[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 103 (Thursday, July 25, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1371]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO GEORGE FISHER

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. MARION BERRY

                              of arkansas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 25, 2002

  Mr. BERRY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a talented 
artist, a shrewd political observer and great American, George Fisher.
  Since the 1950s, George has been dispensing his incisive form of 
commentary in the form of political cartoons. He has trained his 
artistic ``guns'' on everything from satirizing Arkansas politicians to 
commenting on international affairs. Nothing seems to escape his 
notice, and his ability to expose and explain complex social and 
political issues truly puts him in a league of his own.
  George began drawing political cartoons for the West Memphis News 
soon after returning from Europe where he bravely served his country as 
an infantry solider in World War II. He honed his talent and 
predilection for exposing corruption in local politics during this time 
as he worked to undermine the influence of the local political machine 
through his political cartoons. After the West Memphis News was driven 
out of business by the political machine that he fought, he moved to 
Little Rock and opened a commercial art service. On the advice of 
friends and admirers, George picked up his pen and began drawing 
cartoons again a decade later for the North Little Rock Times.
  In 1972, he signed a contract with the Arkansas Gazette to draw two 
cartoons a week for publication. To the surprise of no one who knew him 
at the time, he was appointed the Gazette's chief editorial cartoonist 
just four years later. George's career also outlived the life of the 
Arkansas Gazette, and he continues to periodically have cartoons 
published in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and the weekly Arkansas 
Times.
  I have been a big fan of George's throughout his career not just for 
his great talent, but also because of his professionalism and honesty. 
When you see a George Fisher cartoon, you know that George is just 
``calling them like he sees them.'' After reading one of his cartoons, 
I may not always agree with George, but I always respect him.
  I think that Ernest Dumas summed up George Fisher's genius best when 
he wrote in the introduction to a volume of George's political cartoons 
called ``The Best of Fisher'':

       What has robbed Fisher of greater national celebration is 
     the perception of him as a provincial cartoonist. It is not 
     without premise. He has continued to draw as much about local 
     and state subjects as national and international ones. And 
     alongside his arsenal of classical metaphors from Shakespeare 
     to Norse mythology, are all those bucolic images, so familiar 
     to Arkansawyers, so foreign to those outside the Rural South. 
     . . . Nothing is provincial, however, about the lessons or 
     the humor of the art. They are universal.

  On behalf of the United States Congress, I express my gratitude and 
best wishes to a faithful public servant, an Arkansas icon and a man I 
am proud to call my good friend, George Fisher.

                          ____________________