George Leonard Fett (July 7, 1920 - November 6, 1989) was an American cartoonist best known for his comic strips ''Sniffy'' and ''Norbert''.
Life and career
George Fett was born in
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
, the only child of Hungarian immigrants Frank J. and Elizabeth Horvath Fett. He graduated from Collinwood High School in 1938, then studied at the Cleveland School of Art, completing his classes in 1941. He joined the
United States Merchant Marine
United States Merchant Marines are United States civilian mariners and U.S. civilian and federally owned merchant vessels. Both the civilian mariners and the merchant vessels are managed by a combination of the government and private sectors, an ...
and served on ships in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. He regretted not having a chance to sail on the Pacific Ocean, but was able to sketch a variety of characters he met on the North African coast.
In 1944, he married his high-school sweetheart. Fett then attended the Colorado School of Art on a scholarship program. On their way to New York to pursue job opportunities, the Fetts stopped in Cleveland to visit family and decided to stay. Fett began an engineering career that lasted for decades. In 1961, Fett began pursuing his lifelong dream of drawing a comic strip, and had submitted several ideas to syndicates before ''Sniffy'' was accepted. Syndicated by Bell-McClure, it debuted June 29, 1964.
When the orphaned dog Little No-No became a major character after 1966, the comic strip was renamed ''Little No-No and Sniffy'' in 1970. Sniffy eventually left the comic strip and Little No-No evolved into Norbert. The comic strip was renamed ''Norbert'' in 1973. This was one year after United Feature Syndicate took over syndication of Fett's comic strip. Fett drew ''Norbert'' until his final daily strip was published on January 2, 1982. '' Winthrop'' cartoonist