Fischetti was born in
Brooklyn,
New York, 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 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,
The Saturday Evening Post and ''
Collier's''. Fischetti served 1942–1945 as a radio operator and army sergeant during
World War II. 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. He then joined the
New York Herald Tribune, departing in 1967 when that paper folded. In 1967 he moved back to Chicago and joined the
Chicago Daily News, which ceased publication in 1978. He joined
Bill Mauldin at the
Chicago Sun-Times two years before he died of a heart attack in 1980. He published a compilation of his cartoons
Zinga Zinga Za in 1973. == Style ==