Today’s strip (above) marks the last appearance of “Fisher” in The Globe and Mail. I heard from the paper on August 10 that, due to a reshuffling of the arts and life sections, the comics page would be dropped. Ultimately the paper (I am told) decided to keep a smaller comics section… but not “Fisher” (or Graham Harrop’s “Back Bench”, the other comic that was exclusive to the Globe). Normally I wait a week to post strips after they appear in the paper; today I’m making an exception.
These are not good times for newspapers; how could they be good times for newspaper comic strips? Whatever struggles The Globe and Mail (along with all other mass media) are going through, I do thank them for their support of “Fisher” these twenty years — and, in particular, Warren Clements, the former Globe editor who brought “Fisher” on board and was my “editor” for most of its run. (I put “editor” in quotes because he let me get away with almost anything, except for the odd spelling mistake. For more about the early days of the strip, see the second post on this blog.)
Warren is also the publisher of a projected Fisher book to be published, we hope, this fall. Please keep eyes peeled for that, and check this site for developments.
There are no plans at this time to continue Fisher elsewhere, but if that changes you can read about it here. In the meantime I hope to extend the web archive of the strips back to the beginning of the run in 1992.
I want thank family and friends for their support, especially my wife, Vanessa Grant, who has been a supporter and collaborator since the beginning. Above all I want to thank the readers of the strip. I have heard, in person or by email, enough to know that the strip has resonated with many. This has been the most satisfying part of having Tom Fisher lead a public life. Thank you.
I try to read the comics every morning and have always loved Fisher. After reading today's strip I ran down to the computer to find out what is going on. I'm very disappointed that Fisher won't be continuing. I do look forward to getting the book, but I hope that you will find additional ways to keep Fisher going. It has been wonderful to read and will be sorely missed. Hopefully, not for long.
UPDATE (October 26, 2017): Fisher has had a checkered history online, but fishercomic.com is back in business! I am very grateful to all who took the time to write in support of the strip when The Globe and Mail dropped it… every one of you on this page. I hope that you will all subscribe to the strip by email (and revisit the badly-drawn early days!)
I also hope that you will visit the linked Patreon page, and consider becoming a contributing supporter of Fisher. It would be amazing for Fisher to be sustained by its readership. When it was in the paper, I knew that it was seen; when it was dropped by the paper, you wrote in to say what it meant to you. That was humbling and inspiring. Between 2013 and 2015 I posted many more strips online, but I was poor at analytics and couldn’t measure the support of the audience. As the strip currently on the home page has it, the question always was, “Is anybody out there?” I’d love to create new strips if I knew there were an audience for them!
A sad day for humour. 🙁 Fisher was one of my favourites! (Along with Pooch Café of course.) My oldest daughter was born at about the same time as the kid in Fisher, so it was not just apt and hilarious but also much-needed empathy at some of the toughest times. I'll miss it.
Hi Martha,
Fisher has had a checkered history online, but fishercomic.com is back in business! I am very grateful to all who took the time to write in support of the strip when The Globe and Mail dropped it… every one of you on this page. I hope that you will all subscribe to the strip by email (and revisit the badly-drawn early days!)
I also hope that you will visit the linked Patreon page, and consider becoming a contributing supporter of Fisher. It would be amazing for Fisher to be sustained by its readership. When it was in the paper, I knew that it was seen; when it was dropped by the paper, you wrote in to say what it meant to you. That was humbling and inspiring. Between 2013 and 2015 I posted many more strips online, but I was poor at analytics and couldn’t measure the support of the audience. As the strip currently on the home page has it, the question always was, “Is anybody out there?” I’d love to create new strips if I knew there were an audience for them!
So the people at the Globe have chosen to dump the wittiest, best drawn strip they have. What could they be on? SmartAir?
This is a bad decision by the Globe. When I was a kid, the comics page was the first part of the Globe I started reading. I always like that is featured unique Canadian voices that you couldn't find anywhere else.
I hope the Globe is deluged with letters over this, and reconsiders. Messing with the comics page seems like one of the easiest ways to alienate readers.
Thanks. If there are new Fisher strips, you can read about them here!
Thanks, Martha. One of the things I find hard to believe is that I met all my Fisher deadlines, even with a newborn in the house. Of course, all that is a fog to me now.
Thanks, FisherFan! (For those curious about SmartAir, go to the Fisher archive at philipstreet.com and start reading at Feb. 12, 2001.)
Remember, when inhaling SmartAir, not to disturb the sediment on the bottom!
