Friers grew up in the Lagan Village area of Belfast. He was apprenticed to the Belfast lithographic firm S. C. Smith and Co, and studied at the Belfast College of Art from 1935 to 1942. He began publishing his cartoons in the 1940s, concentrating on political cartooning with the advent of the "Troubles" in the late 1960s. His work appeared in Punch, the Radio Times, London Opinion, the Daily Express, the Sunday Independent, Dublin Opinion, The Northern Whig, The News Letter, The Irish Times and The Belfast Telegraph.