What Will Become of David Fitzsimmons’ 10,000 Original Cartoons?

American editorial cartoonist David W. Fitzsimmons says his attempt to donate more than 10,000 original cartoons and decades of personal archival material to the University of Arizona has been blocked for seven years by licensing conditions imposed by his former employer, Lee Enterprises.

In a personal essay published on July 18, 2026, Fitzsimmons described an extensive collection that remains scattered throughout his home, stored in closets, a shed and boxes kept beneath an open carport. Without professional archival care, he fears that a substantial visual record of Arizona’s political and social history could deteriorate—or ultimately disappear.

A lifetime of cartoons, correspondence and political history

The proposed donation extends far beyond the original drawings published during Fitzsimmons’ long career at the Arizona Daily Star.

According to the cartoonist, the collection includes more than 10,000 original cartoons, hundreds of letters and professional correspondences, press awards, exhibition materials, political memorabilia, reader responses and other items documenting public life in Arizona.

Some of the work predates his arrival at the Arizona Daily Star in 1986. The archive also includes material from his student years at the Arizona Daily Wildcat, his time as an independent freelance cartoonist and his earlier work for the Oklahoma City Times, The Virginian Pilot and the Daily Press.

Fitzsimmons says his children would like to retain a small number of selected pieces but do not want responsibility for the entire collection. His preferred solution is therefore to place the archive in a public academic institution where it can be professionally preserved and made available to researchers, historians, students and future generations.

A home at the University of Arizona

Before Fitzsimmons retired from editorial cartooning, the University of Arizona Libraries’ Special Collections expressed interest in acquiring and preserving his work, according to his account.

For Fitzsimmons, the proposal carried particular significance. The University of Arizona is his alma mater, and its Special Collections archive preserves rare and unique books, photographs, documents, audiovisual recordings and other primary-source materials connected with Arizona and the broader Southwest. (University of Arizona Libraries)

Had the donation proceeded, his original artwork and related papers could have been stored in professional archival conditions and made accessible for academic research and educational use.

What appeared to be an appropriate long-term home for the collection instead became the subject of a prolonged dispute.

The licensing agreement that stopped the donation

Fitzsimmons says he informed Lee Enterprises in 2019 that he intended to donate his original drawings to the university.

Lee Enterprises owns the Arizona Daily Star, where Fitzsimmons worked for approximately 35 years. According to the cartoonist, the company’s attorneys responded by requiring the university to sign a separate, multi-page licensing agreement before the collection could be accepted.

Fitzsimmons claims the proposed agreement would have required the university to pay Lee Enterprises if an image from one of his cartoons were reproduced in connection with an exhibition, educational publication, gallery guide or similar project.

The University of Arizona declined to accept those conditions, and the donation did not move forward.

The full licensing agreement has not been made public. Its precise language, the scale of any proposed fees and the circumstances under which they would apply therefore cannot be independently assessed. Those details currently rest on Fitzsimmons’ account.

The difference between owning a drawing and owning its copyright

At the center of the dispute is an important distinction between ownership of a physical artwork and ownership of the intellectual property embodied in that artwork.

Fitzsimmons says he has always understood that Lee Enterprises holds rights in the cartoons produced and published during his employment. He does not dispute the company’s ability to use the scanned or digitized versions of those works.

His objection concerns the thousands of original drawings that remained in his possession after publication and that he personally stored for decades.

A library’s acquisition of a physical document or artwork does not automatically transfer copyright. Researchers or publishers may still need permission from the relevant rights holder before reproducing protected material.

The University of Arizona Special Collections likewise requires those seeking to publish material from its holdings to follow its duplication and permission procedures. (University of Arizona Libraries)

Lee Enterprises’ desire to preserve its intellectual property rights is therefore not, by itself, unusual. The more difficult question is whether those rights should prevent the physical collection from entering a public archive—or place the archive under a separate financial obligation before the donation can proceed.

Seven years without a resolution

Fitzsimmons says the parties went back and forth over the issue for years without reaching an agreement.

At one stage, he says Lee Enterprises offered to store the collection in a company warehouse. He was later told that an archivist working somewhere within the corporation might be able to handle the material.

For Fitzsimmons, neither proposal offered what the University of Arizona could provide: permanent academic preservation, public accessibility and the opportunity for the collection to be studied within the historical context of Arizona journalism and politics.

He also argues that no clear public-access or research plan was provided for a collection stored inside a corporate facility.

