The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-08-14
BUD FISHER
REGULAR Guy
Famous Comic Artist Tells
Story of His Life.
Lanky Mutt Originated on
Frisco Race Track.
HE FOUND JEFF IN ASYLUM
There Little Fellow First Met
His Waterloo.
Burns Mustache Plays PrOmi-
nent Part i'm Cartoons.
He FOUND JEFF IN ASYLUM
SUNDAY.

Il started like everybody else 1
guess" said Bud" Fisher, the comic
artist whose Mutt and Jeff cartoons
are a feature of the State Journal. 81
was born"
Where and when?"
''In San Francisco, on April, 8. 1885,
but l didn't stay there long. We moved
about rather rapidly on account of my
fathers business. My mother and
father lived in Portland, oregon, and
Chicago and Milwaukee before I was
seven years old.
LAS long as L remember I tried to
draw. This art of mine caused some
dispute in the family. My father was
opposed to it and said 1 was wasting
time, while my mother encouraged
me in it. Perhaps my father objected
because I used to make pictures on
his collars. either when on or off. 1t
made no difference to me if 1 saw a
good chance"
Even yet, Mr.. Fisher is a bundle
of nerves and is constantly thinking
of new situations in which to place
Mutt and Jeff in order to make folks
laugh. While sitting at dinner, he
has his pencil out making sketches
on the table cloth and he is not pop
ular with restaurant proprietors. In
this way he is planning picture and
thinking out the scenes-his hardest
job, not the actual drawing.
taurant man, ''if he would sign what
he draws and let me sell the table
cloths for souvenirs, but he won't do
that
Buds right name is Harry Conway
Fisher, but it did not take him long
to discard the Harry Conway This
operation was performed when he at
tended the Hyde Park high school in
Chicago and took part in athletics.
He ran on the relay team at that in
stitution with such stars as Walter
Eckersall, the great quarterback, and
COmstock, who later made a brilliant
record in athletics at Princeton uni
versity. 1t was here they began to
call him BUD because the name just
fits him. Fishers relay team won
the championship at Franklin field in
Philadelphia in 1902, and so he had
acquired some claim to fame even
before Mutt and Jeff were born. Bud
also played on the football team at
Hyde Park high school, where he
showed a lot of speed and splendid
ability in spite of the fact that he
weighed only one hundred and twenty
five pounds.
Il used to work like the mischief
declared Mr.. Fisher in speaking of
the first compensation received for
his art. After a while 1 decided to
try a newspaper and went to the office
OF the San Francisco Examiner"
Il thought you started to work on
the Chronicle %
81 did. The Examiner turned me
down."
Mr.. Fisher wanted to start drawing
his comic strip which has made the
whole world laugh, or nearly the
whole world, a year before he actual
ly did. But he could not convince the
powers who were on the Chronicle at
that time.
They said I hadn't reputation
enough, Bud says, $50 I went to work
to get myself a little rep"
He set about it to accumulate a rep
utatlon by illustrating court stories.
prlzehght yarns, and theatrical inter
views. All this time he had been an
ardent attendant at the races, and he
picked out type which he believed
would appeal to the public. Then on
November IS, 1907, Mr.. A. Mutt ap-
peared in the San Francisco Chron-
icle. Bud still celebrates the date on
each anniversary as Mr.. A. Nuts
birthday. He was not at that time
accompanied by his side kick Jeff,
who entered the select society at a
later date. but that is anorbar s+or,-