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2025 Eisner Hall of Fame Class – Their Comic Strip Credentials

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D. D. Degg Updated: February 25, 2025 at 10:12 pm EST 3 minutes 0 comments

A panel of judges have chosen 21 (21!) cartoonists and related people to be automatically inducted into the Eisner Hall of Fame for 2025 with another six (out of 18 nominee) cartoonists to be voted on by fans for inclusion in the class of 2025 for a total of 27 entries this year joining the nearly 250 already inshrined into the Eisner Hall of Fame.

Comic-Con is pleased to announce that 21 individuals have been selected to be inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Awards Hall of Fame for 2025. These inductees include 12 deceased comics pioneers and 9 living persons. The deceased choices are Peter Arno, Gus Arriola, Wilhelm Busch, Richard “Grass” Green, Rea Irvin, Jack Kamen, Joe Maneely, Shigeru Mizuki, Bob Oksner, Bob Powell, Ira Schnapp, and Phil Seuling. The living choices are Steve Bissette, Lucy Shelton Caswell, Philippe Druillet, Phoebe Gloeckner, Joe Sacco, Bill Schanes, Steve Schanes, Frank Stack, and Angelo Torres.

The inductees span the history of comics and range from newspaper and magazine cartoonists and Golden and Silver Age creators to international and underground comix greats and industry innovators.

Half of the automatic inductees have comic strip credits and that is who we will take a look at here.

But four of them were unsuccessful nominees last year and we covered them then. So for Gus Arriola, Bob Powell, Ira Schnapp, and Angelo Torres we refer you to that post for their comic strip credentials.

That leaves us with…

Peter Arno (1904–1968)

Cartoonist Curtis Arnoux Peters Jr. helped create The New Yorker’s signature style. With the publication of his first spot illustration in 1925, Arno began a 43-year association with the weekly magazine. His many iconic covers and cartoons helped build The New Yorker’s reputation of sophisticated humor and high-quality artwork.

Hundreds of New Yorker cartoons and covers is Peter Arno‘s claim to fame. In 1926 he was even given some credit for the popularity of the magazine in its first decade. Part of that was his creation for the April 17, 1926 issue:

In this issue we were also introduced to Peter Arno’s “Whoops Sisters,” although they are not yet identified here by that title…

According to New Yorker cartoonist Michael Maslin, “in 1925, The New Yorker published nine Arno drawings. In 1926, it ran seventy-two. The enormous jump was due to the wild success of two cartoon sisters Arno created: Pansy Smiff and Mrs. Abagail Flusser, otherwise known as The Whoops Sisters. The Sisters were not sweet little old ladies — they were naughty boisterous grinning “wink wink, nudge nudge” sweet little old ladies, their language laced with double entendres.”

In 1933 he took his The Whoops Sisters to the Hearst newspapers for a two month weekly visit.

From July 30, 1922 to September 17, 1933 Peter Arno contributed The Whoops Sisters to the Sunday Magazine.

Wilhelm Busch (1832–1908)

The German 19th-century artist is regarded as one of the founders of modern-day comics. He pioneered several elements that have become staples of the medium, such as onomatopeia and expressive movement lines. His iconic series Max und Moritz (1865), about two naughty young boys, was the first children’s comic in history. Its success proved that young readers were an important market for comics.

Petra Lambeck’s history of the cartoonist and his pairs of rascals at Deutsche Welle:

“Max and Moritz” belongs to the classics of German culture and traces of this book can still be found in everyday culture. The picture book also became famous around the world, as it has been translated into over 200 languages and dialects.

The author Wilhelm Busch could not have imagined that his book would become so successful. The first publisher he approached with his manuscript in 1864 refused to publish it. A year later, Kaspar Braun agreed to publish the book in its entirety, and not as strips in a satirical weekly, as Busch had first suggested.

In October 1865, exactly 150 years ago, the first edition of the book was released – and success came quickly afterwards. It became a best-seller during Wilhelm Busch’s lifetime.

In the United States it is mostly famous as the inspiration behind The Katzenjammer Kids:

The Katzenjammer Kids are based on “Max und Moritz,” similarly mischievous young boys created by artist Wilhelm Busch in Germany.  Max und Moritz had been popular in their homeland for more than 30 years before the Americanized version first appeared in William Randolph Hearst’s New York Journal Sunday supplement.

While touring Europe as a boy Hearst became familiar with the adventures of Max und Moritz.  Many years later, as an ambitious newspaper publisher, he was instrumental in the creation and popularization of their American counterparts.

Travelers to Germany should certainly make a point of stopping by the Wilhelm Busch Museum in Hanover.  Among other items of interest, including original art, the careful observer will have an opportunity to pay tribute to the “grandfather” of the Katzenjammer Kids at the little bust of Max und Moritz shown here.

While the above is the generally accepted version of how the Katzenjammer Kids came to be, there is reason to believe that other influences may have played a role…

Rea Irvin (1888 –1972)

Rea Irvin was The New Yorker’s first art editor, but that title barely begins to suggest his importance to the magazine. Not only did he draw Eustace Tilley (the magazine’s mascot) for the first cover, he also designed virtually the entire look of the magazine. He was instrumental in inventing the one-line gag cartoon, The New Yorker’s signature contribution to comic art.

