George Fisher (cartoonist) - Career

Career

At the conclusion of the war, Fisher returned to West Memphis, Arkansas and began drawing cartoons for the West Memphis News. The newspaper was run by former soldiers who had returned from the war and determined to stand up to the political machine that controlled local and statewide politics at the time. Fisher worked for the newspaper until it was forced to close.

Fisher moved to Little Rock, Arkansas and started doing commercial art work for the Southwestern Bell Telephone Company. With the advent of television, Fisher and his wife sought out a job at the local ABC affiliate KATV and established a syndicated puppet show called Phydeaux and His Friends which specialized in political satire. Local political figures, including Governor Orval Faubus, made guest appearances on the show.

Fisher convinced the weekly North Little Rock Times to start carrying his political cartoons and, before long, other newspapers began reprinting them in their Sunday editions.

In 1972, Fisher began drawing cartoons twice per week for the statewide Arkansas Gazette and became the newspaper's official cartoonist in 1976. Fisher gained a very active following in the state of Arkansas and became an Arkansas institution. Fisher's work was never syndicated, because he preferred to focus mostly on affairs in his home state, but many of his cartoons were reprinted nationally.