Meanwhile, the original cartoons and documents remain in domestic storage conditions that Fitzsimmons considers inadequate for their long-term survival.

The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library comparison

To illustrate why he considers Lee Enterprises’ demand so unusual, Fitzsimmons points to the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum at Ohio State University.

The institution is one of the world’s leading academic repositories devoted to cartoons and comics. Its collections contain original artwork, manuscripts, correspondence, published material and personal papers donated by cartoonists, collectors and professional organizations.

Fitzsimmons says he is unaware of a comparable case in which a cartoonist’s former publisher or syndicate required such an institution to enter into a licensing agreement as a condition of accepting original artwork.

The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum has not issued a public statement specifically addressing Fitzsimmons’ dispute, so that comparison should be understood as part of the cartoonist’s own argument rather than an independent institutional assessment.

An appeal to Lee Enterprises’ new controlling shareholder

Fitzsimmons decided to take the issue public following a major change in Lee Enterprises’ ownership and leadership.

A $50 million strategic investment led by billionaire investor David Hoffmann closed in February 2026, after which Hoffmann became chairman of the company’s board. (Lee Enterprises, Inc.)

Subsequent corporate filings identified Hoffmann as Lee Enterprises’ controlling shareholder. A March 2026 filing reported that he and related holdings controlled approximately 53.5 percent of the company’s outstanding shares. (SEC)

Fitzsimmons is now appealing directly to Hoffmann, hoping that the company’s new leadership will reconsider a dispute that began under the previous management and remove the licensing condition attached to the proposed donation.

“One way or another, I will donate my works”

After seven years of unsuccessful exchanges, Fitzsimmons says he is no longer willing to pursue the matter privately.

He remains determined to place the collection in the University of Arizona Special Collections without the licensing agreement demanded by Lee Enterprises. He also anticipates that the company could take legal action to prevent him from doing so.

The most alarming passage in his statement concerns what he might do if the donation is permanently blocked.

Fitzsimmons says he would consider burning his original cartoons, correspondence and memorabilia in a final public protest rather than allow the collection to deteriorate or disappear without an appropriate archival home.

The statement raises the possibility that thousands of original works—and an extensive visual record of nearly four decades of Arizona history—could be irretrievably lost.

More than an employee of the newspaper

Fitzsimmons describes his career at the Arizona Daily Star as extending far beyond the production of editorial cartoons.

For decades, he served as one of the newspaper’s most visible representatives in the community. He appeared at schools, universities, civic organizations, fundraising events, theatres, community centers and public ceremonies as a speaker, entertainer, master of ceremonies, caricature artist and comedian.

He says he helped raise substantial sums for charitable causes, including organizations supporting AIDS patients, breast cancer research, immigrants, food banks and access to legal and medical assistance.

Fitzsimmons also alleges that Lee Enterprises retained the income generated by the international syndication of his cartoons. He says his work appeared in hundreds of publications around the world while the resulting syndication income went to the company.

He further claims that he received no additional compensation when his cartoons were reproduced on books, calendars, greeting cards, ornaments and other products.

Fitzsimmons says he accepted those arrangements during his career. What he cannot accept, however, is the continued obstruction of his effort to give the physical originals to his hometown university.

More than a cartoon collection

The archive Fitzsimmons hopes to donate is not simply a record of one artist’s career. It is also a visual chronicle of political, cultural and social life in Arizona across nearly four decades.

Among the items Fitzsimmons says are included are his first cartoon published by the Arizona Daily Star, two original works exhibited at the Norman Rockwell Museum, professional awards, correspondence from political figures, altered cartoons returned by hostile readers and a cartoon signed by five Capitol Police officers involved in defending the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.

The collection also contains personal and professional material documenting how editorial cartoons were produced, distributed, received and contested during a period of profound change in American journalism.

For now, those materials remain divided among boxes, walls, closets and storage areas at Fitzsimmons’ home.

He believes they will eventually reach the University of Arizona. The unresolved question is whether the transfer will occur through a negotiated agreement—or only after a much larger public and legal confrontation.

No detailed public response addressing the specific dispute has been located from either Lee Enterprises or the University of Arizona Special Collections. The descriptions of the proposed licensing agreement, the negotiations and the alternatives attributed to Lee Enterprises are therefore based primarily on David W. Fitzsimmons’ published account.

Sources

• David W. Fitzsimmons — “What Will Become of My Life’s Works?”
• The Daily Cartoonist — “Lee Enterprises Nixes David Fitzsimmons Donation”