cartoonist
A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and ...
.
Comic Strips
He entered the
comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...
field in 1950 and worked on several strips, including ''
Kerry Drake
''Kerry Drake'' is the title of a comic strip created for Publishers Syndicate by Alfred Andriola as artist and Allen Saunders as uncredited writer. It debuted on Monday, October 4, 1943, replacing Norman Marsh's ''Dan Dunn'', and was syndica ...
'', ''
Little Iodine
''Little Iodine'' is an American Sunday comic strip, created by Jimmy Hatlo, which was syndicated by King Features and ran from August 15, 1943 until August 14, 1983. The strip was a spin-off of ''They'll Do It Every Time'', an earlier Hatlo crea ...
'' and ''Bunny''. In
comic books
A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...
he was the last artist doing ''
Little Lulu
''Little Lulu'' is a comic strip created in 1935 by American author Marge (cartoonist), Marjorie Henderson Buell. The character, Lulu Moppet, debuted in ''The Saturday Evening Post'' on February 23, 1935, in a single panel, appearing as a flower ...
'' before it was cancelled in 1984.
From 1986 until 2006 (when the strip went into reruns), he wrote and drew ''
The Katzenjammer Kids
''The Katzenjammer Kids'' is an American comic strip created by Rudolph Dirks in 1897 and later drawn by Harold Knerr for 35 years (1914 to 1949).Hogan's Alley'' #15 (2007).
From 1994 until 2022, he wrote and drew the
Sunday strip
The Sunday comics or Sunday strip is the comic strip section carried in most western newspapers, almost always in color. Many newspaper readers called this section the Sunday funnies, the funny papers or simply the funnies.
The first US newspap ...
s for ''
Popeye
Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by E. C. Segar, Elzie Crisler Segar. In December 2008, Eisman introduced the character of
Bluto
Bluto, at times known as Brutus, is a cartoon and comics character created in 1932 by E. C. Segar, Elzie Crisler Segar as a one-time character, named "Bluto the Terrible", in his ''Thimble Theatre'' comic strip (later renamed ''Popeye''). Blut ...
to the ''Popeye'' Sunday strips, as the twin brother of Brutus.
Personal life
In 1976, Eisman, who lives in
Glen Rock, New Jersey
Glen Rock is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 12,133, reflecting an increase of 532 (+4.6%) from the 11,601 counted in the 2010 census,Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art
The Kubert School, formerly the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art and Joe Kubert School, is a private, for-profit technical school focused on cartooning and located in Dover, New Jersey. It teaches the principles of sequential art an ...
.
He has two daughters by his first marriage. 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
Fort Lee is a borough at the eastern border of Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, situated along the Hudson River atop the Palisades.
As of the 2020 U.S. census, the borough's population was 40,191. As of the 2010 U.S. census, th ...
. Their wedding invitation was a comic strip with Popeye and Olive Oyl. Florenz Greenberg died on October 20, 2013, in Glen Rock.
Awards
Eisman won the 1975
National Cartoonists Society
The National Cartoonists Society (NCS) is an organization of professional cartoonists in the United States. It presents the National Cartoonists Society Awards. The Society was born in 1946 when groups of cartoonists got together to entertain the ...
's Award for Best Humor Comic Book Cartoonist (for Gold Key's ''Nancy'' comic books). In 1983, he received a National Cartoonists Society Award for his work on the ''Little Lulu'' comic book.