NJ Creatives Network

Web Address
www.njcreatives.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NJ Creatives Network Presents

"My Life as a (Comic) Stripper"

September 13, 2006, 7:30 p.m.

Speaker: Hy Eisman

August 22, 2006,—Paramus, NJ.—Life was anything but colorful in the 1930’s, when 5 year old Hy Eisman first developed his love of the full color Sunday comics supplements. In that pre-Technicolor era, the funnies lit up dreary days in a Paterson orphanage and showed him what direction his life would take. “My Life as a (Comic) Stripper,” will be the subject of the cartoonist’s presentation at the NJ Creatives Network meeting on Wednesday, September 13, 2006 at 7:30 PM.

September 13 Meeting Begins at 7:30 PM

The NJ Creatives Network meeting will be held in Paramus, NJ at the Bergen Museum of Art and Science, located on the lower level of the Bergen Mall on Route 4 East. Networking, with refreshments, begins at 7:30 PM, the meeting and program at 8:00 PM. Admission is free of charge to NJCN members, $10 for non-members, and $5 for students with appropriate ID’s.

Speaker Hy Eisman and His ‘Search for Color’

Hy Eisman is one of those rare individuals who found out early what he wanted to do, learned what he needed to do it, and then had the pleasure of being able to do it all his life. Characterized by a quest for color and laughter, his days are currently filled doing the drawing and writing of some of King Features’ most enduring comic strips—including the 107-year-old “Katzenjammer Kids,” and the spinach-eating sailor, “Popeye.”

After a stint in the army in World War II, Eisman knew formal training was necessary, so he found what he needed at The Art Career School in New York City’s Flatiron Building. After studying cartoon illustration for three years, he created “It Happened in New Jersey,” in the 1950’s. The series was patterned after Ripley’s “Believe It or Not,” and the Newark News bought it and ran it for three years. That set the stage for his “ghosting” for other cartoonists, so comic strips could essentially ‘outlive their originators.’ When asked what’s next, he’ll tell you he’s ready to move into graphic novels, a category he asserts is ‘the fastest growing genre in the publishing business today.’

A strong advocate for the healing power of laughter, Eisman is a two time winner of the “Comic Book Humor Award from the National Cartoonists Society. He has mixed emotions about comic strips with a ‘message,’ or ‘true-to-life’ episodes. “Life is horrible,” he said in a recent newspaper article. “That’s why people want to read the comics. There’s enough misery in everybody’s life that you could write a soap opera.” He agrees with Preston Sturges (“Sullivan’s Travels, 1942), “You know, there’s a lot to be said for just making people laugh.”

About NJ Creatives Network

For more than two decades, NJ Creatives Network has been recognized as metro New York’s cost-effective, reliable source of freelance creative talent. As a cooperative network rather than an agency, its members work independently with small, medium and large companies. NJ Creatives serves as a complete creative resource for writers, designers of print and Web media, illustrators, photographers, video producers, public relations specialists and other creative professionals.

The NJ Creatives Network meeting will be held in Paramus, NJ, at the Bergen Museum of Art and Science, located on the lower level of the Bergen Mall. Networking begins at 7:30 p.m. and the meeting and program begin at 8 p.m. The meeting is free for NJCN members, $10 for non-members and $5 for students who show proper identification. Refreshments are available during the networking portion of the meeting.

For more information on the current meeting, please contact NJ Creatives Network President Stan Cohen at 201-384-9784 or visit the Meeting Section of the website.

To find out more about joining NJ Creatives, please contact Membership Director George Kamper at 973-394-9974 or visit the Membership Section of the website.

#END#

Editor’s Note: For a digital photo and/or illustration to accompany this press release:

Artwork can be found here: http://njcreatives.org/meetings/2006-2007/sep-2006/Eisman.pdf
Illustration by: Dave McCoy

Photo can be found here: http://njcreatives.org/meetings/2006-2007/sep-2006/hy-eisman.tif
Credit: © 2005 North Jersey Media Group