strip's writer, Allen Saunders, they were unable to keep him as a full-time member of the Big Chief Wahoo staff. Bill Woggon kept working on his own ideas for a comic, and probably inspired by wartime pinup girls (according to son Bill Jr., as quoted by Foley), in 1945 he created Katy Keene, beginning in Wilbur Comics and taking advantage of its teen market. It took off and became a success during the next ten years, even spawning fan clubs and pen pals.
Katy Keene featured a fashionable young beauty (a model with "traditional values") named Katy who had a pestering little sister, a stream of suitors, and dreams of becoming an actress. The plots and dialog were not very inspired, and mainly served to put Katy through as many successive wardrobe changes as possible in order to show off reader-submitted fashions that Woggon drew and credited to them (a feature adopted by Dixie Dugan as well). Paper dolls with other outfits for Katy also increased the comic's appeal. It continued through the 1950s in various outlets (Katy Keene Pinup Parade, Laugh and Pep Comics, and Archie Comics), but ended in 1961. Woggon then turned to other work such as the Dell comic Millie the Lovable Monster, ghosting the newspaper strip Priscilla's Pop, and creating the Archie feature The Twiddles.
With the success of Katy Keene, in 1948 Woggon and his wife Jane moved their family to California, where they bought a spread near Santa Barbara that he called "Woggon Wheels Ranch," with a stable he converted into a studio. (At the same time, Katy moved from New York City to California too.) Some of his many young fans, including Floyd Norman, Trina Robbins, and John Lucas, visited him and were inspired to become artists themselves. According to his Comics Reporter obituary, Katy Keene also inspired a generation of serious fashion designers, including Betsey Johnson. In his later years, he illustrated Christian literature for children (e.g., coloring books such as Let's Read and Color, 1988). He was described as a humble, spiritual man, charming and gracious, but also prosperous. In 1981, his work was recognized with an Inkpot Award. He died on February 3, 2003, and received his greatest accolade not from his numerous fans, but from his family: "a great dad" (Foley).
[edit] Sources
- Comics Reporter, Bill Woggon (obituary).
- Foley, Maureen: Humble Man vs. the Diva: The Story of Cartoonist Bill Woggon, and Katy Keene and Bill Woggon, Straight Up. at Jerico Woggon's Cherry Meltdown.
- Lambiek, Bill Woggon.
- Saunders, Allen. 1984. Autobiography "Playwright for Paper Actors," ch. 9, in Nemo--The Classic Comics Library, no. 9 (October 1984)
