Nick Bougas obit

Cartoonist Nick Bougas, Creator of Antisemitic ‘Happy Merchant’ Image, Dies at 71

 

He was not on the list.

SAVANNAH, Ga. (VINnews) — Nick Bougas, an American cartoonist and filmmaker who produced racist and antisemitic illustrations under the pen name A. Wyatt Mann, has died. He was 71.

Bougas, born in Savannah, Georgia, gained notoriety in the late 1980s and early 1990s for cartoons published in white supremacist outlets. His most widely circulated work was the “Happy Merchant,” a caricature depicting a Jewish man with exaggerated facial features, a beard and a rubbing-hands pose associated with greed. The image later became one of the most frequently used antisemitic memes on the internet.

Associates confirmed Bougas’ authorship of the cartoons, though he never publicly acknowledged creating them. The Anti-Defamation League and other groups have described the Happy Merchant as a staple hate symbol that spread across imageboards and social media platforms.

Beyond illustration, Bougas directed cult documentaries including the “Death Scenes” series, hosted by Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey, and the 1993 profile “Speak of the Devil.” He also contributed artwork to underground magazines, collected true-crime memorabilia and compiled celebrity audio outtakes during years spent in Hollywood.

In 1988, he was a contributing editor and artist to the pro-Charles Manson book The Manson File. Bougas directed several other films, such as the 1994 documentary The Goddess Bunny about disabled transgender tap dancing artist Sandie Crisp. In 1998, Bougas released the album Celebrities... At Their Worst!, a collection of comedic audio blunders by such celebrities as Elvis Presley, Casey Kasem, Paul Anka, and John Wayne. As an illustrator, Bougas worked with writer and publisher Jim Goad on such publications as Answer Me!

Bougas used the pseudonym "A. Wyatt Mann" (phonetically: 'a white man') to produce overtly racist and antisemitic cartoons in the late 1980s and early 1990s. They were first published in the white supremacist newspaper WAR, operated by Tom Metzger.

Besides black people and Jews, his cartoons occasionally targeted other minorities and groups, including gay people and feminists. Bougas being the person behind the pseudonym was suspected, though this was not confirmed for many years. Another suspect was the white supremacist and WAR managing editor Wyatt Kaldenberg. Kaldenberg denied this, saying he had "never drawn a cartoon in [his] life", and that it was "Nick Bogus [sic]". Bougas never publicly confirmed his authorship; however, his identity as Mann was confirmed in 2015 by multiple people who worked with him at the time, and in captions of photos taken at various events.

Director

 

    Serial Killers

    7.1

    Video

        Director

        1994

    Goddess Bunny in The Goddess Bunny (1994)

    The Goddess Bunny

    6.7

    Video

        Director

        1994

    Burn Baby Burn: Riots and Violence in the Modern World (1993)

    Burn Baby Burn: Riots and Violence in the Modern World

        Director

        1993

    Death Scenes 3 (1993)

    Death Scenes 3

    5.1

    Video

        Director

        1993

    Murderers, Mobsters & Madmen Vol. 1 (1993)

    Murderers, Mobsters & Madmen Vol. 1

    7.0

    Video

        Director

        1993

    Murderers, Mobsters & Madmen Vol. 2: Assassination in the 20th Century (1993)

    Murderers, Mobsters & Madmen Vol. 2: Assassination in the 20th Century

    7.0

    Video

        Director

        1993

    Speak of the Devil (1993)

    Speak of the Devil

    6.4

    Video

        Director

        1993

    Charles Manson in Charles Manson Then and Now (1992)

    Charles Manson Then and Now

    6.7

        Director

        1992

    Death Scenes 2 (1992)

    Death Scenes 2

    4.8

    Video

        Director

        1992

    Gesichter Des Todes VII (1992)

    Gesichter Des Todes VII

    4.8

    Video

        Director (uncredited)

        1992

    Mondo Cane, Teil IV (1992)

    Mondo Cane, Teil IV

    4.4

    Video

        Director

        1992

    Murderers, Mobsters & Madmen Vol. 3: Psychos and Mass Murderers (1992)

