"The Rise and Fall of Ham Fisher"

Ham Fisher was the creator of "Joe Palooka" a largely forgotten comic strip from the 30's that was a staple of the comic page for years. Fisher had a nasty, long-running feud with his former assistant, Alfred Caplin. After spending several years doing Fisher's grunt work for $20 a week, Caplin decided to make his move. He changed his name to 'Al Capp' and created his own strip, "Lil' Abner."

"Lil' Abner" was a huge hit. And Capp became more successful than Fisher ever dreamed possible. It drove Fisher down the path of maddness.

Capp apparently never read the first rule of power:
"The Pupil Must Never Outshine the Master"

Capp ignored the rules, but Fisher was the one on the receiving end of some mighty bad karma. Not a pretty picture.

Last year, I did a comic-strip bio of Fisher that you can read (via pdf) here.

A Flash version is also available by clicking here.

Shortly after this piece was published I found a Fisher story by cartoonist Kim Deitch. I love Kim Deitch and while I'm pretty sure I never saw his version, it sure looks like I'm dancing with his girl. So if I'm going to be accused of subliminal thievery, at least I'm stealing from a master. Sorry Kim.

Wally Wood had his own rules of power:

• Never draw anything you can copy.
• Never copy anything you can trace.
• Never trace anything you can cut out and paste up.