Thanks for your support, Don. There hasn't been a survey of Globe readers about the comics page for at least 10 years, so they haven't had that input on this decision.
Would there be enough of us to start an online petition? I'm assuming Philip wouldn't object …?
No objection from me!
Hi… I just sent this letter to the Grope and Flail editors. I get published fairly often, though it's probably too late at night right now. Maybe Tuesday? Regardless, it's what I'd have them publish if I was in control.
———
Dear Sir:
Apparently the Globe and Mail has decided that it will no longer publish the "Fisher" comic strip. Let me just say that in this household at least "Fisher" will be missed: the strip had one unique attribute, which was that the Fishers did crosswords in bed, a wonderful pastime which my wife and I very much approve of. Of course the fact that you chose to cancel "Fisher" and keep the one about alligators and zebras says a lot. Talk about casting pearls before swine.
Yours etc. etc.
oh no! I can't believe it. No more Fisher in the Globe? I was ready to subscribe to any other paper carrying it. I need my FisherFix. I'm just calculating that if I can limit myself to reading just one archived panel a night I can get through the next 12 years–but reading just one is darn near impossible if the next one is just a click away….Here's hoping smarter heads will prevail at the Globe and they bring Fisher back.
I was rather surprised to learn that "Fisher" appeared only in the Globe, and that it will subsequently not continue elsewhere. While not a "gag" strip like the entertaining Bizarro or the not-funny Backbench, my wife and I enjoyed the strip's uncanny ability to reflect the goings-on of our own family, which is very similar to the "Fisher" family, complete with young son. We believe Mr. Street lives locally to us, and wondered if he had been listening at our windows, so accurately did he capture the sometimes fraught tone of Toronto urban living.
Sorry to see you lose the strip and good luck in your future efforts.
Just wanted to say thanks for all the years of Fisher. It's always been one of my favorites. So few strips these days are so consistently funny and well drawn. I'll miss it!
My letter to TGAM follows:
The recent changes are a step backwards. Many mornings, part of my routine is to get to work 30-45 minutes early, turn to the back page of the Arts section, read the comics (except "Pearls Before Swine", which is simply not funny) and do the Sudoku and Kenken puzzles. Now they are buried is various sections and half of the comics are gone. At times, "Fisher" neared the warm human insight of Bill Keane's "Family Circus" and at other times the piercing, witty business insight of "Dilbert"; "Speed Bump" was regularly wittier and more outlandish than "Bizzaro". Seriously, keeping "Pooch Cafe" over "Drabble" and "Overboard"? Did you really kill Fisher? You bloody murderers!
The new "Life" Section comes across too much like a bad daily version of "People", a magazine so bad that environmentalists should target it as a waste of trees. What drivel was that in Leslie Beck's column? The differences between those two waffles was trivial! 0.5 grams of fat and 4 grams of sugar! Nature's Path should be embarrassed that their product compares so closely to Eggo. To suggest one as a healthy alternative is irresponsible writing – I can't bring myself to call it "journalism".
The Sports section has always lagged the other three papers and seems to be in a long, slow death spiral. The Business section is a shadow of its former self. The quality of writing makes the former motto "Well Written, Well Read" an embarrassing joke. Putting lipstick on a pig simply makes a colourful pig, but a pig nevertheless. Glossy paper and colour in a poor newspaper simply makes a colourful cage liner, not a better read.
The only positive change, that I've noticed, is the return of Michael Kesterton's "Social Studies" to the back page where it is easy to access. I hope the moron that buried it inside the section was severely punished for that mistake years ago. However, given that it wasn't corrected until now, I rather doubt it.
Close to $500 a year for THIS, particularly when the Post and Star are both free at work, is something I am going to have to reconsider. I have subscribed for most of the past 32 years, but I simply don't see it as worthwhile any more.
Yes, it is a tough time for newspapers, but they seem to insist on making it tougher on themselves all the time.
As for a paywall on TGAM website? fagettaboutit! If there was stuff worth reading, you'd get the traffic to get the ads.
The Globe is a quantifier. It prefers to see numbers. (Very much Tom Fisher's world, before he was laid off.) So, in the slender hope that common sense will sometimes prevail, let's see how many signatures we can gather via the website iPetition:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/bring-back-fisher/
It might help, too, to stir the pot if some of our comments were circulated on Twitter:
#ReturnTomFisher
I wanted to say that while I did not read the strip everyday, when I did read it I always enjoyed Fisher and will miss it. I will keep an eye out for the book and on the archive.
