Hy Eisman obit

Hy Eisman

(27 March 1927 - 27 March 2025, USA) 

He was not on the list.

Hy Eisman started as a greeting card artist and quickly went to creating his own newspaper cartoon feature 'It Happened in New Jersey'. In the late 1950s, he became an assistant to comic artists like Alfred Andriola ('Kerry Drake') and Vernon Greene ('Bringing up Father'). At the same time, he drew for comic books by Charlton (romance), ACG ('Adventures into the Unknown', 'Forbidden Worlds'), Marvel (romance), Harvey ('Blondie') and Western Publishing ('Nancy', 'Twilight Zone', 'Smokey Stover').

From 1967 to 1983, Eisman illustrated the 'Little Iodine' series, originally created by Jimmy Hatlo. In 1986, he took over 'The Katzenjammer Kids', the world's oldest continuing comic strip and drew it until its final episode in 2006. In 1994, Eisman added another comic legend to his repertoire when he started drawing the Sunday 'Popeye' strip.  He is also is an instructor at the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art in Dover, N.J. since 1976.

A panel from one of Eisman's romance comics inspired Roy Lichtenstein's painting 'Girl in Window' (1963).

He entered the comic strip field in 1950 and worked on several strips, including Kerry Drake, Little Iodine and Bunny. In comic books he was the last artist doing Little Lulu before it was cancelled in 1984.

From 1986 until 2006 (when the strip went into reruns), he wrote and drew The Katzenjammer Kids. An interview with Eisman on his career appeared in Hogan's Alley #15 (2007).

From 1994 until 2022, he wrote and drew the Sunday strips for Popeye. In December 2008, Eisman re-introduced the character of Bluto to the Popeye Sunday strips, as the twin brother of Brutus.

n September 1976, Eisman, who lived in Glen Rock, New Jersey, became a teacher at the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art, where he taught until May 2019.

He had two daughters by his first marriage. Nathalie Adrienne "Adri" Abramson, his wife of 42 years, died of cancer in the fall of 1997. On June 27, 2004, he married Florenz Greenberg, whose husband had also died in 1997. She was the managing editor at CavanKerry Press, a nonprofit publisher of literary works in Fort Lee, New Jersey. Their wedding invitation was a comic strip with Popeye and Olive Oyl. Florenz Greenberg died on October 20, 2013, in Glen Rock.

In 2025, Hy Eisman died on his birthday: he was 98 years old.