My name is Michael Fischer. My friends call me FISH. My story began in 1963 in St. Louis, MO with a crayon in one hand and a coloring book in the other. I’ll never forget seeing my first Blues hockey game on television as a kid. The spirit, the speed and the flair of pro hockey has resinated throughout time with me no matter what I’ve achieved. It’s either fight, flight or write. I’m a life long rock jazz blues guitarist powered by passion, humor and ice hockey. I love all sports, but always had a soft spot for hockey because I love to skate. My family relocated to Nashville, TN in 1976 when I was 13. There was much timeless boredom and the opportunity to draw more at a young age. By 9th grade I was winning art achievement awards in junior high school for my work which eventually led to buying a Flying V guitar at age 16 in high school with dreams of one day starting a band. I began playing drums at age 5. I always just wanted to play music until I saw The Monkees on TV as a kid. Then I wanted to live in a beach house by the California ocean and play in a rock band with my friends. Funny, that wish came true in 20 years later when I moved to L.A to searching for that big break. I said Mom & Dad, you got this? I’m outta here, I gotta go out west and see what this is all about. Packed up my car and trailer with my guitar rig, pillow, a suit case and a big black trunk, $700 cash and my Triple A map headed to L.A with my best friend from high-school. Soon as I arrived in L.A every day was a Friday and every night was a Saturday. I rocked Sunset Strip at night and by day worked as a prop maker for motion picture and film on HBO Tales From The Crypt, Shelley Duval's Nightmare Theater and The Nightmare on Elm Street Trilogy. I’ve also performed live stand up and write comedy.

It was in 1989 I began drawing again inspired by the worlds greatest hockey player Wayne Gretzky being traded to the Los Angeles Kings. The city and the ice hockey buzz at that time was just electrifying. Hockey Comics became my destiny reuniting me with a sport I loved so much as a child growing up in St. Louis. PUCK TALES Comic Strip could be seen in Hockey Player Magazine. I produced NHL 2Nites Weekly Comic on ESPN, I designed Christmas Cards for CAA Sports, Disney Sports Enterprises, IMG Hockey, IMG Baseball, USA Hockey, The St.Louis Blues, Los Angeles Kings, Nashville Predators, Florida Panthers, Washington Capitals and Colorado Avalanche. I created CARDS for KIDS Hockey Christmas Card Program to help raise money to USA Youth Hockey teams all across North America. My Christmas Cards were hot and flew off store shelves and the arenas. My cards would be successful in pro sports licensing in all sports. I originally wrote THE PUCKFORD 7 thirty years ago as a 17 page short treatment for an animated ice hockey adventure movie I pitched to Warner Brothers. My story sat in a box until a few years ago. During Covid they were telling people to go home, I didn’t have a home. My roommate kicked me out. I was living in my car with all my stuff in storage. Some days I’d get a new neighbor, I’d get a KIA. 

Christmas Eve night during Covid I parked up at Martina McBrides Recording Studio, curled up to go to sleep and thought. When I ever get out of this hell and find a place to live. I’m going to work on THE PUCKFORD 7 Ice Hockey Adventure again. Illustrate it and self publish a book. In 2021 I had two surgeries, While I was recovering I began rewriting and polishing the story into children’s chapter format. My dog LUCY a black lab rescue had just passed at age 17, I miss her so much I dedicated my book to her and made her one of the characters in my story. My Uncle Phil who taught me to play drums as a kid recently passed away from cancer. I made Phil the Ice Angel. My best friend Mick and I played in a band with in Hollywood had also recently passed from cancer. I made him Demon Ice Machine Captain Stellar Master. He would have liked that. The name Stellar Master is a Malice song Mick wrote. If this is ever animated, he will have his own heavy metal song in the movie. I gotta get back to L.A and take his wife and kids to a game and talk about Mick the whole time and tell them what a great Dad they had. 

THE PUCKFORD 7 book took me all of 4 years to write, illustrate and color. It was my calling and something I felt so strongly about. I sold my car so I could finish my book. The story was originally only going to be 12 illustrated pages. I kept adding illustrations each time I read it. Now my book features over 80 illustrated premium color pages. While I was still working on coloring my book with no clue how I was going to set it up to print. One day at random I met a wonderful lady who turned out to be a children’s book author. She turned me onto her book set up guy. This guy is brilliant and he helped me output my book files to final print. Paper and digital. That was God and the Angels talking right there. I did all the work, they just made me look good. So back when I was 16 years old. My first job as a teenager was in Nashville sweeping all the millions of styrofoam packing peanuts covering the floors in the warehouse at Ingram Book Company on the overnight shift. Can you believe Ingram Book Company is now printing, stocking and shipping my book through Barnes and Noble.

As an artist and the creator I’m eager to explore more time travel and adventures inspiring kids to read and enjoy fun art and the fine art of story telling. There’s always more ideas in my wishing well. There’s nothing like a fantasy mystery adventure to entertain fans of all ages. We were all raised on cartoons. It would be very soul satisfying if THE PUCKFORD 7 became a kids sports mystery series. I have tapped into a snowboard crowd which is untouched. No one has ever made a really clever fantasy hockey movie with this amount of color and character. 

My ultimate dream is to see The PUCKFORD 7 animated on the big movie theater screen with my dog LUCY skating right at you on a breakaway. Aside from the marketing and merchandise opportunities such as a video game version, toy licensing and product sponsorships. My main focus is to engage young imaginations of all ages sharing the magic seeds for growth and achieving any thing you set your mind and heart on through faith, story telling, inspirational role models for children while supporting reading, literacy and the visual arts.

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