Good luck, Philip Street, with your future endeavours.
Fisher is dead (or at least KO): long live Philip!
Oh dear. This is sad news. I've enjoyed Fisher for all these years and I'm certainly sad that the Globe won't carry it.
Backbench is another one that I've enjoyed.
I do hope you'll keep drawing Fisher … perhaps at this site (like BeauPeep does – a weekly update)? I'd love that.
Thank you for creating art that is so enjoyable.
Best wishes.
Phil, in your archives, please do post the Northrop Frye as Yoda cartoons!
I am grateful to all who have written to voice their support. I intend to keep Fisher alive, if only on this blog and only intermittently. I will also be posting old and new cartoons here. Please stay tuned, and once again: thank you.
I've always enjoyed reading Fisher. I still have a few aging strips I cut out and saved — that's how funny and timeless your creation is.
The G&M is being very short-sighted with this latest round of changes.
All the very best to you, Philip.
Oh no! – my first thoughts when I saw this comic. Fisher was (is) my favourite comic in the Globe and Mail (shorten the comics in the newspaper if you must, but prioritize, guys!)
Fisher is almost exactly my age, and from the comic when Alison announced some bands were playing, who Fisher didn't understand, because he was "over 30", to his marriage and the birth of Paul, which coincided, within a year or two, of my marriage and birth of my (first) son – his major life events followed mine, and life's priorities, joys and frustrations, all oriented similar to mine – great to see him age with me. I am losing a friend.
Your humour is rich, but also view of life, priorities, values are apparent – Fisher is not just making jokes for us to laugh, but is commenting on life and its absurdities, and finding humour when humour is sometimes hard to find. Please continue to publish.
Philip, I'm sorry to hear this! I will always cherish the sketch of the "Fisher" family you drew for me on request some years ago… it is hung in an exceedingly ornate frame in my office and I always smile when i see it.
I look forward to this book project. Why not toss up a Kickstarter for it?
Well, like most "Fisher" fans, I was blindsided by the sudden conclusion of the strip last Saturday.
I cannot believe that the Globe would drop two of the best strips, Fisher and Back Bench – and two completely original, Canadian ones at that! What are they thinking?
With a few deft strokes of the pen, you created characters I had genuine affection for and a strip which was often an uncanny reflection of my own life. (My wife was certain for years that I was secretly the author).
Glad for the announcement of a book in the fall, and I'm sure I'll be buying it. But I hope the strip finds a new home before then.
(Seeing a couple of the other comments, I'm compelled to give a defensive shout-out to Pearls Before Swine here too though – a very different style of humour but I get many laughs from it as well. Still, it's no "Fisher".)
Anyway, thanks and all the best. I hope that Fisher returns at some point in some form. Meanwhile I'll keep an eye on the blog page. Excuse me while I go sign that petition, and send a tweet, and write the G&M….
I'd just like to say, I've been enthusiastically reading Fisher for the majority of my life (I first picked up the Globe comics page at around 9 years old, seventeen years ago). I'm sorry to see that it won't be in the Globe anymore.
I think Fisher and Backbench, more than any other comics published by the Globe (except maybe The Far Side), were responsible for the great love I have now for strip comics and graphic novels. I'd like to congratulate you on twenty years!
I was for many years a Globe and Mail subscriber, until, for various reasons, my wife and I decided to forego the newspaper. However, I made sure to keep an eye on the Fisher archives to keep up to date on the goings-on of Tom, Alison et. al. I was very surprised to see the announcement of the last strip, and most disappointed. Thanks for many years of enjoyment. Good luck, Philip, we'll keep an eye on the blog now.
I too am greatly saddened by the departure of Fisher from the G&M… although our first born was a girl not a boy, it is the only comic strip that my wife & I have frequently laughed at and looked at each other going "whoah… that's so us!"
Fisher and Word Play cancelled. Wente defended and retained.
Gresham's Law is alive at the Globe and Mail.
Jeepers, I'm only finding out about this now. This might just be the first newspaper comic strip I have seen end and whose beginning I can clearly recall. Remember those crazy times with the virtual reality and the amnesia and Psycho Dave and Captain Infinity? The end of an era, this.
Sad to find out that TGM isn't carrying Fisher anymore. Had missed it. Didn't know the reasoning behind its absence. But then didn't know that it had been going for 20 years. Very impressive. Will have to look through some of archives. Best wishes for the new year. EP