    Murderers, Mobsters & Madmen Vol. 3: Psychos and Mass Murderers

    7.6

    Video

        Director

        1992

    Murderers, Mobsters & Madmen Vol. 4: Gangsters

    7.5

    Video

        Director

        1992

    Murderers, Mobsters & Madmen: Fatal Females (1992)

    Murderers, Mobsters & Madmen: Fatal Females

    Video

        Director

        1992

    Sal Mineo, David Berkowitz, John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Harvey Milk, Malcolm X, Bugsy Siegel, and Dan White in Murderers, Mobsters and Madmen: Hollywood Police Blotter (1992)

    Murderers, Mobsters and Madmen: Hollywood Police Blotter

    7.7

    Video

        Director

        1992

    Murderers, Mobsters and Madmen: The Lady Killers (1992)

    Murderers, Mobsters and Madmen: The Lady Killers

    5.9

    Video

        Director

        1992

    Sinatra: An Unauthorized Biography of the Legend (1992)

    Sinatra: An Unauthorized Biography of the Legend

    8.3

    Video

        Director

        1992

    When the Applause Died (1990)

    Death in Hollywood

    5.8

    Video

        directed by

        1990

    John Belushi in When the Applause Died (1990)

    When the Applause Died

    5.6

    Video

        directed by

        1990

    Death Scenes (1989)

    Death Scenes

    4.9

    Video

        Director (uncredited)

        1989

    Born different - Nature's most peculiar people (1989)

    Born different - Nature's most peculiar people

        Director

        1989

    Gay, Gay Hollywood

    4.2

    Short

        Director

        1980

 

Producer

 

    Murderers, Mobsters & Madmen Vol. 1 (1993)

    Murderers, Mobsters & Madmen Vol. 1

    7.0

    Video

        producer

        1993

    Murderers, Mobsters & Madmen Vol. 2: Assassination in the 20th Century (1993)

    Murderers, Mobsters & Madmen Vol. 2: Assassination in the 20th Century

    7.0

    Video

        producer

        1993

    Speak of the Devil (1993)

    Speak of the Devil

    6.4

    Video

        producer

        1993

    Charles Manson in Charles Manson Then and Now (1992)

    Charles Manson Then and Now

    6.7

        producer

        1992

    Death Scenes 2 (1992)

    Death Scenes 2

    4.8

    Video

        producer

        1992

    Murderers, Mobsters and Madmen: The Lady Killers (1992)

    Murderers, Mobsters and Madmen: The Lady Killers

    5.9

    Video

        producer

        1992

    Show Biz Bloopers (1991)

    Show Biz Bloopers

    Video

        producer

        1991

    The Beatles: Alone & Together (1991)

    The Beatles: Alone & Together

    Video

        associate producer

        1991

    When the Applause Died (1990)

    Death in Hollywood

    5.8

    Video

        produced by

        1990

    John Belushi in When the Applause Died (1990)

    When the Applause Died

    5.6

    Video

        produced by

        1990

    Death Scenes (1989)

    Death Scenes

    4.9

    Video

        producer

        1989

    The Many Faces of James Bond (1989)

    The Many Faces of James Bond

    8.0

    Video

        associate producer

        1989

    The Story of Elvis Presley

    8.6

        producer

        1977

 

Writer

 

    Serial Killers

    7.1

    Video

        Writer

        1994

    Murderers, Mobsters & Madmen Vol. 1 (1993)

    Murderers, Mobsters & Madmen Vol. 1

    7.0

    Video

        written by

        1993

    Murderers, Mobsters & Madmen Vol. 2: Assassination in the 20th Century (1993)

    Murderers, Mobsters & Madmen Vol. 2: Assassination in the 20th Century

    7.0

    Video

        Writer

        1993

    Charles Manson in Charles Manson Then and Now (1992)

    Charles Manson Then and Now

    6.7

        writer

        1992

    Death Scenes 2 (1992)

    Death Scenes 2

    4.8

    Video

        Writer

        1992

    Murderers, Mobsters and Madmen: The Lady Killers (1992)