From a Time magazine article about Rea Irvin:

Like many another famed cartoonist, Rea Irvin served his apprenticeship on a San Francisco newspaper.* After intermittent work on newspapers and as an itinerant actor, he gained prominence as the illustrator of Author Wallace Irwin’s “Letters of a Japanese Schoolboy” in Life. The oriental stamp of his “Hashimura Togo” sketches has reappeared from time to time in burlesque kakemono (Japanese scroll pictures) which he prepares for the New Yorker, of which he is art director. Cartoonist Irvin will continue his series of funny advertisements for Murad (“Be Nonchalant”) cigarets.

That Time article was on the occasion of The Smythes by Rea Irvin premiering in Sunday newspapers. The strip, distributed by the New York Tribune, ran weekly from June 15, 1930 to October 25, 1936.

Seven years later Re Irvin gave Sunday comic strips another go. His Superwoman page ran only once, on June 27, 1943 before it was sued out of existence.

Jack Kamen (1920–2008)

Jack Kamen was one of the most prolific and influential artists for EC Comics, drawing crime, horror, humor, suspense, and science fiction stories. After EC, he drew Sunday supplement illustrations and created advertising art for a wide variety of clients. He also drew all the comic book artwork for Stephen King and George Romero’s 1982 horror anthology film Creepshow, their homage to the EC horror comics.

Not mentioned in that Comic Con Eisner Award cartoonist bio is that Jack Kamen was a comic book master of The Good Girl Art genre. Like all comic book creators back then a comic strip was the brass ring.

Unfortunately there is no evidence that Inspector Dayton ever made it into newspapers.

Further reading: Comic artist Tom Palmer remembers Jack Kamen’s advertising career.

Joe Maneely (1926–1958)

Between the late 1940s and late 1950s, Maneely was a frequent contributor to Atlas Comics (which became Marvel Comics), and one of the key collaborators with Stan Lee. He is best remembered as the co-creator and main artist of such titles as Ringo Kid, Black Knight, and Yellow Claw. This latter series introduced both the master villain Yellow Claw and the heroic secret agent Jimmy Woo, who was later featured in several other Marvel comic books. A tragic train accident ended his career at age 32.

As mentioned above Joe Maneely was a favorite of Stan Lee and was versatile enough to work in every comic genre Martin Goodman’s company published, from action to zombies. He also was an exceptional cartoonist in the comedy and kiddie comics, which helped when Lee tried to, once again, break into the syndicated comic strip market.

Mrs. Lyons’ Cubs began a daily and Sunday run on February 10, 1958. On June 7, 1958 Joe had that accident.

Further reading: Ger Apeldoorn has collected most of the Mrs. Lyons’ Cubs strips from Maneely and Al Hartley.

Bob Oksner (1916–2007)

Bob Oksner was a Silver Age comic book artist best known for his distinctive work at DC on both adventure and humor titles. When DC began taking on the publication of comics based on TV sitcoms, Oksner drew such titles as Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis, The Adventures of Bob Hope, Dobie Gillis, and Sgt. Bilko. Over the years he also produced romance comics, as well as Angel and the Ape, Stanley and His Monster, Lois Lane, and Shazam.

Saying Bob Oksner was a Silver Age (1960s) comic book artist cuts his career short by quite a bit, Oksner worked comic books from 1940 to 1986. And while Oksner worked on all types of comics his editors liked to put him on comics that starred young women, Bob had a knack for that kind of illustration.

In the 1940s he broke into newspaper comic strips with Miss Cairo Jones (1945-1947).

Returning to comic books full time Bob next got a gig with a high profile comic strip.

I Love Lucy (1952-1955), based on a popular tv show and distributed by a major syndicate (King Features) only last two and a half years,

Which is longer than his next strip ran. Soozi began in Spring 1967 and ended in the Fall of the same year.

A strip about a politically incorrect silly, scatterbrained blonde was past its best-by date even then, but it was a showcase for Bob’s good girl art.

Before Soozi ended Oksner was already at work on a strip that he would ghost for two decades.

But this time it was not a pencil and brush Oksner was using but a typewriter. From 1967 to the end of the strip in 1986 Bob helped Dondi cartoonist Irwin Hasen plot the stories (and maybe inked a bit in 1969). That left Bob free to draw a fair share of comic books for DC during those years.

Frank Stack (1934– )

Considered by some to be the first underground cartoonist, Frank Stack began his career under the pseudonym Foolbert Sturgeon. With Adventures of Jesus in 1962, Stack established his unique, expressive style. His other underground work included Amazon Comics, Dorman’s Doggie, Feelgood Funnies, and The New Adventures of Jesus. He illustrated several stories for Harvey Pekar’s American Splendor and in 1994 was the artist on Harvey’s and Joyce Brabner’s award-winning Our Cancer Year.

Here the judges get esoteric. Frack Stack, as Foolbert Sturgeon, was one of the early fathers of the 1960s underground comix phenomenon. And one of the funniest, but don’t take my word for it:

Frank Stack (aka Foolbert Sturgeon) produced three of the funniest social and religious satire comic books in history during the golden age of underground comics. But the origin of these books stretches far back into the early 1960s…

In the 1970s there were underground comic syndicates (Underground Press Syndicate, Rip Off Syndicate) and Frack Stack late in that decade had a couple of comic strips distributed to the alternate press of that time.

Dorman’s Doggie and Doctor Feelgood ran as comic strips ca. 1977 -1979.