'Tom & Jerry'.
Harvey Eisenberg was a versatile funny animal artist of Western Publishing. Coming from Brookly, New York, Eisenberg began his career in animation, working with Joe Barbera and William Hanna at MGM on 'Tom and Jerry' cartoons. He has also working for animation companies like Fleischer and Van Beuren.
'Ruff 'n' Reddy'.
By the mid-1940s, Eisenberg also turned to comic book art. From 1946 to 1951, he and Joseph Barbera were partners in Dearfield Publishing, a comic book company with titles such as 'Red Rabbit Comics', 'Foxy Fagan' and 'Junie Prom'. He is however best known for his work for Dell/Western from 1945 until his death in 1965. For years, he was the main artist of the several 'Tom & Jerry' books, and he was also one of the main artists for the Hanna-Barbera books, which earned him the nickname "Carl Barks of Hanna-Barbera Comics". He was the first to adapt 'Huckleberry Hound' and 'Yogi Bear' to comic books in Dell's Four Color comic book.
'Chip 'n' Dale' (W CND10-07).
Eisenberg also drew for many of the MGM titles, such as 'Tom & Jerry', 'Big Spyke & Little Tyke', 'Droopy' and 'Barney Bear'. For the Disney comic books, he drew numerous stories featuring 'Chip 'n' Dale', 'Li'l Bad Wolf' and 'Mickey Mouse' from 1948 to 1961.
'Tom & Jerry'.
Eisenberg also worked with ventriloquist Edgar Bergen's character 'Charlie McCarthy' from 1947 to 1954. He also worked on funny animal comics for Marvel.
In 1955-1956, Eisenberg left Western Publishing at the request of Chuck McKimson to produce animated series for television. Eisenberg came up with the idea of making a sitcom set in the Stone Age, inspired by 'The Honeymooners' (1955-1956), a popular live-action sitcom about two couples. The idea was greenlighted, but when Eisenberg received his copy of the contract, he noticed that his name was missing. When he asked McKimson about it, he replied that he had demoted Eisenberg from business partner to employee, earning 450 dollars a week. Although this was still a lot of money, Eisenberg refused the deal. McKimson made an attempt to personally convince him by visiting him at his home, but there Eisenberg simply tore up the contract and kept his artwork for himself. McKimson's TV deal went nowhere and a year later, he was back at Western Publishing.
Four years later, while working for Hanna-Barbera's animation TV studio, Hanna and Barbera also happened to think about an animated sitcom based on 'The Honeymooners', but couldn't think of a good alternative setting. They had already tried out the Middle Ages, the puritans or Ancient Rome, but none of it clicked. Eisenberg saw the opportunity to relaunch his original idea of making it a prehistoric-themed show. At first, Hanna and Barbera weren't too sure, but eventually they took a chance with it. Their concept was greenlighted and became Hanna-Barbera's biggest ratings hit, remaining popular in reruns for decades. However, Eisenberg never received public credit of his idea. Only his son Jerry and dialogue director Alan Dinehart have confirmed his major contribution to 'The Flintstones' success.
Eisenberg contributed to Hanna-Barbera's newspaper comics of their most popular TV shows, under supervision of Gene Hazelton. Between 5 February and 1 March 1981, a 'Yogi Bear' newspaper comic was syndicated by McNaught, scripted by Don R. Christensen. Eisenberg was one of the main artists until 1965, after which his son, Jerry, continued drawing the Sunday pages until 1969. Naturally, Harvey Eisenberg also worked on 'The Flintstones' newspaper comic (1961-1998). Launched on 2 October 1961, he drew both the daily and the Sunday comic. According to his son Jerry, Harvey Eisenberg drew the first five 'Flintstones' Sunday comics, but eventually the workload became too much and he passed the pencil to Dick Bickenbach.
His son Jerry was also working for Hanna-Barbera, as an animator.
Harvey Eisenberg died in 1965 from a heart attack. He was an influence on John Kricfalusi and Milt Stein.
'The Flintstones'.