    Murderers, Mobsters and Madmen: The Lady Killers

    5.9

    Video

        writer

        1992

    Death Scenes (1989)

    Death Scenes

    4.9

    Video

        Writer

        1989

    Born different - Nature's most peculiar people (1989)

    Born different - Nature's most peculiar people

        written by

        1989

 

Editor

 

    Goddess Bunny in The Goddess Bunny (1994)

    The Goddess Bunny

    6.7

    Video

        Editor

        1994

    Burn Baby Burn: Riots and Violence in the Modern World (1993)

    Burn Baby Burn: Riots and Violence in the Modern World

        Editor

        1993

    Speak of the Devil (1993)

    Speak of the Devil

    6.4

    Video

        Editor

        1993

    The Rolling Stones: Rolling On (1991)

    The Rolling Stones: Rolling On

    Video

        Editor

        1991

    The John Wayne Anthology (1991)

    The John Wayne Anthology

    6.4

    Video

        Editor

        1991

 

Camera and Electrical Department

 

    Doomed Mission: The True Story of Apollo 13 - Part 1

    Video

        stills

        1995

    Doomed Mission: The True Story of Apollo 13 - Part 2

    Video

        stills

        1995

    Goddess Bunny in The Goddess Bunny (1994)

    The Goddess Bunny

    6.7

    Video

        photographer: original video segments

        1994

 

Actor

 

    Blood Slaves of the Vampire Wolf (1996)

    Blood Slaves of the Vampire Wolf

    3.3

        Cameo appearance

        1996

    F.A.R.T. The Movie (1991)

    F.A.R.T. The Movie

    2.9

    Video

        Dancer (segment "Record Commercial")

        1991

 

Additional Crew

 

    Whispers from a Shallow Grave (2006)

    Whispers from a Shallow Grave

    4.2

        researcher

        2006

    Charles Manson Superstar (1989)

    Charles Manson Superstar

    6.5

    Video

        research consultant

        1989

 

Art Department

 

    Charles Manson Superstar (1989)

    Charles Manson Superstar

    6.5

    Video

        illustrator

        1989

 

Thanks

 

    Sex, Death & The Hollywood Mystique (1999)

    Sex, Death & The Hollywood Mystique

    6.5

        special thanks

        1999

    Stalking the President: A History of American Assassins

    7.3

        special thanks

        1992

 

Self

 

    The Vampire Interviews (1995)

    The Vampire Interviews

    4.8

    Video

        Self

        1995

 

Pat Oliphant obit

Pat Oliphant, world-renowned political cartoonist and Santa Fe resident, dies at 90

 

He was not on the list.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist's cutting sketches critiqued power and corruption in U.S. politics over a long career.

He was an Australian-born American artist whose career spanned more than 60 years. His body of work primarily focused on American and global politics, culture, and corruption; he is particularly known for his caricatures of American presidents and other powerful leaders. Over the course of his long career, Oliphant produced thousands of daily editorial cartoons, dozens of bronze sculptures, and a large oeuvre of drawings and paintings. He retired in 2015.

Oliphant was born on 24 July 1935, in Maylands, a suburb of Adelaide, Australia, to Donald Knox Oliphant and Grace Lillian Oliphant (née Price) of Rosslyn Park. He was raised in a small cabin in Aldgate, in the Adelaide Hills. His father worked as a draftsman for the government, and Oliphant credited him with sparking his interest in drawing. His early education took place in a one-room schoolhouse, followed by Unley High School.

In 1952, while still a teenager, Oliphant began his career in journalism as a copy boy at Adelaide's evening tabloid newspaper, The News, which had recently been inherited by Rupert Murdoch. He had no interest in attending college, as he had an ambivalent relationship with formal education and already knew he wanted to be a journalist. In 1955, he moved to The News' rival, The Advertiser, a morning broadsheet with 200,000 subscribers.

