LITTLE ROCK — Seldom does an archivist experience such thrills as I have had in helping put together an online exhibit about the late cartoonist George Fisher. I got to know Fisher’s work while in high school when his cartoons were running in the North Little Rock Times. At least once each week, the Arkansas Gazette reprinted a Fisher cartoon-and those exquisite drawings captivated a country kid who was just discovering his civic self.
Just before he died at age 80-in December of 2003-Fisher donated his papers to the University of Arkansas Special Collections Department. It is a remarkably comprehensive collection, filled with a host of materials in addition to hundreds of original editorial cartoons.
Going through the Fisher papers was an intriguing experience. Each box contained some new revelation, perhaps an artfully decorated envelope, or an engaging photograph, or some token of Fisher’s love for his wife. The documentation, though, goes back to the childhood of George Edward Fisher-who was born at Higginson, near Searcy, on April 8th, 1923. His parents were Charles and Gladys Fisher, and he grew up in Beebe. His mother died when George was 5, but he had the advantage of a loving and supportive father.
Educated in the Beebe public schools, George began cartooning at a very early age. He was only 8 when he created Fisky Limps, a cartoon series that lasted another seven years and included more than 20,000 drawings. He still had time to run for class vice president in junior high school, and his campaign signs featured his sophisticated art.
After a brief stint at the community college at Beebe, George joined the Army in 1943. His letters home from boot camp were mailed in envelopes bearing patriotic cartoons, including one depicting Adolf Hitler running from a Russian bear.
Before being sent to the front in Germany, George was stationed in England. He signed up for art classes at the local art academy in Bournemouth, and it was there that he met the woman of his life, Rosemary Snook. Their affection grew quickly, and George kept in touch with Rosemary even after being sent to the front.
Infantry Sergeant George Fisher survived the Battle of the Bulge, and he maintained a sketch diary of his fighting experiences. As soon as the guns fell silent, George was on his way to England to resume his courtship of “Snooky,” as he always call Rosemary.
Rosemary accepted George’s proposal, but she preferred settling in New York. George enlisted his dad’s help. Glued to the pages of a yellowing scrapbook in George’s papers are letters Charles wrote on behalf of his son to Rosemary.
In the end, Rosemary agreed to live in Arkansas-they settled in West Memphis. George did commercial art while working as a political cartoonist for a reformist newspaper Fisher and other returning war veterans established to fight the local Crittenden County political machine. Fisher was a dedicated supporter of what came to be known as the GI Revolt, and his papers contain examples of cartoons from those early years at the West Memphis News.
In 1949 the Fishers moved to Little Rock where they opened Fisher Art Service. He also experimented with other means of communication, including the new medium of television. In the late 1950s George and Rosemary syndicated a program on KATV in Little Rock called Phydeaux and His Friends, which featured puppets made by Rosemary.
Rosemary developed her interest in ceramics, ultimately becoming an admired artist and teacher at the Arkansas Arts Center. But George never lost his interest in political cartooning.
In the 1960s George convinced the North Little Rock Times to buy his political cartoons, and he soon came to the attention of the Arkansas Gazette. And in 1972 he began drawing part-time for the Gazette. They should have hired him immediately, since the competing Arkansas Democrat had an outstanding cartoonist in Jon Kennedy.
Fisher became the chief cartoonist at the Gazette in 1976, a post he held until the paper was purchased by the Democrat in 1991. Fisher then switched to the weekly Arkansas Times. He was working on a cartoon for the Times at the time of his death.
Most people living in Arkansas during the latter quarter of the last century had a favorite George Fisher cartoon. Perhaps his most iconic one featured Orval Faubus making a speech to the Legislature in which everyone present, and even the mice, looked like Faubus. This was a bold statement about Faubus’ political reach.
Fisher’s cartoons were important in shaping political debate. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, for example, never quite regained credibility after Fisher drew a series of devastating cartoons portraying the Army Engineers as intent on remaking Arkansas “as God would have done it if He had the appropriation.”
To view the new Fisher digital exhibit, go to digitalcollections.uark.edu.
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Tom Dillard is head of special collections at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. Email him at tdillar@uark.edu.
Editorial, Pages 88 on 10/30/2011