CRAVE BOOKS AUTHOR MICHAEL FISCHER INTERVIEW Fall 2025 ~
Tell us a little bit about yourself, your hobbies and interests.
I like to rock! I'm an American Artist from St. Louis Missouri. I was born into a musical family with a guitar in one hand and a Crayola Crayon in the other. I began my professional music career jamming at night on the Sunset Strip. During the day I worked in the Art Department as a Television Studio Prop Maker in motion picture, film and television commercials. I’ve worked on HBO Tales From The Crypt, Shelly Duval's Fairy Tale Theater and Nightmare On Elm Street, ESPN, CAA, Disney Sports Enterprises, IMG Hockey, IMG Baseball, USA Hockey, USA Youth Hockey, Hockey Player Magazine, Prime Ticket TV Network and many NHL teams such as the St. Louis Blues, Los Angeles Kings and Nashville Predators. I just released my new Children's Fantasy Book THE PUCKFORD 7 Adventure about a group of young friends who snowboard into a fantasy world of imagination and ice hockey. In the spirit of new Wizardly Worlds to come, I feel my creative journey as an Author has only just begun. It's a great feeling to release my new book THE PUCKFORD 7 on Amazon and Ingram Lightning Spark. One of my first jobs was sweeping the warehouse at Ingram Book Company in Nashville Tennessee when I was 16 years old. Pretty cool they're printing my books!
When and why did you start writing books?
Well, turn back the clock a few decades I've been a comic writer cartoon artist since I was a kid listening to KISS records riding a school bus with an art pad. I took a break from art playing music even moving to Los Angeles California in my prime. It was here in the City of Angels I began drawing again. In 1989 I was 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. I began doing weekly comics and cartoons for hockey magazines so Hockey Comics became my wheelhouse once again reuniting me with a sport I loved so much as a child growing up in St. Louis watching the St. Louis Blues. Fast forward to now (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... I was living in my car with all my stuff in storage... Some nights I’d get a new neighbor, "A KIA!") Lol So Christmas Eve night during the silly Covid pandemic I was parked in my little Honda Civic up at Martina McBrides Recording Studio in Nashville curled up going to sleep thinking. When I ever get out of this mess, life returns to normal in the world and I find a flat and a place to live. I’m going to write THE PUCKFORD 7. Illustrate it and make a Christmas Story book. I did, I did, it did and now here I am a new book Author!
What made you decide to tackle writing as a career?
When I was 6 years old, a local milk company in St. Louis has placed a contest ad in our local five and dime news paper needing a new slogan. I instantly came up with something really cool. Mom helped me send it into the contest and I won. I knew since then I had the gift. Writing is an artistic science and rhythm. I believe books are the key to life such as music, laughter and art. It's how we transcend and learn. Writers can take you anywhere you wanna go. If you have the gift of storytelling, it's timeless to take readers anywhere they wanna go. My first title turned out so well, all I want to do now is write more books. The process from beginning to final output is the most amazing threshold. It's like writing and recording and entire album like Jimi Hendrix Electric Ladyland right down to the album art on the cover. It's truly special and the original recipe when a writer artist can have full creative control from front to back to finish. Artists have a gift from God. For me, it's not a gift if you don't give it away. Share the ole pot of tea! Cool thing about drawing is I can write through cartoons and comics with the picture telling the story. Comics are the famous one second laugh. It's a great way to get your point across quickly. Especially in advertising and one panel comic funnies. Writing doesn't have to always be about a lot of words. A picture tells one thousand stories.
Which one of your books or characters is your favourite?
I have several books in the can. THE PUCKFORD 7 is my Harry Potter of Hockey at the moment. I grew up playing all sports. Baseball, football, soccer, bowling! Bowling is not very exciting is it? I suppose only with Benny Hill and Chas n Dave. Hockey is always the most spirited and fun to watch. All that speed and flair. It's makes for great fun and much like everything in life, always better live at the arena. $40 parking, $14 beers, $6 hot dogs, lol. My book is cheaper! My favorite characters are Lucy the dog, she was my dog in real life. She passed away at age 17. I immortalized her in colorful cartoon art. I made her jersey number 17. I Love Demon Ice Machine Captain "STELLAR MASTER", he's an animated robot in the fantasy world. He was inspired by my best friend Mick Zane the Guitarist in the band MALICE. Mick passed from cancer. Stellar Master is actually a song he wrote. When I wrote him into the story I made him the captain of the bad guys, I figured he would have like that. One night in Hollywood he accidentally knocked my teeth out with a hockey stick. Ironically the Demon Ice Machine jerseys are Black and Neon, same color as Mick's Grover Jackson Randy Rhoads Guitar. "THE ICE ANGEL" in my story is dedicated to my Uncle Phil. He was my mentor as a kid because he played drums. I learned to play at age 5 thanks to Uncle Phil. He also passed from cancer so it's nice to include them in my story book. "Abby and Rebecca" in the story are Phils kids my cousins. Phil named Abby after The Beatles Abbey Road. Once again music inspires. Of course my character "THE ICE MISER" (OLD MAN MISER) is the star of my story as any evil villain cartoon character. When writing the story I found him the most humorous story character to write jokes for. Because unknowing to the kids OLD MAN MISER is really a nice little old man, there's a lot of range in his character when he's becomes the ICE MISER in the fantasy world portion of the story. "THE RADAR REFS" (Flying Ref Saucers) are a personal favorite. I love drawing flying saucers, rocket ships and Star Wars stuff. Drawing people can be more difficult then driving on the same road with them at rush hour.
Which one of your books was the hardest to write and stretched you the most as a writer?
THE PUCKFORD 7! I was recovering from surgery so much of the book I was in a great deal of pain. Once I started several months in I thought, "Oh my God what have a done? I can't stop now!" So through all the struggling to survive I remained laser focused on making my vision come to life in story and illustration. A story of this magnitude and imagination I had to write and illustrate this book if I ever published anything. While most everyone else I know is on Face Ache frittering their time away posting food photos and gib jabber and non sense. I used that 3 years to wrote this book! THE PUCKFORD 7 is the best work I've ever done. It's an honor to submit it into the literary world. With much faith hope and prayers, maybe the animated world.
Who is your favourite author and book?
Shel Silverstein "THE GIVING TREE!" Inspiring, simple and true.
What book are you reading right now?
Tennessee Metal "Growing up in the capital of Country Music" by Mike Simmonz
Where do you get your inspiration for your books?
I was blessed to grow up with a great imagination. I was raised on MAD Magazine and reading the back of cereal boxes. Recycle that with ice hockey and snow boarding and you have THE PUCKFORD 7.
What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
Playing guitar and rollerblading my dog.
Do you have any new books in the works?
Yes! I'm working on a sports series of children's ABC books and a "PUCK TALES" hockey comics coffee table book. I'd like to develop a PUCKFORD 7 Mystery Sports Adventure Book Series.
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