Cartoonist Hy Eisman, 98, died on March 27. As someone who still reads the comics (some unironically, others just to make fun of), I am impressed at the number of strips Eisman drew: Archie, Blondie, The Katzenjammer Kids, Kerry Drake, Little Iodine, Lulu, Popeye, Smokey Stover, and Richie Rich, among others. After serving in WWII, he was schooled in art on the GI Bill; he entered the comics world in 1950, and was still working as recently as 2022. In 2004, Eisman said, “When I got out of the service, there was never any choice about what I was going to do, I went to school for art. Specifically, I was going for comics, but no one taught comic art at the time. So I had to go to a regular art school. I just wanted to do comics. It became a sickness. That's how it was for a lot of artists that I have talked to over the years. There was nothing else that I could really do. I had no other real plans. That is what I tell my students, you must have a fire in your belly.”
