Hy Eisman

Hy Eisman draws the Sunday strips for the legendary Popeye.

Popeye, the salty sailor man, and his crew of lovable co-stars — Olive Oyl, Swee' Pea, Wimpy and Bluto — were created by E.C. Segar for his comic strip "Thimble Theatre."

Thimble Theatre debuted in 1919, and Popeye made his first appearance in 1929. He was an instant sensation who would go on to star in hundreds of cartoons, comic books, his own radio show and even a live-action feature film starring Robin Williams in 1980. One of the most instantly recognizable faces in the medium, Popeye has also become the focus of a wide array of merchandising.

King Features Syndicate distributes "Popeye" to newspapers worldwide.

Popeye's adventures have entered into myth. The spinach-eating hero helped define comic strips, thanks to Segar's intricate plotting, wonderful sense of satire and never-ending invention.

After Segar, "Popeye" was drawn by many well-known artists, including Doc Winner, Bela Zaboly, Bud Sagendorf and Bobby London.

Eisman has also written and drawn The Katzenjammer Kids, the world's oldest continuing comic strip, since 1986.

The strip celebrated its 100th anniversary Dec. 12, 1997. It was the first genuine comic strip — its creator, Rudolph Dirks, inventing and perfecting many of the forms and techniques still used today. It was created two years after the first comic panel, The Yellow Kid.

The Katzenjammer Kids, created by the German-born Dirks, was the first comic strip to use panel sequences and speech balloons.

Dirks built suspense and excitement into the strip, with lengthy adventures lasting months and even years, sending his characters across the country or around the world.

After Dirks, many talented artists brought life to the Kids, including Harold Knerr, Doc Winner, Joe Musial, Mike Senich and Angelo De Cesare.

King Features Syndicate distributes The Katzenjammer Kids to some 50 newspapers globally.

Eisman was born March 27, 1927, in Paterson, N.J. He began his career when he created a comic strip for his high school newspaper. After a brief stint in the military, Eisman worked as ghost artist for the popular Kerry Drake comic strip.

He soon turned his pen to the comic-book industry, drawing for various publishers of such titles as "Nancy," "The Munsters," "Tom and Jerry" and Little Lulu. Eisman likes to point out that he drew 1,635 pages of love stories for Charlton Comics.

Eisman's career as a cartoonist took off in 1967, when he started to draw "Little Iodine." He really brought the adventures of the bratty, pony-tailed Iodine to life.

He left that strip in 1986 to chronicle the adventures of those two more-famous brats, the Katzies, as they are fondly known by fans.

In 1994, Eisman added another comic legend to his repertoire when he started drawing the Sunday Popeye strip.

The celebrated cartoonist received the Comic Book Humor Award from the National Cartoonists Society in 1975 and 1984.

He lives in New Jersey with his wife and is an instructor at the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art in Dover, N.J.

"Cartooning has been a passion with me since I was 5 ... it hasn't abated!" he says.