Øverli initially developed a strip titled "A-laget" (A-team) in 1995, prior to leaving the magazine "Pyton". This early version focused on three characters who were fanatical football-supporters. By the time the strip in its earliest form was first published in a small local newspaper "Vest-Nytt" of Sotra on October 28, 1995, it had taken the name "Pondus". In 1996 it began a four-year run as a supporting strip in the Norwegian magazine devoted to Bud Grace's "Ernie", leading to its breakthrough on April 2, 1997, when it was taken on as a daily strip in national distribution newspaper "Dagbladet".