Before long, editors noticed his interest in drawing, and he began producing both cartoons and illustrations. However, the paper's conservative editorial policies frustrated him, and after frequent vetoes of his commentaries on Australian politics, he learned that cartoons on international affairs were less likely to be censored. During this period, he found inspiration in the work of English cartoonist Ronald Searle, Western Australian cartoonist Paul Rigby, and the political commentary in Mad magazine, which he described as a "shot in the arm."

In 1959, Oliphant travelled to the United States and Great Britain to learn about cartooning in those countries. He decided he wanted to move to the United States, but he had to wait five years until his contract with The Advertiser expired. In 1964, while preparing to move without a job, he learned that cartoonist Paul Conrad was leaving the Denver Post. Oliphant sent a portfolio of work to the Post and was hired over 50 American applicants. He moved to the United States with his wife, Hendrika DeVries, and their two children. The Post featured a small snippet of Oliphant's cartoon on the front page as a "teaser" for what would be found on the editorial page

Announcing his arrival, Time magazine stated, "Few U.S. cartoonists have so deftly distilled the spirit of [Lyndon B. Johnson and Barry Goldwater] as Australia's Patrick Bruce Oliphant, 29, a recent arrival who has not yet set eyes on either Johnson or Goldwater." Less than a year after Oliphant began working at the Denver Post, in April 1965, his work was syndicated internationally by the Los Angeles Times Syndicate. Oliphant's reputation grew rapidly, and in 1967, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning for his 1 February 1966 cartoon They Won't Get Us To The Conference Table... Will They? In this cartoon, Ho Chi Minh is depicted carrying the body of a dead Vietnamese man in the posture of a Pietà. Oliphant had intentionally submitted what he considered one of the weakest cartoons he had published that year. When it won, he criticized the Pulitzer board, stating that they had selected the cartoon for its subject matter rather than the quality of the work. He refused to be considered for the award again and became a regular critic of the Pulitzer.

According to Ralph Steadman, Oliphant would have been Hunter S. Thompson's "first choice of a 'cartoonist collaborator.'"

n 1975, Oliphant moved to The Washington Star, attracted by editor Jim Bellows. In 1980, he switched syndication companies, joining Universal Press Syndicate. The Star ceased publication in 1981.

After The Washington Star folded, Oliphant received offers from other newspapers but chose to remain independent, relying on the earnings from his extensive syndication.He was the first political cartoonist in the twentieth century to work independently from a home newspaper, which provided him with unique independence from editorial control. By this time, he had become a nationally recognized figure. In 1976, a survey of 188 cartoonists found that fellow professionals regarded Oliphant as the "best all-around cartoonist" on the editorial pages. A decade later, a similar survey reached the same conclusion, noting Oliphant's original and influential aesthetic. By 1983, Oliphant was the most widely syndicated American political cartoonist, with his work appearing in more than 500 newspapers. His work influenced the field's overall appearance. For example, when he stopped using Duoshade, a chemical process for creating textured backgrounds, in the early 1980s, other cartoonists followed suit. In 1990, The New York Times described him as "the most influential editorial cartoonist now working.

By 1995, Oliphant had reduced the frequency of his daily cartoons to four days a week. At this time, he began submitting his cartoons in digital form as scans of his original drawings. By 2014, he was submitting three cartoons a week.

In 2004, Oliphant moved from Washington, D.C. to Santa Fe, New Mexico.

In 2012, Oliphant was the Roy Lichtenstein Artist in Residence at the American Academy in Rome for three months.

In January 2015, Oliphant retired from publishing syndicated cartoons. However, in February 2017, he came out of retirement with two cartoons for The Nib featuring Donald Trump and Steve Bannon. One cartoon depicted Trump as a childlike member of the Hitler Youth, asking a ghoulish Bannon what he thought of his outfit.

Oliphant was the nephew of Sir Mark Oliphant, the Australian physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project during World War II and later became the Governor of South Australia.

Frank Stack obit

 

Frank Stack – RIP

He was not on the list.

Frank Stack, artist, cartoonist, educator, and pioneer of underground comics, passed away on April 12, 2026, at MU’s University Hospital.

