The first Thadeus & Weez ran in January,1985 , in the Texas Lawyer, a weekly legal newspaper. Douglas Tinker, the famous criminal lawyer from Corpus Christi, had written to the newspaper suggesting it use Fincher's work. The paper's editor, Gary Hengstler, called Fincher and asked him to create a new comic strip for the Texas Lawyer. Since then, Hengstler has gone on the become the editor and publisher of the ABA Journal in Chicago.
The original strip was directed at lawyers. Fincher, a lawyer, chose the name Thadeus & Weez for the strip because it had a sort of comic-law-firm ring. He decided on Weez, a weasel, as Thadeus' side-kick since that's what many think of lawyers.
Within a few strips, Thadeus & Weez moved from being a law strip to one about Texas politics. Though the strip has often made forays into national politics, it made the change from being a Texas strip to the national political scene when the Texas Legislature ended its session May, 1999. With Gov. George W. Bush running for president, the time seemed right.
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CARTOONIST Fincher moves back and forth between his career in cartooning and his career in law. In law he is of counsel to The Allison Law Firm in Brownsville, Texas, a litigation boutique. Fincher also paints in oils and acrylics and occassionally writes for newspapers. |
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