Born on this day in 1900 or 1901: comics writer and artist Ham Fisher, creator of the mega-popular newspaper strip strip and comic book Joe Palooka!
from Joe Palooka Comics (1945 series) #1 (Harvey, November 1945)
He was also an enemy of Al Capp (which makes him A-OK in my book)! Addendum on 10/15/22: i naturally assumed in any battle against Al Capp, his opponent is going to be the good guy, but things aren't so cut and dried as I initially indicated. Ham could be just as bad — maybe in some parts even worse — than Al. See the extensive series of articles by R.C. Harvey in The Comics Journal titled "Hubris and Chutzpah: How Li’l Abner Kayo’d Joe Palooka and Both Their Creators Came to Grief", and many thanks to reader Manqueman who, in the comments below, clued me in on thi and pointed me to Harvey's dissection.
from Joe Palooka Comics (1945 series) #5 (Harvey, July 1946)
Hammy birthday, Hap! I mean...happy birthday, Ham!
from Joe Palooka Visits the Lost City one-shot (Pines, 1950)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQenrY-T9_-EUVG2XBTW-ZiSnvw_V3JFU-8tiFlhrdgKCUBaE56ekbiILucymY9gA-xa4zdGy_z1Njojw78Z-YnlUiN4PIRRurK7GzqoEg3B-PmXl2RJaS1ZaVKVCEHP-m-WVr2xjqailLu1jlzylysiBGc3sVXLXNMFDzAURyrHhKBfcqyO4/s1600/button-libertybellmarch.jpg" "It's...")
3 comments:
Amazingly, Fisher is the bad guy here or, I suppose, the badder guy. I know, Al Capp was a pretty awful person, but Fisher was worse in this matter. See: https://www.tcj.com/hubris-and-chutzpah-how-lil-abner-kayod-joe-palooka-and-both-their-creators-came-to-grief-part-9/
Yikes! Thanks, Manqueman: I totally missed that series of articles over at TCJ.com. Verrrry interesting!
// Born on this day in 1900 or 1901 //
Ham Fisher: Quantum cartoonist.
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