Mr. Fish: Cartooning from the Deep End

In this feature documentary we discover the dangerously funny cartoonist Mr. Fish, struggling to make a living in an industry that is dying out. In a world where consumerism is king, and opportunities are few, will this uncensored artist find a way to sell his art, or be forced to sell himself out?

Mr. Fish has been published in the LA weekly, Harpers, the Village Voice, The Nation and truthdig.com, as well as having his first book GO FISH published through Akashic press. F.X Feeney says, “He places you in the contradiction….He is a poet who’s operating with a cartoonists pen, and with a satirist’s goal of making you see further.”

Having found success creating compelling editorial cartoons, we discover Mr. Fish as his profession is on its way out. Editors previously willing to back controversial work are disappearing as fast as the newspapers which once employed him. Can an outspoken artist raise a family and maintain his unique defiant voice? This intimate documentary follows the artist as he struggles to stay true to his creativity in a world where biting satiric humor has an ever-diminishing commercial value.

Undeterred, Mr. Fish meets his plight head-on and with an abundance of creative energy, curating a show and producing a book on the history of the art form, developing an animation series, and putting up a gallery show of new original fine art. But the demands of raising a family overtake his freelance opportunities, and Mr. Fish is forced to make devastating choices.

Ultimately CARTOONING FROM THE DEEP END is about the kinds of compromises a radical artist makes (or refuses to make) while trying to live in a traditional society.