Stack is widely recognized as one of the founders of the underground comics movement. Working under the pseudonym Foolbert Sturgeon, he published The Adventures of Jesus in 1964, a work regarded by many as the first underground comic. A comic strip, Dorman’s Doggie, was syndicated nationally by the Underground Press Syndicate from 1976 to 1978. From 1986 to 2001, he was a regular contributor to Harvey Pekar’s American Splendor and illustrated Our Cancer Year, written by Pekar and Joyce Brabner, which won the 1995 Harvey Award for Best Original Graphic Novel. In 2025 he was inducted into the Comic-Con’s Hall of Fame as a founder of the underground comics movement.

Stack devoted nearly four decades to teaching art and printmaking at the University of Missouri, where he taught from 1963 until his retirement in 2001 and was later named professor emeritus. He was a lifelong mentor to hundreds of young artists, remembered for his intellectual rigor, generosity, and unwavering commitment to personal vision. Until his stroke a few years ago he could regularly be seen, sketching local people and places, or sitting cross-legged with watercolor materials on his lap, capturing the landscapes of mid-Missouri in his imaginative and distinctive style. In the studio, his skillfully rendered figure drawings and paintings demonstrated a rare versatility.

Word on social media is that Professor of Art, University of Missouri-Columbia, Frank Stack has passed away. Stack was more widely known as an underground cartoonist under his pseudonym Foolbert Sturgeon.

Frank Stack’s career in art, humor, and comix began at the Texas Ranger, University of Texas-Austin. Comixjoint tells of Frank’s work at the college humor magazine:

in the mid ’50s, the Texas Ranger was suffering from low circulation and staff turmoil, resulting in three editors leaving the magazine within one year for various reasons. Enter Frank Stack. He enrolled at UT in 1956 as an art student and almost immediately joined the Ranger as a staff member and cartoonist. He experienced the magazine hitting its low point and contributed to its resurrection in 1957 and ’58. Stack became editor of the Ranger for the 1958-59 school year and published Gilbert Shelton’s first cartoons in the magazine in 1959, when he was a sophomore majoring in social sciences.

Stack tried to put out a mag with sharp but factual satire in the manner of the New Yorker and The Harvard Lampoon, as opposed to the bawdy tone of Playboy, but good intentions wouldn’t keep him out of trouble with the Texas Student Publications Office at the university. In an interview with Richard Holland, author of The Texas Book, Stack said, “Under my editorship I tried to work around the censors, and was annoyed by the censorship system…. But there were some staffers, then and later, who relished the challenge of sneaking dirty stuff through.”

After graduation and serving two years of active duty in the army Stack began drawing comics about Jesus. A little later he began his career as an art teacher.

From the University of Missouri:

Stack has been on the faculty of the University of Missouri since 1963/1964: 1963/1964 to1967/1968, Instructor of Art; 1968/1969 to 1947/1974, Assistant Professor of Art; 1974/1975 to 1977/1978, Associate Professor of Art; and 1978/1979 to 2001, Professor of Art. Stack is currently Professor Emeritus.

Back to M. Steven Fox and Comixjoint:

He began drawing his satirical comics about Jesus Christ and the New Testament in 1961, but back then the comics were too controversial (read blasphemous) to be published in any college-sanctioned humor magazine.

By 1964, Stack had earned his master’s degree and landed a job as an art professor at the University of Missouri. But he kept drawing the Jesus comics and would send copies of the strips to his buddy and former fellow student in Austin, Gilbert Shelton, who had also served as the editor of The Texas Ranger. After Shelton had received a dozen Jesus strips, he arranged to have about 40 sets of the comics photocopied and stapled into a booklet to share with friends on campus. Shelton drew a simple front cover for the booklet and entitled it The Adventures of Jesus, with a byline that stated “Written and Illustrated by F.S.”

Of course, the “F.S.” in the byline stood for Frank Stack, but as a college professor with some standing in the community, Stack was not eager to associate his name with such nefarious comic strips. He devised the pseudonym Foolbert Sturgeon to obscure the identity of “F.S.”, at least for a few years.

So began the underground (ug) comix legend known as Foolbert Sturgeon. And according to that above Comixjoint article it would result in “three of the funniest social and religious satire comic books in history during the golden age of underground comics.”

