Hart D. Fisher is an American horror crime author, comics book writer and publisher best known for creating a Jeffrey Dahmer comic book.
Fisher graduated in 1992 with a fine and applied arts bachelor's degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. While still in college, he founded Boneyard Press, a publishing company, which released the comic book based on Jeffrey Dahmer, an American serial killer.
In 1992, upon the release of the comic Jeffrey Dahmer: An Unauthorized Biography of a Serial Killer, protests occurred in Milwaukee, where Dahmer lived, and in Fisher's home town of Champaign, Illinois. In August 1994, a suit filed by Dahmer's family against Boneyard Press and Fisher for the unauthorized release of the book was dismissed by a Milwaukee judge. In the early 1990's, Hero Illustrated magazine included Fisher on its "100 Most Important People in the Comic Book Industry," calling him the "most dangerous man in comics."
Fisher appeared in a 1993 episode of the "Sally Jessy Raphael" show to discuss criticism surrounding the creation of the Dahmer comics. Fisher also discussed the comic book on a panel at the 2011 SXSW convention in Austin, Texas. The "Larry King Live" show in 2008 included a segment with Fisher about Jeffrey Dahmer memorabilia, including Fisher's comics. From 1995 to 1998, Fisher was a designer and copy writer for Sampson West Advertising. In 1995, he co-authored the underground comic A Taste of Cherry with Christian Moore, which was released by Verotik, where Fisher was co-editor in '94 and '95.
In 1998, Fisher published, through Boneyard Press, writer Stephen Elliott's first novel, Jones Inn, as well as Elliott's poetry in the comic book anthology Flowers on the Razorwire. In 2008, Fisher released the film The Garbage Man, which he wrote and produced, about an African-American serial killer and released it on DVD. In the midst of filming in 1993, Fisher's girlfriend, Michelle Davis, was raped and murdered by Eric Daniels during an armed motel robbery, where she worked. Daniels was convicted of her murder and given a death sentence. But in 2001, then-Illinois Gov. George Ryan commuted Daniels' death sentence to life in prison. Fisher testified for the prosecution at Daniels' trial.
In 2008, Fisher, as reported by Rolling Stone magazine, accused former protege Gerard Way, an American musician and comic book writer, of using some of the comics Way created while with Boneyard Press and taking portions of them to another publisher and calling them his first comics. Boneyard Press 13 years earlier had published Way's first comic book, On Raven's Wings.
Also in 2008, he founded the film company American Horrors, a horror channel on FilmOn. Fisher lives in Los Angeles, California.