John R. Fischetti (September 27, 1916 – November 18, 1980) was an editorial cartoonist for the ''
New York Herald Tribune
The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the ''New-York Tribune'' acquired the ''New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and competed ...
'' and the ''
Chicago Daily News
The ''Chicago Daily News'' was an afternoon daily newspaper in the midwestern United States, published between 1875 and 1978 in Chicago, Illinois.
History
The ''Daily News'' was founded by Melville E. Stone, Percy Meggy, and William Dougherty ...
''. He received a
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...
for
Editorial Cartooning
An editorial cartoonist, also known as a political cartoonist, is an artist who draws editorial cartoons that contain some level of political or social commentary. Their cartoons are used to convey and question an aspect of daily news or curren ...
in 1969 and numerous awards from the
National Cartoonists Society
The National Cartoonists Society (NCS) is an organization of professional cartoonists in the United States. It presents the National Cartoonists Society Awards. The Society was born in 1946 when groups of cartoonists got together to entertain the ...
.
The Fischetti Editorial Cartoon Competition Award, also known as the John Fischetti Award, is named after him.
Biography
Fischetti was born in
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
,
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
, where his Italian father was a barber. As a teenager during the Great Depression, he worked various jobs, including one at a hotel where Rollin Kirby, one of his influences, lived. At 19, Fischetti began studying commercial art at the
Pratt Institute
Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York (state), New York. It has a satellite campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The school was ...
in Brooklyn, where he continued his education for three years (1937–1940).
Then he moved to California, where he worked for the
Walt Disney Studio in Burbank. Fischetti's job with Disney lasted only nine months, due to the work's strain on his eyes.
While pursuing freelance work, Fischetti began his career as an editorial cartoonist at the ''
Chicago Sun'' in 1941. Some of his freelance work appeared in such publications as ''
Esquire
Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title.
In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentlema ...
'', ''
The Saturday Evening Post
''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine, currently published six times a year. It was issued weekly under this title from 1897 until 1963, then every two weeks until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely c ...
'' and ''
Collier's
''Collier's'' was an American general interest magazine founded in 1888 by Peter Fenelon Collier. It was launched as ''Collier's Once a Week'', then renamed in 1895 as ''Collier's Weekly: An Illustrated Journal'', shortened in 1905 to ''Collie ...
''.
Fischetti served 1942–1945 as a radio operator and army sergeant during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.
In 1945 he joined the staff of ''
Stars & Stripes'' as a war-time artist with Dick Wingert and other war-time cartoonists.
From 1951 to 1962 Fischetti was a syndicated cartoonist for the
Newspaper Enterprise Association
The Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA) is an editorial column and comic strip newspaper syndication service based in the United States and established in 1902. The oldest syndicate still in operation, the NEA was originally a secondary news ...
. He then joined the ''
New York Herald Tribune
The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the ''New-York Tribune'' acquired the ''New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and competed ...
'', departing in 1967 when that paper folded. In 1967 he moved back to Chicago and joined the ''
Chicago Daily News
The ''Chicago Daily News'' was an afternoon daily newspaper in the midwestern United States, published between 1875 and 1978 in Chicago, Illinois.
History
The ''Daily News'' was founded by Melville E. Stone, Percy Meggy, and William Dougherty ...
'', which ceased publication in 1978. He joined
Bill Mauldin
William Henry Mauldin (; October 29, 1921 – January 22, 2003) was an American editorial cartoonist who won two Pulitzer Prizes for his work. He was most famous for his World War II cartoons depicting American soldiers, as represented by the ...
at the ''
Chicago Sun-Times
The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...
'' two years before he died of a heart attack in 1980.
He published a compilation of his cartoons ''Zinga Zinga Za'' in 1973.
Style
Fischetti, like many of his colleagues, favored heavy use of crayon, pencil or ink brush in a vertical format at the beginning of his post-war career. By the 1960s, as his style matured, he began using a horizontal pen-and-ink style that betrayed his roots in animation, Fischetti
satirized politics, fads and social issues.
Awards
In 1969, he won the
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...
for
Editorial Cartooning
An editorial cartoonist, also known as a political cartoonist, is an artist who draws editorial cartoons that contain some level of political or social commentary. Their cartoons are used to convey and question an aspect of daily news or curren ...
in honor of the body of his work.
He also received the National Cartoonists Society's Editorial Cartoon Award in 1962, 1963, 1964, and 1965.
John Fischetti Award
The Fischetti Editorial Cartoon Competition Award, usually referred to as the John Fischetti Award, is given annually to a staff, syndicated or regularly published professional cartoonist for cartoons on current social and political subjects (including sports and entertainment) published in a daily or weekly newspaper or regularly published periodical (including Internet publications) in the United States. They are administered by the Journalism Department of
Columbia College Chicago
Columbia College Chicago is a Private college, private art college in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1890, it has 5,928https://about.colum.edu/effectiveness/pdf/spring-2021-student-profile.pdf students pursuing degrees in more than 60 undergra ...
.
References
External links
*
* (primary source material)
* (primary source material)
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fischetti, John
1916 births
1980 deaths
American editorial cartoonists
New York Herald Tribune people
Chicago Daily News people
Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning winners