Cartoonist Fran Matera, Stratford Native, Dies in Florida

has been the , including Fran Matera, who drew the "Steve Roper and Mike Nomad" adventure series strip.

The Tampa Bay Times reported that Matera, who began drawing as a teenager at Stratford High School, passed away March 15 at age 87 in Florida where he lived.

The obituary said Matera wrangled a cartoonist job in New York shortly after graduating from high school in 1940. He enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1943, but although he volunteered for combat the Corps employed him instead as a cartoonist for the Parris Island Boot, a camp newspaper.

In 1984, he took over the Steve Roper strip, which was syndicated in 250 newspapers, and drew it until it ended in 2004.