Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1916-02-10
bud FISHER AND
HIS LIFE HISTORY
Creator of Mutt and jeff Had
Hard Time With Editors In
Early Days.
COMIC STRIP WAS NEW
VENTURE FOR PAPERS
MIR. A. Mutt Was His First Crea.
ton, His Pal Jeff Appear.
ing at. Later Date.
ing at Later Date.

Bud Fisher, creator of Mutt and
Jeff, to appear exclusively in this pa
per beginning February Is, started
drawing on the San Francisco Chron'
icle in 1908 and continued making lay
outs until the earthquake interrupted
things in the western metropolis.
Fisher, by the way, became SO we'll
acclimated during his stay in San
Francisco that he still speaks of that
disaster as the fire as do all the
residents of that city
Following this catastrophe, he
found himself without job and went
to Los Angeles. The San Francisco
Examiner began using for it's Sunday
magazine the supplement got up for
the Hearst paper in Boston; the
Chronicle carried no Sunday edition
because the fire" had demolished the
facilities for getting out the Sunday
part OF every paper in San Francisco.
In fact, all the newspapers had to be
published in makeshift manner for
some period after the fire
To compete with the Examiner, the
Chronicle sent man named Steele
to Los Angeles to get out Sunday
edition on the presses of the Los An
geles Times, through the courtesy of
General Harrison Grey Otis, the pub
Usher Of that paper This was to be
shipped to San Francisco for publ
cation on the proper date. Mr.. Steele
bumped into Mr. Fisher after having
combed the town for artists who were
not available to be employed.
do you want job? need you, >
burst out Mr.. Steele.
Bud accepted at once and went to
work getting out pages, doing every.
thing, even to Bendaying them. But
there was too much for one man to
do, SO Fisher at this stage showed his
business sead. He hired several ar
lists on the Los Angeles Examiner
to make these pages, and he paid
them $3.50 each, while he himself re.
ceiVed SIS, making neat profit of
$3.50 per page. The artists had to
do this extra work outside of hours
and could not apply directly because
of their good jobs on the Examiner,
which they would lose if they did.
81 didn't care if they never got over
the fire. in San Francisco, says Bud.
81 was on the way to be a Rockefel'
ler.'
Thus he made good as a middle,
man.
But it was too good to last. The
Sunday Chronicle moved back to San
Francisco, and Charles de Young,
now dead and one of the owners of
the Chronicle then, sent Fisher rail
road ticket to return and go to work.
81 went back with $1,000 in my
pocket, says Bud, "and was Ger.
tainly going to be Independent |
could afford to and wouldn't work for
nothing now, so held out for S25
a week. finally compromised at
$780, s..
Mr. Fisher wanted to start draw.
ing his comic strip which has made
the whole world laugh, or nearly the
whole world, a year before he actu-
ally did. But he could not convince
the powers who were on the Chron-
icle at that time.
"They said hadn't reputation
enough" Bud says, so went to work
to get myself little rep"
He set about it to accumulate (,
reputation by illustrating court sto
ries, prize fight yarns, and theatrica
interviews. All this time he had
been an ardent attendant at the races
and he picked out type which he be.
lieved would appeal to the public