Just A Car Guy: Dudley Fisher was an astonishing cartoonist... and how is it I've never heard of him until today when Steve threw me a life line? These are fantastic!

Thursday, May 04, 2023

Dudley Fisher was an astonishing cartoonist... and how is it I've never heard of him until today when Steve threw me a life line? These are fantastic!

Dudley Fisher was born in 1890 in Columbus, Ohio. He attended the Ohio State University, attempting an architecture education. He soon dropped out in order to be a layout artist at the Columbus Dispatch newspaper.

During World War I, Fisher worked as an aerial photographer, the influence of the "view from on high" is evident in his cartoons

After a brief stint at Columbus State University, Fisher worked as a layout artist for the Columbus Dispatch. When hired by the Dispatch in 1911, Fisher was a retouch artist, he later worked side by side with another famous cartoonist, Milton Caniff. https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/search?q=caniff

In 1919, he resumed working for the Dispatch. It was here that he developed the nationally syndicated strips, “Jolly Jingles” (in 1924), and “Right Around Home” (in 1937). Fisher’s storylines involve ordinary American families (representing an idealized Midwest aesthetic), in ordinary situations (again, idealized American situations, such as Christmas and other American holidays) in rural or pastoral settings. Fisher, especially in later strips, created single panels with multiple storylines and characters, all interacting within a single scene and in parallel plotlines. The tones of his pieces were either whimsical or nostalgic (or both). He used clean ink lines to convey his characters and settings.

In Right Around Home, readers enjoyed a bird’s-eye view of a fictional all-American neighborhood, an innovative narrative point of view that distinguished the Sunday strip

The large, single-panel feature, which debuted on January 16, 1938, was likely, for the 47-year-old Fisher, a mixture of imagination and a remembrance of things past. Right Around Home was never overtly nostalgic, but invariably had—and still has—that rare ability to evoke feelings of nostalgia from readers not of the time or setting.

The era that it depicts, however, is distinct, especially compared with our own self-centered times. In contrast to the me, my and mine culture of today—with its grasping delineations of what is mine and what is yours—the most common possessive pronoun used in Right Around Home is our. For example, when Fisher drew newly married local sweethearts, they are referred to as “Our Bride and Groom.”

The neighborhood is one large family to which the reader feels they belong. And it is worth pointing out that the Home of Fisher’s title refers not to any single residence but instead to a neighborhood; a community. Dudley Fisher’s new creation was not an anomaly of its time; its inclusiveness and sense of mutual destiny shared the Midwestern sensibility

The full page cartoons didn't last much past WW2, newspapers cut them to half pages, then 1/3rd pages (and it's a crime to humanity! Little Nemo in Slumberland only worked because of the size allowing for the incredible art)

Fisher worked for the Dispatch, and as a cartoonist, until he died, in 1951.

Fisher never actively sought syndication, but was rather picked up by King Features Syndicate after his popular work at the Columbus Dispatch. His strips ran up to 1964, 13 years after his death. (These later strips were completed by other artists)