With the emerging popularity of underground comix in the late 1960s Foolbert Sturgeon returned with The New Adventures of Jesus. That popularity led to more characters and comix like Dr. Feelgood, and Dorman’s Doggie, both of which would star in comic strips syndicated to ug newspapers by the Rip Off Press Syndicate from 1977 to 1979.

Denis Kitchen expands on Stack’s career as Professor and cartoonist:

So for many years he drew his cartoons under the unlikely nom de plume of Foolbert Sturgeon. His early comix work included The Adventures of Jesus(1962), Amazon Comics(1972), Dorman’s Doggie (1979), Feelgood Funnies (1972), The New Adventures of Jesus(1969), Jesus Meets the Armed Services[#2](1972) and Jesus Comics #3. Stack also contributed to such anthologies as Blab!, Hydrogen Bomb Funnies, Radical America Komiks, Rip Off Comix, Rip Off Review of Western Culture and Snarf. Some, including his old Texas friend Gilbert Shelton, regard Stack’s Adventures of Jesus in 1962 to be the very first underground comic, though it was a 14-page Xerox zine circulated only among a small group of friends and never offered for sale. Nonetheless, Stack’s status as one of the pioneer underground cartoonists is unquestioned.

More recently (2022) Cayli Yanagida for The Columbia Missourian profiled Frank.

When Frank Stack arrived in Columbia in 1963 to teach art at MU, he did not plan to stay, let alone build a career and family in Missouri.

Now, nearly 60 years after he moved here, Stack, 85, has built a rich history as an artist and is credited with pioneering the graphic novel. He was among the first to create the underground comic genre with cartoons well-known for their relevance and satirical content.

“He pushed boundaries,” said his daughter, Joan Stack. “I’m not sure he even knew how much he was pushing them.”

Over the years, Stack has also confronted multiple health complications.

Scott Adams obit

Scott Adams, ‘Dilbert’ Creator, Political Commentator, Dead at 68

 He was not on the list.

Scott Adams, ‘Dilbert’ Creator, Political Commentator, Dead at 68

Scott Adams, the legendary creator of the comic strip Dilbert and a widely respected and beloved political commentator, died Tuesday at the age of 68.

Adams had been publicly fighting a metastasized form of prostate cancer. Early reports indicate that the day before his passing, the former atheist converted to Christianity.

Adams announced earlier this month that any hope for remission was gone, and he expected to die sometime in January. Until last week, he continued to do his popular online podcast.

Scott Adams, creator of the comic strip “Dilbert,” has died after being diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer. He was 68. The cartoonist’s former wife, Shelly Miles, announced his death in a livestream on X on Tuesday morning, reading a statement Adams had prepared for her on Jan. 1.

“I had an amazing life,” the statement read, in part. “I gave it everything I had.”

In November, Adams issued a plea for President Trump to “help save his life” after the cartoonist said his health care provider, Kaiser Permanente, “dropped the ball” in scheduling treatment of a newly FDA-approved drug for the disease.

“He offered to help me if I needed it,” Adams wrote on X. “I need it.”

“I am declining fast,” the cartoonist continued. “I will ask President Trump if he can get Kaiser of Northern California to respond and schedule it … That will give me a fighting chance to stick around on this planet a little bit longer.”

In May, Adams announced that he had an aggressive form of metastatic prostate cancer after former President Joe Biden’s office announced he had been diagnosed with the same disease.

“I have the same cancer that Joe Biden has,” Adams said on “Real Coffee With Scott Adams,” his YouTube show. “I also have prostate cancer that has spread to my bones.”

Adams, a Trump supporter, said he tried to avoid public out of fear he’d become “just the dying cancer guy.” But he decided to speak after Biden revealed his own diagnosis.

“I’d like to extend my respect and compassion for the ex-president and his family because they’re going through an especially tough time,” he said. “It’s a terrible disease.”

“Dilbert” was first published in 1989, and the syndicated comic strip ran for decades in thousands newspapers across the country.

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.