Fisher, Bud

Harry Conway "Bud" Fisher (1885–1954) was an American cartoonist who created the first successful daily comic strip in the United States. Fisher studied at the University of Chicago then went to work in San Francisco as a journalist and sketch artist in the sports department of the San Francisco Chronicle. In late-1907, he introduced a comic strip character he called "Mr. A. Mutt" (the initial stood for Augustus) that became instantly popular with the paper's readers. In March 1908, Fisher added a second character he named "Jeff," a diminutive man, the opposite of the tall and skinny Mutt.

The "Mutt and Jeff" comic strip gained such popularity that Fisher, who was able to claim copyright to the characters, received an offer to produce it for the San Francisco Examiner owned by William Randolph Hearst. The move to the Hearst Corporation chain exposed the comic strip to a multitude of new audiences. "Mutt and Jeff" was also published in comic book form and the income from its multiple uses made Bud Fisher a wealthy man.